NEDMA14: 10 Types of Visuals to Boost Your Social Media Engagement - Bob Cargill

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38 Everett St | Allston, Massachusetts 02134 | 617-254-5000 | www.ovrdrv.com

10 Types of Visuals to Boost Your Social Media Engagement

May 14, 2014

Bob Cargill (@cargillcreative on Twitter) Director of Social MediaOverdrive Interactivewww.ovrdrv.com

#NEDMA14

“Want to Boost Your Social Media Following? Get Visual”“Forget about 140 characters. Increasingly, photos and videos are driving customer engagement on social media. On Facebook's top brand pages, videos are shared 12 times more often than text and links, and photos receive twice as many likes as text updates. Meanwhile, Instagram is growing faster than Facebook did. And Pinterest now refers more traffic to outside websites than Twitter.”

Source: “Want to Boost Your Social Media Following? Get Visual” by Ryan Underwood, Inc., http://www.inc.com/magazine/201311/ryan-underwood/build-social-media-following-with-visuals.html (from the November Issue of Inc. Magazine)

10 Types of Visuals to Boost Your Social Media Engagement* 1. The Product Shot

2. The Team Picture

3. The Spotlight on Your Fans

4. The Peek Behind the Scenes

5. The Action Shot

6. The Graphic

7. The Spontaneous Shot

8. The Moving Picture

9. The Collage

10. The Selfie

*This presentation is based on an article written by Bob Cargill for ClickZ (www.clickz.com) on April 22, 2014, which youcan find here: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2340773/10-types-of-visuals-to-boost-your-social-media-engagement

The Product Shot

1. Every business and brand has a product to display. Whether you're selling ice cream or insurance, software or footwear, you have something tangible to exhibit in your social media stream. Don't just talk about what it is you have to offer your audience. Show it off in pictures. The more, the better.

The Product Shot

Best Buy on Facebook

The Product Shot

Christmas Farm Inn on Twitter

The Product Shot

Jay Peak on Twitter

The Team Picture

2. Did you play organized sports growing up? How many team pictures do you have from back in the day? That's the idea here. Only, don't feel you have to wait for a special occasion. Take pictures of your colleagues on a regular basis and share them with your audience. People do business with people, so do everything you can to humanize your brand.

The Team Picture

American Idol on Twitter

The Team Picture

7News on Instagram

The Team Picture

Sports Illustrated on Twitter

The Spotlight on Your Fans

3. Everybody likes attention, especially from someone they look up to and admire. Shine the spotlight on your followers and fans. Give their photos a much bigger stage by repurposing them on your own social channels. Retweet them. Tag them. Make it all about them, not you. Give them their 15 minutes of fame and they'll give you more loyalty in return.

Boston Red Sox on Twitter

Smarter Travel on Instagram

Quest Nutrition on Pinterest

The Peek Behind the Scenes

4. Provide your constituents with something they can't get anywhere else, whether it's exclusive photos, a big reveal, or something they wouldn't see otherwise. Take them backstage. Invite them into your inner sanctum. Show them how your products are built. Give them a look at what goes on behind closed doors. You get the picture.

Downton Abbey on Pinterest

29 Sudbury on Facebook

Saturday Night Live on Twitter

The Action Shot

5. While a team picture may be posed, your action shots are of you and your fellow team members actually doing what you do best. It's doesn't matter whether you're speaking at a podium, swinging a baseball bat, or sitting in front of a computer writing the great American novel, it's still a performance. Capture your people in the act of doing their jobs and share it with your audience.

The Action Shot

U2 on Instagram

The Action Shot

Walt Disney World on Twitter

The Action Shot

Conway Scenic Railroad on Facebook

The Graphic

6. Creating your own visuals from scratch is a great way to add variety to your stream and call more attention to your posts. Use PowerPoint, Photoshop, PicMonkey, and other such tools to add special effects and text to the images you share. You could even go so far as to create your own infographics. A combination of data, words, and pictures is one of the best ways to increase your engagement and reach on social media.

The Graphic

Nordstrom on Facebook

The Graphic

Boston Bruins on Facebook

The Graphic

USA Today on Twitter

The Spontaneous Shot

7. One of the best benefits of using social media for marketing is the power it gives you to connect with your constituents in real time. Capitalize on the extemporaneous nature of these channels by sharing impromptu, candid shots of you and your team in the moment. What's happening now is far more credible and commanding on social media than old news or posed pictures.

MTV on Facebook

Barack Obama on Instagram

Hill Holiday on Instagram

The Moving Picture

8. No, I didn't forget about video. In fact, most businesses and brands consider it a must-have ingredient in their content marketing mix. YouTube, Vine, Instagram - each of these channels presents an abundance of opportunities for creating original footage which can eventually be cross-promoted across the social landscape. Don't worry about going viral. Worry about one watch at a time. If people like it, they will share it. And you'll have a hit on your hands.

The Moving Picture

Maxwell House on Twitter

http://youtu.be/yQl2V11cUw0

The Moving Picture

Jay Baer’s Convince and Convert Blog http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-case-studies/5-creative-ways-brands-are-using-snapchat/

The Moving Picture

Faneuil Hall Marketplace on YouTube

The Collage

9. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a small handful of them is, well, perhaps priceless. Take advantage of Twitter's new mobile feature and upload up to four photos in a single tweet. Or you can use one of many good photo-editing tools available - such as the aforementioned PicMonkey - to cobble together the quintessential collage.

The Collage

General Electric on Twitter

The Collage

GoPro on Twitter

The Collage

Brooklyn Museum on Twitter

The Selfie

10. Last, but certainly not least, there's the type of visual made famous by Ellen DeGeneres at this year's Oscars ceremony and most recently Boston Red Sox superstar David Ortiz at the White House. There's the selfie. Thanks to these two celebrities, the ubiquity of the front-facing camera on smartphones, and people's seemingly insatiable desire for attention, the selfie is an incredibly hot trend you don't want to ignore.

The Selfie

The Today Show on Instagram

The Selfie

Ellen Degeneres on Twitter

The Selfie

David Ortiz on Twitter

The Selfie

Who’s in?

This presentation is based on an article written by Bob Cargill for ClickZ (www.clickz.com) on April 22, 2014 here: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2340773/10-types-of-visuals-to-boost-your-social-media-engagement

Bob Cargill

• Director of Social Media at Overdrive Interactive • 30+ Years or Experience as a Marketing Professional• The New England Direct Marketing Association’s Direct

Marketer of the Year in 2009• Over 40 Awards for Copywriting, Creative Direction and

Social Media• Gold from NEDMA for Blog in 2006• Gold from NEDMA for Best Tweets in 2010

• Frequent Speaker at Industry Events and Elsewhere• Past President of the New England Direct Marketing

Association (‘99-’00) and Two Toastmasters Clubs• Graduate of Leadership MetroWest’s Leadership Academy

(‘92)

Thank you!

Bob Cargill

Director of Social Media

Overdrive Interactive

bcargill@overdriveinteractive.com

617-254-5000

@cargillcreative on Twitter