How To Create Images for Social Media That Engage and Attract Traffic

Create Images for Social Media

Last updated - December 20, 2023

If you want to increase traffic to your website, social media platforms offer great opportunities. In fact, recent statistics show that more than 90% of users connect with businesses through social media platforms.

But the world of social media is highly competitive, especially for startups and eCommerce stores. With millions of businesses on platforms like Instagram and Facebook, the question is how to stand out from your competitors and attract more attention.

Well, investing in images is a brilliant tactic. In this blog post, we will explain what types of images are best for promoting your brand on social media.

By the end of this 5-minute read, you will know how to create such images without any special design knowledge. Without further ado, let us dive into it.

5 Types of Engaging Social Media Images

Although your target audience can engage with any type of visual, there are some types of images that generally perform better.

So if you want to attract more visitors to your website and engage with your followers, you can start by creating a variety of image types:

1. Stock and Personal Photos

This is the most common type of image. Stock and personal photos are often underrated. However, such photos help your audience better understand your products or services.

For example, if you own a travel agency, you should post stock and personal travel images frequently on your business social media accounts.

2. Product Photos

Product photos are crucial for any type of business that sells products. Don’t forget that users will only visit your website if they find your products/services useful. So make sure you provide various images that showcase your products.

Such photos also give your social media followers a behind-the-scenes look. Natural product photos taken in your workspace will help your customers trust you and thus increase your conversion rates.

3. Infographics

Infographics need no introduction. People just love them. If you want your audience to engage with your posts on social media, there’s nothing better than infographics.

All you need to do is use an eye-catching image and important information about your products and services. Remember that infographics are more effective than text reports.

Create Images for Social Media

So, if your niche allows you to do some research, you should definitely create infographics and educate your social media followers.

4. Memes and Quotes

Even though product photos, stock photos, and infographics are essential to your social media accounts, they are not (in most cases) funny graphics. For this reason, you should also use memes and quotes.

These types of images will help you interact with your audience in a more personal way and draw more visitors to your accounts.

5. Educational Images with Text

Adding text to your images is a great solution if you want to educate your visitors. This way you can educate a user about the value of your products or services.

There is nothing better than telling your customers what they can expect from your business. And educational images are a smart approach if you want to improve user engagement.

But how can you create such images? Let us find out.

How to Create Social Media Images that Attract Traffic

Fortunately, you no longer need a team of professionals to create engaging images for your social media accounts. Of course, a top-notch designer can help you create stunning graphics.

However, there are many tools and software that can help you create great images without any design skills. Let us say you want to create a series of Instagram posts or stories that showcase your brand’s story.

In this case, all you need is a responsive Instagram template and a beginner friendly online platform like Canva. Such online programmes are very easy to learn and have great drag-and-drop builders that allow you to create designs in seconds.

From this point on, the process is pretty simple:

  1. You open the graphic design platform of your choice and insert your template
  2. Then, you add the graphic elements you want (personal and stock images, text, graphics, etc). Platforms like Canva have extended collections of photos, fonts and graphics for you to use. 
  3. You export your designs and share them on your business social media accounts.

It’s becoming clear that creating images, infographics or quotes is now easier than ever. So if you want to attract more visitors to your website through engaging images, now is the time to do it.

Let us take a look at some tips you can use when you start sharing visual content on social media.

5 Valuable Tips on Sharing Images on Social Media

If you want to increase user engagement on your social media accounts and drive traffic to your website, you should:

1. Keep a Balance

Offering a variety of content is critical to the success of your accounts. For example, your content should have a balanced mix of the following content types: 70% educational posts (infographics, educational images), 20% lifestyle posts (memes, quotes) and 10% promotional posts (stock and personal images, product images, ads)

2. Be Consistent  

Consider using tools and platforms like Buffer, that allow you to schedule your social media posts. Such tools will also help you save time by automatically sharing your posts at the time/day you choose. Try to post at the same time every day.

Consistency is very important if you want to increase engagement and build a deep relationship with your audience.

3. Include Branding Elements

Whether you own a startup or a successful eCommerce company, you should have unique branding elements. Apart from your logo, you might have your brand colors, fonts and so on.

If you already have that, that’s good news. Just make sure you incorporate these elements into your visual content on social media. This will help you increase your brand authority and differentiate your content.

4. Be Creative

As mentioned earlier, social media platforms are very competitive. For this reason, you should be creative. Try to create original images that will make you stand out from the crowd. Remember that users appreciate brands that approach them with eye-catching, unique visual content.

5. Use Calls to Action

There should be calls to action in most of your images. Try to ask your customers to take action. If your goal is to get them to visit your site, give them a reason to do so.

For example, if you post a picture of a product on your social media accounts, point them to a current offer for that product. When you ask your target audience to take action, you increase engagement and attract visitors to your website.

Wrap Up

Of course, the list of tips can go on forever. However, we believe these are the basics you should follow to attract attention and visitors with your social media posts. Visual content is generally much more effective when it comes to interacting with your audience.

Try using free graphic design tools like Canva to create unique images for your business accounts. Then share the content you create, keeping a balance between the types of images mentioned above.

By doing so, you’ll be one step closer to increasing your conversion rates and brand popularity.

Further reading