Seeing is Believing
Does this image tell a story?
What Success Really Looks Like
Hits home, doesn’t it?
The real value to the explosion of social media is the insight into what about social media grabs us: images. It’s why Facebook keeps evolving its Newsfeed to maximize image placement. It’s why George Takei has so many followers on Facebook. It’s why meme’s spread so fast. It’s why Instagram and YouTube are two of the most popular social media platforms for both business and nonprofits.
Since we first drew on cave walls, we have been visual beings. The visual sense dominates.
Data shows that we actually “think” in images, which means your donors are making emotional decisions based on images more than words. That makes the use of images a “bottom line” topic for all of us.
The good folks at resourcemedia released Seeing is Believing: A Guide to Visual Storytelling Best Practices this week that we encourage you to pay attention to. Their best practices include:
- Don’t assume others will react to a picture or video the same way you do.
- Pair your pictures with words for highest impact and to seed them in your audience’s memory.
- Make sure your images match your message.
- Use genuine, not generic pictures.
- First impressions matter. Use your best image first.
- Be diligent about taking pictures.
- People relate to people in pictures. Choose your subjects carefully.
Using the right images boosts open rates, click-throughs, donations, registrations.
This guide is a great place to start to improve your overall communication performance. You won’t get it right every time, but with practice, you’ll swim a lot more than you sink. And now for a shamelessly cute ending image …
Sink or Swim
