Improve your social media imagery

Written By Emeka Ikechi, Director, Vanity Studios

Good imagery is vital when it comes to improving social media engagement and recall. What images work best on social media is not clear-cut as it depends on your business and industry, but here are four areas any business should pay attention to:

1. Quality counts

Creating great images in a high-quality format helps you appear professional and high-quality yourself. Great images start with great composition and setting. Having either lots of negative space or lots of clutter can seriously impact the quality of the image. Including engaging visual elements, such as people’s faces or cute animals, on the other hand, can help attract positive attention.

Every social media site has a size limit and specific resolution for displaying images. Smaller images will be scaled up, which can look incredibly grainy and low-quality. However, larger images will be scaled down, which can also make them look very grainy. The more an image is scaled up or down, the grainier it will look.

As such, it is best to aim for images that are the exact size and resolution the site will display them at to avoid scaling. Do your research.

2. Show, not tell is always best

The key is to make the images relatable. This is why images with people in them work well. So, rather than a shot of jewellery against a plain background, an image of someone aspirational wearing the jewellery is often more effective. And instead of a simple shot of a beach hut against the azure blue sea, show people walking, swimming and laughing as well.

The same rules apply if you are simply selling your own personal brand. Whether it’s images of you or products you are reviewing or recommending, create images that are more than just a picture of you, or a flat picture of the product. Instead, show you/it in action. Show how buying the product will solve a follower’s problems, why engaging with you will make their life better.

3. Keep it fresh

While it is fine to reuse and repurpose images, they can quickly feel stale, especially if you reuse them a lot. This is true whether you are talking about a product shot or a headshot. Switching up your imagery regularly keeps people interested and engaged.

When it comes to headshots, it is important to give people a clear impression of who you are. If they meet you in person for a pitch, then it helps if your headshot matches reality. That means updating your headshot when you change your style as well as generally as you get older. If you’ve changed your hair or bought new glasses, update your image.

When it comes to things like product shots, it helps to have them in the appropriate setting. That means not using a sunny beach shot in the middle of winter…unless you are advertising in the southern hemisphere. If you’re pushing your product as a Christmas gift – add some festive elements to the image. In fact, making your product shots seasonal can be fun and engaging while demonstrating how your product stays relevant year-round.

4. Know when to try monochrome

Bright, colourful images may be eye-catching but that doesn’t mean black and white images should be disregarded. Opting for a monochrome image can be an excellent way to stand out in a sea of brightly coloured pictures, especially on sites like Instagram where people endlessly scroll through swathes of visually similar photographs.

Again, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to using colour versus black and white. You should test both types of image and see which works best. A good rule of thumb is that the more luxurious and product-focused the image, the more likely it is to work in black and white: watches, jewellery and cars often stand out in black and white. For experiences, such as holidays or trips, colour can flesh out the imagination and make it appear more real.

The best approach is to get a copy of the same image in both colour and monochrome, testing both out and gathering results. You will then have a better sense of what works for you and your brand, whether you are sharing a product, experience or headshot.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Emeka Ikechi is Director of Vanity Studios, a contemporary studio for photoshoots in the centre of Shoreditch in London. Since 2009 Vanity Studios has been providing clients with high quality professional photos and an excellent photoshoot experience. The team of photographers and make-up artists ensure each client receives bespoke photography that meets their requirements.