Creating stunning, relevant visual content for your social media pages can be a difficult, ongoing challenge. On one hand you have the need to stay consistent and true to your original intent while on the other you have the ever-growing needs of the audience to satisfy.
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It can be quite difficult to find the perfect balance while still innovating regularly, which is why certain planning needs to take place. Both businesses and small indie creators deal with stressful content creation situation where there is simply no right answer to a problem. What are some of the must-know tricks and practical tips that you can apply today in order to create more appealing visual content for your social media marketing?
- Structure your content
Putting different content on your social media pages is important. Audiences are easily bored of content that is structured in a same way, meaning that putting out blog articles or pictures day after day won’t do you any good.
Differentiating content and structuring it in a way that makes sense is something you should think about as soon as possible. This is something that your audience doesn’t need to be aware of since it represents the back-end part of your visual content. However, knowing which content comes next in your schedule will let you pay closer attention to the overall quality and attention you put into each content piece.
- Create a schedule
Once the structure is set in stone, scheduling said content should come next. The scheduling you set for yourself will determine which weekdays will feature which content type in your long list of visual content. This is important because marketing different messages on different days will let you approach different demographics within your audience.
Some people like to browse the social media in the morning while others do it at night. Knowing which parts of your following prefer one or the other will also help you set some scheduling rules in stone. That way, your audience will always know when to expect new content; while it will also help you schedule the creation of said content as well.
- Apply some personality
Personality is what sells content on social media. People are far more willing to follow pages and share the content they find on them if it relates to them personally. This psychological effect is easy to achieve on social media since the platforms themselves are created with interactivity in mind.
The personality you apply will also determine the sales value of the visual content you create. For example, if you include a clever application of a product or a service with a short slogan or a catchphrase that piece of content will skyrocket in reach and conversions.
Likewise with content that doesn’t have a clear message and doesn’t know what it wants to achieve – the content will have a mild reaction (or no reaction at all) from the audience. Add your personal touch to each piece of content you create if you wish to differentiate yourself from your contemporaries.
- The shorter the better
Audiences rarely have the time or patience to carefully scan and take in every piece of content they see on social media. That is why you should filter your content so that it delivers a clear and direct message to the reader.
Taking out all elements that exist for decoration and serve no purpose in delivering the message should be a necessity. It’s also a good idea to include only brief textual messages and keep all the written content in a separate description. That way, you will allow the reader to soak in the visual content while the written content is prepared for them to read once the initial reaction sinks in.
- Smart use of colors
Using different colors in your visual content design can have significant effect on your conversion rates. It goes far beyond simply “liking” one color instead of another, since different shades have different effects on people’s mood. This way of thinking can be applied in regards to your content and the way you target different demographics:
- Red – The color of lust, love and excitement can be used in marketing products or services targeted at couples.
- Yellow – The color of happiness and competence is usually used with elderly people and children.
- Green – The color of good taste, green energy and environmental awareness is used with people with global awareness, young adults as well as NGOs.
- Blue – The color of high quality, professionalism and manhood, this color is widely used in corporate visual identities, giving content creators a clear choice when approaching this demographic.
- Violet – The color of sophistication and mystery, it can be a good way to approach married couples or young student groups who want to differentiate themselves from others around them.
- Black – The color of power, sophistication and seriousness is a good choice if you want to approach serious professionals and individuals in high-class societies.
- White – The color of sincerity and purity is a good way to approach teens, religious people and elderly folk with a soothing effect it provides.
These guidelines are vague but informative enough to give you a good sense of whether or not a certain color should be used in different situations. Keep in mind that people’s tastes differ from person to person so the use of color psychology should also be used with some level of reservation.
- Use of user-generated content
Relying on your audience’s help with visual content creation can bring a multitude of benefits. For one, you don’t have to worry about whether or not you will find a good image, video or animation for your social media page since the majority of the work will be done by someone in your followers list.
It will also allow you to work actively with your audience on growing and promoting your blog, business or company no matter how small or big you might be at the moment. People like to be included in the things they like and using user-generated content on your pages can do exactly that for your brand. It will also allow you to find potential content creation partners and brand ambassadors so it’s a win-win situation for you either way.
- Create and share infographics
Visualized data is one of the best ways to attract new readers as well as retain the existing follower base. This data usually comes in the form of infographics, charts or any type of visualization that can help you drive a statement forward. This data can revolve around the effectiveness and marketability of your product or its affiliate product categories as well as any user-submitted content or testimonials.
Creating a pie chart that consists of testimonials and customer comments is a great way to breathe some fresh air into standardized data visualization and your audiences will be thankful for it. While creating the data yourself might be difficult if you don’t have a background in graphic design or affiliate branches, you can employ a designer or find relevant infographics online (and thank the original creator by signing them below).
- Call to action
Including a call to action in your visual content can help you in several ways. People are easy to react when it comes to content they follow on social media if the content in question has a call to action included.
This call to action can be anything related to the niche you are marketing, but you can also fall back on personal development and motivating calls to action. Personal development is something that we all sorely lack, and it can be a good way to promote your brand as pro-development, putting you on a good frequency with the audience.
- Ask for direct feedback
There is nothing better than catching your audience off guard and asking something directly through visual content. People usually expect declamatory messages in visual content without much interaction between themselves and the image in question.
Asking something and looking for direct interaction can boost your positive standing as well as give you some much-needed feedback from the audience. This feedback can range from a questionnaire you created specifically for the purpose of sharing it or a simple feedback message below the piece of content itself. Adding an extra incentive for interaction via free coupons or giveaways is also recommended since some people on social media might be further encouraged by it.
- Learn to grow organically
Many content creators and businesses start creating visual content with an idea that they don’t want to part ways with. While it is true that you should stay true to your origins and reasons for creating visual content in the first place, it’s also important to embrace new trends and upgrade your content as you go along.
Find inspiring content creators that can influence you and look for important suggestions in your comments section. Your audience has a unique perspective on the content you create that allows them to distance themselves and see it in a clearer way than you yourself can. Learn to accept your mistakes and try to learn from them as much as possible. It’s the only way to stay relevant to your target demographic over an extended period of time.
In retrospect
Creating engaging visual content for your audience will always be an ongoing struggle. However, you can alleviate most of the growing pains by structuring your content creation process and learning as you go along.
Marketing content via social media will always be a relevant course of action regardless of the niche you operate in. As long as people use social media to interact with each other, there will be an active need for content creators who cater to their needs.
Article by James Scott
Bio: James Scott is experienced writer and co-founder of Essay Supply. He specializes in content marketing and blogging.
