I read most content via Social Media. To me it always feels that the image – to support the the blog post – is picked very secondary and never really to support what you’re trying to say, but more just to have an image. In that case the image is actually not part of the content. And having an image to go with your post makes sense; posts with a highlighted image get way more engagement. Still, I often see posts with images that others have used too. Usually those images are easy to find. It’s the stuff that first comes to mind and is on top of Google Images page 1. We’ve all seen the cliché images that make no actual impact. The expression ‘one image speaks a thousand words’ does not really apply in this case.
The right imaging can help the audience to better understand you and even better, make sure you are hard to forget.
I’m a visual storyteller so a big part of my job is hunting for visuals that enhance your voice (not usually for your blog post but for presentations but many of the same rules apply). The right imaging can help the audience to better understand you and even better, make sure you are hard to forget. So how to we find those images?
Finding good visuals is a creative process. I often see that people can manage visuals that speak to a more abstract level. They pick words like flexible, partnering or changes and other alike because abstract words usually speak to the core of the post. If you than try to find an image based on those words on Google for example, you get nothing of value. For example, we’ve all been overloaded with posts about virtual meetings because that’s really hot topic right now. I am sure that more than 90% of those are images that include a laptop (and titles like ‘this is the new normal’). So it’s slowly losing power.
So let’s finish this blog with 3 tips on how to get images that do work:
- Try to think of an analogy for what you are trying to say. Analogies usually help because they put your message in a different context. This will make photo-hunting a lot easier.
- Use a personal photo. Those usually have lots of emotional value and they are unique to your viewers. And you probably have a good story tied to that photo.
- Humor is very difficult, and it’s usually designed wrong (I’ll do a blog on this later) but memes work really well (if used right!) and they are easy to create with generators like this. The nice thing about memes is that they are known to a big audience. But you know your audience the best and only you can determine if they are the right audience for humor like this.
Let’s start with this. Like I said, it’s a creative process. Take a step back, thinking hats on and try to make the image part of your context.