3 Elements of a Visual Content Strategy, and 7 Secrets of Visual Narratives

Trying to sell on social media? You absolutely need a visual content strategy.

One more time: Visual. Content. Strategy.

Text only is not going to cut it. Still images only is probably not going to cut it anymore, either, though there is still a huge demand for high quality imagery, including illustrations, infographics, and photographs. Short, high quality value packed videos are in really high demand. (And short supply).

As a brand (EVEN as an individual, direct sales personal brand) your social media strategy has got to be more than “Use more images.” The application of visuals in your social media efforts has to be strategic and carefully planned. Write your story first, and then seek the visuals that will meet those story goals.

Your content strategy HAS TO:

• Align imagery with marketing goals
• Be creative, original, authentic and high quality
• Be optimized for each social media channel in format, content and size while maintaining cohesiveness
• Include a variety of image formats (photographs, video, infographics, illustrations)

3 elements of a visual content strategy are authenticity, consistency and storytelling.

Authenticity

Visuals, such as photographs, used on social media need to be authentic, not staged. They should try to evoke emotion, be editorial in style, and reflect lifestyle. Avoid stock images like the plague. And, they need to tell a story.

Content consumers crave authenticity. Lead with passion. This is why millenials are so successful with social media, because they are leading with personal passion. And they are authentic. The types of visual content they create is authentic and personal. They take selfies, they share experiences, they shoot video of places they go and things they do. This subgroup of consumers, usually in the 18-35 age range, crave authenticity because they want their life experiences to be real and valid. They want brands and the products they use to be authentic; they shun fake and they don’t trust spin. They want honesty and will flat out reject you if they can sense any false pretenses in you, your brand or your product. Authentic engagement is truly very important to millenials on social media, and there are A LOT of millenials on social media! Interaction and engagement has to come from a real live person.

My AVON pins!

Consistency

Visual storytelling has to communicate consistently. Visual content has to cut through the noise on social media, and to do so successfully and sustainably, you need to make sure your visual content strategy has a consistent look and feel. People need to be able to recognize you, your brand and your story.

This can be accomplished through a variety of tools, such as visual styleguides and templates. Styleguides lead you with a consistent image look, what color schemes to use, what fonts you should stick to, and how you portray your brand image. Batching can be done whenever you create content, and kills two birds with one stone: 1. Batching makes sure your visuals are all customized for the social media channel they are being shared through, and 2. Batching makes sure that you are following your visual styleguide and keeping the look and feel recognizable and consistent. Developing a visual content library where reusable content and visual elements are stored can make it much easier for you. Photos, videos, infographics, fonts, textures, logos, and anything else you use regularly in your visual imagery can be stored and easily pulled for use at any time.

Infographic using styleguide

Storytelling

Perhaps it should be storyshowing, not storytelling. Narrative writers know that you “show, don’t tell” a story. Painting a proverbial picture is a lot easier with images then with words, but you still need to craft your story carefully.

Single images can tell a story, but a series of images can craft a sustained story that makes people want to return to you for more. Think about cliffhangers… Video is incredibly effective at telling stories, but again that storytelling needs to be thoughtfully crafted.

Series of photographs applying makeup with different brushes.

7 Secrets of Visual Narratives:

Storylines
Storytelling clearly requires a beginning, middle and end. Advance to the plot outline of exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and denouement, and you’ve added a rich layer to your visual storytelling. Deliver the story in chunks, spread out over a determined period of time, linked with a common element. Keeping the story real, authentic and personal supercharges the content and really makes it connectable to your customers.

5Ws and 1 H
Who are you? What do you do? Where are your products made? How do you use your products? These are questions that you ask yourself, and then answer using visuals and image-rich media. Especially productive images result from questions that your target market asks. Solicit questions from your customers (that will get them engaged, too!) and then answer those questions creatively using visuals. This next level Q&A will create interest when delivered through visual storytelling methods.

Verbs and Action
Brainstorm a list of actions – verbs – that you want to see your customers doing with your products. I sell makeup, so I would make a list that includes putting on lipstick, painting nails, using lotion. Then work on your visuals to translate those verbs. Take photographs of someone applying nail polish, with your product front and center. Make the customer the main character in the story. Make your visuals something that customers can visualize themselves actively doing. Model those actions using your visuals; give customers that visual goal and allow them the opportunity to see themselves using your products.

Dialogue that Engages
Use visuals that create interaction, solicit comments, encourage action, play games, or ask people to do something. Anything that creates interaction can be engaging. For added depth, personalize that engagement. For example, to encourage customers to interact, create a visual of a fashion look from the 1980s. Then add a layer of text that asks, “Tell us what you wore in the 80s!” Even better, crowdsource your images by soliciting people to create and share their own images to a prompt. Engaging images get people interacting, and that subsequently leads to conversion. Building and maintaining communities will help sustain that engagement.

Sensory Imagery
Sensory imagery is the use of visuals that invoke the senses of taste, smell, sight, sound and touch. For every visual goal you are working to meet, create a list of descriptive words – adjectives – that can be creatively translated into imagery. The sensory images should help reach the customer in more ways than one: looking at a visual, yes. But also smelling or tasting the food in the photograph, or feeling the smoothness of the body lotion. Perhaps hearing a sound in a video pulls up a memory. The senses can be tapped into to generate powerful emotions, and emotional responses can lead to conversion.

Figurative Meaning
When telling a story, the use of figurative language draws you in, and makes the story richer and more intriguing. Using figurative language within visual storytelling can enhance the story and make for a more memorable message. Examples of figurative meaning within visual storytelling include: hyperbole (exaggeration, sometimes intended to create comedic value), personification (giving an object the characteristics of a person), metonymy (focusing on one small part in order to convey a whole), anaphora (repetition of something for emphasis, often creating interest by changing one small thing in each iteration)

Themes
Thematically linked visuals can be extraordinarily effective. Connect a series of storytelling images with a similar color scheme, with a consistent object or person being portrayed, or showcase the lifecycle of a particular product. Themes in storytelling are tied to human challenges. Thematic imagery can represent adventure, overcoming obstacles, celebrating, travel, life events, exploring something new, finding security or safety, or making connections with others.




Above all else, remember that storytelling is an art. There is no methodology or calculating formula you can follow. The creation of imagery requires skill, but it also needs a dash of creativity. Art comes from within, from our heart and souls, and visual storytelling masterpieces within the social media frame are no different.

What are your next steps? Write a story. Write your personal story, your brand story, your product story. Start brainstorming ideas on how to visually tell your story. Then create a list of photographs to take, infographics to make, and videos to shoot. Create those visuals, schedule them into your social media editorial calendar, and visually share your stories!

Tuesday Tip! Flat Lay Photos for Instagram

Each time you create a piece of content and push it out to social media that content needs to "fit" the social media channel it is on. You cannot just replicate content and use the same imagery for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

One type of imagery that works extremely well on Instagram is called the flat lay. Flat lay photography is the idea of placing objects flat on a surface (like a table or the floor), and then taking a photograph of your objects from above, as a bird's eye view.

For an attractive, quality flat lay:

focus object - Choose a focal object that you want to showcase. This could be a product if you are doing the flat lay to help promote a product or a blog post about a product.

complimentary objects - Choose other objects to compliment and place with the focus object. Many bloggers and photographers use similar products, accessories, flowers, cute objects, tchotchkes or trinkets.

simple background - Let the objects be the focus by avoiding busy backgrounds. Keep the background simple, bright and allow the objects to pop. A white background is ideal, but if you want to mix it up, keep the background texture simple and the colors light. (I like to use light colored, simply designed scrapbook paper.)

good lighting - Anytime you take photographs, lighting is key. Your ideal light is natural (filtered and not too bright) sunlight. Using lighting fixtures can get you the light you need, too. Play around with lighting to try to get your arrangement well lit without shadows. Avoid using the flash on your camera or your phone.

thoughtful arrangement - The composition may be the most challenging part of flat lay photography. Setting up the arrangement can be time consuming and nerve wracking. Take photos every time you change the position, because you may end up liking a composition and can't recreate it again. To get things to stick in place, use poster putty. Take advantage of the principles of good composition: position, orientation, balance and harmony. A thoughtful arrangement should look appealing and artistic to you. If it seems too cluttered, boring or unbalanced, it probably is. Rearrange!

common theme - Build thematic arrangements. Pick a color scheme (such as all blue, or blue and yellow), choose similar shapes (all round shapes, for example), or use all the same object type (like all lipsticks). For pop, make your focus object "off theme" but complimentary in another way. For example, have the focus object be black and all of your complimentary objects white.

Inspiration! Google Image Search for Flat Lay Photographs

Seeking: Blog Writers, Lifestyle Photographers, Product Testers, Influencers

Business has changed. Social media has been accelerating at breakneck speed, and it is literally everywhere now. Businesses have been using content marketing through social media networks, and over the past few years, social has risen to become THE primary marketing tool for companies that sell consumer products over the internet. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and others, are all tools to promote and communicate socially. And this format of marketing is not going anywhere.

This is a HUGE opportunity. Many companies have a very specific marketing plan for television, print and radio. However, companies are struggling to move into the social space because it is such a different way to market.

Companies that sell through direct representatives have an opportunity to really excel in the social media space. Why? Because social media is about two things: individuals and relationships. Social works best when it is individual people connecting through relationships within the social media space. This is ideal for direct sales because the individual representatives can really showcase themselves and the companies products in conjunction.

The true opportunity comes because more content is needed. Content creation is still an enormous opportunity, and the more content that can be created around a product or a company, the more that company will excel within the social media space.

What does social media content look like? It looks personal, it looks unique and it looks valuable. It is authentic. And it looks different for every single platform, which is part of why more of it is needed. Facebook content looks different from Tweets, which look different from Instagram, which is definitely different from video social like Vine and YouTube. The mood is also something to consider. Is the content funny, inspirational, informative, promotional, educational? New, fresh, authentic, valuable content is very needed.

Content forms can include:

• blogs

• photography (all types, but flat lay photos, especially in Instagram, are on trend in social)

• tweets and retweets

• Pinterest images and infographics

• product reviews

• videos (short, highly engaging videos are really starting to define social media this year)

• interactive, such as quizzes, games, tools, and apps (a true need: there are nearly none for beauty, but people are clamoring for them!)

Would you like to blog?

Do you want to write informative blog posts about people, products and your love of beauty? Like to share everything that's going on? new products, news, promotions, and sales? As a blog writer, the name of the game is share, and often. Blogs should have editorial schedules: write about new products on Sundays, write about the upcoming week's promotions on Fridays, and so on.

Blogs should be an engaging blend of text and images. The content should be useful to the reader... people should be able to get something valuable from the blog post. If you like the idea of researching expert information, writing quality, fresh content, consistently, then start writing blogs!

Qualifications:

• Grammar and writing skills
• Able to create original and engaging blog content
• Passionate about sharing your love of beauty

Want to learn more about being the best blogger?

Are you creative with a camera?

When you are out, are you the type of person to pull out your smartphone and start shooting pictures? Do you love taking selfies, or photos of your makeup hauls? As a photographer, you really have a lot of fun, creative things you can do and then share on social media channels like Instagram.

Photographs about beauty come in a variety of formats: lifestyle photographs of people, well lit professional style photographs, even flat lay product photographs. (Which are really hot on Instagram right now, by the way). If you love the idea of using your smartphone, digital camera or even high end SLR camera to take gorgeous photographs, then start shooting!


Qualifications:

• Creative photography skills
• Enjoy shooting photographs of people 
• Able to setup a creative scene

Looking for some great lifestyle photography tips?

Do you love trying new beauty products?

Do you pick up the newest lipstick, eyeshadow palette or beauty gadget (BeautyBlender anyone?) just to see how it works? Would you love to try new fragrances or fit new clothing styles? As a product tester, you try out new products for quality, look, feel, and other consumer focused characteristics.

Product testers are usually the first to buy something that has just been released to market. Often, the new products are part of a product review - sometimes done using video and shared out to YouTube.

Qualifications:

• Connected with beauty news, new products and trends
• Like reading or watching new product reviews
• Love to try out new products when they are released

Check out some pretty intense tips for top product review writing.

Are you an influencer?

Image makers are at the top of their industry. They are the people that influence what others do, and they are very much trendsetters. Becoming an influencer takes expertise and patience in order to build a loyal and trusting following.

Influencers have the ability to create action, and are often the go to resource in their industry. To be a beauty influencer, you have to focus on developing ultra high quality content, network and build a strong presence over time. It can be done!

Top tips for becoming a social media influencer.

Qualifications:

• Want to be a leader in beauty
• Reliable image maker and able to share expert news with many people
• Connect with people... daily

If this business lifestyle sounds great to you, you can do it. Right now. Build your very own business online, write blogs, take photos, test new products and influence others through social! You have the power to create this rockstar social media presence, and you can do it in conjunction with a wonderful company that offers amazing beauty products.

Market A Lifestyle Through Realistic Photography

Do you sell a product? Do you market the product? Content should not be focusing on product, it should be focusing on how customers USE the product. Content should solve problems. Customers should be able to see themselves in their life, using the product without thinking about it.

Lifestyle Marketing

In content marketing, visual images are crucial. In the crowded, noisy social media space, there is so much information and so many images that messages easily get lost. Highly engaging visuals can be the one tool to capture attention and increase engagement. Lifestyle marketing is about visualizing life being better through the use of a product. A long, relaxing drive through the mountains is a much better experience in a sporty convertible than in a clunky pickup truck, don’t you agree? The products we choose to purchase are often directly connected to how we see our lives improving as a direct result. Even things like toilet paper.

Visual Content: Keeping It Real

To better help customers visualize that improved lifestyle, engage them with visually stimulating content, showing the benefits of using a product, or the result of using a product. A few caveats, though: Caveat 1, This strategy doesn’t seem to work on Pinterest, as Pinterest users want to curate products and ideas and not photographs of people, and Caveat 2, Photographs need to be authentic, not staged. This authenticity holds especially true for millenials, who are not easily persuaded by flashy, glossy, “fake” photos. The rise in popularity of channels like Instagram and Snapchat are due to the authenticity of real people sharing real images of real experiences. Keeping it real is actually important!

Homes. Consider how realtors sell homes. The old school approach is to showcase the exterior and interior home in “staged” photographs. (They even call it staging.) Then the listing has a bunch of statistics, like facts about the neighborhood, schools, etc. There is a shift to real estate marketing that uses photographs of people within the home setting, enjoying their life. The listing now includes a narrative about what life is like in that area, and the focus is on storytelling, or trying to persuade the home buyer based on visualizing what their lifestyle will be once they move in.

Food. Food brands used to showcase their food product with highly stylized, close up photographs of the product or the food after it has been painstakingly styled (and no longer actually edible). Now, food brands are using photographs of people eating, enjoying their meals and their lives. Social media is awash with people taking photos of their food while out dining, or even (yuck!) the empty plate after they have finished. Note hashtag #foodporn.

Beauty. In the world of beauty, there has been a huge backlash against photoshopped models. Consumers want real. They want to see what that beautiful model really looks like. The idea of an ideal is fading, especially for the critical millenial market. Realistic body images are all the rage, and even traditional toys like Barbie are jumping on the bandwagon and recently launched their line of Fashionistas who resemble *gasp* REAL PEOPLE, with 4 body types, 7 skin tones, 22 eye colors, and 24 hairstyles! #TheDollEvolves I am excited that we are moving toward acceptance of diversity! That means WE are evolving. It is clear that the idea of unrealistic body images is no longer valued, and beauty magazines, models and beauty products are working to transition to more realistic marketing by cutting out the Photoshop, airbrush and retouch techniques they’ve used in the past.

A Photographic Paradigm Shift

Lifestyle content marketing is the idea of moving from product to people. It is about making human connections, and storytelling through visual and textual narratives. That shift requires a change in the visuals being used to tell product stories.

This shift takes moving from perfectly staged photography to a more photojournalistic style of photography. It’s the artistic perspective of capturing real life, photographing life as it happens, sharing moments. The millenials (again, with the millenials) have already keyed in to this. They organically, naturally want realistic photos of their life. This photojournalistic narrative makes connections with people culturally. I feel there is a revival in personal photojournalism, fueled by the rise in social media, where individuals narrate their own lifestyles and share that with the world online. Digital photography, smart phones and other technologies are impacting this as well. There is even a movement called “iphoneography”, though I personally still prefer my chunky digital SLR any day.

If you are a content marketer, selling a product and you have recognized that you need to develop your lifestyle content to engage more customers: get creative. Pull out your camera, or your smartphone and start creating content. Take photographs everywhere, of everything, of people, of communities, of lifestyles. (Make sure you ask people for permission to take their photo, and their contact information in case you want to use that photo for promotional purposes.) Take photographs of products, too. No worries if you don’t use them in your content marketing strategy. They are there for you to use, if needed. Be creative in your photography. Try to get the best lighting, but don’t worry about staging or perfection. Strive for realistic depictions of life. Try to use common photographic principles to go for the pretty factor: rule of thirds, composition, backgrounds, viewpoint, depth, framing, cropping, etc.  Be creative about your narrative. Use the visuals to tell a story, but be sure to back it up with a textual narrative.

I am starting to feel like a cheerleader. 

Be Creative, Be Be Creative! C-R-E-A-T-I-V-E

"Washington Redskins Cheerleader" by Keith Allison

People want to make human connections. That connection begins with visual imagery that engages, and that relationship continues through interaction. We adore cheerleaders because they have enthusiasm, positivity and giant smiles. They encourage us to participate and build our own enthusiasm. And, I cringe to say this, they are visually appealing. The truth is, though, human nature is to seek pretty, to seek interaction, and to seek good feelings. It is these driving motivators that encourages marketers and advertisers to leverage attractive, realistic, narrative based content.

Start to use realistic photography in content marketing. Consumers can better connect with engaging, visually appealing, realistic lifestyle photos.