You’ve heard the statistics before: Social media posts with visuals receive 94% more page visits and engagement than those without; businesses who market with infographics grow traffic an average of 12% more than those who don’t; and 60% of consumers are more likely to click on a business whose images appear in search results.

Still not convinced? Take a look at this blog post for an infographic on the growing importance of visuals, which have been taking over the social media landscape in the past few years. To catch the eye of an audience increasingly inundated with media and information, we must feature unique and striking visual content on a frequent basis. 

Simply posting pictures, videos and infographics to Facebook or Twitter, however, is not necessarily enough. Just like any marketing effort, the true payoff is directly related to the quality of the content. Millions of images surface daily across social channels, so how can you make yours stand out?

Create your own content. Your social media outlets should be comprised of a mix of content to keep viewers interested and stimulated. While there is a plethora of pre-made information sources already present and easily available all over the internet, resist the temptation to only share the visuals of others. Check out this site for a list of free infographic creation tools, and you’ll be a pro at creating your own informational, visually stunning pieces in no time. Canva is another great source for producing easy-to-design graphics for Facebook, Twitter, blogs and more.

How should you choose the topics for your custom content? Take a good look at your brand and what you stand for. In which industries and on what topics do you consider yourselves innovators? The best and most useful content will surround the topics about which you’re passionate and highly informed. Remember that your goal is to create posts that your audience views as unique and fresh fodder for discussion. Don’t just recycle old information in a new form. What are you most excited about sharing with regard to your industry?

Go for an emotional reaction. Good, effective marketing is all about understanding the psychology behind your audience. If you’ve done your homework and invested in some good market research, chances are you know what drives your listeners and what subject matter they’re likely to react to. Make a list of stories associated with your brand and find visuals that illustrate those tales. This might include anything from a simple graphic or image to photos of your team members that you believe your targeted audience will find relevant. A good visual paired appropriately with a strong blog post will go a long way towards making a high impact campaign.

If you’re having a hard time getting started, try checking out some big brands that have highly successful, visual social media marketing campaigns. Companies such as Airbnb, Coca-Cola and ADT all regularly post content that personalizes them outside of their corporate images and fosters a community surrounding the stories they tell. Oreo, for instance, used their Wonderfilled campaign to share 30 second videos of people across the country, both celebrities and everyday individuals, explaining how they enjoy eating their Oreo cookies. The brand also invited social media users to share their own videos, creating an interactive, communal experience with potential for organic growth.

Don’t underestimate the shareability of inspiration. If you’re still working on curating and creating photos and infographics or don’t have time to do so right away, try leveraging the power of inspirational quotes overlaid on simple, punchy graphics. If you’re not familiar with illustrated quotes, performing a simple Google search will reveal their abundance across Facebook, Pinterest and Tumblr. While you can search for content that’s free to use via free public domain image searches, illustrated quotes are easy to create using Photoshop or Canva.

Just as in other aspects of social media marketing, make sure the quotes you’re using reflect your brand image and are aimed at interactively connecting with your audience. Try pairing illustrated quotes with blog posts and share them on Instagram, Pinterest or Facebook. The best quotes will showcase the creativity and relevance of your company and will help to add an inspiring, human touch to your business’s image.

Experiment with video. The proliferation of tools such as Vine and Instagram Video has led to a drastic increase in video marketing campaigns as of late. In today’s visually driven culture, videos such as the short six-second looping features created on Vine are a perfect way to demonstrate products, preview an upcoming event you’re hosting or showcase a portfolio of work. Xbox is a good example of a brand that employs short videos to demo their new gaming systems using the hashtag #XboxReveal for maximum shareability.

If for whatever reason you don’t have the time or resources to produce your own videos, why not ask your audience to share their own? Try creating a campaign on Facebook where users upload videos of their experience with your product or services. Associate a hashtag with the campaign and encourage sharing across multiple social media outlets. With any luck, your efforts could turn into the next #IceBucketChallenge!

How do you choose or produce quality visual content? Have you ever created a viral video? Let us know!

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