According to a recent study from LinkedIn, social media is the most in-demand skill for marketers in 2023, while digital marketing is the third most in-demand. In the middle comes video. While the skills are shifting, the platforms being most commonly used by small and medium sized businesses remain steady.
Despite periodic crises, Facebook remains a key marketing tool for most businesses. Not least, Facebook has more than 2.91 billion active users, making. For many firms, a Facebook Business Page can provide an expedient way to connect the firm to its customers (current or prospective).
In particular, Facebook allows two-way communication between businesses and their customers. As The Guardian points out, images also provide a medium that is easily shared and distributed.
In addition, a well-designed page will offer key information about the business, products, services, and upcoming events. While text on social media can be powerful, arguably the image used is the most important selling aspect and it is key for attracting the eye of the busy consumer (and the context of a progressive reduction the attention spans of content viewers).
Oral and written communication are in decline because a new form of communication, communication by image, has emerged.
Of different uses of images, for promoting content, the Facebook cover photograph remains a powerful tool in terms of helping to increase brand awareness. Often the image means more than the business name and the associated words. A striking image can also help to attract new customers and enhance the overall social media presence of a company.
An important tip is with keeping the content consistent with the branding (and within the Facebook guidelines). This works best by being eye-catching (given the speed at which many people scroll at), as well as staying on top of updates. An MIT study published in the journal Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics found that the human brain can process entire images in as little as 13 milliseconds, so an instant hit is all it takes.
It is worth spending time considering the most appropriate image and consider the question: How do identity, life experience, and point of view shape the way we “read” and respond to photographs and other images? Getting this right can lead to successful branding; getting it wrong leads to the image merging in with other bland content.
According to a recent blog from Adobe, branding is the art of differentiation. This is to the extent that two very similar companies can feel completely different due to branding. In terms of advice, it is recommended:
- Focal point: The human eye is attracted to particular symmetry, colour, and shape components.
- Symmetry: This is when an exact balance in the photo draws the viewer’s attention from all parts of the frame.
- Color: This grabs the viewer’s attention and immediately sets the tone for the brand.
- Shapes: When selecting shapes, the human brain maps various shapes to specific feelings.
The optimal image size is 851 pixels wide by 315 pixels tall, with the image being less than 100 KB.
While this form of advertising can be powerful, industry veteran Sir John Hegarty says that many social media campaigns falter by not being sufficiently memorable. Speaking with the BBC, he states that brands and images must be memorable and remain within the public consciousness – in other words, the most successful businesses remain those with the most ‘famous’ brands and their associated images.
