8 cool photo effects to give your images the wow factor

When you've spent time writing a fantastic tweet, an important Facebook post or your latest blog post and are ready to publish it, how much time do you spend on the accompanying image?

Usually, it's the final step everyone takes and is frequently rushed.

Recently, there's been a lot of evidence showing the positive – and powerful - effects of images in social media and on the web.

Did you know…

• tweets with images receive 150% more retweets than tweets without images?
• Facebook posts with images see 2.3X more engagement than those without images?

Aren't those statistics just jaw-dropping?

Whenever you start a new blog post, no matter how passionate you are about the topic, you must also consider your plan for getting it noticed.

I'd love to say there's a magic formula for sharing a blog post quickly and efficiently with your target audience and beyond, but there's no quick fix. The truth is, you have to put as much effort into publicising a blog as publishing it (if not more!)

But there's some good practice you can follow to attract readers, and I hope you find the following list of questions helpful. You can refer back to this blogging checklist each time you write a new blog post.

I'm happy to receive book reviews of Facebook Inspiration any day of the week, but this one was particularly pertinent. Facebook Inspiration: 30 days of creativity for your page was first available on Amazon on 2nd March 2017, and I received this review the day after the book's first anniversary.

I wrote the book to help anyone with a Facebook page (or group) generate conversation and interest in their page, helping it reach a wider audience organically. So when I first stumbled upon Chris and Charlie's Adventures page, and saw that their page was relatively new, I shared details of my book with them. Having read A walk in the woods by Bill Bryson a few years ago, I was particularly interested in Chris and Charlie's walking adventure.

I was delighted that they offered to review it for me. And even more delighted when I received this detailed review, published originally on their website, Chris and Charlie's Adventures.  

Does it seem to take you forever to come up with new ideas for a blog? And then actually getting it down on (digital) paper takes an eternity? Then I have a tip for you.

Write less. Snap more. 

You might just prefer a more visual approach to blogging...

One of my favourite quotes from the book Oversubscribed by Daniel Priestley is: 

What do you stand for? What do you stand against ?

Our values determine the direction we take and the decisions we make in our business. If you’re confident about the value you provide to your clients, those who value what you stand for will choose to work with you.

Businesses that are unclear about their value are easy to recognise. Their online marketing is smothered with hashtags, like hundreds and thousands. The content looks interesting, but it's a bit of a mess. Used sparingly, however, hashtags add a sprinkling of clarity to your messages on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.