9 types of visual content to share on social media

Are you planning to kick off a content marketing campaign? If yes, you need to focus on things that encourage engagement and growth. Text-based content is inseparable from marketing, but visual content plays a pivotal role in boosting your efforts.

You should make visual content a crucial part of your marketing strategies on social media. Want to know why? It is because the human brains process images 60K faster than text, and 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual. Also, visual content has innate psychological significance when boosting engagement.

In this blog, you will find 11 types of visual content that you can share on social media as a part of your marketing strategy.

Use these visual content types to move forward in reaching your marketing goals. Let’s see them one by one.

Images

Did you know social media posts containing images get 94% more views? When people see the images in your posts, they are more inclined to read the text associated with them. Due to every brand penetrating the networking platforms, the attention spans have become shorter, making it hard for people to focus on plain text. It also makes text-based posts off-putting for them.

When you want to use images, make sure they are original or clicked by you. Original images give a personal touch to your social media marketing campaigns. High-quality, stunning images are also expensive to purchase, so you can leverage platforms like Canva or Designhill Studio to create high-quality images for free. These sites have free template designs to use to your advantage.  Alternatively, you can explore sites like Flickr and more to get royalty-free images.

Refer to the Instagram profile of GoPro. They have a series of stunning images depicting the success of their cameras. The company keeps on engaging and retaining its audience by posting compelling images of people all around using its GoPro cameras.

Videos

According to Cisco findings, by 2022, global internet traffic generated through videos will account for 82% of consumer internet traffic. Therefore, videos are highly helpful for showing solutions that people need in terms of your products. While there are different types of videos available, a valuable video created by your brand can serve as the perfect catalyst for your campaign. How? It can show that people should invest in your brand because you address their pain points.

Many types of videos can boost your branding, like explainer videos, how-to videos, product demo videos, testimonials, etc. Whichever type you choose, make sure your videos reflect your brand essence, ethos, and style uniformly.

Take the help of online tools to edit videos without breaking your bank.

But when creating videos, make sure you don’t make them over two minutes. If possible, keep the length short as nobody likes to watch long videos due to decreased attention spans.

Memes

Who doesn’t love a great meme? Almost everyone likes to share a hilarious post that tickles audiences to the bone. Memes are witty, sarcastic, hilarious, and what’s not! They are easy to make and drive traffic.

When a company utilizes a meme to market its own business, it’s called memejacking. You can learn from brands like Netflix, Purity Coffee, and many others to ace the game of meme sharing on their social media account.

Adding fun to your content helps attract people’s attention. Sharing viral memes also makes you stand out from others in the social media marketing game.

GIFs

GIFs (Graphics Interchange Formats) are effective and enjoyable, so share them to stay relevant! Sometimes, people hardly get time to watch a long video. But it takes just a few seconds to scan a GIF. Also, these classic pieces of animations help you boost your branding by increasing engagement. So, add them to your social media marketing strategy. Facebook and Twitter have allowed GIF sharing on their platforms to help brands use them regularly.

You can take inspiration from Mailchimp — the email solution provider — for GIF sharing. If it works for them, it can work for you too!

Infographics

Infographics work as an effective marketing tool for combining complex data and statistics to create easy-to-digest visual content. However, if you want to reap the true benefits of infographics, focus on its layout and design. Combine it with the right colors, fonts, and shapes to highlight your essential data.

But before including any information in your infographics, make sure it is accurate. Sometimes, stunning visuals breathe life into mundane statistics. You also need to ensure that each visual element carries uniformity.

Graphics and tutorials

Graphics and tutorials are the best ways to transmit certain statistics or data to your target audience. Graphic design helps you communicate data visually for maximum absorption. Tutorials work best when you want to elaborate or explain something. As it is a visual era, presenting plain text with 2000 words will be off-putting. Take the examples of explainer videos and graphics from brands like Hyundai, Lenovo, Alibaba Group, and others. It will show you how smartly they use graphics and tutorials in their social media content.

Presentations/webinars

Presentations and webinars are yet another visual way of sharing content on social platforms. To make them effective, you need to be concise and simplify them. Also, you have to be particular about the concepts you will discuss through them.

LinkedIn uses SlideShare, which is its own platform for creating and sharing presentations. Many brands include presentations/webinars as part of their visual content marketing strategy on social media. For example, Instagram Reels, FacebookLive, etc., allow marketers to share their content directly on their sites.

It is effective in taking your customer relationships to the next level.

Screenshots

Screenshots are great tools to nurture trust among your audience. With the use of screenshots, you can help the audience look into your work, product, or services. You can even combine your screenshots with a catchy copy or testimonial to build credibility.

It provides a visual verification that your target audience needs to rely upon you. There are sites like Designhill, Sketch, and many others that provide solutions for adding graphics and elements to your screenshots. You can use them for free.

User-Generated Content

We have transformed into a world where traditional advertising is going into oblivion. People are no longer interested in products/services that fail to connect with them personally. In this regard, user-generated content proves to be a great way to show your audience the authentic side of your brand.

You can share the image that one of your customers has clicked to portray your products or services. Big brands like Starbucks, BMW, Adobe, Wayfair, and more, share user-generated content frequently on their social handles. You can take inspiration from them to share such visuals interactively.

Conclusion

Now you have sufficient knowledge to use visual content to pump up your social media marketing efforts. You need to devise good strategies as the social networking ecosystem keeps changing. Start working today to prepare yourself for success.

Apply any of the visual content strategies discussed earlier to boost your engagement across all social channels.