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Research Tells You How to Pick Better Images for Social Media
Put on your thinking hats, we’ve got a tough question for you:
On Facebook, will an image with a person’s hand or an image with a person’s face get more engagement?
We’ll get to the answer in a minute. The reason we ask is that no matter what platform you’re posting on, images are freakin’ important. All social platforms are visual so you gotta be very deliberate about the types of images you’re posting.
You can’t just slap up any ol’ image and call it a day. So let’s get a little scientific about your images, with the help of Content Marketing Institute…
- On Facebook, images that show a body part (like a hand or ankle) get the most engagement. This is because these types of images usually show someone interacting with a product. This visualization helps your audience imagine themselves in that position. Seeing a person’s face takes the viewer out of that visualization.
- Go bright, clear, lively, and original. Basically, stock images aren’t going to get it done. Take the time to do your own photo shoots or create your own images. And be creative with it! Don’t try to look like a stock photo…that defeats the whole purpose.
- On Instagram, the most successful posts tend to be bright with lots of background space. The most successful posts also usually feature a single dominant color with low saturation. Here’s an example from fashion brand Everlane. That post was liked by over 15,000 of their 500k followers. That’s a great proportion of followers to likes, and its not even the most engaging photo in the world (unless you’re into shoes…then maybe it is).
- Visualize your data. If you’re a company without a “cool” product, but you have plenty of data, share that! Informative data visualizations attract more attention and get more shares than text and link posts. You don’t even need to re-invent the wheel with your visualizations. Stick with formats people know — like pie charts, bar graphs, etc.
But wait, there’s more! We’ve only just started down the path of image insights. Click through for the rest 👇
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The Complete Guide to Content Curation: Tools, Tips, Ideas
Dunno if you’ve noticed but…we’re huge fans of content curation. It’s the whole reason for this newsletter.
Content curation is all about giving additional value to your audience, on top of the content you already create. It’s basically the “work smarter, not harder” idea.
So if ya wanna learn how to get better at content curation, tune into this blog post that we curated from Hootsuite…
Okay, here’s how to do it:
First things first, use content curation tools so you’re not aimlessly mining the web (more on those in a sec). When you find material that seems like its worthy of sharing with your audience, run it through a test:
- Is the content on brand?
- Can the source be trusted?
- Does it offer something unique?
- Is it entertaining or useful?
From there, offer variety by using the Social Media Rule of Thirds: 1/3 of your content should be branded, 1/3 should be curated, and 1/3 should be in the moment conversations.
Content Curation Do’s:
- Actually read, watch, and listen before sharing.
- Before choosing the material, ask yourself about its intent.
- Make sure material is coming from a reputable source.
- Add your own two cents when sharing the piece (our fav part).
- Schedule content up to a week or 2 weeks out.
- Give credit where credit is deserved
Tools to Use
- BuzzSumo – Search the most shared content by specific topic in hours or months. Cost – starts at $79 per month.
- Right Relevance – This one is for the numbers guy/gal. The tool scores and ranks content and influencers in any given field. Cost – starts at $500 per month
- Feedly – Follow your favorite feed and organize the articles in one place. Cost – $18 per month
- Hootsuite – Allows you to keep track of social feeds by network, topic, keywords, hashtags, Twitter lists, and more. Cost – starts at $29/month
- Reddit – Understand what content resonates the best with your audience.
- UpContent – Pulls articles and blogs based on social influence and recency. Cost – free to $10 per month
- Pocket – Keep the material you find safe in sound. Cost – ranges from free to $49.99 per year
That’s a wrap on our part. You know what to do if you want more!
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The Battle of Dinnertime
Dinner time has been a straight up brutal war between parents and their kids for decades. Pretty sure it beats the 335 Year War. You know how it goes…parents put lima beans on the dinner table, kids freak out, parents tell them they don’t get desert without eating, yada yada yada…
The joke was on them though. No kid threw in the towel with lima beans in play. There was screaming, flying food, and someone always got hit in the face. Good ol’ family dinner.
Dolmio whipped out the white flag in their latest ad. Finally, the Treaty of Plates was signed and the Battle of Dinnertime is over. Well, it is in this commercial anyway. But there’s hope it’ll happen in real life too.
“Before you create any more ‘great content,’ figure out how you are going to market it first.”
Joe Pulizzi
Ads from the Past
Ads from the Past
Nothing like having a fancy family dinner with the Jolly Green Giant. We’re kind of in love with The Green Giant’s 1953 ad.
Not only is the polite giant wearing a tie, but this line is a marketing copy win in our book, “2,900,000 people sit down to dinner with him every night.”
