Social networks like Facebook and Pinterest have made visual content the hottest thing on the Web. It seems like these days, everyone just wants to consume images or videos, which, as you may have already guessed, means that everyone is trying to produce images and videos, as well.
The next step for you, then, has to be finding a way to make your visual content stand out in the sea of memes, infographics and videos that litter the social Web. It's no surprise that there are a plethora of ways that you can help your content attract the attention of everyday users that can be specific to your brand, your audience, your industry or the type of information you're sharing. That said, there are a few other surefire ways to help your images and videos be more valuable, interesting and sharable.
Q: What's in a Name?
A: A lot!
Anyone who has worked on the Web for an extended period can tell you just how important keywords are, and that is equally as true for visual content. For this reason, it's important to have big, bold titles, headlines or general copy on your images that can easily be read by anyone who may just be scrolling by, and most importantly, it should include at least one essential keyword (if not more) that will capture the attention of relevant users or your target audience.
However, you must also ensure that your images read naturally, and not like they've just been "stuffed" with keywords. Also, make sure that the name of your image or video file somehow contains your targeted keyword or phrase. This will be beneficial when users want to share the content, as well as for search engine rankings.
Break It Up
One of the most popular types of visual content for marketers is the infographic, which compile and present a collection of information or data in an engaging and interesting way. A big part of what makes infographics so beloved is that they (or the good ones, at least) also organize all of that information in a way that makes them easy to browse and understand quickly. This makes them extremely valuable to most users, as they will condense a lot of data and make it not only easy to read, but also enjoyable. And while you don't always have to create an infographic, you can always make sure that your visual content is broken up into easily digestible clusters that can be quickly skimmed to increase the chances of gaining the attention of various users and getting them to share it with their friends/followers. This can also be done by using graphs and/or charts.
Publish Quality Stuff
With so much visual content out there for social media users to wade through, it would to be your benefit to make sure that the stuff you publish is of the highest possible quality, which will most certainly help it stand out among everything else. Don't worry, though, because even if you don't have a huge marketing or design budget, there are many ways you could go about doing this, including buying a high quality camera or video camera, editing your images/videos with software like Adobe Photoshop or Final Cut Pro or creating infographics with Piktochart or Visual.ly. Or, if that's still too much of an investment, you can always use free online image editing services, like Pixlr. Regardless, the point is that you should put in the effort to make something that is not only going to be valuable to users, but also visually stimulating, in order to stand apart from all of the other images and videos out there on the social Web.