It's no secret anymore that visual content drives more engagement. That's why most social networks have moved images, videos and other media types to center stage, highlighting those as the primary content on feeds and timelines. But do all brands positioned to take full advantage of these updates? In this presentation, I cover the evolution of visual content on social media and offer some tips on how brands should start taking advantage of the benefits that visual content offers.

1. The rise of visual content on social media

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“Of all of our inventions for mass
communication, pictures still speak the most
universally”

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What is a Hypotenuse?

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“Images often allow us to
explain simplify, or expand
concepts in ways that are
very difficult to do (if even
possible) with text – or
even with spoken words.”
Robert Lane, “Relational
Presentation: A Visually
Interactive Approach”

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A short history of images on social media
Oct 2005
Users can
upload photos
Feb 2007
Tumblr
launches
Mar 2010
Instagram
seeded
Mar 2010
Pinterest
launches
Apr 2012
Facebook
acquires
Instagram
Jun 2013
Facebook adds
images to
Comments
Oct 2013
Twitter
adds auto-
expanding
images to
Tweets
May 2013
Yahoo!
acquires
Tumblr

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85 million unique visitors each
month
350 million photos
upload/day, a total of over 250
billion
60 million photos upload/day,
a total of over 20 billion and
over 200 million active users
45% of Tweets consist of
Images (36%) and videos (9%)

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18. Understand the basic
requirements

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Facebook header

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G+ & YouTube

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Update your photos

25. Visual guides
http://postcron.com/en/blog/social-media-image-
dimensions-sizes/
http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/social-media-
image-dimensions_b44957
http://www.postplanner.com/updated-guide-all-social-
media-image-dimensions/

26. Plan your visual content

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Wireframe tools
• Flairbuilder
• Mockingbird
• Lovely charts
• Lumzy
• SimpleDiagrams
• PPT
• LucidCharts

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Brainstorm

30. Create variety

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Text on images

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Text as images

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Memes

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GIFs
Free tools
http://www.giffingtool.com/
https://imgflip.com/gifgenerator
http://picasion.com/
http://gifmaker.me/
http://www.gimp.org/
GifBoom (iOS/Android)
Cinemagram (iOS/Android)

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Drawings

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Cartoons

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Charts, graphs

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More visual content types
• Text on images
• Text as images
• Memes
• Gifs
• Infographics
• Illustrations, drawings,
sketches
• Cartoons
• Charts, graphs
• Visual guides
• Interactive infographics
• Videos
• Presentations
• Interactive presentations

41. Follow best practices

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Do it right
Provide Detail
Shape Emotions
Lay Down Context
Simplify or Clarify Complexity
Give Examples
Reduce Learning Times
Enhance Verbal Stories
Improve Memory Recall

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Enable your
team

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Simply throwing random pictures onto
slides to “pretty them up” is not a good
idea. Some researchers contend that
including off-topic or irrelevant pictures
and video clips in educational materials
actually can have negative effects on
learning.
Tversky and Morrison (2001), Mayer,
Heiser, and Lonn (2001) and Mayer
(2003).

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Test

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Measure EVERYTHING!
Measure EVERYTHING

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Have a goal

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Repurpose, reuse, recycle

52. © 2014 Simply Measured, IncSo, should you hire this guy?

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Outsource
Great Seattle design firms I know:
• Killer Infographic – Infographics and video
• Design Commission – Graphic and Interactive design
• Hand Crank Films – Video
I’m sure there are a lot more!

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CrowdSource
99designs
http://99designs.com/
DesignCrowd -
http://www.designcrowd.com/
LogoTournament -
http://logotournament.com/
LaunchSite -
https://launchsite.com/
CoContest -
https://www.cocontest.com/
More here: http://list.ly/list/3xr-
20-creative-crowdsourcing-
websites-for-logo-website-design-
and-more

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Part Time vs. Full Time

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58. Thanks! | Uri Bar-Joseph
@uribarjoseph
in/uribarjoseph
uri@simplymeasured.com