In this presentation, we will discuss the 5 components for a shareable visual content - Emotional Appeal, Colors, Typography, Relevance, and Hashtags & Text.

1. WHAT MAKES A
SHAREABLE
VISUAL CONTENT?S U S I E H U @ A L A R I C E

2. A SHAREABLE VISUAL CONTENT IS
MADE UP OF FIVE COMPONENTS:
• Emotional Appeal: When your readers feel it, they’ll share it.
• Relevance: Your image should not only fit your niche, but fit your audience too.
• Colors: Using the right colors, to get maximum shares.
• Typography: Choosing a font that not only looks good, but also says what you’re trying to
say.
• #Hashtags and Text: Using the right words, phrases, and #hashtags that will make your
audience interact.

3. EMOTIONW H E N Y O U R R E A D E R S F E E L I T, T H E Y ’ L L S H A R E I T.

4. WHAT MAKES AN IMAGE EMOTIONAL
(AND SHAREABLE)?
• Emotion is the biggest piece of the sharing puzzle. And it’s the driving force behind all five
points on this list – so it deserves a lot of attention. So, what makes an image emotional?
• As it turns out, there are a lot of factors:
– Color: Studies of abstract art have shown that the way color is used and distributed across a
piece controls the emotions you feel. For example, black creates feelings at the despair end of the
the spectrum and bright primary colors can create joy and happiness.
– Font Choice: You’ll learn about this in depth in section four.
– Complexity: This isn’t complex designs – more on that next – but emotional complexity.
Research shows that the more feelings your images can convey, the more viral it will go.
– Showing one of these five things: Research from Harvard studied what makes marketing
campaigns, and their images, go viral. They found that: Admiration, Interest, Serenity,
Amazement, and Astonishment were the most shared emotions.

5. COLORSY O U R I M A G E S H O U L D N O T O N L Y F I T Y O U R N I C H E , B U T
F I T Y O U R A U D I E N C E T O O .

6. UNDERSTAND THE SYMBOLIC
UNDERPINNINGS
• You may notice that certain brands are commonly
known for their logos specifically with their color,
e.g. McDonalds, FedEx, Facebook, Coca Cola,
Twitter, and Yahoo!
• Each color has a specific brand color to which
people can relate and have an emotional
connection.
• McDonalds has become a popular restaurant for
families, especially for young children, so popular
that just seeing the yellow arches brings a smile to
a child’s face and have them screaming for French
fries!

7. HOW TO USE THESE COLORS IN
IMAGES
• Red, Purple and Pink promote sharing
• Green, Black, Blue and Yellow all stop people
from sharing
• Try to use the colors to make standout points
in your images.
• By highlighting the important pieces of
information, this image alone brought in over
60 shares (out of 125) for the piece.

8. EXAMPLES
SAFETY SMAR
T
CREATIVE POWERFUL
INVITING
TRUSTWORTHY

9. TYPOGRAPHY
C H O O S I N G A F O N T T H AT N OT O N LY LO O K S G O O D, B U T
A L S O S AY S W H AT Y O U ’ R E T R Y I N G TO S AY.

10. Above: Not using a suitable font can negatively impact the brand and be perceived as
unprofessional, untrustworthy, and unreliable.

11. LEGIBLE BODY FONT
• Is the font you use for smaller body copy legible? Choosing a font that
communicates your brand's personality and one that is also legible will
help improve the readability of your content.
• Some great choices for small text include:

12. • Your fonts may be legible, but are they readable?
• Legibility: Being clear enough to read.
• Readability: The ease at which a reader can understand written text.
• The characteristics of a font that makes it readable include:
– How tightly the letters are kerned (the space between the letters)
– The line spacing (the space between lines of text)
– The width of a block of text
LEGIBILITY VS. READABILITY

13. RELEVANCEY O U R I M A G E S H O U L D F I T Y O U R A U D I E N C E .

14. CHOOSING A RELEVANT IMAGE
• Relevancy is important in content marketing. Making sure that what
you’re doing fits who you’re doing it for. But, never has that been more
important than when you’re choosing an image.
• 90% of the information the brain processes is visual, and it’s processed
60,000x faster than anything you read. That means when your brain first
sees an image, it’s trying to join the dots between what you see and
what you should be seeing.

15. HOW TO MAKE SURE IT IS RELEVANT?
• To get a feel for what’s relevant, and what’s not, you you need to do a little
research into your own niche and the authorities who are sharing images. And,
the images their followers are sharing.
– Find five authorities in your niche (or business competitors)
– Look at the pictures they share, that have been retweeted
– Make notes of the similarities between those images
– Find where they fit for your content

16. Left: The pictures depict pain points of travelers when finding a place to stay which is related to their
intended audience
Right: Airbnb displays pictures that are not relevant to the accommodation service therefore not as
effective in communicating its message as the left ad.

17. HASHTAGS AND TEXT
U S I N G T H E R I G H T W O R D S , P H R A S E S A N D H A S H T A G S
T H A T W I L L M A K E Y O U R A U D I E N C E I N T E R A C T .

18. Slogans are important for any business in
reminding customers their purpose. In the
example, ofo’s slogan “anytime anywhere” is short,
easy to remember, and most importantly can be
seen everywhere

19. • Emotion: Your audience needs to feel something when they look at your image.
• A simple layout: If you do too much, you turn them off and away from that share button.
Keep it simple, clear and easy to digest.
• Relevant imagery: Your stock photos, backgrounds and filters should all make sense and
tie in with your niche or branding. If they don’t, it doesn’t make sense for the reader to
share it.
• The right colors: Use the colors that best match your brand, but don’t forget to make the
most of Red, Pink and Purple to get the most shares.
• A powerful font: Make sure the words you use match up to the font you choose. Don’t
make your image send the wrong message.
• Text or hashtags: Quotes are the most powerful, but having a powerful message or
hashtag can create a lot of viral potential.
AN IMAGE NEEDS SIX ELEMENTS TO GET
SHARED:

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