It is no secret to anyone who is active in social media, that in 2017, visual contents (pictures and videos) are outperforming plain texts in user response and reach.

This trend in social media platforms has been on a constant rise for some years now, and it does not appear slowing down.

If you want to go by hard statistics, then according to the study by Emilie Doolittle, by 2018, more than 84% of the content on the internet & social media will be visual materials.

In such a scenario, visual content creation is no more just a glamor quotient. It is the must-have vehicle for any small or big business to expand its online reach.

So, without going further into this analysis, we will right away start with the visual content tricks to increase your social media traffic.

#1. Images – The Most Powerful Tool for Increasing Social Media & Internet Reach

Images are currently the crux of any marketing and social media campaign.

Posts that include a well-designed image creates 650% higher engagement than regular text posts.

When you are planning for an image based marketing campaign, then you have more than a dozen internet and social media platforms to cover.

As of June 2017, there are around 15 active social media platforms drawing billions of people every month.

So, whenever you are planning for an image-based campaign, you cannot just design an image and post it to all the social media profiles. That will be a complete marketing failure.

Every social media platform has its requirements for image sizes.

So, an image suitable for Facebook posting may not be suitable for Pinterest, unless you modify the size of the picture accordingly.

This resizing can add hours to your work to get the perfect image.

You also need to take care that the campaigns have unique contents.

Hence, planning an image based campaign across all the social media platforms can get complicated, time-consuming and expensive.

However, with the help of DesignBold, you can easily create unique and high-quality images for various social media platforms at a much lesser price.

On top of that, you can create all the images in a short duration of time.

Log into DesignBold dashboard and click “Create New.” There are hundreds of ready to use design layouts.

In the social media section, you will find image models covering all the social media platforms. All these designs are of the exact size required by various social media platforms.

• Just choose a design layout (for example Facebook Ad Layout).
• Choose one of the background layouts.
• Add stock photos & icons from the DesignBold library & save the picture.

If you want to resize the same design for another social media platform, then you can do so using the Magic Resize option of DesignBold.

#2. Videos

Videos are incredible in capturing the attention of the social media users and making them notice your brand.

One study showed that including a video on a landing page increased conversions by 86%.

For example, to explain how easy it is to use DesignBold, we created a short explainer video of just 15 seconds, which got us a lot more traction than the standard text updates.

So, it is no surprise that businesses of every size are going all out in creating short promotional, explainer & customer testimonial videos in place of long texts.

A recent study by Moz shows that posts with videos receive nearly 300% more inbound links.

If you are yet to use videos in your social media marketing, then it is high time to start working on it.

#3. Infographics

Explaining the ideas in an easy to understand manner is the focal point of every marketing campaign.

We cannot expect the social media users always to have the patience to read through long lines of text to understand the idea behind your brand.

Designing info graphics is a time-consuming process if you go by traditional designing methods.

However, using DesignBold, creating info graphics gets easy and fun to do. You will find hundreds of high-quality info graphic layouts within DesignBold dashboard.

You can get a professional infographic like the one below in a matter of minutes

Here is the complete list of ready to use info-graphic layouts. Just click the link and start creating. (No need to log in)

#4. 360 Photos

360 photos are the latest trend in social media and particularly on Facebook. Since last year 360 Photos have gained significant popularity in social media.

It is relatively easy to create a 360 Photo. All you need to do is take a panoramic shot using your smartphone or your iPhone.

If you want to create a 360 Photo quickly for social media posting, then you can use the DesignBold layout of panoramic photos.

You just need to select a layout, add your texts & icons and download your 360 Photo in a matter of few minutes.

You can try the DesignBold Panoramic Layout section here.

If you want to have a look at how top brands like NASA are using 360 photos, then you can have a look here and get ideas to design your own.

#5. Presentations – for your brand

Gone are those days, when presentations were considered limited only to boardrooms or academic classrooms.

With the advent of online hosting services (like Slideshare), it has never been easier to host your presentations online and share with a wider base of customers on the social media.

A well made professional looking presentation adds a layer of extra trust to your brand. It has the capacity to convey your ideas to your target viewers and influencers.

Presentations are like the extensions of infographics. When there is the need to explain the ideas in more details – presentations are more effective.

It is not difficult to design professional presentations when you use DesignBold’s ready to use presentation layouts.

As we discussed previously, you just need to choose one of the ready-made presentation designs and start editing it to resonate with your brand.

Once you complete designing your presentation, you can either download it to your local device or share it on social media platforms.

There have been many proven cases where well-made presentations have gained a good deal of visibility for the brand.

For example, check out one of the highly viral presentations by Rand Fishkin on content marketing mistakes.

Such presentations have the potential to be marketing gems generating significant goodwill for your brand & services. Therefore, you should plan and create effective presentations.

Using DesignBold, you can start creating your professional social presentation in few steps.

If you are planning and hoping for a successful social media marketing campaign, then you must start focusing more on visual content.

We should not assume the text-based content is not useful anymore. Text based marketing is always going to remain as an integral part of any marketing campaign.

However, as the social media platforms get more & more crowded, there is a fierce competition to grab the attention of the consumers. Hence, you need to supplement the text-based contents with high quality & engaging visual contents.

Conclusion:

In 2017 and beyond, it is essential that you put serious efforts in creating original and engaging visual materials for the success your online properties.The visual content types that we discussed in this post can go a great length in enhancing the online reach of your business.

As we saw in this post, you can create all the 5 types of visual contents using DesignBold