The Visual Content Playbook

8/17/2019 The Visual Content Playbook

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THE

VISUAL

CONTENTPLAYBOOKFOR SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING


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page 2

WELCOME

If you’ve ever seen snackable memes, bite-sized

data visualizations, or inspirational quotes, then

you’ve seen micro content. Often in the form of

a quick video, a chart, or single powerful image,

micro content is short-form visual content that is

designed to ght information overload.

In this guide, featuring interviews with innovative

social media marketers at LinkedIn, Whole Foods,

and Buer, we’ll show you how to build your own

micro content strategy from the ground up.

Read on to learn how this powerful storytelling

medium can help your brand stand out,

engage audiences, and tell powerful stories.

H O W D O W E

K N O W A L L

T H I S S T U F F ?

We’re Visually, and we help

more than 1100 brands and

agencies produce high-

impact visual content.

From micro content to

videos and interactive

websites, we’re dedicated to

making it faster, easier, and

more aordable to work

with world class creatives.

But great content with the

wrong strategy won’t get

you anywhere. That’s why

it’s our business to know

(and share) the best ways

to run eective campaigns.


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“It’s the little details that

are vital. Little things make

big things happen.”John Wooden

American basketball player and coach

PART 1


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page 4Why Micro Content Matters

COMPETITION

FOR AUDIENCES IS VERY, VERY REAL

The currency of the internet is no longer just

clicks—as a recent report from Econsultancy

points out—it’s brand awareness, engagement,

and conversion. Digital audiences are hungry

for the next big learning opportunity or source of

entertainment, and your brand has a six-second

window of attention span to pique their interests

and get them sharing.

Recognizing this opportunity, every company on

the planet has developed a presence on social.

From Facebook to Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, or

Pinterest, more and more social media managers

are vying for the same eyeballs.

As Copyblogger points out, anyone can pick up

a smartphone and start tweeting. But the biggest

challenge you’re facing is also your biggest

opportunity. When it comes to digital content,

everyone—brands, publishers, and individuals—is

on an equal playing eld, which means doing a

little more can really set you apart.

BRANDGENERATED CONTENT

ENGAGEMENT RATES ARE AT

AN ALLTIME LOW

B R I N G T H E N O I S E

Source: An analysis of 8,800 brands and 13.8 millionpieces of content, across 7 marketing channels and7.2 billion combined interactions from TrackMaven.

>10 visits

Across 2013 and 2014, the

output of content per brand

increased by 78%, but content

engagement decreased by 60%

43% of professionally

produced blog posts generate

fewer than 10 interactions

-60%


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page 5

THE BOTTOM LINE:

YOU NEED MICRO CONTENT

Micro content is one of the most powerful,

untapped opportunities in social. Unlike heavy-

hitting visual content campaigns, snackable

videos and gripping images can integrate

into your everyday social management to

communicate a cohesive, coherent brand story.

It gets you noticed, gets shared, and doesn’t

have to be dicult to produce.

Good micro content is a complete thought,

inspirational message, and end-to-end

experience. It’s something that the human brain

can process in a few seconds while also leaving

a lasting impression. It’s a subtle way to reinforce

your brand’s value proposition and identity.

Micro content is also practical. It’s ecient to

create, economical to produce, and heavy-

hitting in terms of the ROI and engagement

levels that it’s able to drive.

As we dive into the how, what, and why of

micro content, let’s take a quick peek at

some micro content that really works. Let’s

get started by looking at some awesome

examples from big brands.

W H A T E X A C T L Y I SM I C R O C O N T E N T ?

Whether in the form of a six-second video

or a single powerful image, micro content

is short-form content optimized for social

media and designed to combat

information overload.

It typically employs multiple media

(writing, static images, video, or audio)

to communicate more eciently than

text-based messaging.

Why Micro Content Matters


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page 6

THINK WITH GOOGLE

SHOWS OFF SHAREABLE DATA

Think with Google has a ton of great data. Its social team communicates insights more eectively

by creating a steady pipeline of engaging Twitter content that turns in-depth research studies into

snackable, easily digestible micro-stories for its followers (and their followers, too).

Awesome Examples


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page 7

LINKEDIN MAKES CONNECTIONS

OUTSIDE THE WORKPLACE

LinkedIn uses micro content on its Facebook page to commemorate events and share

inspirational messages that are meaningful to its audience. It breaks from the site’s frenzy of

networking, job hunting, and social marketing to highlight a more human look at working life.

Awesome Examples


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page 8

ART.COM

INSPIRES AND ENGAGES AUDIENCES

Art.com creates snackable videos on its Facebook Page to make art more relatable to

consumers who love DIY and home decor projects. In this case, videos are the perfect medium

for sharing detailed information, priming customers for the next big purchase, and getting likes.

Awesome Examples


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page 9Why Micro Content Matters

HERE’S YOUR

PERMISSION SLIP

To outsmart the digital noise you’re facing, you’ll

need to make every moment with your audience

count. As Gopi Kallayil, chief brand marketing

evangelist at Google, points out in an article for

the Stanford Graduate School of Business’s blog:

brand marketing is becoming “permission based”

in the sense that consumers are in control of the

marketing materials they choose to see they see.

Think of micro content as your permission slip.

Gaining permission is why you’ll see companies

like GE launching data visualization hubs,

Dove creating socially conscious viral videos,

and Williams Sonoma creating shoppable

infographic lookbooks.

These one-of-a-kind brand experiences,

while powerful, are also resource intensive.

As heavy-hitters, they’re important for

reinforcing top-of-funnel awareness and brandengagement, but they’re also challenging to

replicate on a consistent basis.

You need a scalable way to stand out every day.

We’ll show you how!

P E R M I S

S I O N

G R A N T E

D

A l i s o n


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page 10Spotlight

BUFFER’S BUFF

CONTENT MARKETING

Buer is an awesome app for driving trac and increasing

engagement on social media. We talked to their Content Crafter,

Courtney Seiter, to get some insight about how she uses micro

content within Buer’s much-imitated content marketing program:

“We keep our content at

Buer visually driven by

making visuals a constantfocus. We’ve found that the

types of posts that have the

most impact for the writer and

reader tend to be broad, well-

researched and data-focused

pieces, with lots of in-depth

examples and hands-on

tips–including visuals andscreenshots to explain any

tools and workows.

Often a photo, graphic, or

video can tell the story in

a much more succinct and

impactful way than words can.

The biggest driver for all our

content at Buer is to be as

helpful as possible. Visuals

are such a huge part of

that–people prefer to learn

in all kinds of dierent ways,

and we want everyone who

comes to our blogs to be

able to dig in deeply and nd

a lot of value. That means

we focus a lot on multiple

entry points for each piece,

which we create through

formatting and a variety of

informational visuals. If you’ve

only got a few seconds tospend on a piece, you can

still make those moments

count by absorbing a great,

information-dense visual.”


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page 11

WHERE DO YOU STAND?

70% top 5

86%58%

(Source: HubSp

of marketers reported planning toincrease the use of original

visual assets in 2015

In 2014, the use of video contentincreased from 8% to 58%,

while the use of infographics increased from 9% to 52%.

Visual contentwas rated among the

most eective B2Bmarketing tactics

of buyers expressed desireto access interactive visual

content on demand


There’s an arms race in b2b visual content (for good reason).

“We look to build relationships throughout the entire customer journey. It’s a process

that looks dierent dependent on the part of the organization you look at. For our

social team, it’s about building relationships with our customers one at a time.”

Natanya Anderson Global Director of CRM, social media, and customer service at Whole Foods


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page 12

BECAUSE OUR MINDS ARE

WIRED VISUALLY

Visual content generated

more views of the text

on most

pages does

not get read

faster than text

There were We retain more video on

Facebook News

Feeds in 2014

than 2013

Tweets with

images get

of what we see,

20% of what we

read, and 10% of

we they hear

94%

80%

80%

as often

as text

Visual

content is

40x

3.6x

150%

60,000x

(Sources: Buffer, HubSpot

Visuals are processed


more retweets

18% more clicks,

and 89% more

favorites


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PART 2

“Everyone is trying toaccomplish something big,

not realizing that life is made

up of the little things.”

Frank A. Clark American football player


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page 14Put Micro Content to Work

HOW MICRO

CONTENT WORKS

Micro content should tell two simultaneous

stories. The rst is what’s contained to the

visual: an inspirational message, metric, or

compelling trend. The second is what your

audiences may not see consciously—a tie

into your underlying brand promise.

As an example, this Think with Google micro

content makes an interesting data point

memorable through bold color choices,

simple icons, and easy-to-digest fonts. It

also humanizes Google’s reams of data, an

asymmetrical egg in the frying pan showing

there’s a real world behind all of it.


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USING PHOTOGRAPHY

FOR MICRO CONTENT

Good micro content should always tell a story.

A vivid, poignant photo can be micro content

all by itself, but sometimes it needs a little more

context to jump out at people and say more than

just “stock photo.”

Whole Foods’ use of videography and

photography are a great examples of real

world imagery used well. Each visual on the

company’s Facebook and Twitter feeds present

a self-contained story about the food giant’s

delicious products. By mapping to several larger,

overarching themes—like health and wellness

(denitely not pictured here!)—delicious food

starts to translate to a full, healthy life, even when

chili dogs are involved.

“It’s content that’s collectible, inspirational, and reective of our

brand. It has to be more than just a product shot. It has to be about

how that product is useful or inspirational. It’s about using dierent

multimedia to help our customers feel nourished.”

Natanya Anderson Global Director of CRM, social media, and customer service at Whole Foods

Sour cream, cayenne


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MAKING YOUR

CONTENT VISUAL

The challenge is that most companies don’t

have high quality photography on hand—or

even visually driven products, for that matter.

If you’re part of a B2B company, for instance,

it probably doesn’t make sense to share

pictures of food, beautiful landscapes,

or art. Stock photos won’t cut it, either.

But your company doesn’t need to be

visually driven to have a visual identity.

There are many dierent techniques for

creating aesthetically pleasing, memorable,

and impactful experiences. Afterall, the

whole world of memes is based on taking

somewhat common imagery and adding a

little something extra to make it resonate.

Here’s an example from Whole Foods of

how a little text and design can make a less

exciting image (and topic, for that matter)a lot more interesting.

Source: Salesforce, “2015State of Marketing Report”

of marketers cite micro content

as an eective or very eective

channel in their strategies

89%


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HOW TO FIND

IDEAS FOR CONTENT

When it comes to micro content, the idea generation process can be

harder than it seems. You’re not creating one, heavy-hitting microsite,

ebook, or infographic: you’re creating a steady stream of content as a

layer upon the content that you’re already releasing.

“As far as trends go, it’s

interesting to watch social

visual styles come and go.

From quotes on images, tostriking scenery, to the never-

ending success of ‘put a dog

on it and it will do well,’ it’s

always changing. There are

some unwritten rules of what’s

deemed appropriate for social

visuals and it’s important for

marketers to stay personallyinvolved in social so they’re

privy to these guidelines.”

Page Williams

Social Media Marketing

Manager at LinkedIn

1000


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page 18

IDEAS FOR YOUR

CONTENT PIPELINE

You need to do more than come up with a few ideas—you need to build

a pipeline. Here are some ideas to make the process simple:

If you have a library of content assets on-hand, start there. If you have

some design concepts handy—even better. Start with your existing

visual assets to nd concepts to repurpose:

Infographics - Designed to go viral, infographics help you capture the

essence of your story on one simple, shareable canvas. Take a look at

the types of concepts that have performed well in the past. Highlight

themes worth repurposing into snackable content. You can even chop

up your infographics to make feed-friendly micro content (or design

infographics with modularity in mind).

Video - Video is one of the top ways to create an emotional impact

online. Take a look at your past marketing data to see which of your

videos have performed well in the past. These assets could be

inspiring sources for micro-videos.

eBooks - eBooks empower companies to educate and engage with

audiences. Re-read your longer guides to nd shorter, snackable micro

content. Once again, remember you can design eBooks with reuse as

microcontent in mind. You’ll denitely see artwork from this guide in our

social media feeds!

Presentations - Presentations are somewhat similar to micro content in

that they communicate big ideas in snackable, digestible ways. Pull out

individual slides for social reuse.

Put Micro Content to Work


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page 19

You can use microcontent to

build momentum to a larger

event like a marketing push or

product launch. Position your

business objective as a central

theme, and create micro

content assets to tell a story

around the value proposition

that you’re looking to push.

Creating micro content is a lot

more scalable (and easier to

secure resources for) when it’s

part of your initial project brief

and designers can plan their

designs around it.

Micro content is less costly and

quicker to create than larger

pieces of content. You should

feel comfortable running tests

to see what types of content

audiences are responding to.

In the weeks leading up to AprilFool’s day in 2014, for instance,

Visually worked with its creative

marketplace to create a series

of visual jokes. This initiative

was part of a larger series of

campaigns in which Visually

consistently tests new ideas

and themes to see what will

resonate with audiences.

TOPTIP

Chop up your e-books and infographics into

smaller, snackable pieces of content that

you can easily tweet and share.



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page 20

T R E N D I N GT O P I C S :

G E N E R A LI N T E R E S T

L E V E L S :

● BuzzFeed

● UpWorthy

● Google News

● Buzz Sumo

● Google Trends

● Google Keyword Planner

● Quora

● Reddit

● Twitter hashtags

● Pinterest hashtags

● Instagram hashtags

Your micro content will make the strongest impact when it

strikes a chord. There are several resources that can help you

identify trending topics that may be relevant to your audience.

Here are a few places to nd topics that have a big audience:


“We rely heavily on SEO keyword research to help inform the

visual content that we’re able to create. We’ve found time andagain that it’s an indicator of the channels and content that

our audiences are interested in.”

Natanya Anderson Global Director of CRM, social

media, and customer service at Whole Foods


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page 21

To get closer to your existing audience,look to your own social media followers

by examining the comments that they’re

leaving, the content they’re sharing, and

questions they’re asking.

If you have a search bar on your website

or blog, see what people are searching

for. Once you know what people are

hungry for, you can create micro content

that speaks to these interests spot-on.


“A good example is that at Thanksgiving, we found

that the two things people care about is how to brine

a turkey and how to cook a turkey. Neither of these

things are long-form content: it’s all snackable while

addressing a specic need. It’s collectible, evergreen,and performs beautifully . It makes complexity simple.”

Natanya Anderson Global Director of CRM, social

media, and customer service at Whole Foods

?


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page 22

Brainstorming is hard to do alone. Instead of keeping your micro

content strategy to one person or team, consider bringing in multiple

groups. By working with others, you’ll drive eciency in your

brainstorming process by casting your net wide.

Creative partners can help you brainstorm new ways to present your

brand and achieve your business goals. They might also be able to

help support your distribution strategy.

“Collaboration

is just, really, a

group of people

getting in a room

with their eye

on a very similar

prize and wanting

to come out with

the same show.”

Harold Prince

American theatrical producer

These internal teams are

helping us dene visual

strategy, tones, styles, and

direction. It’s with these guide

rails that other teams are able

to go forth and bring their

vision to life. They are laying

a strategic foundation from

which a house can be built

-- it’s just as important as a

marketing strategy.”

Page Williams Social Media

Marketing Manager at LinkedIn



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page 23

Your micro content strategy needs more than amazing visuals to take

o. You need to pay close attention to the context in which you’re

using this content. Know the social channels you’re going to leverage

and how you’re going to build a campaign around the volume of

content that you’re releasing. And those hashtags you researched

when you were identifying topics will probably come in handy when

you’re making your posts.


“Recently, we launched a content campaign

called Foods for Thought on Twitter.

We wanted to give our customers the

opportunity to showcase their own visually

stunning content alongside ours, to reinforce

who we are as a brand. We used a hashtag

to centralize this messaging. We celebratedtheir own visuals by encouraging user-

generated content and made them a part of

our own brand.”

Natanya Anderson

Global Director of CRM, social media, and

customer service at Whole Foods


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page 24

5 SUBTLE TIPS FOR

AWESOME MICRO

CONTENT


1. Know your platform

Millward Brown’s recent AdReaction study

found that more than 40 percent of 16–45

year old multiscreen consumers in the U.S.

use devices simultaneously. You can hone

in on this audience by crafting stackable

content that meshes well with other

platforms and encourages sharing.

Every micro content asset is part of a

larger story. Make sure to synchronize your

campaigns around a larger story or business

initiative. By identifying all your needs

ahead of time, you’ll also make it easier for

designers to create derivative content in the

process of creating your big rocks.

5. Integrate experiencesbetween screens

4. Think in terms of largercampaigns and series

3. Use action verbsEnergize your audience with language that

generates a burst of inspiration in an easy

to consume, bite-sized form.

Don’t let your images fall at with lackluster

writing. Create copy that adds context

through a series of compelling headlines

and short sentences.

2. Prioritize copywriting

Take some time to understand your

audience on each social media platform

where you’re present. See what resonates

with your audience, and focus on

concentrating your eorts on what your

fans, followers, and subscribers will consider

compelling. Also make sure to know your

image size requirements.


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PART 2

“When you look at people who are

successful, you will nd that they aren’t

the people who are motivated but haveconsistency in their motivation.”

Arsene Wenger

French football manager and former player


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page 26

GET YOUR DUCKS IN ORDER

Behind every successful social media,

content, or creative program is an even better

process. One of the biggest challenges and

time sinks that social media teams face is

the amount of back and forth that goes into

‘perfecting’ an asset and making sure that

campaigns are on brand.

With micro content, you won’t have the time

to manage a lengthy approval queue. Instead,

you’ll need to take the time to determine your

processes and workows upfront, to ensure

that you’re able to create a steady stream of

visuals that your audience will absolutely love.

Build Micro Content Into Your Daily Routine


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page 27Build Micro Content Into Your Daily Routine

CHECKLIST TO GET STARTED

1. Plan your overall campaign

• Outline your topline goals & KPIs

• Identify the target market

• Develop a messaging framework

• Identify launch dates

2. Figure out a content plan

• Determine what assets you’ll need

• Create an inventory of what you

have on hand and any potential gaps

• Figure out what you need in terms

of tone, style, and voice

• Create a content calendar to time

the release of your assets

• Identify potential stakeholders

(and get high-level buy in)

• Commit to a high level

visual strategy

3. Figure out what types of talent you need

• Determine what you’d like to outsource

and what you’d like to keep in house

(copywriting vs. design, for instance).

• Build your team accordingly, and make

sure that you have the right people

staed to every aspect of your project.

• Get your freelancers and creative team

on board

4. Kick o your campaign

• Translate your strategy and plan into a

brief that spells out goals, messaging,

deliverables, and timelines

• Schedule a kicko meeting

• Present your plan to the team, and make

sure that everyone is aligned

• Agree on everyone’s role and the

timeline for delivery, review and approval

After this initial planning process, you’ll work with your creative partners to bring your

ideas to life. Here are some additional tips to help guide you:


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TOP TIPS

BE FLEXIBLE

WITH YOUR

TACTICS

You should enter your campaign with a

hypothesis about what content will work

well on which social channel, but know

upfront that it can be hard to predict what will

resonate on social media. Pay close attention

to how dierent assets perform, and be

prepared to change things up on the y.

“I believe that you have to have an

overarching visual strategy where youunderstand what it is you’re trying to

communicate with visuals holistically,

and what role visuals play for your brand.

From there, you can create channel-

specic successes.

So for example, we really struggle with

product-based content, even when it’s

beautiful. In our beauty department,

for instance, we sell these beautiful

handmade soaps.

But when we put them on Facebook,

just zzle, because Facebook is very

lifestyle and very fun.

But when we take a similar image and

we put it out on Instagram, it performs

beautifully there. And so I think that’s,

I see a lot of content being produced

these days about this is the way you

must do visuals, and I think, then I think

it continues to be important to have

channel-specic strategies and really

understanding what the visuals can do

for you in one channel they can’t doin another.”

Natanya Anderson

Global Director of CRM, social media,

and customer service at Whole Foods


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TOP TIPS

DOCUMENT

SUCCESSES

AND FAILURES

To the extent possible, your micro content

execution should build upon past successes

and failures. When you’re kicking o your

next campaign, taking a look at what’s

performed best for you might give you a leg

up. Don’t forget to look at dierent social

channels, where your followers may have

very dierent preferences.

“About two years ago, we did this test on

Pinterest where we sort of threw everything

at the Pinterest wall to see what would

stick. We used dierent kinds of content,

we used dierent designs, and the entirepurpose of that activity was to gather

data and to see what was consistent on

Pinterest and other channels, and what

was unique to Pinterest.

And then we looked at some industry

research from our Pinterest analytics

partner, Curalate, on what was workingfor other people too so we could

have that as input. And we came to a

standard approach to the way that we

do imagery for Pinterest that’s either

photography-based or illustration-based.

And that approach isn’t just about the

photography and the design process,

but it’s about the entire process frombrainstorming to production.”

Natanya Anderson




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TOP TIPS

TIME TO FAIL FAST!

GO LEARN, ITERATE,

AND GROW!

One of the biggest benets of micro content is

the opportunity to see quick results. In addition

to nding channels where you resonate, you’ll

also have the ability to develop new micro

content on the basis of performance.

You might even want to have a little extra

time set aside with your creative team to create

new assets which reect your learnings from

the rst days of your campaign. Denitely take

the time to document what worked and what

didn’t when your campaign is over.

Bottom line, you have to be committed

to keep trying. More than anything, being

attentive and persistent will lead to successful

social campaigns. We can’t wait to see

where yours go!

“In today’s world, where

content marketing is such a big

focus, I think one of the things

everybody’s starting to gure out

is that you need to understand

how hard your content is

working. In addition to looking

at the immediate ROI per piece

of content, you’ll need to look

at its entire lifespan. Visual

marketing, especially through

micro content, is an

iterative process.”

Natanya Anderson




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We’ve handpicked top freelancers to help

you produce attention-grabbing visual

content. After we match you with the

right talent, our powerful collaboration

platform puts you in direct contact with

your creative team. The result is visual

content that gets results and saves

you time and money.

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The Visual Content Playbook