Images are one of the vitals of social media. Without images, would social media even exist? Engagement, visuals and building a community is what social media is all about. So taking the time to make sure you take care of these points with extra care will help you manage a successful social media platform.
However, when it does come to images….some people get a little lost and confused about what to post, when to post and how to edit their images. The truth is, you don’t need to be a trained photographer or graphic designer to have beautiful eye-pleasing photos on you social media.
Here are some do’s and don’ts for creating images for social media
The Don’ts:
- Do not re-purpose photos that are not good quality. No matter how cute or funny or relevant the image may be. If it’s fuzzy or it looks like something your Google-impaired mother created, do not repost it.
- Don’t post images that don’t fit the required dimensions. There’s nothing worse than people unintentionally missing limbs in photos, or not being able to read a sentence because a word is missing or cut off.
- Don’t repost images that contain watermarks from other companies or websites
The Do’s:
- Use an editing tool. You can buy photo-editing that apps that can make your photos look brilliant
- Use quotes and text overlays. Because everyone likes quotes – not just millennials and hipsters.
- Stick to a color scheme. Using a handful of colors rather than all the colors of the rainbow will make your photos look branded and eye-pleasing.
- Stick to one camera type. If you’re going to snap photos with your Smart Phone that’s cool. But keep it consistent all the way through. Don’t switch to a DLSR camera half way through
- Ensure top quality each time you post. Take the photo as many times as you need to ensure you are posting the best quality with each post.
- Watermark your photos. When your logo is included, if someone decides to repost your photo, your brand will go with it.
Practice makes perfect. Social media can be new grounds for some, and it takes time to get comfortable with it. The more you work on editing and taking photos for social media the more comfortable you get. The best way to get comfortable is to plan your images in advance so you can prepare everything and have a clear overview of what you will be posting.