Hi my name is Jayne Corso and I am the Community Manager for AEA. It’s always better to use an image when it comes to posting articles or resources on social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. An image makes your post stand out. With so much content floating around in social media feeds, you need something to differentiate your information and make people take notice.
Hot Tip: Make them pay attention
Most people use social media in short spurts, checking their accounts throughout the day. With the overwhelming amount of content available, people often skim through content. Long winded, text heavy post will often be ignored because there is no time to read the message. An image that supports the post and a short url to more information is more likely to get attention.
Hot Tip: Make your point
An image can do wonders for showing your call to action. If you are hosting a webinar, use an image that reads “register today”. If you have an important deadline, scribble the date on a post-it-note image. These efforts are small, but they bring attention to your post and sums up your message.
Hot Tip: Make it pop
Images can make your content more interesting. Reporting about trends taking place this spring? Use a fun image of spring flowers. It doesn’t have to tell your whole story, but the image will make your story pop off the page.
Rad Resources: Make your own image
Canva- use this site to create your own images and info graphics. Most images are free and they can be downloaded as an image or pdf. https://www.canva.com/
Befuny.com- use this site to manipulate the photos your already have. You can add text, change colors, or include a cool frame. https://www.befunky.com/create/
Screen shots and paint – I use screen shots to show a website or capture a still image from a video. Use paint to crop or resize the image from the screen shot.
Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org . aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.
Good Evening Jayne,
My name is Monika Wheeless and I am a 2 semester student at Texas A&M University-Central Texas
I enjoyed your information it was very easy to follow and had some very good points such as keeping it simple I have seen some ads that had so much junk in them I just passed them right by. Thank you for posting sites that would be useful in preparing a post and making it “pop”. Again thank you for taking time to share this info with us.
Jayne,
I really enjoyed your post about social media and catching people’s attention. I am very guilty of spending entirely too much time on social media and a lot of posts that catch my attention are those that have some type of image or design that looks appealing. I feel with today’s society, most things do not get attention unless they stand out. I do read many articles on social media and elsewhere for the sake of expanding my own knowledge anyway, but I do see where the importance is for making the post stand out. Thanks!
Darcy