For your social media marketing to really succeed, people need to notice with you and engage with your brand. And one of the easiest ways to do this is by adding photographs to your posts.

The stats don’t lie. It’s been proven that adding photos to Facebook posts – and the more the better – can increase engagement by over 1 000%. So if adding photographs to your social media posts increases engagement rates significantly, then you need to have the best photos possible.

Stock Photography Has Its Place

There are amazing sites out there – like Shutterstock and 123RF – which offer beautiful pictures, taken by professional photographers – at extremely reasonable prices.

However, the challenge that many social media marketers face with these pictures is that they aren’t personal to the brand.  Vivek Patel, who is a local search specialist, says that visual content is far more effective at portraying a message than written content is.

This means that you should be using the pictures that you have on your social media platforms to show people what you are about. And to do this correctly, the best way is to take your own pictures.

No Need To Hire A Professional Photographer

You don’t need to hire a professional photographer to get really amazing pictures for your social media platforms. With the advances in cellphone technology that we are seeing at the moment, your mobile telephone is just as powerful – in terms of taking pictures – as a DSLR camera is.

There are a few tips that you should be following so that your photographs come out  beautifully. Here are some of them.

Clean Your Lens

A clean lens will give you a much clearer shot but we often forget to clean it. As your cellphone sits around on many surfaces, often with the lens on the surface itself, it gets quite dirty so before you shoot get into the habit of wiping your lens with a soft cloth or similar fabric.

Tap On Your Subject

When you have composed your shot, before you tap the shutter button gently touch on the image of the subject that you’re shooting as this will help the camera to focus on what you want it to.

Lighting And Angles Are Important

Just as professional photographers worry about lighting and angles when they take photos, you too should be worried about these when you’re shooting with your cellphone.

• Always make sure that your subject is brightly lit and this will give you the best shot.
• Don’t shoot into the sun as this will make your shot dark.
• Shoot your subject from different angles and then choose which one portrays your subject the best.

Cellphone photography makes it much easier for social media marketers and managers to upload content as you can do this straight from your phone.  This reduces the turnaround time and helps you engage with your audience on a more immediate basis.