Content Development: Pictures: How to do them correctly

$\"sem-CD-0215-db\"$ By now, you probably realize that social media is a great resource for your business. It opens up many doors to engaging, updating and sharing with your client base. However, after seeing so much text all the time, sometimes it takes a little more to catch someones attention, than a simple status update.

We are naturally drawn to images when looking at big areas of text. The colors, emotion and meaning in the pictures draws us in, away from other statuses we may be passing by on social media (or the article we are reading in a newsletter or magazine, for example) and puts our full attention, even if just for moment, on something we may have otherwise looked over.

That being said, it’s important to know the ins and outs of pictures and social media. Here are our top four tips to doing them correctly.

Make sure it looks good!
Too often, photos on social media end up disoriented, pixelated and just not looking how they should. Nobody wants to look at a photo that looks like that, so make sure you do your research on what size photo is optimal for various purposes. Are you using your photo as a Facebook profile photo, a Twitter header or as an Instagram post? These all require different sizes. When you change the size of your photos, make sure you do not disorientate it.

Protect your property.
Whether you purchase stock images, create graphics or take the photography, make sure what you are using is owned by your company or you are giving rights to whose photo you are using. A great way to make sure you keep the rights to your photo, and are giving credit when it’s due, is by adding a watermark.

Optimize your photos for search.
What you may not realize, is that by uploading photos with names like img0001 can hurt your online presence. Although your followers may not see these image names, Google can. By giving your image a name that properly describes it, you are increasing your SEO.

Keep it relevant!
Don’t upload photos just because you feel like you have to. Make sure all the photos your upload to your social media are relevant to your posts, your brand and your audience. This will increase the effectiveness of your photos.