Most people form their first impression of something within seconds, whether it’s for your website or your social media, images are crucial. Choose wisely and you’ll catch the attention of your potential customer. The wrong images can have the opposite effect. The images you select will set the tone and the mood of your interaction.

Below we’ll explore some of the key questions and considerations you need to ask yourself when selecting the best images for your social media, blog, and website.

Identifying the Best Images

Selecting the best images will depend on several factors, including what you’re trying to achieve with the image, your target audience, and the message and company image you’re trying to convey. It can be a good idea to create image guidelines based around what falls within the scope of your brand, much like many companies do for content. This helps to standardize your image across all platforms.

When selecting the best type of image for each purpose, the first question to ask is ‘What are you trying to achieve?’. If you’re selling a product, then a picture of the product is a good way to go. If you want to engage people and draw them in, then an attention-grabbing or lifestyle picture is a good way to go.

Tell a Story

Making the picture relatable to the target audience can help your potential customers to see themselves using/wearing your product. If you’re selling a product, then use a picture that clearly shows the product being used. If you’re trying to attract people to a place, then don’t just show the place, show people enjoying being at that place. This can help viewers to immediately start to imagine themselves in that situation.

Sourcing Images

If you have the skills and resources to take your own pictures, then great. If you don’t then you have the Internet that is awash with images at your disposal. However, just because an image is on the internet doesn’t mean you are free to use it. You have a couple of options: you can pay for images from a professional stock photo site or you can use open-source images. Using open-source images can be more time consuming, as it can be more difficult to find high-quality images with a high enough resolution that are relevant.

Reverse Image Searches

A good way to check images you are thinking of using is to perform a reverse image search. This will show you other relevant images and provide some context about the background of the image you want to use. It will also show you other images that may complement the one you’re using, providing some consistency between images you’re posting. A reverse image search can be performed easily using some of the search engines or a specialized reverse image search resource.

Whatever your intended use of an image, it’s important to consider how it will be perceived, as each image is another little building block in your brand image.