In today’s digital era, almost every business now has a social media presence. Visual elements are key to building and increasing your presence online. You do not want to take a photo randomly and upload it without any planning. Every photo on your social media platforms should have a purpose as it represents your brand. Here are some tips you can use in planning to post on your social media feed.
Crop, Not Zoom
Manually zooming a photo is a huge mistake. The second you start zooming, you are also reducing the image resolution and image quality. Try to get closer to your subject instead of zooming. If it is impossible to, just take the picture from where you can. You can always crop the image afterwards. Some questions you can ask yourself: What do I want my audience to look at?
Take Candid Shots
As a business, you don’t want to be only posting product images. Human subjects are a great assortment to have for social media campaigns. Research has shown that photos with faces in it get 38% more ‘likes’ as opposed to photos without. The human subject doesn’t always have to be posing. Candid shots add a flair of human element to your brand by portraying people in their natural action. It also adds variety to your feed, giving your viewers a more wholesome, well-rounded impression of your brand.
Keep It Simple
When a photo is cluttered with too many things going on in a single image, your eyes don’t know where to look or focus on. Posting an image like this loses its purpose. A message meant to be conveyed is lost. Images with a clean background and a clear message please the eyes much more in comparison. Keep things simple and thrive in sending the message you want to convey to your audience one post at a time.
Effective Framing Using The One Third Rule
Before you start shooting, take a second to consider which platform you will be uploading these images on. Every social media platform uses a different format and size. For example, Instagram primarily uses a square format. Taking that into consideration, frame and execute your shoot accordingly. There are platforms available online like Canva that helps users size their photos according to their respective needs as well.
Here are some commonly used photo size ratios:
- Instagram Square – 1080px by 1080px
- Instagram Portrait – 1080px by 1350px
- Instagram Landscape – 1080px by 608px
- Facebook Cover Photo – 720 x 312 pixels
- Facebook News Feed Images – Width of 504 pixels; recommended size of 1,200 x 628 pixels
- Facebook News Feed Link Post “Featured” Image – 484 x 252 pixels; recommended size of 1,200 x 628 pixels
Look At Examples
Pinterest, Instagram accounts you love, screenshot them all. Create a mood board of the pictures you love seeing. Try to find a common theme amongst the images you have saved. Is it a colour tone similarity (all white for example)? Is it the mood of the images? Find it, and follow it. When you are producing content based on what you like, you will be able to find the motivation and passion to keep producing images similar to the ones you love.
Too much hassle to plan for your social media feed? Let our team of dedicated photographers help you, or drop us an email at snappy@snappyfly.com!
References:
https://redbooth.com/hub/awesome-photography-tips-for-social-media-success/
https://expertphotography.com/social-media-tips/
https://www.postplanner.com/ultimate-guide-to-facebook-dimensions-cheat-sheet/