Are you sharing eye-catching photographs on social media?
Do you want your efforts to generate more interaction and traffic?
You're missing out on a lot of engagement if you don't share photographs that resonate with your audience frequently.
This post will teach you how to create a social share image that will enhance engagement and bring traffic to your website.
What is a Social Share Image?
When you share a URL from your site, social sharing images may appear on social networks (such as Facebook) or in text messaging services. While adding social sharing photos is optional, it is a fantastic way to impact how social postings referring to your site look, even if the page you're sharing doesn't have images.
Social sharing photographs are classified into two types:
- Social sharing logo - This logo represents your entire website
- Alternative Social Sharing Image represents specific pages or collection objects such as blog posts, products, events, and portfolio sub-pages. Gallery photos and album tracks are not yet accessible.
Why Should You Use a Social Share Image to Increase Engagement?
People are drawn to visual content and act on small cues faster than any other medium–faster than text, audio, or video. The power of images is not limited to image-centric platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram. Across all social networks, visuals capture attention and drive participation. LinkedIn and Twitter are also getting in on the game by displaying photographs.
Visual material is being highlighted on all of the major social networks. Brands that can harness the power of original, optimized pictures are gaining traction. Don't be concerned if you don't have a graphic designer or other specialized expertise. This article will introduce you to the tools you'll need as well as the five fundamental traffic-driving, social share image characteristics you can use in your marketing strategy right away.
1. Provide Your Audience with What They Require
This image is taken from Strikingly user’s website
If you want to increase engagement and shareability, your images must immediately appeal to your target audience. Make visuals and infographics that address a problem or inspire your community to act. Images that provide succinct, immediately actionable information are extremely shared. Quick tips, how-to’s, quips, and interesting facts are all popular. Kim Garst, a social media expert, aligns audience expectations with valuable insights by publishing photographs with social media advice and tagging them with #biztip on a regular basis.
Her Facebook group spreads these problem-solving suggestions like wildfire, resulting in an extremely high organic engagement rate.
2. Be Consistent and Prompt
Facebook reach has recently received a lot of attention, and uploading photographs continue to increase organic reach and engagement. Do you want to increase the number of people who share your images? Then be on time! There are two ways to use timelines to make your photographs more shareable: consistency and quick action. Every brand's social media marketing strategy should include a consistent approach to picture sharing. Simply submit one image at the same time every day to get started.
For example, food blogger Bianca Slade of Wholefood Simply uploads stunning photographs on her Facebook page every day. She shows off her wheat-free, dairy-free, sugar-free masterpieces and asks, "Have you tried it?" The result has put foodies all around the world into a frenzy, with many eagerly sharing Bianca's masterpieces. They'll even skip the news feed and head right to her Facebook page to see what recipe she shares at the end of the day
3. Make Your Own Art
This image is taken from Strikingly user’s website
In a world where we are constantly bombarded with information, anything fresh stands out and grabs our attention—on any platform, at any time. Take advantage of this and become one of the 20% of people that create original material for the other 80% to share. When you generate original images, you own them. You can use them however and whenever you choose. You never have to worry about violating copyright, failing to read the fine print on a stock photo, or making the costly error of using a social share image from Google Images. It is not necessary to engage a graphic designer to develop unique visuals. There are numerous tools available to accomplish this.
4. Improve Size, Branding, and Source
When it comes to designing photographs, optimization is crucial. Consider the social share image size, branding, and source information to ensure that your image not only fits the platform(s) to which it is posted. But also has the best chance of being noticed and shared— therefore driving traffic back to your website. The ideal size for your photograph will be determined by how you intend to use it and where you intend to display it. When it comes to images for Facebook and Twitter, 1200 x 627 pixels is the optimal social share image size. Remember this when choosing a featured image for a blog post. If you're primarily posting to Instagram, square-ratio photographs perform best and can also work well on Facebook. When aiming for Pinterest, select a portrait-oriented image, as these are the most frequently shared. They also appear well in the news feeds of Facebook and Google+.
5. Use a Clear Call to Action
This image is taken from Strikingly user’s website
In every news stream on any social site, you're continually competing for the attention of your ideal audience with friends, family, hilarious photographs, tiny businesses, and huge brands. Your captivating social share image may pique their interest, but what happens next? If you don't know what you want fans to do when they view your image, neither will they. Your goal is to get likes, comments, or even better, clicks and shares (the golden tickets of social marketing). To get those, you'll need a clear call to action. Consider the following: Can the image stand on its own? Is there an obvious call to action? We are drawn to images as humans, and we naturally gravitate toward them in social news feeds. If we can't figure out what the image means right away, we can turn to the description or post for context or move on to the next intriguing thing.
Create Social Share Image for High-Conversion
One of the most critical aspects of your viral campaign is social sharing photos. A well-crafted social share image can enhance engagement and the number of clicks you receive from individuals sharing it with their friends. This fast guide will show you how to design photographs that are ideal for social sharing.
∙ Sharing on Facebook
When you post a link on Facebook, the image that goes with it can be displayed in various ways. This is determined by the image's size (pixel width and height) and its form (orientation). Facebook advises utilizing photographs with a minimum resolution of 1200 x 630 pixels for the optimal display on high-quality screens, with images up to 8MB in size permitted. To display link page posts with larger photos, you should use images with 600 x 315 pixels minimum resolution.
Images smaller than 600 x 315 pixels will be displayed in the link page post but at a much lower size. Keep your photographs as close to the 1.91:1 aspect ratio as possible to display the entire image without cropping. This implies that the width should be around 1.9 times the height. The image will not display full-width if it does not suit these dimensions or is not large enough. Instead, a thumbnail image scaled and cropped to fit a 158 by 158-pixel square will be presented in a small box to the left of the link text. Any image smaller than 200 × 200 pixels will not be displayed on Facebook.
∙ Sharing on Pinterest
There is no set Pinterest social share image size; only ensure at least 600 pixels wide. The most popular tend to be 735 pixels wide x any height. Images less than 100 x 200 (or 200 x 100) pixels in size will not work. Create a social share image with a vertical image aspect ratio ranging from 2:3 to 1:2.8. Taller, vertically-oriented images appear better on mobile displays, used by the vast majority of Pinterest users.
How to Add a Social Share Image Strikingly
This image is taken from Strikingly
1. Launch your site editor and navigate to Settings.
2. Navigate to Basic Info and search for "Social Share Image."
3. Make sure you're uploading a SQUARE image to avoid cutting off the image's sides.
4. PLEASE NOTE: Images smaller than 200px by 200px will not be allowed.
5. Click "Save" and then "Publish" to make the most current changes visible.
Some Final Thoughts
A best social share image is essential for developing compelling social media content. There isn't a single network that doesn't rely on captivating pictures to entice viewers to participate. Using a website social share image that resonates with your target audience is a simple approach to incorporate more visual material into your social marketing strategy. Try sharing a photo at the same time every day, with a solid call to action. Use the various options at your disposal to develop a template that supports your brand and makes it quick and easy to create new photos in bulk. With little effort and forethought, you'll have increased engagement and website traffic in no time.
