How to Create Images that Get Shared | Travel Research Online

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How to Create Images that Get Shared

What have YOU shared lately on your social feeds?

What have your fans shared lately?

Inspiring your fans and their friends to share your photos and graphics is key to reaching a broader audience. Once your fans share, their friends share, and their friends’ friends share your post, and you have the snowball effect happening.

Finding the secret snowball starter involves picking styles and colors that are most shareable on your top social sites. This is essential to growing your fan base and amplifying your message.

Let’s uncover 3 secrets to shareable graphics.

#1 — Colors

Do you find yourself drawn to certain colors in graphics or photos? If so, you’re not alone. Uncovering the mysteries of what gets shared has been boiled down to a few easy tips.

Let’s test this out. Based solely on color (don’t worry about the text or the photos) which would you be most likely to share?

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Did you choose the blue image?

If so, it’s not surprising as the majority of men AND women prefer the color blue and are more likely to share photos and graphics with blue as the focal point. This is really valuable in the world of travel. Consider the color of the ocean, the sky and many cruise ships. Success!

Tip: When creating your own graphics, consider images that feature blue, or place blue text or overlays on top of images to inspire people to share your content.

Blue is where the similarities between men and women ends!

The next most popular color for women is purple. Coincidentally, purple is also one of the 3 top colors of pins shared on Pinterest. Maybe that’s not such a coincidence, as 80% of Pinterest users are women. Let’s dive a bit deeper into why this is so important…most travel decisions are made by women.

Tip: When creating your own graphics for Pinterest, consider images that feature red, pink or purple.

#2 –Simplicity

Since 56.5% of Facebook users are exclusively mobile users, creating graphics that stand out in a busy social feed is key to getting noticed and having your post images shared.

Let’s test this out…which graphic below are you more likely to share?

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I’ll bet you choose the image on the right, right? This image pulls together the colors we talked about above as well as keeping things easy to read.

#3 — Size Matters

Ok, now in some cases size doesn’t matter, but in the case of social marketing it can mean the difference between a share and a scroll over.

Let’s test this out…which are you most likely to read and/or share?

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The image on the left above features a photo that’s only a thumbnail size. Does it grab your attention? How about the image in the middle? Would you take the time to read all that text on your mobile?

Now let’s consider the image on the right? The graphic takes up the entire area available for link images, and the font is big enough to read. What about the colors? Well, they may not be as traditionally shareable as blue or purple, yet they fit the company’s brand image.

This leads us to the other factor in graphics…does it suit your brand image? Will the graphic jump out and remind fans of you and your company? More fixes for your graphics.

Finally, what tools can we use to create these outstanding, shareable images? Here are a number of free and paid, easy and more advanced tools popular in our industry. 

While these 3 factors are important to creating images, the bottom line is still the fact that we want to stand out in a noisy social marketing arena. Accessing the ever changing set of tools in our social marketing tool box is key to cutting thru the chaos and reaching new and existing fans.

What are your favorite tips and tools to earn more social shares?


catherineheegCatherine Heeg, international speaker and trainer, focuses on social media marketing & communication for the travel and tourism industry. Join the conversation and connect with her at www.cmsspeaking.com and socially.

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