Bringing your content to life with images

28 April 2016

Madeleine Sugden

Agenda

• Introduction

• Why images matter

• Barriers to producing or sourcing images

• Examples – web / social media

• Solving the problem

• Questions

Why images?

• Skim reading – we look for headings, links, images or words that show that something is worth reading.

• Need to appeal to short attention spans.

• Apply writing for the web to ensure that words are presented in the best way to aid skim reading.

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• Images give additional information that the words cannot.

• Images can provide a hook, especially on social media where competition is greater.

• Different types of images are needed across an org’s digital comms – web, social, email, blogs, fundraising copy.

Images for web content

Images for navigation

Images for blogs

Images on social media

Twitter 2016Twitter 2014

What’s your style?

• What’s your ‘tone of voice’ for images?

• Do you have a different style on your

website / social media / sub-brands?

• Disposable nature of social means you can

be less formal

What is right for your brand?

Barriers to producing images

• What are the barriers to producing or using

images in your organisation?

• What have you done to overcome these

problems?

• How important are images in your comms?

Introduce yourself to the person next to you and

talk for 5 minutes about your experience.

Common barriers to producing images

• No time to work on this

• We don’t have any budget

• We don’t have any kit to take pictures

• Sensitivities around our subject / beneficiaries

• We have images but they are poor quality

• We have images but they are on someone

else’s PC

• Images are just not a priority

Hard to illustrate causes / subjects – web

content

• Does the design of your content pages

include a space for images?

• Images can bring a page to life – they are

shorthand for understanding what the page is

about and reinforce key messages.

• So many charity content pages have no

images.

Difficult to illustrate causes

Difficult to illustrate causes

Difficult to illustrate causes

• Anonymised people

• Close ups

• Images of a quote

• Graphics

• Cartoons / illustrations

• Photos of objects

• Avoid literal images if they reinforce stereotypes

or are triggers (see Time to Change’s Get the

Picture campaign)

• Avoid anodyne stock images

Social media - photos

• Social media is where there is the greatest opportunity

to use images.

• Pictures quickly bring a story to life.

• A cute / beautiful / funny picture can reward followers.

• Images can educate / shock / entertain.

• Easy to quickly take a picture and share it – share the

detail of your work.

• New accessibility features in Twitter and Facebook.

• What does your social media policy say about images?

Social media - photos

Social media – photos

• Be creative

• Show what you do – location / equipment

• Think about your assets

• Use photos to be open, authentic and engaging with your

audience.

• Work out what works.

Data - social media

Graphics – social media

Graphics

• Infographics

• Maps

• Photos of numbers

• Creative ways to show data such as pie charts made

out of food.

• Thank you cards / letters / drawings.

• Photos of text.

Think about accessibility

Reference your sources and include a link

Make Lunch

• Use social media to promote their work

– especially during the school holidays when their kitchens

are open

What makes a good picture?

A good picture

• Is clear and easy to understand.

• Tells a story or shows something happening.

• Is uncluttered and in focus.

• Isn’t dark or gloomy.

• Can be cropped in closely.

• Can be moving / shocking / funny.

• Can be creative.

Sourcing images

• Taken or produced by the team.

• Taken by beneficiaries.

• Taken by supporters.

• Image libraries.

• Produce guidelines and model release forms.

• Create pictures for particular purposes and channels.

• Use photo editing software.

• Use a photo database to manage your pictures.

Top tips

• Identify what content you want to bring to life.

• Source images and think about what is right for your org /

channel.

• Be creative

• Use images in the right way – check sizes and dpi.

• Include images in your

housestyle / content strategy

/ social media strategy.

Useful links

Image sources:

• 7 places to find free photos – White Fuse Media

• Wikimedia Commons

• Photo Foundation

Research

• 37 visual content marketing statistics – some useful studies

More on this workshop:

• How to illustrate difficult causes and subjects

• Creative ways to illustrate data and graphics on social media

• Simple graphics can bring your data to life – Charity Commspost about Make Lunch

Thank you

Any questions?

@madlinsudn

madlinsudn@gmail.com

madlinblog.wordpress.com

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