• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Social Media Examiner | Social Media Marketing

Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

  • 🔥 Free Newsletter
  • ☀️ Web3 Conference
  • 🔎 Find Marketing Help
  • ⚙️ Tools
  • 🗓️ Events
  • 🎧 Shows
    • Social Media Marketing Podcast
    • Social Media Marketing Talk Show
    • Crypto Business Podcast
    • Our YouTube Channel
  • Content
    • Articles
      • Web3
      • How To
        • Instagram Marketing
        • Facebook Ads
        • Facebook Marketing
        • YouTube Marketing
        • YouTube Ads
        • LinkedIn Marketing
        • TikTok Marketing
        • Clubhouse
      • View Points
      • Expert Interviews
      • Tools
    • Video Tutorials
      • Instagram Marketing
      • Instagram Ads
      • Facebook Marketing
      • Facebook Ads
      • LinkedIn Ads
      • TikTok
      • Clubhouse
  • Sponsor
    • Podcast Sponsorship
    • Email Sponsorship
    • Event Sponsorship
  • About
    • Society
  • Search
  • Web3 Business ConferenceLearn how to put NFTs to work for your business.BIG SALE, SAVE NOW!

    How to Combine Text and Visual Content for Better Social Engagement

    by Keith Quesenberry / August 21, 2014

    social media how to

    Do you keep text and image updates separate?

    Have you considered how text and visual content complement each other?

    Pairing visual content with clever, descriptive text can create a true marketing force that leads to more interaction.

    In this article I’ll show you seven ways companies are using visual content to get better overall engagement.

    using text and visual content
    Find out how text and visual content engage your followers and fans.

    #1: Illustrate Your Tagline

    Most brands have text-based taglines, but how many are getting the most out of them? Every social media update you write is an opportunity to show, as well as tell, the meaning of your tagline.

    Red Bull’s tagline—Gives You Wings—is descriptive and gives you a pretty good idea of what they’re going for. But when the company uses photos to reinforce the written tagline, it becomes real and exciting.

    That excitement helps them maintain their market share lead.

    redbull instagram image
    Red Bull’s brand tagline wouldn’t be the same without visual content.

    Simply Measured analyzed Red Bull’s social media updates and found that photos accounted for only 5% of their posts, but delivered 90% of their engagement on Twitter and Facebook.

    #2: Change Your Infographics

    Infographics deliver up to 120-180% more engagement than text-only posts. The problem is that so many marketers are posting the same kinds of infographics (usually graph-heavy) that yours can easily be overlooked, especially if it’s a variation on the same theme.

    Intel launched an educational campaign using infographics to bring attention to and reduce online oversharing.

    intel twitter image
    Intel educates the public with relatable images and words to keep them safe.

    Notice how the Intel infographic uses photos from the consumer’s perspective? There’s not a graph to be seen. And the text overlays name information most people have considered sharing online (or have already shared).

    Rather than creating an infographic with cartoon icons, statistics or graphs, Intel used well-done pictures and concise text to communicate what consumers should and shouldn’t share online.

    Your Guide to the Future of Business

    Crypto Business Conference

    The Web3 renaissance opens up new opportunities for entrepreneurs, creators, and marketers who are ready to embrace the changes. But, who can you trust?

    Introducing the Crypto Business Conference; a premium event for anyone who wants to learn how to put Web3 to work for their business.

    Join us in sunny San Diego, California, for the first-ever crypto conference for business pioneers…not finance and tech nerds. You’ll get actionable, business-building ideas from proven innovators—without all the techie jargon.

    CLAIM YOUR SEAT

    Putting oversharing in the context of the reader’s point of view helps make the infographic personal and relatable.

    #3: Make Your Brand Personable

    One problem in social media is getting lost behind a logo and a corporate “big business” image. Even if you’re in a more serious industry like tax preparation, accounting, banking or insurance, you can always add a human perspective to your business.

    H&R Block is in a niche that tends to be more serious, and in most cases a serious niche can lead to boring content. But H&R Block decided not to be ‘most cases.’

    hr block facebook image
    A little humor creates big engagement.

    The tax preparation company uses their Facebook page to share a sense of humor with fun illustrations and jokes.

    With almost 380,000 fans on Facebook, H&R Block sees an average of over 500 engagements per post and nearly 30% of fans engaged. Not bad for a niche most people aren’t usually excited to talk about.

    #4: Show What You’re Selling

    Let’s be honest. At the end of the day, we marketers are using social media to sell something. Don’t underestimate the simple tactic of showing pictures and describing what you’re selling.

    Launch Social Projects Faster and Easier

    FindHelp Marketplace

    Looking for a content creator, campaign manager, or strategist for your social channels or a special project?

    Find the right expert for even the most complicated project or campaign in just a few clicks with our new FindHelp marketplace. You'll have more time to focus on other areas of your business without sacrificing your social presence. Browse highly qualified Facebook and Instagram experts today.

    FIND HELP TODAY

    A new outlet at the Riverwalk in New Orleans was the first of its kind, offering upscale local fashion and cuisine. The outlet decided to use Instagram to do a little show and tell.

    riverwalknola instagram image
    Combine pictures and descriptions for more interaction.

    The Riverwalk New Orleans‘ Instagram account teemed with images and descriptions of distinctive items and food, and drew quick response—they doubled their number of followers and quickly increased their online presence.

    #5: Tell the Bigger Story

    With so many virtual experiences available these days, some businesses face the challenge of even getting people in the door.

    Brooklyn Museum experienced that problem and rose to the occasion by amassing an impressive social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube and Instagram.

    The museum features photos and videos that bring its collections to life and each account is written to include captions that provide context. The result is thousands of likes and shares.

    brooklyn museum instagram image
    Pair photos and videos with text to get people excited.

    The combination of beautiful images, facts, background and additional information creates an enormous social response. The museum also uses geotagging to subtly encourage fans and followers to visit the museum in person.

    #6: Create Text Overlays

    It’s no secret that consumer connections drive business and sales success. Think about what gets your customers excited about your product and come up with short phrases that convey that feeling.

    Pair the phrases with an image that reinforces both your product and your customers’ sentiment for a winning engagement combination.

    Green Mountain Coffee connects with their audience this way. Their consumers relate to sayings such as “Coffee helps me become the morning person I am not.” Additional meaning and connection are added to the phrase when it’s placed over a blank page and pen on a desk (suggesting that not much work gets done before having coffee).

    green mountain coffee instagram image
    Fun photos with text overlay can get a big reaction.

    Their fans relate to needing a little help to get their day started, and after commenting on and liking the update, they want to share the sentiment with others.

    The response on most of Green Mountain Coffee’s insights and photos is hundreds and even a thousand likes and shares, and an impressive number of comments.

    #7: Ask for Fan Stories

    What’s not to love about user-generated content? It’s an easy way to encourage more audience participation while pointing the spotlight at those fans—and it highlights your products being used by happy customers.

    REI launched their 1440 campaign to document their fans’ love of the outdoors. The campaign aimed to post a picture of fans enjoying the outdoors for every minute of one day (1,440 minutes).

    They invited fans to share their own photos with descriptions that included the time of day they snapped the photo. For example, “06:37am—Joanna H. was in Mount Creighton. A photo from the #REI1440Project, celebrating every minute spent outside.”

    rei 1440 project videoos
    Consumers’ photos of their outdoor adventures becomes branded content for REI.

    The response to the project was enormous and the user-generated content created strong community, showcased brand evangelists and kept people coming back to see the progress of the campaign.

    Wrapping Up

    Text and image updates don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Used together they’re a force to be reckoned with and may be the difference between a passing look and true engagement.

    What do you think? How do you integrate text with your visual content? Have you had more success with imagery alone or a text and image combination? Leave your comments below.

    Curious about NFTs, DAOs, and Web3?

    Crypto

    Follow the Crypto Business podcast to find out how NFTs, social tokens, DAOs (and so much more) will affect your business in the near future.

    Every Friday, host Michael Stelzner interviews leading industry experts about what works right now in Web3 and what to expect in the future, so you can prepare your business for the shift, even if you're a total newbie.

    FOLLOW THE SHOW

    Tags: Social Media Visual Content

    About the authorKeith Quesenberry

    A professor and researcher at Johns Hopkins University, Keith Quesenberry has nearly 20 years experience as an award winning advertising copywriter and creative director for Fortune 500 and startup clients.
    Other posts by Keith Quesenberry Âť

    Get Social Media Examiner’s Future Articles in Your Inbox!

    Get our latest articles delivered to your email inbox and get the FREE Social Media Marketing Industry Report (39 pages, 50+ charts)!

    Industry Report Cover

    Worth Exploring:

    Facebook

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Instagram

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    YouTube

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Linkedin

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Facebook Ads

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Social Media Marketing Industry Report

    Get Free Report →

    Social Marketing Trends

    The data you've been missing!

    Need a new plan? Find out how thousands of marketers plan to change their social marketing activities in our 14th annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report. This 39-page report reveals what marketers have planned for their organic social activities, video marketing, social ads, and more. Get this free report now and never miss another great article from Social Media Examiner.

    Enter your email to get
    our free report:


    Footer

    Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle
    Copyright © 2022 Social Media ExaminerÂŽ
    All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy.

    Helpful Links

    • About us
    • Our content via email
    • Our podcasts
    • Our YouTube channel
    • Our live show
    • Our industry report
    • Sponsorship opportunities
    • Write for us…
    • RSS
    • Accessibility