I essentially have 3 master’s degrees – English [writing], art, and information technology, and while I use the skills from both my writing and art study daily, I can honestly say that when it comes to getting attention on social media, it is how I present my art and writing that grabs the most effective. Those presentation skills fall under the hood of information technology. I’ll try to make this as brief as possible. Here are a few facts that I have found from other sources:
“…80% of what people learn is through social media posts. …
We live in the age of the “camera in everyone’s pocket.”
With more than 2.5 billion camera phones in use, we are entering a new dynamic era around image creation and content.
Marketing firm MDG Advertising discovered that content that was paired with an image attracted 94% more views on average than content without visuals.
… a picture is still worth a thousand words, but today it’s also worth a thousand pins on Pinterest or hearts on Instagram. [I’ll add retweets on Twitter].
Today, people have a concentration span of fewer than nine seconds or even less than a goldfish.
As a result, images are more powerful than ever, especially on social media.
Hubspot also reported, after analyzing 8,000 different posts from B2C and B2B companies, that Facebook statuses with images had 53% more likes, and 104% more comments, than statuses that were text only.
I don’t want to statistic you to death, but I have researched this, and the use of social media is still on the rise. Facebook is at the top of the social media heap, but Twitter is expected to increase its influence, while Facebook is expected to taper off. Finally although Twitter is not used as much as Facebook now:
Twitter Is the Social Media Resource that Every Writer Should Employ, and Images Added to a Tweet DEFINITELY Yield More Responses.
Because I was essentially paid to get my MA in English [with an emphasis in writing], I earned that degree first. Later, as I sat before the graduate committee to earn my second master’s degree in visual art, a professor said to me, “You already have one master’s degree, why do you want another?”
My quick and simple reply was [and still is]: “Because A Picture’s Worth 1,000 Words.”
With that being said, let’s do an experiment.
How attracted are you to the words only of the following quote:
“Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.” – Laura DeStefano
Let’s improve our visibility by increasing the size of that text:
“Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.” – Laura DeStefano
We still need to add some punch. Let’s try to put those words in a fancy frame: [Also note how the size and the boldness of the text in the following is important.]
Well, the fancy frame really helps, but it doesn’t help enough.
Here is another experiment. How impressed are you with the following comment:
I Want You
I dare to say that the previous sentence is not very impressive to most people.
Let’s try it again. Let’s try it in bold:
I Want You
That is still unimpressive. Let’s try the words as a quote:
I Want You
Still not good enough. Let’s try bolding the words, putting them in a quote
I Want You
With every added action on the words, we make them more noticeable, and yet, they are still not enough to grab attention on the World Wide Web. Now, let’s try turning the words into images:
By merely placing the words inside a decorative frame and changing their colors and sizes, our three words are definitely beginning to stand out. Let’s try this one more time:
Yes!
Let’s try the experiment with something that is more important to me right this moment:
How do you feel about the following for a post on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram:
My Picture Book Will Finally Be Published!
Hmmm! That is no good!
Let’s try bolding the text, changing its color, and placing it against a contrasting shape;
Still Not Good Enough. Let’s try adding an image:
Voila! The Image is what grabs a viewer’s eye. Let’s give this presentation even more punch! Because there are several donkey Christmas books, I needed to add my book’s cover so that the viewer can be sure which book is mine.
No doubt about it: the graphic with an image and a little bit more polish is better than the same words with mere text. But there is still a problem. My text isn’t specific enough. Let’s change that!
The agony and ecstasy of Twitter is that a tweet allows a very limited number of words. I have discovered that the text on my tweet image is a way to add a few more words, while also highlighting the most important words of all. But I still need to work on this image for it to have realized its maximum potential. Try this:
If my image had been properly labeled, I didn’t need to say “will finally be published.” When I replaced those words with Random House Children’s Book and a Date, the viewer assumes that the book will finally be published. I placed one color behind the first words and another color behind the words “Random House Children’s Books.” Because the larger miracle is that Random House Children’s Books is publishing my book [my debut picture book], the final poster tells the story in the way that I want the viewer to see it. Penguin Random House is the best publishing house in the business of publishing;
https://x55.68c.myftpupload.com/how-big-is-penguin-random-house-the-1-publishing-house/
Nearly a year ago, my debut picture book was acquired by Frances Gilbert, the Executive Editor at Doubleday for Young Readers, which is an imprint of Penguin at Random House. At the time that she picked my needle-small manuscript out of the haystack, I had about 30 followers on Twitter, but because Frances really loved the story, she took a chance on me. I’ll always be thankful to her for that. But in the same breath, Frances advised me:
“You really need to do something to get some Twitter followers.”
I’ve worked on that, and 2 years later, I have drudged up some attention and now I have over 800 followers on Twitter, but I need more than that to back my upcoming book. I further share the miracle of that story in the following post:
You can Pre-Order The Donkey’s Song Now! Here’s the Link. [Click on the word “Link”]
Bottom Line:
I have Declared 2022 As My Year to Boost My Efforts on Social Media & Here are My Thoughts Going Into that Challenge:
Is a Social Media Campaign Time Consuming?
Yes!
Is Promoting Myself on Social Media Awkward?
Yes! Yes!
Is Promoting Myself on Social Media Essential to Success in Publishing?
Yes! Yes! and More Yes!
Do I Need to Boost My Social Media Anyway?
Undeniably Yes!
And Here’s the Reason Why:
Whoever controls the media—the images—controls the culture. – Alan Ginsberg
Considering that Alan Ginsberg was a poet and an author and not a photographer, visual artist, or marketing expert, his admission speaks volumes.
And like it or not, Social Media has a massive impact on the media in general.
That is an established fact. Google It!
Dr. Lynell Burmark said the following about the importance of images:
“Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.” Dr. Lynell Burmark, a Ph.D. Associate at the Thornburg Center for Professional Development and writer of several books and papers on visual literacy, said, “…unless our words, concepts, ideas are hooked onto an image, they will go in one ear, sail through the brain, and go out the other ear.”
I do believe that people want to read something important on social media posts, but I am convinced that without the use of some attention-getting graphics, many tweets, posts, and blurbs will never be noticed at all.
That’s why I am thrilled that Sydney Hanson is the person in charge of my “face” now. I credit Sydney for all of the images that she produced in illustrating our book, The Donkey’s Song. Link to Pre-Order the Book
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