Social Media In Pictures – Kidding It’s Still About Words …

Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter may look different from traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, and journals, but most forms of social media still rely on words for communication.  After all people use social media to convey information, express a point of view and tell a story and while “a picture is worth 1000 words” they are not actually words. But could they be?

We all know images can be captioned, have hashtags and even “sound bites” associated with them but it is hard to get a point across solely in a picture. If you have one thing to say (and you should) then how can you say it on a myriad of social media platforms that may or may not allow words and all of which have different image requirements?

Genre

First you really need to decide the genre that best suits your story. Genres are a way to met people’s expectations and give yourself some direction in terms of style, tone and format. So you might decide your story is best told as a small story, a Q&A or a listicle but mostly you will decide to tell it (first) using words.

Ultimately, the decision about genre is a judgment call but consider three things:

1. First, you have the realities of your content: what you want to say, and the impact you want to have. This is your goal.
2. Second, you should have an idea of what your audience expects to hear (and see) across your chosen social media platforms.
3. Third, which platform “context” will work best with your content and your goal? This will be your primary platform.

In deciding the above, you also factor in whether it will be:

1. A blog post that is shared on social media
2. A post specific to a particular social media platform?
3. Or a multivariate post for your site and chosen social media platforms?

We always recommend using option #3 for any important business story.

Graphics

So what does it mean?  Once you have written your main post with words, you can add an engaging image to promote the blog that can be shared, as is, on social media. However for image intensive sites that support a concept of a curated page, you might want to create a special image.  For instance, for Instagram you might want to create a graphic to specifically suit its image size requirements that will also fit with the whole look and feel of your page.

Re-purpose

To re-purpose your content,  you can also generate even more graphics, such as extracts, statistics and hints, that help highlight your message even more.  These can be shared over a period of time so that the life of your post is lengthened.

Our hint?  When you go to the effort to write a small story think also about how you will market it.