If you’re working your business online, you’re (probably) (hopefully) (please say yes), sharing custom and valuable content with your customers. This means you are sharing your products and services in a unique way, providing useful information about your industry, giving tutorials, tips, tricks and so on.
It’s important to be UNIQUE in your online marketing strategy for a number of reasons. Here are a few:
- To position yourself as an industry expert/influencer. It’s important that when your customers think of your industry (say, for example, spa products), that they think of you! Not only for your products but also for your knowledge. People do business with people they trust – so it’s important to grow that bond with your customers by showing them that you are the go-to for everything concerning your industry.
- To stay out of Facebook jail. If we have direct sellers on our Facebook pages, chances are we are seeing a lot of posts – and a lot of the SAME posts. When you see a fellow Consultant post some awesome content, learn from it. But don’t steal it. For one, that content belongs to that Consultant. And two, if certain images or phrases are continually posted on Facebook, Facebook flags those images and phrases as spam. That means, not only might your posts be taken down, you might land yourself in jail! (Meaning you may be blocked from doing certain actions on Facebook, or your account may be shut down indefinitely).
- To increase your reach, engagement, hearts, likes, retweets and so on. Whatever social platform you are utilizing for your business (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Periscope – or whatever) your goal is to reach the people so you can find more customers, hosts and recruit leads every day. Providing custom, quality content that they can’t find anywhere else will ensure that, not only will your fans follow you, they will engage with you. We know in social media, content + engagement are the king and queen of the socialsphere.
Okay, so now I think it’s time we get to the point of this blog post. IMAGES! It’s important to pair your amazing content with quality images (and video – but let’s just talk about images today). This is because images are more attractive than text alone (like status posts), and have higher engagement. Even if you are posting a quote to your social media pages (everyone loves a good motivational/inspiring quote), you are going to want to make these into images. Images are also more easily shared among people.
Here are some tips to creating and taking better photos:
Use Apps like Canva and WordSwag. These two apps are my favorite – but there are definitely more out there. Canva offers amazing templates for your social media posts and also provides you with all the tools you need to create eye-catching graphics. Gone are the days of small businesses/direct sellers needing graphic designers to create your posts, banners, posters and so on (sorry graphic designers! We feel bad, we really do.)
These apps allow you to easily make graphics as well as choose from some of their pre-made ones!
Here’s a screenshot of some of the Canva images that we’ve made here at Step Into Success!
Use your smartphone. You don’t need a fancy camera in order to take good quality images. Our smartphones are so advanced now, that you can capture some pretty amazing shots. I mean, look at Ontario wedding photographer Elizabeth Kaye and her iPhone ONLY Instagram Account.
When taking photos, you want to be sure you are using natural light. It’s also best to pay attention to your surroundings and choose pretty backdrops. All white walls are always a great option for shooting as well.
Use apps and filters to edit your photos. Use apps and filters to enhance (not alter) your photos. You want the apps you use to help with things like contrast, exposure, temperature and so on. Don’t use crazy filters to completely change the look of the image. Keep it simple and let the content in your photo speak for itself!