No Images? Click here It’s no secret that in the social media world, images speak volumes. The research is unanimous that adding a photo, meme, or photo collage to a social media post will help your message get seen by more people. Skeptical? Take a look at some recent statistics: “Infographics are "liked" and shared on social media 3X more than other any other type of content.” – Mass Planner “When the images are relevant, readers spend more time looking at the images than they do reading text on the page.” – Nielson Norman Group “Tweets with images receive 150% more retweets than tweets without images.” – Buffer “Facebook posts with images see 2.3X more engagement than those without images.” – BuzzSumo If you think you have to be a design expert to make your own graphics, think again. There are many simple, FREE services you can use. We’ll show you how to find free photos and share our tips to creating compelling graphics. Let’s get started! To keep things simple, we’ll use Facebook for our examples, but all of these techniques can be used for other social media channels, including Twitter and Instagram. How To Find Free PhotosLet’s say you want to promote an event coming up at your chapter. Let’s pretend it’s a Family Fishing Day. You can quickly post a text message on Facebook that says something such as,
Posting a text message is absolutely fine. But as our research shows us, adding a photo can double or triple the number of people who see your message. You could use a photo from last year’s Family Fishing Day (which is ideal) or a generic photo of someone fishing or kids playing near a stream or lake. If you do not have a chapter-owned photo from a past event, then how do you find a photo you can use? Fortunately, there are many websites that offer free photos and do not require a photo credit or payment. A marketing blog called Snappa did all the legwork for us and compiled an extensive list of free stock photo websites. Our favorites are Unsplash and Pexels. There is a downside to these websites that you’ll notice when searching for photos. The images can be photojournalistic in their tone with dark, moody colors, and we haven’t found a lot of outdoor recreation photos. The fishing photo in our example below is just one of two photos we found on Pexel that had kids fishing. We have, however, been lucky in finding beautiful landscape photos from all seasons and regions of the U.S., and there are a lot of choices if you want to find a photo to promote a holiday or need a background image. Here are a few examples of recent photos we’ve used from these free websites. Now that you know how to find free photos, let’s get back to our Family Fishing Day event. We found the photo below on Pexel and we’ll use it as our example for your Family Fishing Day post. First, let’s post the fishing day message to Facebook without a photo and then again with the photo. Which one would you “like” or share? If the experts are correct, you and your members will react to the post with the image more than the text-only version. This means your members are more likely to share the post to their Facebook News Feed, which in turn helps spread the word about the event. Adding Text to Images If you follow the League’s Facebook page, you may have noticed images with an overlay of text. Most people assume those images are done in Photoshop. Not so! We do make a lot of our graphics with Photoshop, but we’ve recently been using a free website called Canva. Canva allows you to create compelling graphics using off-the-shelf templates that you can manipulate by adding your own images, colors, and fonts. Here are some examples of recent graphics we’ve made. Sometimes, you want an image to say more about what you’re doing. Here’s one we created about stream monitoring. This was created in Photoshop, but can be done in Canva too. A simple image with a favorite quote can also get attention online. These types of images require little effort but often get shared the most. Now that you’ve seen some examples, let’s get back to your Family Fishing Day event. We made the following graphic in Canva in less than 10 minutes! It’s a simple way to make your images look professional, modern, and (most importantly) shareable! Give Canva a try! If you are interested in a webinar on how to use Canva, e-mail Amy Marathe at amarathe@iwla.org. She’ll assess the interest and schedule a webinar in the near future. What Is a Meme? Memes have taken over social media. The official definition of a meme is:
Here are some examples of memes on the Internet: Memes are meant to be short and funny so people will share them on social media feeds. We don’t want to create images that are not in keeping with the League’s mission and goals – but that doesn’t mean we can’t experiment with some tongue-in-cheek memes to help us quickly reach a wider audience. You can make a meme in Canva or you can make one with the many “meme generators” on the Internet. Google “meme generator” and you’ll find dozens of sites. We don’t have a favorite since they all perform the same way. You upload a photo, type in text and out pops a meme! Here are two that we made: You want to use memes sparingly on your social media feeds, but they can be a fun way to grab your followers’ attention. What Is a Photo Collage? If you were a teen before the advent of social media, chances are you made photo collages of your friends with actual photos plus clippings from your favorite magazines. Those types of images are still popular today, but the process is now digitized. Occasionally it’s fun to use a collage to tell a story in a single image. One of our recent favorites is this collage from the 2016 national convention – a montage of photos taken at the Bill Cook Chapter cookout. There are several ways to create a collage. The image from the Bill Cook Chapter was made on an iPhone using the PicCollage app. Search “collage maker” in your phone’s app store and you should find several free options. Canva also has a photo collage layout. It’s a bit tricky to find. On the Canva home page, click on the “More” tab to see all of the design layouts. Scroll to the “Events” section and you’ll see the icon for Photo Collages. Below is a collage we made through Canva. While your Family Fishing Day is going on, snap a few photos (with permission) on your phone and create a collage right on the spot! Once you have the collage done, most apps will allow you to share the photo on your preferred social media channel. This is a great way to show your community what is happening in real time. Summary The bottom line here is to have fun! Don’t be afraid to take a goofy photo like the men in the Volunteer picture or create a graphic on the anniversary of your chapter. These simple images can make a huge impact in getting more people in your community to know who you are and what you do. A reminder when taking photos at your chapter:
If you have any questions about taking photos or using the websites mentioned, please contact Amy Marathe at amarathe@iwla.org. Did you miss the past e-newsletter? View the October 2016 Social Media Buzz! Photo Credits: Bruce McGlenn; Matthew Paulson; All other photos in this e-newsletter are free, all-purpose clip art or business logos from individual social media businesses. © 2017 The Izaak Walton League of America All rights reserved. If you wish to unsubscribe to this quarterly email, then please email us at info@iwla.org. |