Social Media Marketing Images – 5 Ways to Make Them Stand Out

Visual content is at the heart of social media nowadays, and unsurprisingly images have a big part to play. However, because practically every brand knows that, your social media marketing images will be facing an uphill slope and have to compete to stand out enough and draw the attention of viewers.

Making sure your images do that in accordance with the latest social media marketing trends is not easy, as you may have already noticed. Aside from the stiff competition, it requires an understanding of design (and photography) that not everyone has.

On the bright side – you can learn. To be more specific, there are a few key methods that you can use to directly improve the chances that your marketing images will make an impact.

Marketing Images for Social Media – Top Ideas You Need to Try

It is a big misconception that choosing the perfect social media marketing pic is intuitive and requires artistic flair. In fact, experienced researchers, marketers, and psychologists have long identified natural factors affecting our visual perception. It includes the colors used, the shapes, the light, the whole composition, and even the model pose. Try to figure it out somehow, and you will be surprised how the basics of the psychology of visual content can increase your views.

However, today is not about that. Let’s talk about the specific methods of using and processing social media marketing images that you can apply right now without any specialized skills and knowledge.

Brand Social Media Marketing Images Consistently

Although consistency may seem to be the antithesis of standing out, it is actually one of the best ways to do so. By branding your social media pictures consistently, you’ll train viewers to recognize them instantly – and they’ll stand out amongst other images as a result.

Keep in mind that ‘branding’ social media marketing images doesn’t just mean placing a logo on them but rather ensuring they have a similar look and vibe. In other words, they should share common colors, font styles, frames, and other visual elements.

The more visually consistent your images are, the better your brand recognition will be. It will also make your brand seem more solid and established, and promote trust and authority – which can help in more ways than one.

One of the first steps you should take to brand your social media images is to identify a color scheme for your brand, as well as select fonts that you’ll use for its typography. After that, you can look for other similarities that you may like your images to have, such as similar scenes, expressions, people, or even shapes.

As much as your logo is an important part of your brand and should be present in your images, you should only create it after you’ve identified these elements – as it should share them as well.

Finally, use these newfound branding elements throughout the images that you come up with for social media.

Draw Focus to Important Elements with Contrast

Contrast is one of the most important concepts in design and involves accentuating the differences in visual properties within an image. It is a great way to make certain elements in your social media marketing images stand out, and create focal points that viewers gravitate towards immediately.

Having a focal point is important because viewers will hone in on it. In that way, it can make your image stand out more, by immediately drawing their attention to the most important part of the image.

Keep in mind that although the color is one of the most common ways in which contrast can be used – there are others as well. Differences in size (big vs. small), shape (geometric vs. organic) and typography can all be used to set certain elements apart.

In any given image, you can use a combination of these types of contrast to set one (or more) element apart. Initially, it may be best to use the minimalist approach, as it is easier to employ contrast with fewer competing elements.

That being said, you can use contrast to draw focus to elements even in more ‘crowded’ digital marketing images. In such cases, you will want to establish a distinct visual hierarchy that draws focus to a particular element and then guides the viewer to other elements that are important too.

Use a Grid to Design Images and Align Elements

One of the best ways to create social media marketing images that are visually interesting is to start with a grid. In photography, this approach is commonly used with a 3 by 3 grid, and is known as the ‘rule of thirds’.

Basically, the ‘rule of thirds’ involves aligning elements by positioning them in one-third of the grid, along with the gridlines or at the intersection points. The same theory can be extended in a more general sense to larger grids as well, so you can use it in innumerable ways.

Starting to design your image on top of a grid can give it a sense of order, make it look more professional, and improve its composition. It will also make it easier for you to place text on your images and align them in a balanced way with the other elements that are present.

The two most common types of grids that are used to improve the composition of social media pictures are the rule of thirds and the golden mean. Both should provide a good starting point, and later you can experiment with other grids if you feel it is necessary.

Ensure the Image Size is Right for the Platform

It is critical that any images you publish on social media are the right size, and that size will vary depending on the platform in question. In some cases, it also depends on the orientation of the image, i.e. horizontal, vertical or square.

The reason why it is important to ensure the image size is right is that if it isn’t the social media platform you’re using may automatically crop, stretch, or compress the image to fit in a different frame. Needless to say, that can ruin the visual appeal of an image and make it stand out much less.

As a quick guide, you should try to use these image sizes:

• Facebook: 1200 x 900 shared image
• Twitter: 506 x 253 timeline image
• Google+: 506 pixels wide (height scales accordingly) shared image
• Instagram: 1080 x 1080 shared image
• LinkedIn: 350 pixels wide (height scales accordingly) shared image

Keep in mind that the ‘optimal’ dimensions for social media images do change periodically, which is why it is best to always check in advance. Plus, this can vary for post formats that are regularly updated and expanded. For example, Instagram offers five types of social media image sizes  – profile photo, story, and three for posts (landscape, portrait, and square). Each of these has specific standard requirements that you need to consider. After you publish an image, you should also make sure it is displayed correctly.

If you want to design a single image for multiple platforms it may be best to use a 1:1 (i.e. square) aspect ratio, as it can be displayed properly on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Add Quotes That Stand Out

Adding quotes to accompany images has become a mainstay on social media, and it is a type of content that lots of people enjoy. More importantly, it has been proven to attract attention – but in order for that to happen your quote itself needs to stand out.

To be more specific, when you add quotes to social media images it is important to use:

• Contrast to set it apart from other elements.
• Typography that is consistent, clean, and readable – and matches your message.
• Composition so it is aligned with other elements symmetrically.
• Images that pair with the context of the quotes.

It goes without saying that the quote you choose to use should also be relevant to your audience, and speak to them and their interests in some way.

If you can pull all that off, you should have an image with a quote that viewers feel compelled to read – and that will cause the image itself to stand out among other social media marketing images on a social media feed.

Social Media Marketing Pic – Where Do You Get Perfect One

The great news is that you now have five specific milestones that you can go through to come up with social media marketing images that stand out. Next, you just have to find the right media content and put it into action. It will be easy with expert advice on how you can do it and where to buy images for website or social media.

High-Quality Content for Social Media – Creating from Scratch

Of course, hiring a professional photographer with an extensive advertising portfolio is the most prominent and sensible solution. Especially if marketing images for social media are necessary to promote your business account. It can be either a general shooting of products and service delivery processes or a one-time photo session to present specific collections or product categories.

• The main advantage of this is the highest quality of media content that you can use both for social networks and for filling your website.
• The main disadvantage of this is the relatively high cost and time you have to spend waiting for processed images.

You can also try taking photos yourself. The technical characteristics of modern amateur cameras and smartphones allow everyone to create high-quality images. It will be a great alternative to getting original content vital for social media optimization.

Using Ready-Made Solutions and Finding Suitable Ones

Using non-unique content or stock images is a fairly common solution that can dramatically speed up the search for suitable media data and save a lot of resources. However, this always comes with some risks that reliable vendors and reputable business accounts cannot afford. When exactly can you do stock photos search and use them as your social media marketing images?

• To visualize your ideas and thoughts via general posts, user manuals, or articles with expert tips
• To illustrate services in a symbolic way (for example, advertisements for specific beauty treatments or intimate products)
• For media descriptions of ordinary products for everyday use (many retailers use the same photos from the product manufacturer)
• If you don’t have original images with appropriate resolution

If you still decide to use photo stocks to find suitable images, then always choose trusted sources and carefully study the terms of use. For example, some require you to leave a link to the photographer, while others provide a paid subscription with a certain amount of picture downloads.

You can find your ideal source of social media marketing images on your own or with expert advice (such as 24 Sites to Find Free Images You Would Actually Use for Your Marketing, which includes the top-rated Unsplash, Pexels & Depositphotos.) Among the advantages of stock platforms, it is also worth highlighting the variety of available collections and a huge number of images, among which you will definitely find the perfect social media marketing pic.

Editing & Post-Processing of Social Media Marketing Images

Once you find a suitable solution, you’ll need a way to edit your social media marketing images, adjust the frame and composition, tweak any elements, and improve them in other ways.

While you may not be all that familiar with editing, a good place to start is with Movavi Photo Editor. It is an easy-to-use image editor that will let you quickly edit your digital marketing images without needing any prior experience. To be honest, even if you’re a complete beginner, you should be able to start editing your photos with its help in minutes at most.

With the features in Movavi Photo Editor, you’ll be able to transform the frame and improve the composition by removing unwanted elements. On top of that, you could enhance the quality of your images, apply artistic filters, add creative text elements, touch up portraits, replace the background, and more.

And What About Quick Editing Online

It’s great if you already have professionally processed social media marketing images ready to use. However, what if you urgently need to publish a post, but there is not enough time for editing pictures and suitable tools for this? The solution is simple – try functional online photo editing software.

Most modern web applications do a great job quickly cropping, resizing, and adjusting color settings like brightness, contrast, and saturation. All these features are the bare minimum that will freshen up your marketing images for social media and make them more attractive.

Some image editors like Fotor and Pixlr Advanced also provide a wide range of additional options needed for better processing. For example, they allow you to remove the background, work with layers, or create a collage. All editing takes place online without installing or downloading additional plugins.

Final Words

Although it may take a bit of time to experiment with the tips and hacks listed above and apply them to your social media pictures – it is really all about practice. As you experiment with each method, you’ll start to see for yourself how it is able to improve your images and make them stand out more.

It will also help if you track the performance of images that you publish on social media. That should give you a yardstick to measure their effectiveness and allow you to gradually improve your social media marketing images further.

Once you’re able to create images that stand out more, fulfilling your marketing goals will be easier than it seems.