Image is Everything: Visual Communication and the Social Media Workflow

Image is Everything: Visual Communication and the

Social Media Workflow

Ben Rubenstein

@Ben_Rubenstein #LavaCon @LavaCon

About me

@Ben_Rubenstein #LavaCon @LavaCon

Senior Manager, Social Media & Online Community at TechTarget

Past:

Not a visual mastermind

The big picture

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Content has changed – so has the way we produce, promote + consume it

Challenges abound – technical, procedural + philosophical

Communication solves a lot

Via flickr/aranarth

Content: Perception

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Content: Reality

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Social media: Then

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Social media: Then

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Social media: Now

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Social media: Now

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Social media: Now

@Ben_Rubenstein #LavaCon @LavaCon

Social media: Now

@Ben_Rubenstein #LavaCon @LavaCon

Social media: Now

@Ben_Rubenstein #LavaCon @LavaCon

Social media: Now

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Why you should care

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90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual (3M/Zabisco)

70% of all Facebook activities revolve around photos (Harvard Business Review)

Social media posts with images: 47% increase in engagement (Curata)

TL,DR: Visual content is easy to share, easy to remember

Our challenge

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We’ve tried our best

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But it’s hard…

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Our social strategy

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100+ sites = 300+ social presences Content planning and

scheduling (repositories)

Best practices training + documentation

Engagement + feedback

Efficiency tools

Our first test: Profile creation + updating

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We’re asking a lot of our staff

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People want to do the right thing, but…

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Lack of experience Lack of time Technical roadblocks New tools, new rules

WritingEditingSEO

EventsVideos

Podcasts

So we end up with images that are…

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Misleading (and ugly)

So we end up with images that are…

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Legally questionable (and often ugly)

So we end up with images that are…

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Just plain fugly

Retraining needed

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Visual communication is hard, just like writing is hard

New image guidelines needed

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• Protect the company• Build and maintain reader

trust• Communicate content well• Grab reader attention

Solution 1: Simplify the process

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House-created images have standard naming convention, easier to find/distribute

Empower editors to find their own images in advance or request appropriate versions

Before After

Solution 2: Clarify the options

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Use only: Images from our articles Original content Company-approved images Topic-specific icons

Single point of contact Reduces risk Increases communication

Solution 3: Change the mindset

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Think about images and social media as you’re creating content What will you need?

How will you get it?

(great, more here)

Solution 3: Change the mindset

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Promising outlook

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More appropriate social images

Promotion plans starting earlier

Increase in FB engagement

Social sharing functions under review (metadata/microdata)

New, image-heavy site designs

What we’ve learned

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Stockpile original content

via flickr/iconolith

What we’ve learned

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Metadata matters

via flickr/iconolith

What we’ve learned

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Constraints are good

via flickr/iconolith

What we’ve learned

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Define roles, but recognize the blurred lines between them

via flickr/iconolith

What rhymes with “fugly”?

What we’ve learned

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We’re all in this together

via flickr/iconolith

What we haven’t learned: How to draw

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Thank you

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http://www.benrubenstein.net

linkedin.com/benrubenstein

@ben_rubenstein