Photographs: Social Media's Hot Content Marketing Asset

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Photographs are social media's hot content marketing format. Easy to take with any smartphone and/or other mobile device, photographs are fueling social media platform growth. Instagram, which recently passed the 80 million user mark, and to a lesser extent Pinterest, which has just under 20 million users, exemplify this trend. Even more important, consumers prefer photographs to engage with brands, according to research by Performics and ROI Research.

7 Tactics to Make Your Photographs Rock as Social Media Content Marketing

Get your photographic content marketing on track to drive social media interaction with these seven actionable marketing tactics.

1. Roll out the red carpet for your products. Use hero shots of your products to make their strengths shine. Let them strut their stuff so prospects and customers can see your offering in action, rather than in a solo display shot. Actionable marketing tip: Show what's special about your products and your firm. Set your firm apart from your competitors who may have the same supplier images.
2. Tell your business' story. Think organization, product, founders, or other story options. Make your firm and products memorable because people don't remember facts without context. Have a beginning, middle, and end. Actionable marketing tip: Collect stories from across your organization. Ask your employees for their images and stories related to your business.
3. Teach customers to use your products. Use photographs to show prospects and customers step by step how to use your products with photos. Actionable marketing tip: Interpret and educate broadly to show customers how to effectively use your products both before and after the sale. Combine words and photographs so that readers understand what to do.
4. Put a face on your business. People relate to other people. Use photographs to give your business a more personal feel. Actionable marketing tip: Consider giving a broader perspective by showing different employees at work. Make it more natural by gathering input from each person. This creates additional content and gives prospects more insight into your firm.
5. Report the news. Don't limit yourself to the news about your products. Be creative in your approach. Actionable marketing tip: Choose a unique perspective that's in line with your brand. Remember, photographs show a 360-degree version of your brand.
6. Take a tour of your business. Show prospects and customers the behind-the-scenes of your business. Actionable marketing tip: Use this opportunity to let employees show off their expertise and what they like about working for you.
7. Let customers and fans strut their stuff. Give your customers their 15 seconds of fame. You can let them be in the spotlight with your product. Actionable marketing tip: Go one step further and invite guest curators. Target does a great job of this on its Tumblr.

3 Tips to Ensure Your Photographs Are on Track

To maximize the impact of your social media photographs, here are three easy-to-follow tips.

1. Know your customers' social media persona. Understand which social media venues they frequent and how to incorporate photographs into your interactions on these platforms.
2. Include social sharing. Encourage social sharing by making your images shareable.
3. Incorporate a call-to-action. Where appropriate, use a contextually relevant call-to-action to encourage prospects to take the next step in your process.

Incorporate photographs into your social media content. Consider how to extend your content and brand by telling stories with these images, both yours and your customers' photos.

What other tactics using photographs to extend your social media engagement would you recommend and why?

Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen