They say a picture is worth a thousand words—a concept advertisers and marketers have practiced for years. As marketers switched to social media, though, photos were temporarily sidelined in favor of short snippets of text.
But the photo is coming back. Tweens and teens have flooded Instagram with photos of new outfits and artistic nail polish. As these all-too-impressionable young consumers browse through thousands of photos on various social media sites, marketers are learning that if you want to reach younger generations, a picture is worth morethan a thousand words.
Whether your marketing campaign is targeted to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or a combination of all of the above, there are a few tips to keep in mind.
Keep It Interesting
Consumers log into social media sites for a variety of reasons, many of which revolve around being entertained. Pinterest and Instagram have become so successful because they provide a way for users to share concepts in one simple image, engaging them and inciting them to post comments.
But it’s important to come across as though you’re sharing interesting ideas rather than simply pushing a product. A sofa company, for instance, would do better to post photos of a uniquely-decorated room featuring their sofas rather than simply posting a photo of a sofa. A service-oriented business like a pest control company could post humorous photos of their workers, either on the job or hanging around the office. These photos humanize the business, making customers feel as though they are part of the family.
Run Contests
Several restaurant chains have invited customers to upload a picture of themselves dining in the restaurant to a social media site. For major chains, sometimes the promise of fifteen minutes of fame on a prominent social media site may be enough incentive to participate. However, smaller businesses may have to offer a large monetary prize. Customers will have fun and businesses will see their social media pages filled with interesting photos.
Pay Attention
The great thing about social media is that you’ll usually know instantly whether a photo is a hit with followers or not. Pay attention to your likes, shares, and retweets and note what time of day they happen. If some photos are more popular than others, stick with those types of photos in the future. You’ll begin to get a feel for your demographic in order to be able to better appeal to them after only a short time.
Remember, photos are only a part of social media marketing. Hashtags are still important, as are regular text updates. Don’t discount yourself as a personality in your social media campaigns. Some of the most successful social media campaigns involve the face of the company updating followers on their adventures as they travel, hang out with clients, and enjoy their own products.
Guest Blogger:
During 2003, John Lessnau popularized Text Link Advertising when he founded LinkAdage.com John is working at doing the same thing 10 years later with social media links at his new website SocialLinkMart.com. Social Link Mart is an open Social Media Link Marketplace for SEOs, website owners, and social media enthusiasts to buy Facebook likes or buy and sell Facebook Shares, Google Plus Shares, and Twitter Tweets. Social link sellers are ranked by social media authority which keeps the bots and spammers out and real people in.
So where are the photos to enhance your blog post?