A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words – and more!

Have you ever asked yourself “How do I get more people to read my content?” Of course you have. There may be things you can adjust or do differently to increase your readers’ interest and attention span to your website and your blog. But the reality of our busy, fast-paced, visual world is that people are just moving way too fast to see it. Something has to make people stop long enough to want to read your blog or to find out what you have to offer. You have to stop people in their tracks and gain their attention in 3 seconds or less. A thousand words can’t do that but one image often can.

Increase Sharing with Visual Content

I am often surprised to find excellent content that fails to give me a usable image to pin on Pinterest or share on Facebook. And “B2B” (business-to-business) companies are not off the hook. If an article has great information but does not give me a usable image or graphic, I will be hesitant to share that article on LinkedIn. These bloggers and companies are missing an opportunity and failing to reach so many more people with their content.

The HubSpot blog is one of my favorite online resources for inbound marketing content. The information is tremendous. But I also have to admit that I just love to share their content because the images they use are so fun and compelling. It’s silly but I am willing to admit I have shared their articles on more than one occasion based solely on the great image they put with it. Now, that is safe to do with HubSpot because it is always great, relevant content for my network. However, on a very busy day even though I’m greatly interested in their content and trusting its consistent value, I may miss it if they don’t stop me in my tracks. Hint: cute dogs always stop me!

Make it easy to Share your Visual Content

Unlike the HubSpot blog, there is another site I visit regularly that often leaves me frustrated.  They have great content and they often feature great images on the home page, but then they don’t use an image on an article. A few times I actually saved the feature image from their home page and then created a pin myself in order to share a really great article. And, there were many more times I just clicked away and didn’t jump through hoops to share an article, even though it was share worthy. Don’t make your readers jump through hoops to share your content. Make it easy for them with images that support your content.

• Use high quality images that are large enough to share at 400×400 pixels.
• If possible, use square or portrait-styled images to avoid your image being cropped awkwardly or reduced to fit when it is shared. This has been a problem in the past, particularly on Facebook.
• Give readers a Pinterest “Pin It” button. Pinterest share buttons provides readers a direct ability to hover over an image and just click the “Pin It” button. Using this widget on each image reminds and encourages people to share your great content on Pinterest! You can find this tool and similar options for your site inPinterest’s Tools for Business.

Boost Your Content: The Power of Quality Images | Find and Convert.