Visuals, graphics, images—when it captures someone’s eye, a second look is sure to happen; a click, a share, or a like can tell if your marketing strategies are headed in the right direction. It’s undeniable that photos (and videos) are the most engaging content around social media. And you can leverage your business in social media marketing through the quality of visual content you produce.
Based on data, more than 50% of the content in social media platforms, especially Instagram, are all photo posts. And as for the engagement rate for these photo posts, it’s at 1.74 % vs video posts which are only at 1.45%.
Realizing that visual content is valuable and critical for social media marketing, here are some editing to help you with your business:
10 Photo Editing Tips To Maximize Your Social Media Marketing
- Consider Your Branding
When you have been using social media for a long time now and have made purchases online, you would have noticed certain brands or accounts and their branding style. It’s consistent—whether in individual posts or their feed as a whole, you can see cohesiveness and consistency.
The color theme and the filter used match and align with the branding of the business. You might also consider putting your logo somewhere in your images as your brand watermark so that others won’t consider grabbing your photos. Watermarking protects your brand, and at the same time, it helps consumers remember you.
Solidifying your branding through posts and visual content allows your target market to associate your product with your brand name easily. The consistent design elements that are always present in your visuals will help them remember your brand, your recent campaign and help increase connection with you. So make it cohesive, make it consistent.
- Mind the Rule: Rule of Thirds
There’s no formula, but there is an almost unspoken rule regarding images and how it looks in general. Even if you’re not aware of what it’s called—the rule of thirds—you have probably still used your common sense when you post photos online: when necessary, make sure the subject is in the center. Of course, this is not the case for every shot, but you somehow make sure the object in the center is your subject to be visually appealing.
With the rule of thirds, the photographer taking the photo divides the photograph mentally into thirds. The method allows them to have a better composition for the photos they take.
It gives the photo a more symmetrical and balanced look. Using your phone to take pictures also helps you in getting this right. When you take a photo, you can see grid lines, and these lines guide you to follow that rule. Being aware of the rule of thirds can help you create quality photos by making them visually more appealing with their symmetry.
- Resolve for Resolutions
There are times that your images or photos that you view via your laptop or PC will not look the same as on your phones. Visuals on mobile phones don’t always look as “quality” as you expect. You want to make sure that all your photos posted for social media marketing look professional and give value to your brand.
Image resolutions for your photos and marketing campaigns are so necessary, and you don’t want to post something blurry, dark, or grainy or just simply low-quality in general. You might want to consider getting a better camera or investing in a graphic designer, or hiring someone to edit your photos to produce an elevated look with your visuals.
You can also check and explore image guidelines for every social media platform to guide you with your photo posting. For example, when you share a photo with a specific resolution, the social media platform you’re using can either size it down or size it up to a pixel ratio that suits the image.
- Get that Light in!
They say lighting is everything. And we cannot emphasize that more. Whether you’re using an expensive camera or just your phone, lighting can make the difference.
Photography-wise, to achieve the proper lighting, you need to sort out and adjust your ISO settings and your white balance. Also, utilizing good equipment or a high-quality camera can improve those photos better. There are, of course, options for lighting you can choose from to achieve the images you want—depending on the end goals you have for a specific marketing campaign.
Natural lighting still tops the spot, but shooting in a studio also elevates the whole process. Again, it depends on how you want the outcome to be, but in general, make sure you want to get that light in.
- Elevate Your Equipment
If you have the budget and the demands of your product or brand have already reached their peak, you might as well invest in good equipment, whether it be getting the latest phone with a great built-in camera or resolving to get that camera you need for your brand photoshoot.
With so many options to choose from now, you can tailor-fit the equipment that aligns with your marketing goals and desired outcomes. To get that professional and quality finish for your visuals, investing in equipment is the way to go. And if you couple this with artistic and creative ideas for your campaigns, you’ll get that photo to be as shareable as the latest meme.
- Yes, to Watermarks!
Not every business person considers doing this in all the images posted on social media, but a watermark on your visuals is important. It may be intimidating for others, but if you want that personal touch on your photos, putting a watermark on them is almost like getting “tagged” when your photos are being shared or reposted. Especially for professional photographers that consider photography as their bread and butter, this is the most practical way to get credit and save your work from being stolen or used by others online.
For brands and businesses, putting your logos on your visuals is also equivalent to that. There’s nothing wrong with putting it out there as long as it’s not distracting or inappropriately sized for that specific photo.
- Edit. Edit.
Taking a photo, cropping it, making sure it’s not dark – these are not enough for you to post a final image on your social media. Especially if it’s for a marketing campaign. Nope. Your photo has to go through editing, and it can get tedious. There are many options for elevating and enhancing your pictures (even social media now has built-in filters you can choose from to do quick editing).
When you edit your photos, you are making sure that you’re refining them to their proper resolution, size, pixel, color, and the like. Photo editor tools can only go as much, and yes, there are a lot of photo editor tools online that are easily accessible and free to be utilized. Still, there are specific considerations you might want to bear in mind when you edit your photos.
a. Don’t Over Edit
Have you ever seen an image so clean and refined, especially if it’s a model’s face you see and you question how unrealistic it already looks? Too much editing can give off a fake vibe, and over-editing a photo can create distortions that might look off or break off the balance in the overall look of the image.
b. Crop it!
That’s why photo editor tools are out there. They can help you do the job right and easily. Cropping the photo is necessary, especially if you want to edit it for the appropriate size for that specific social media posting.
Rather than zooming in a photo, cropping it maintains its clarity.
c. Use the Tools
Of course, before finally posting the photo on your feed or page, you have to edit it first. And using editing tools is helpful. There are tons of applications now that you can maximize to assist you in producing quality and professional-looking photos. You can invest in subscribing to these tools for full access or simply utilize their free subscriptions. Either way, you’d want to take advantage of photo editing tools that can help you deliver great visuals for your brand.
- Incorporate Words
We live in a society that catches on to images quickly and is easily curious about dynamic photos. Nonetheless, words still hold meaning. Although we still believe that a picture can paint a thousand words, an image with a few words can still be compelling. And adding humor to this turns the whole thing around.
Depending on your current marketing campaign, you can incorporate words and one-liners or quotes into your photos. Putting in typography that fits the image is design-worthy—and it might even be thought-provoking, especially if you emphasize your call to action in your pictures.
- Shake it Up: Use Variations
You don’t want to bore your customers with the same feels on every photo—same angles, same style, etc. Yes, consistency is essential, but blandly delivering visuals that don’t create impact will not get you anywhere in your marketing goals.
You have to shake it up. Take multiple shots and make sure to shake it up with variations. Re-evaluate your lighting, try a different angle in the next photo, change the background for the next, highlight another design element in another— all these without straying away from your overarching branding theme.
Variations in your visuals build creative impact and even increase engagement with your target market.
- Be Wise with Backgrounds
As long as it complements the total look of the image, it’s not distracting, and it helps with the balance of the whole picture—you have a good quality background. It is an essential factor to a great visual. Generally speaking, a solid and straightforward background makes it look professional and refined.
Takeaway
Here’s the thing, if you want to create impact and continue to build customer engagement with your social media posts and photos, don’t post for the sake of posting or simply catching up with your posting schedule.
Make sure that your visuals are relevant and give value to all your marketing goals and desired outcomes for your business. Yes, it is a process, and it takes a while to develop great and engaging content throughout the years.
Knowing all these tips and putting them into action are two different things. Make sure you get intentional and take action to propel your business further. Social media is not going anywhere anytime soon—neither will your creative ideas. Cultivate it and take advantage of the tools available out there.
Explore, experiment and keep the creativity going. Visuals are a huge part of social media marketing –we already know that. But elevating these and making sure that you’re delivering quality images on all your social media platforms can guarantee success in the long run.
Author’s Bio:
Shelly Solis is a former university professor and government Labor Communications Officer. She is one of the co-founders of SaaSLaunchr.com. She loves to write about telehealth, IT, business, finance, and digital marketing.
