Why Use Pictures, Images and Video

Why Use Pictures, Images and Video Have you heard? Visual marketing is hot! Businesses use pictures, images and video to promote themselves and their products and services. You can too! If you have been ignoring the power of visual content, maybe now is the time to start. Dont you  want to increase the number of people viewing, sharing and engaging with what you share or write?! In speaking with job seekers, business owners and companies, I hear things like, I dont know what to share,   we wouldnt benefit from using visuals or my business isnt visual. But what you will see if you look on social media, there are all types of companies (and people) creating and sharing visuals. Why Is This Happening? We are using mobile devices, we are overwhelmed by information and we are busy! Pictures instantly tell a story (and we see pictures faster than we can read text). Images also help people feel emotionally connected to the content! Web content containing visuals like images or videos perform better â€" on average, receiving up to 94% more views. (source) Using pictures, images and video is one more way to get people to know, like and trust you. And theyll remember your message better too! Types of Visual Content To Create and Use Pictures, images and video are three different types of visuals you can use either within blog posts or as status updates on social networks or within marketing campaigns and newsletters. Pictures Featuring you, fellow employees, key clients, events, volunteering, projects, successes. Images/Graphics Create memes, testimonials, quotes, infographics, process maps, guidelines, reading lists, wordclouds. Video Record How to videos, customer testimonials or day-in-the-life videos. You can try interviewing people on video. (Facebook Live, Zoom, Instagram Story or even LinkedIn) Read Use Video To Amplify Your Brand for more help. Best Tools To Use Creating visual content is easier than you think! Free Tools For A Better Online Presence lists 8 free tools you can use to create and share visuals. Sources for Photos Take your own photos or use  Pixabay, Morguefile,  Death To Stock,  Unsplash.    (Other sources of photos may require you provide attribution). This is one reason I like to use these four sources; no attribution is required. Photo Editing/Graphics/Micro-Content Whether you want to add text to a photo or create your own image from scratch, I recommend these tools. Canva Pablo  by Buffer Adobe Spark Infographics There are numerous free tools to help you create infographics.  Visme,  Venngage and even Microsoft PowerPoint can be used to create infographics as well. To learn more about creating  infographic resumes, I wrote this post and shared 4 infographic templates! Social Sharing Share your images on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook as a status update! LinkedIn says simply having a profile photo results in up to 21x more profile views and 9x more connection requests! Dont stop there. Transform your LinkedIn profile into a visually stunning portfolio! Read Make Your LinkedIn Profile Media Rich Imagine adding a video message as a status update on LinkedIn? You can. See some examples in this LinkedIn announcement. Or bundle them into a presentation on SlideShare for greater reach! Pinterest is also an easy way to get started. Use it as a visual scrapbook to house your career successes. Consider it your career portfolio. Follow Career Sherpas board Pinterest: Pin, Pin on Pinterest. Instagram, Tumblr, and SnapChat are also simple to use. [amp;amp;amp;lt;a href=https://storify.com/careersherpa/the-power-behind-visuals target=_blankamp;amp;amp;gt;View the story The Power Behind Visuals on Storifyamp;amp;amp;lt;/aamp;amp;amp;gt;]