If you’d like to read what we discussed in this show, below is our full transcript.
Hey it’s Janet Johnson and Lisa Saline.
Hi everyone.
Lisa’s here today and she has Kimmy on the background. Kimmy’s still here but
Yep, she’s on the piano right now.
That’s cute, yeah, that’s great. We’re going to walk through stuff today and we brought Lisa out. We’re going to be doing this once a month where Lisa isn’t being Kimmy, the social media business owner and Lisa is going to be the social media expert here. So we are going to walk through images. We’re going to be talking about images today because it’s so important in the content. Lisa do you want to touch a little bit on images and what your thought is with using images in social media?
Well images, because people are very visual when they learn and they love to engage visually that’s why we have smartphones with cameras now because everybody’s posting pictures. But images can tell a story. And when you have good images on your social media platform you can teach people and you can tell stories through the visual images that you have. So I see images are terrific thing to have in any social media channel.
Don’t they say that pictures tell a thousand words or something like that?
Yeah. Definitely, yep.
I think it speaks a lot and people are in a hurry nowadays. I think that is the biggest thing right now is there’s so much junk in the news feed and Pinterest, it’s just image, image, image. And it helps to have the specific image to grab people’s attention.
Well, yep. I noticed that the other day when I was all driving around and dropping the kids off, doing some errands. Instead of stopping and taking a quick note, I would take a picture because then I’ll remember something like if there was a domain name on somebody’s vehicle, I took a picture of it because I want to connect with them. Or if there’s something interesting as you’re sitting on a stop light and you just want to share that interesting car or story or whatever, you take a picture. And it’s a lot easier than writing down what you thought and a lot of times words just don’t speak the same volume as images do. So images are really easy it’s just a point and click.
Yeah. Yeah and that actually, it’s a little off subject but I went to an event recently and I have a bunch of business cards and that CardMunch with LinkedIn. You take pictures and it’s so much faster like you said – you don’t have to write everything down.
Yep, heck I deposit my checks now by taking a picture. I don’t have to drive through the bank anymore, I just take a picture of myself for me to deposit it. So images do more than just share a story but they can now be converted into cash. I like that, right?
That’s the best.
Yeah, really.
That’s our goal here is we’re going to talk using these images. You’re exactly right – using these images in your social media. The end goal is to convert that social media into cash.
Right.
So absolutely. So I like that idea. Let’s talk about, we have different areas to talk about today in images and we’re going to explain these as best as we can because we’re not showing you but you can download the guide afterwards. We’ll give you the link to the guide and then you can check it out yourself so you can visually see it but we’ll explain it the best we can possibly can through speaking. And images, let’s start with the best ones, the best across the board is funny.
Oh people love funny images.
They do. They love funny images, I think if you’re not using that somewhere, somehow within your Facebook page or Google+, if you’re not bringing in some humor, you’re not going to get that engagement. They are the most, if you can get to people’s emotions but yet be funny, it can make all the difference in the world.
People love to share funny things and they don’t care really about your business, they’ll share that funny image just because it touched their heart or it makes them laugh, it makes them chuckle. I think of there’s a greeting card with that lady on that, oh shoot, I just lost it.
That’s funny. That’s one of those things I know exactly…
But every time I see it like I can totally relate. It’s fun and then you take that and you share it on your page and you get a lot of comments and a lot of people laugh about that. Taking funny images of your kids because people relate to kids and pets. Sometimes they do the strangest things. I just saw one last week, somebody has posted their dog had gotten their head stuck in the garbage can. I mean that was just really funny. And so that was shared and a lot of engagement on that, things that you just think normally like oh my goodness, that just can’t be but it is fun.
Yeah. And I saw one this morning about cats. It was talking about how a cat within a box could gravitate to the box and new box came along next to it and it went, “ohhh, I got to go to that box.” It went to that box and then it said I’m not going back to that box, it’s like nah I want to go back to my old box. So it had little, six different images in a row in one image, does that makes sense? So it was cute, it was very cute and it just grab your attention. I’m like, oh what’s that cat doing? Then it actually brought you in.
Yeah, timeline basically, the image timeline.
So part of the images you want to include somewhere somehow. Now you don’t want to overdo it, you don’t want your business to be just showing all these funny images, that’s obnoxious. And we’re getting to be where you’re not the expert anymore or your business isn’t looking like it’s serious, that kind of thing.
Yeah, people want to know that you’re serious but they also like to know that you have some fun, too. So finding a good blend is great.
Exactly. If you use an image you want to try to have something relative to your business to stand behind it, if possible.
Right.
So that cat image actually had a social media lesson to it on the back end so they related to it with social media. And so it’s something, and that was a social media company that had posted that. So if there’s a way that you can relate the funny into your business with the caption that you put that’s even better.
Yeah, definitely. Well it’s kind of like Kimmy and Miss Piggy, right? Because on the picture with Kimmy up there and taking advantage of Miss Piggy that’s kind of fun.
Yeah and that movie came out last Friday. I haven’t heard reviews on that yet but everybody loves the Muppet so you can’t but I think Kimmy, sorry but Kimmy’s a little cuter than Miss Piggy.
That’s good, I’m glad. She’d be glad to hear that, too. That’s fun. I wish Kimmy was paid like Miss Piggy but…
If she has more hair-dos, I have to say.
Yeah, I think I’d have to find a couple barrettes for her. That’s funny.
The next area is eye-catching images. The funny can be eye-catching, too, but eye-catching images one of the images we did was grabbed an image that was a tornado that was the shape of a heart and it actually makes you really go whoow, I mean you just double look. It’s a triple double look and then you’ll like that – so cool, I’ve got to share that.
That’s great.
Eye-catching images are anytime you see something like that and share it yourself. Or you could even create your own. We use, we talk about a lot about Canva.
Right, I use picmonkey, yeah, Canva, picmonkey. Speaking of eye-catching images, remember there’s a man or a woman, I think, it’s a man that does the chalk on sidewalks. And he’ll take pictures and make them look like 3Ds. He will do a chalkboard illustration and it looks like you’re walking down a mountain or there’s a big hole on the street and those are eye-catching images because it makes you look twice. You have to really focus to figure out whether or not you are actually stepping in the danger. But you can actually walk on them and it’s fine. So to me those are fun, eye-catching images.
Those are cool. The other one, now that I’m thinking of the one I’ve used some and I’ve seen a lot, is anything with heights. Somebody standing on the edge of a cliff or something like that. It makes me sick to my stomach immediately but you go, wow. I know there was somebody camping on the side of the cliff or something hanging there and I think we’ve posted that but it’s totally eye-catching. That kind of thing is going to grab your attention right away. So that’s the eye-catching images that you want to use and draw the eyes in. And Pool Supply World, that’s a great Facebook page, if you don’t like that page you might want to go and like that page. I’d love, you know in this cold, snowy, still winter, we had snow again this morning in Minnesota.
I’m so ready for summer.
Well looking at those pools and just go ahhhh, it’s just a breath of fresh air and people love seeing that kind of thing. And Pool Supply World does a fantastic job of bringing in exotic pools and locations and different things that really you’d love to see.
Yeah, definitely.
That one’s a fun one, too.
The next area would be tips on images. What I mean here is the tips doing different tips that
Like do-it-yourself tip?
Yes, exactly. And we’re doing tips on images on our Facebook page right now. We’re doing how-do-you-use-image tips, different ideas to use the images. That’s an area that is very easily used so I think what a company should do is come up with 10 different tips, maybe questions and answers. Do you have a question…
Well frequently asked questions or we just interviewed Angela Brook and she on her Facebook wall, she does lot of images and tips on how to use essential oils. That’s really helpful especially if you have an audience that’s using them who might not think about how to blend them. Your construction workers – how to pick your colors, your paints. I remember wasn’t it Creative Carpentry that put up an image side by side should I use this paint or that, this color or that color? Those are images. I think there was good engagement on that one where people give their opinions. They like to give their feedback and so there’s many opportunities to take that frequently asked questions and turn it into an image to get your conversations running.
Absolutely. So a lot of people are saying so what kind of tips am I going to give? Just come up with twenty that questions that are asked frequently. Answer those questions and turn it into a tip into an image.
Yeah, well I mean how about coffee places? Like Starbucks. I listen to those Starbucks yells and taking orders and I thought oh I never thought of putting those combinations together so maybe you want do an image of a tall latte with caramel and frappuccino whipped in, you know, I mean there’s all kinds of ways that people say it but now put an image with that. And I think you could do, that would be cool to create recipes.
Well look at all the content – image and content, I mean. For Starbucks alone, look at all of them that they could do right there with giving different tips. Have you tried the different tips of have you mixed the caramel with this blah blah blah, I’m not a big Starbucks person but I get what you’re saying.
I am a coffee drinker so any place but I just know that they encourage people to take pictures of their drinks and why not put what that drink is right on top of the image and then you’ll know. You can take the image and say I want one of this and show them your image but I think that would be terrific.
Yeah, absolutely. We also do a lot of tip images for orthodontist where we’re teaching, and dentist, teaching about teeth. How to take care of your teeth. Just simple things like what foods you should eat while you have braces. And you can break that into all different types of image posts by breaking that down. So there’s just so much to really expand on thinking about what kind of tips you could teach. You’re showing people a) your expertise but b) you’re doing it with imagery.
Right. And I do like the way you recommended do 10 or 20 and that way you can have some good content for the month.
Yep, yep, batch it all ahead of time, you got it. And quotes on images is the next area. And this you see quite a bit of and it’s great. That’s share-able content. People love motivational quote, they absolutely love it. And it doesn’t have to be an image, it can just even be the words where put a cool background. You can probably easily do that in picmonkey or Canva.
Definitely, yeah. I see some black background with white texts and personally it pops out on people. So now if you took your colors and your branded, I actually did that with my Lisa Saline blog. I have the purple and the green and then I use the text as purple. So certainly be creative and picmonkey, yes you can size it up, choose your colors. You can do splash colors, yeah, definitely fun.
Yep, so it’s not difficult. And when you have a graphic person that can help you or you want to put images in there, too. I do a lot on my page with images that we have a cool picture and then we put a quote at the bottom. Now one thing to remember if you decide to run some ads if you’re on Facebook they still have that 20% guideline rule.
On the ad itself, yeah.
Yeah. So if posting something like that you want to make sure that you’re not using just words because they’ll deny it because it’s over the 20% text. That’s something to think about, too. Then one of my favorites that I think a lot of companies don’t do enough of is, in their office, their business, about them, making/bringing what they do in their office into their Facebook. The clients that I work with currently they do a lot of it because I push it a lot and I stress it a lot. And honestly in the majority of them the one said when they’re posting fun things that are happening in their office they are the most engaged on. The likes, they get the shares, they get the comments the most because people want to learn about it. It’s just more fun when you’re showing the real you.
And it shows the community if you’re an orthodontic office, per se, you’ve got people coming in getting their braces adjusted and then you’re going to share it with their friends because they have a fun picture and they’re going to go and be able to almost get to know the doctor before they even step foot in the door. And I think about that in a lot of offices that have conferences, sales environments where they might have a sales conference. If they took pictures of leadership some of the people paying attention to leadership quotes or doing a speech, those images add credibility to the person, credibility to people. Maybe you’re speaking in front of an audience, have somebody take pictures because then you can put in the date and can talk about who’s on stage with you and adds credibility there so I definitely agree with that.
Yeah, there’s so many different ways that you can bring yourself, so you’re right for speakers. That’s what third party credibility’s showing that you speak and authors, same type of thing. There’s so many different things that you can do inside of business. It’s time not to be lazy and sit back anymore. I hate to use that word but I think a lot of people, it’s not difficult anymore. Everybody has smartphones nowadays where it takes two seconds. You can upload it to Instagram and have it on Instagram and Facebook. You can get on all these different platforms so easily and so quickly. Just take advantage of that. I love the tutoring center. I work with those a lot. They do a lot of pictures when kids graduate from that. There’s just so many things you could do. The other one that I use as an example is Lennar Homes. Lennar Homes has one of the best Facebook pages out there, too. And they’re always taking pictures , always. All of their and it was great is that it’s so cool, gives you ideas on what’s out there in homes, too. But they’re always taking tons of pictures of their new homes, their model homes and that type of thing. Love their page, they do a great job. Alright and we are on the last category, infographics.
Oh I love infographics. Infographics basically are your timeline and story line to anything from do-it-yourself project to how did this business evolved. And I’d like to see where people started in business and where they are today and then you see the history in their timeline but also checklist. Checklist are shared quite a bit. It’s the do-it-yourself checklist on maybe, how to use Twitter, there’s a checklist. Or a lot of times you’ll see a checklist on a recipe for something which is helpful because it’s a shopping list for organization.
I’m actually into green smoothies now, the healthy smoothies. I search a lot on Pinterest and I pull it up on my phone every time I’m going to make a smoothie and I look at there’s an infographic chart and it said add this green with this yogurt or this liquid and then this fruits and you can mix it but it was an infographic. So it’s so easy to just go grab a smoothie or make that smoothie because it’s from an infographic. The largest one that I had shared was 2014, what’s going to be happening. Showed this at the beginning of 2014 on Pinterest and that get shared daily, still.
That’s awesome.
So Pinterest is, you got to think about what your clients are looking for. What are the things that are going to most intrigue them? What are their needs? And fulfill those needs with that infographic and that will get shared. That’s the one thing with Pinterest – they share for a long time. They keep going and going. I love the way Pinterest works because it last a lot longer, your images do. So be sure to get your images over there, too.
I have a friend she has created a board that called how to be a hippie and it was a checklist on the certain style of clothes to wear and the shoes and the music you listen to. It was really cool because then she shared her favorite websites where you can access all of that. And I thought that’s pretty powerful because now somebody has an interest in something not only do they have the checklist but they have the resources of where they can find the information. And it’s just an image. How easy was that? Just take the knowledge that you have and share it out there.
Nice. Nice, yeah, it is. So that covers our images. The one thing let’s talk a little bit Lisa about the sizes. You have the different size dimensions. This will help people out because images are so different on each networks so we’ll talk about the different sizing on the different networks.
The nice thing to Janet is your graphic guy when you tell him to make an image he makes a size for each platform so I want to encourage and recommend that people do that so they have the best fit for the platforms they’re on and they can use it on different areas. Like Facebook, their old image size for the news feed was 403 x 403 and now it’s 510 x 510. So it’s best to have it a larger size so you can shrink it instead of keeping it small and trying to expand it then it looks blurry. So 510 x 510 for Facebook; Pinterest and Google+ are at 800 x 600 pixel and then Twitter is 1024 x 512. And with Twitter, this is an area that not a lot of people are using and optimizing. So I highly encourage people to use more picture on Twitter. I’m a big Twitter user. I received couple of big clients from Twitter and I’m a full advocate of it and this is an area that I definitely need to use more of is the sizing and images on Twitter. So that’s a 1024 x 512 for Twitter; Pinterest is 800 x 600 and Facebook now the new timeline is 510 x 510.
And that to clarify these are also not their recommended sizes, let’s put it that way. This is what’s recommended, you can use other sizes and they sometimes work, sometimes don’t. But this is the recommended sizes that we’d suggest for you and some people do different sizes, too. And Facebook, the piece with Facebook, the page most people, I don’t know who does at this point right now, has the new page layout. Do you have that yet Lisa?
I do not have the new page layout. I don’t have any on my pages that I manage. It will be interesting. I don’t know how they roll out, I have no idea so nobody does. Nobody can figure out so eventually that’s when it will move to the 510 but it’s okay to use the 510 now and just prepare for it. But 403 is the size still at this point on the pages if you don’t have the new layout. Well thank you for your time. This was great. Let’s finish up with the content. What we just went through is a full content guide and this guide is step by step through not just images we actually also talked about texts posts, types of text posts. We talked about sharing other people’s content, we talked about videos, websites and blog – how to use your own website and blog and then podcasts, too. So we talked about all that in this guide, it’s a lot longer and then the visual examples are in this guide and you can access this absolutely free and you go to socialmediahangouttime.com/guide. G-U-I-D-E, that’s it. So socialmediahangouttime.com/guide and go grab your free guide and you will not run out of ideas to post in your social media for a long time.
And we just touched based on images and so in that guide
you have other areas, too. So definitely this could be your one thing that you want to keep open on your desktop.
Alright, thanks a lot. Enjoy and have a good day you guys! Thank you.
Bye, thank you. Ba-bye.