When it comes to social media, images play a key role in getting the engagement that you want. It’s no secret that people are drawn to them. Just look at Facebook and Instagram. These platforms have millions of users because of they allow you to see images from people you care about

However, it’s not enough to just post pictures. You want your images to be really good so people and search engines take notice. Whether you’re trying to grow a following or you want to get more engagement from your followers, optimizing social media images is a key step to any social media strategy. In this article are x tweaks you can to make your images perform better on social media.

1. Invest in a good camera

Photography gear can be quite expensive but if you have the money, invest in one. However, if  you don’t have the budget, you can get a cellphone with a really good camera. Plenty of smartphones these days boast that capability and you won’t run out of options to choose from. This is important for taking high-quality photos of your products. You want it to sell right? So get a better camera, practice your photography skills and showcase those goods!

2. Get your image sizes right

Every social network has specific image dimension that they follow. If you don’t adhere to these, your images possibly get cut off which in turn affects your engagement rate. Make sure to follow the recommended dimensions for every platform that you use

The best sizes for sharing images on social media

• Facebook: 1200 x 628
• Instagram: 1080 x 1080
• Twitter: 1024 x 576
• LinkedIn: 552 x 368
• Pinterest: 600 x 900
• Google+: 431 x 431

3. Use free photo editing websites

Most companies don’t have the time to learn photoshop. If you’re one of them, you can take advantage of tools like Canva, PicMonkey, or Piktochart to create beautiful, social media-ready images. These tools give you the ability to design images with ease since they have templates that you can easily change to match your branding. The best part is that most of these tools already have the dimensions set up for each image type on every platform you can think of such as Twitter header size, Facebook cover photo size, Pinterest board cover size, and more

Now that’s time saved!

4. Name and tag your images appropriately

For your image to have the best chance of getting seen, make sure to name and tag it appropriately. Search engine crawlers may not be able to see an image but they can read the text associated with your image, helping them to analyze your post, rank you appropriately, and show your image to the right audiences.

So before uploading any photo, name it with the most accurate description. If you’re targeting a certain keyword, put it in there but make sure it fits the context of the image otherwise, you’re just keyword stuffing. Alt tags are also another opportunity to include those keywords since they’re supplementary information to the name of your image. Write no more than 125 characters for the alt text.

5. Upload a file sized optimized for the web

Whenever you save an image Photoshop or any photo-editing tool, make sure to choose the Save for Web and Devices option. You want an image that’s not too big but you don’t want to compromise quality either otherwise, you end up with a pixelated mess! Keep a balance between quality and file size. If you’re using a tool that doesn’t let you control the size and quality of an image, consider using an image shrinker instead. These tools are designed to  size down an image without losing quality.

6. Know your target audience

Last but not the least, get to know your target audience. There’s no point in following all these tips if you’re showing images that aren’t relevant to your followers. Worse, you could using be displaying your posts on a platform that they’re not even using. So before anything else, find out where your audiences are likely to hang out and start with that. If you have no idea where to start, look at your top competitors and see what they’re doing. Test it on yours and see which posts are driving the most engagement. You’ll be surprised what a little sleuthing can do!

These 6 tips will help anyone who is trying to improve their social media images. Got any more suggestions to share? Write them in the comments below!