« A picture is worth a thousand words… ». The great philosopher Confucius may have written these words in 500 BC, well before the advent of Instagram and other Pinterest. At the time of the omnipresence of social networks, this quote has certainly never been so verified. Users are constantly exposed to overflowing information, juggling with posts, articles, videos and photos … Competition with followers and engagement rates is tough. So how can you stand out from the crowd with your social networks communication ? Give a privileged care to your selection of images could be a beginning of answer!

For you, Epictura team has worked on the subject!

Iconography on social networks: A strategy for everyone !

If you can identify very different targets and objectives for each media, it is the same with social networks. Each one has its audience, its own code and mechanism of operation.

Back to some useful numbers to help you see more clearly.

The images on Instagram

Social network based on images, Instagram originally allowed us to transform our photos through many filters and share them with well found hashtags. Now a real playground for influencers, publications with photos of people are the most successful, with almost 30% additional likes compared to other content.

Images on Facebook

It seems long ago when everyone published a lot of photos of his private life on Facebook. We now know that on Facebook the engagement rate is higher on video content unlike networks like Instagram. Nevertheless, according to the latest Hubspot statistics, posts with images still have close to twice as many likes compared to a non-visual publication.

Images on Twitter

Yet less focused on the photos in the beginning, Twitter nevertheless follows the same trend. When tweets come with visuals, the clickthrough rate on the publication is almost 25% higher. Generating 9 times more likes, the image on a tweet would also positively influence the rate of retweet of the post.

Choosing the perfect stock photo: Reminder of essential rules

Work the size of your images…

Adapting the size of your images is the ABC of good communication on social networks. On an image bank, you will be able to select different formats to ensure that the photograph or illustration matches your broadcast channel and appears optimally. Be careful, each social network has its own size criteria.

But also their weight!

Another important criteria is the weight of the images. It is strongly recommended to optimize the weight of your images before posting them, whether they come from image banks or not. Dedicated and free online tools can help you significantly reduce the weight of all your images without altering the quality.

Be creative!

Photos, graphics or illustrations, taken from your own image bank or royalty free stock sites, diversity on social networks is strength! If the use of unique images is preferred for SEO , it is the same in social media strategy. So do not hesitate to vary the types of images you use!

Visuals would therefore play a more important role than it seems in the success of social media strategies. Whether on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Linkedin, they can quickly capture the furtive attention of users. So, be ready to add some excitement to your social networks? All you have to do is find the best stock photo!