The Illusion of Visual Content Strategy

The

of

Strategy8 Experts Reveal

their Tricks

Visual content is so

right now!

An effective is becoming more

important as a critical component of marketing.

Eight experts & brands reveal their magic tricks for getting you to

, & through to devour more of their content.

Matthew Steele,San Diego Zoo

Identify, cultivate, and connect with your brand evangelists

Test, Test, Repeat

“We noticed that we had a strong contingent of high quality fan photographers, so we reached out to them to forge mutually beneficial relationships in which they provide us content and we provide them notoriety and perks.”

“We often share a piece of visual contenton one channel to see if it would be a good fit

for other channels. For example, we might test a piece of visual content on Tumblr, and if

it performs well we might post it on Facebook knowing that it has a better chance of

overcoming the strict news feed algorithm.”

Sarah (Sos) Mattsson, Tourism & Events Queensland

Content efficiencies

Build audiences and engagement with high quality visual content

“Not all visual content can be usedacross all digital channels. But where you can, push the efficiencies of the content to makesure you’re squeezing enough awesomenessout of the work you’re doing.”

“The Instagram audience and engagement

grows every day as we focus on republishing a

variety of destinations and experiences, but we

always try to feature high quality images. We want

to make people feel like they are there – sipping on

that cocktail at sunset at Hamilton Island or getting

into the kayak at the Noosa Everglades.”

Sue B Zimmerman,The Instagram Expert

Start in advance

Use Dropbox

“Don’t wait until the day you publish something. Allow yourself enough visual content “creation space” and plan ahead. Creativity takes time!”

“Put everything in Dropbox. Keep a folder just for graphics and images as well as a stock of fresh professional photos. One great photoshoot with a lot of variety goes a long way.”

Caz & Craig Makepeace,Y Travel Blog

Optimizeyour images

Use text overlays

“We try to use as many of our own photos as we can for our images, so we can keep to our travel brand and story. Portrait size images work best so we’re conscious of making sure we grab portrait size photos when we’re out exploring. We use Lightroom to edit our images.”

“We use Canva or PicMonkey to put textover our images. We prefer PicMonkey for its ease & simplicity. We have constant internet connection

issues while travelling around Australia & PicMonkey works better on slower internet speeds.”

Grab the

Click Here to Read More & Download the Checklist of

Visual Content Strategy Secrets!

Azure Collier,Constant Contact

Create branding guidelines

Show the people behind your business

“Choose colors and types of images or icons that visually represent your brand and your voice and use them consistently across social networks.”

“We share lots of photos that show off our hardwork & expertise, but also give you a look at what happens behind the scenes at Constant Contact. I try to keep tabs on

what’s happening in the building, from events to holiday decorations to interesting things I see in workspaces or

conference rooms. I use employee-generated content as well.”

Kristin Ammerman,Social Media Image Designer

Don’t be boring!

Create a publishing schedule

“People are on social to see videos of cats or touch base with their friends. They don’t come to visit social websites to see you. So to compete, your mindset must be set accordingly and always employ one of the following three elements: Educational, Inspirational and Entertaining.”

“Don’t wing it! Use a calendar that everyone on the team can see. Have this planned

out up to 3 months in advance. Look ahead at the calendar and see how you

can tie in seasons and holidays.”

Scott Ayres,Post Planner “Ambassadorof Awesome”

Facebook Instagram

“On Facebook, we 100% use the Viral Photos tool inside the Post Planner App to find photos to post to our page of course! By posting photos already proven to have high engagement on other pages we consistently have a weekly Reach of over 7 million, from our page of 100k Likes!”

“On Instagram, we use a combination of repurposingphotos that performed well

on our Facebook page along with original

graphics that contain quotes or lead users to our

blog posts. From time to time our staff will also post pictures of what’s going on

in their world around the globe. As a distributed team that can be quite interesting at time with

people in the US, UK, Europe and Asia!”

Rebekah Radice,Digital & Social Media Strategist

Don’t reinvent the wheel

Make your own quoteables

“Rather than create multiple versions of one image, create one image that works on multiple platforms .

I create an image that’s the perfect size for Google Plus and Pinterest and then an image that works on Facebook and Instagram. I have found that portrait images perform

well on Google Plus and Pinterest.”

“Position yourself as an industry leader by sharing your thoughts and quotes. One easy way to do this is with the “Save Publishing” Chrome extension. Save Publishing will magically highlight quotable text. This text is highlighted in red and clickable. Copy and paste this text and add it to an image using a tool like Quotes Cover. Voila – you now have a series of quotes to add to your social channels!”

That’s a of visual content

strategy!

Go and start creating

some visual content

!

Want to

some of the tricks from the

“Visual Content Strategy Illusionists”?

to Grab the Visual Content StrategyChecklist !

Production TeamDesign by

DONNA MORITZ

Images by

www.SociallySorted.com.au