Posting photos to social media is one of the fastest, easiest and fun ways to promote your business as well as boost engagement with your audience. If you’re not sure what types of images make for good exposure, use this list as your guide:

1. Customer photos. Show off your customers’ satisfaction with your product, enjoying the benefits of your service, or just happily browsing in your store. The Epicurean Connection
 has plenty photos of smiling, dancing and satisfied customers on Instagram. You could also get your customers to post photos of them using your products. Check out Girly Go Garter’s “Share A Photo, Win A Garter” promotion on Instagram.

2. Community engagement pictures. Post photos of your staff volunteering or your company sponsoring a local event or team to show your community involvement. Here’s a Flickr photo of Vivid Image sponsoring a girls’ softball team.

3. Employee spotlight images. IBM Southeast Employees’ Federal Credit Union uses Facebook to highlight a different employee each month with a photo and short introduction to help customers get to know them better, which can build trust.

4. Product shots. Pictures of existing products, new arrivals or particularly unique pieces can help increase awareness with potential and existing customers. This is also a good option for smaller businesses that don’t have a dedicated online store or those that rotate one-of-a-kind pieces frequently. San Francisco-based company, BloomThat, delivers flowers in a snap. They also snap excellent product photos on Instagram:

“Every now and then, if I list something in the Etsy shop, I will post it to Instagram,”says Susan Cusick Hill, who owns Born At the Wrong Time, an online store specializing in vintage fabrics, do-it-yourself kits, linens, home décor and housewares. “Just the other night, I listed a ‘new’ vintage item and one of my followers purchased it soon after.”

5. Announcements. Off the Grid, a series of mobile food and music events or markets in the San Francisco Bay area, uses Twitter to post photos of various food trucks and their mouth-watering food that can be found at each event, as well as when and where the events and food trucks will be.

6. The funny-but-relevant photo. Here’s a funny photo that Tower Paddle Boards posted on Instagram. Humor is a great way to demonstrate a company’s personality — and to get people to share, which is free publicity!

7. Before-and-after shots. Bariatric Solutions, a Dallas weight-loss surgery center, posts before and after photos of patients on Flickr. It’s an essential approach for businesses that promise visual results. This strategy is especially useful for service-based businesses such as a dental office or hair salon.

8. Behind-the-scenes shots. Aveda posts photos from shows on Flickr, such as these from backstage at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week as proof that its hair care products are being used by industry professionals. VerticalResponse customer S&S Brand posts behind-the-scenes photos of their BBQ sauce making process and posts the inside scoop on Flickr. Online retailer, ModCloth always garners great engagement with behind-the-scenes pics of their dog-friendly headquarters in San Francisco.

9. Contest photos. Yes to Carrots, a company specializing in natural beauty care, has a monthly photo contest on Pinterest that helps keep its customers engaged, promotes brand loyalty and garners free publicity for the company with the use of hashtags.

10. Events. Nooch Vegan Market in Denver uses Instagram in a variety of ways, including promoting events it sponsors, like the Global March for Elephants and Rhinos. The photos work as an invitation to the event, a way to raise awareness related to a cause and a means of letting customers know what’s important to you.

11. Videos. LearningRx, a national brain training company, posts testimonials from students and parents on YouTube. “The best way for people to learn about our programs’ life-changing results is directly from our graduates, in their own words,”explains Tanya Mitchell, LearningRx’s, vice president of Research & Development.

12. Scouting photos. Whether you’re headed to Italy to stock up on olive oil for your kitchen store or touring artists’ studios for the best pottery to sell in your home décor shop, take your camera to share the highlights! Scouting photos are a great way to show your products are authentic, handpicked and/or handcrafted. When the owners of Barracuda Bazaar, a trendy women’s boutique in Old Colorado City, Colorado went to Los Angeles in search of new stock, they posted photos on Facebook once they arrived.

Which of these photos garners your business the most engagement on social media?

This post contributed by Wendy Burt-Thomas, a full-time freelance writer with four books and thousands of published articles to her credit. Contact Wendy at WendyBurt@aol.com.

© 2014 – 2018, Contributing Author. All rights reserved.