People are sensuous beings, and by that I’m not trying to be saucy. I mean that we use our senses, and our senses guide us to the things we like and don’t like. The reason we avoid rotten eggs & gone-off milk? They smell bad! The same goes for pictures, if your food photography looks appealing then people are more likely to be drawn to it, and vice versa.
Humans are instinctively drawn to images more than audio or text because we can process their meaning quicker. That makes images powerful. If you’re a food business trying to advertise, you can’t project the smell or the taste to the consumer, visual stimuli is the only thing you can tap into, so you’ve got to make your photos work doubly hard for you.
Images generate currency on social media, which in itself is a fantastic marketing tool. Statistics show the power of images when added to social media posts..
- Posts with photos on Facebook get 150% more likes (overall) than those without
- And tweets with images get a whopping 313% more engagement than those without!
- 93% of the most engaging posts on Facebook contain images
- Instagram (image-based social media channel) achieves 10 times more engagement than Facebook
- Pinterest (another image-based social media channel) is now the second largest social referrer of website traffic
The general consensus is that people like pictures, and that people spend a lot of time on social media. Combine these conclusions, and it’s obvious: your food business needs to be on social media, and you need to be including images in your content.
Top tips for using food photography on social media
- If you’re talking about food, show it. Whilst the words ‘chocolate brownie’ do make me salivate, it’s much better if I can actually see one and visualise it, then I really want one.
- Use visual food photography on all channels. Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat are social networks designed to be more image-based. Visual content is really popular on other channels too, such as Facebook and Twitter.
- Don’t use irrelevant images. Don’t throw in a random stock image of an empty saucepan or of two models eating a picnic. People are basing their judgement on your food and/or business on the images you share with them. Make them genuine and make them high quality.
- Use text. Text and images don’t have to be discrete, you can use both or either. Overlay quotes, prices or descriptions on the image, then you won’t have to use any unnecessary words on the side, useful for the 140-character limit on Twitter! Infographics are a great example of this, image based items with text, but made to feel like you’re not reading, that’s clever.
Now that you’re fully convinced about the power pictures, and the power they give you on social media, get in touch and we’ll help you to get started.
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