A Picture is Worth More Engagement!

[massageblog]

According to recent data from Hubspot 2012, photos on Facebook generate 53% more likes than the average posts.* This matches all the data we have seen with our clients’ pages we manage.* In fact, posts that have images for our clients average a 75% higher engagement on photos than with other posts.* Are you using photos with your posts?* If not, why not?
Facebook reports Facebook users are uploading approximately 300 million photos a day.* This is up approximately 20% from earlier this year.* What does this mean for your massage practice?*** This means if you want your posts to have more engagement you need to use more photos.
Why is engagement so important?* Because Facebook monitors EVERY ACTIVITY everyone does on Facebook.* Here is why this is so important.* When your fans are liking, sharing and commenting on your posts; Facebook recognizes that what you are posting has a perceived higher value because it has more engagement.* Therefore the higher amount of engagement on your posts, the higher the posts will appear in the news-feeds of users on Facebook.
When fans show higher engagement consistently, Facebook will make sure your posts are higher on all your FANS news-feeds.* This is especially important so that when you want to promote a service or product in your posts.* Those fans are more likely to see it if you have higher engagement because your posts will be higher in the news-feeds!
How do you keep engagement high on your pages?* By offering informational content or problem solving content and be sure to add in some personal posts (including photos). **You have heard me say this before, use the 80-20 rule (80% informational and 20% promotional when posting on your pages).* This will keep your engagement level high on your pages by sharing informational content that is valuable to your customers and not just promoting your products and services in your posts.
What kind of images should you be using?** Images can be photos you take with your smartphone, quotes, stats, info-graphics, or anything you think will grab the attention of your ideal target audience on Facebook.* The exception here is to ensure your photos are professional.* Lately it seems several Massage Therapists have been posting very inappropriate or provocative photos to drive up shock value.* This really works against you.* I am a HUGE proponent of freedom of speech and I’m not trying to hinder your creative genius.* Use common sense about the images you are sharing.* Your marketing strategy for 2013 should include that 90% of your posts contains images!
If you are going to use someones photos you need to use royalty free photos or purchase them from photo websites.* You cannot use photos you Google on the internet without getting the permission of the person.* If you use photos from a particular source like a quote with a photo, you should include the source of the image.
You can also use special programs like Photoshop and my new favorite is http://www.picmonkey.com* to create special features, texts, etc… on photos and images.* Images can also be just text in bright colors, fonts and sizes.* You just have to create and save them as JPEG or PNG file formats to be uploaded as an image.
Like the great example below from Daybreak Geriatric Massage Institute, they are sharing a royalty free photo and created it into a JPEG with text of a business tip!
Another great tip for bloggers:* take a screen shot of your blog, crop it, and use that as your image with your blog post link.* Super great idea rather than using the tiny image the blog link will post with it. **Below on the left is an example of an image from the Alliance For Massage Therapy Education Facebook page, here they promoted a link to one of their members’ blog posts promoting the AFMTE.* What I like about that is they included a screen shot of the blog post.* *On the right you see how most blog post links show up in the news-feed.* The tiny photos are not as visually engaging.
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What size images work the best for getting great engagement?* Your primo posting sizes for images are 404 x 404 pixels.* Those sizes seem to get the best engagement for daily posts on the Facebook pages.* Of course if you want to highlight and promote specialty milestones, highlights, and events, I recommend using the timeline size ***851 x 315 pixels.
One last item to remember about images, always, always, always include url* or live links and a call to action with every photo.* A call to action doesn’t have to mean, buy me! It can mean a directive you want your fans to do.* For instance:* “click like if you agreeâ€, or “Click like and comment yes if you can relateâ€â€¦ this second Call To Action gets double bonus points because you are asking your fans to like and comment on a post.* This ALWAYS gets you more engagement points with Facebook!*** You can also ask your fans to Share with others.* If fans aren’t engaged then Facebook will decide your page is not interesting and put your posts low on the news-feed.

• When fans are asked to like a post, there is a 3X higher like rate than when not asked to like.
• When fans are specifically asked to comment on a post, there is a 3.3X higher comment rate than when they are not asked to comment.
• When Fans are asked to share a post, the share rate is 7X higher than those posts not asking fans to share.

Therefore including this with your posts should help to increase your engagement on your page.* (Providing your content has perceived high value content with your fans.)* *Lesson from this information:* If you want engagement, you gotta ask for it!
There are a lot more tips and rules around using images for driving up engagement I will share more in other posts. Hopefully this gave you some ideas on how you can implement more photos in your posts and logical reasons why you should be using more images to increase your engagement.* Until next time, happy posting!
If you have questions about photos, sizes, what programs to use, where to get royalty free images, etc.. list them below and please like and share this blog post with your fans and friends.* and be sure to like, share and comment with us on SRB Solutions page! * =-)
All my best,
Stephanie Beck, SRB Solutions.net