Using Photos With Your Posts 2/3

Images with impact have real power. The old adage “A picture is worth 1,000 words.” is very apt. Our reptilian brain interprets images almost instantly with emotions and instinct, while our grey matter takes time to read letters and form them into thoughts that convey information. An image can convey complex ideas – explaining concepts or positioning written material. Posts with images also get a lot more attention and engagement than text-only posts and social shares. The key is to include images with meaning related to the post that are high-quality and legal to use. And, optimized by the tools available on your blog platform. In this second of three blogs, we’ll focus on the creative aspect of finding images. 

Strategic and Creative Featured Images

Besides capturing attention, adding an image is an opportunity to express something meaningful about your post, to set a tone or drum up emotion. It can even be an extension of your brand. As the featured image, it’s the first seen on the blog itself and automatically displays in the preview when you share the link in many places. 

How do you choose the right photo? Consider what concept you want to get across in the image most: is it the pain of your topic, the result of your solution, or is it to represent the most compelling concept in the article? Imagine it’s about planning for a home renovation; you could find an image showing a family in an old, falling-apart house for a slightly humourous nod to the pain of the topic. Or one with a couple sitting with an architect or interior designer looking at plans and colour samples, to speak to the intended advice in the article’s advice. Push past the simple and obvious choices and look for deeper meaning and emotion. A general image of home construction could represent many things. But your post is specifically about planning before you start.

Searching Royalty-Free Stock Sites

In the first of this series, I explained that images from Google image searches are not yours to use freely and are often poor quality anyway. I recommend starting with royalty-free stock photo sites. There are both free and paid options available, and I do start with free myself. The goal here is not to be cheap but to find the right image.

Try different search terms and see what you get. Let details in images you like inspire additional or refined searches. If you click an image to see it larger, below there are often more from the series (maybe a better composition), more from the artist or similar images from other people. Make use of the lightboxes or favourites facilities to collect all that resonate without commitment. Review the collection, narrow it down and choose the winner from there.

While I encourage you to push past the obvious for something more creative, don’t go too abstract either. If the connection to the accompanying post is not immediately evident, it can be confusing and lose readers.

BONUS TIP
Stick with horizontal / landscape images because they work best in most contexts.

Set Creative Guidelines

Images used in blogs can and should be an extension of your brand. If you want to be viewed as fun to work with, like Downsizing Diva, you may choose light-hearted photos or even illustrations. If your brand is built around a professional service that requires a high level of professionalism and trust, you may always want images with office settings and buttoned-down people in business attire. You can go further and require the images must always be vibrant or have a plant or use natural light, etc. Write these brand guidelines down somewhere to use next time, and refine them as needed. This practice can make future image searches easier while creating a consistent feeling on your website and social media properties. 

BONUS TIP
Consider diversity of people in image searches – reflect your audience. You actually have to add the word to the search field. 

Images Have Power

I heard a story once from a marketing guru about spotting a stick on the ground on a hike: his reptilian brain saw it as a snake, a threat, and hijacked his body to jump to safety before his grey matter could logic out that it was just a stick. Images in a blog post, and subsequently a social share, can be that compelling. Using great images can stop people in their tracks and is more likely to get clicks. Without them, scrollers may not even read the title. If someone goes directly to your post, a great image can immediately set the tone for the article and send them in primed to get what you want them to out of it. Irrelevant, boring and poor-quality images can do the opposite.

In my post Blogs Are Not Ads, an image of an old-fashioned car salesman immediately evokes the ick of high-pressure sales I’m saying not to bring into blog posts. It says a lot and is kinda funny so not repellant. I hope.