Don’t Tell What You Can Show — and Other Visual Tips for Washington Organizations

3 Panelists, a 150-Organization Analysis, and One Conclusion: Visuals Matter

To emoji or not to emoji? That was the question faced by communications professionals at our most recent #NJMediaU panel.

It reflects the social media tightrope that organizations in D.C. often walk. We want to balance our thought-provoking research with the fun, community-building content that boosts engagement. Tip the balance too far one way, and we fail. Don’t believe me? Check out the graph below from Visual Strategy in the Information Age research.

Organizations with high engagement have a more balanced ratio of serious to novel content. Organizations with low engagement are all business, all the time. Data from Visual Strategy in the Information Age.

For organizations to succeed on social media, they have to walk the line between serious and novel content, and they have to do it with finesse and emojis. Visual content is one of the ways organizations can be eye-catching without sacrificing content. Unfortunately, most of us aren’t there yet.

Over half of organizations are posting visuals to social media at least weekly, but most platforms recommend that every post is accompanied by a visual. This data is from Visual Strategy in the Information Age.

At our June panel, Strategic Visual Communications for a D.C. Audience, three of D.C.’s most visually-accomplished organizations and agencies shared their advice for improving the quality and frequency of policy-focused visual communications. Here are their tips.

Visualize the Non-Visual

“All of our pages have something on them that can be turned into something visual,” says Ted Chamberlain, Digital Communications Manager at Pew Charitable Trusts, “It could be a quote or it could be a fact. Those are two of the most non-visual things that we turn visual on a daily basis.”

A Pew Charitable Trust “tile” visualizes a fact from a recent report. Preparing tiles before the State of the Union helped Pew join the conversation in real time.

At Pew, they’ve simplified the process so that anyone can create a text-based visual with a customizable template known as a “tile.” Each tile has a pre-set background and font, which ensures that visuals are on-brand. Communications Council research backs the effectiveness of Pew’s text-to-visual approach. For organizations, quotations were the most-engaging visual content on Facebook and the second-most engaging format on Twitter.

Creative spark doesn’t come from a muse; it comes from a search engine.

For whatever you’re trying to illustrate, “Take your word, take your phrase, and put it into Google,” Caitlin Donahue, VP of Public Affairs at CRAFT Media/Digital says. Image search shows what others have used to visualize a concept and can provide inspiration when you‘re stuck or uncertain.

How are other groups visualizing the concepts you’re sharing on social?

If the first page is filled with generic stock photos, keep going. “Google tells you no one goes to page 16. I go to page 16,” Donahue says. The key is to remember that Google isn’t a replacement for a stock photo service; it’s a resource for creativity. Original content is more engaging and informative than a stock photo, and repurposing images from Google search could be a violation of copyright law.

Don’t Tell What You Can Show

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but on social? “You don’t have the luxury of a thousand words to tell a story,” says Tracy Mason, Senior Director of Public Affairs at Nuclear Energy Institute.

Her team is trying to bring visual thinking into NEI’s projects at an early stage. By the time a writer has typed that 1,000th word, they’ve developed a great visual to accompany it. Her lesson is that even when social seems instant, it takes preparation.

“Some of the cool pithy stuff actually takes a little time. You can’t design on a dime,” Mason says.

If you want the highest quality, it’s valuable to draft and experiment with visuals.

Developing a Visual Strategy

A common thread ran through our panel discussion and our research: preparation, teamwork, and creativity are key to strong visual communication. Panelists and research interviewees recommended holding regular visual content meetings, developing visual style guides, and establishing protocols for social media.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to develop a visual communications strategy, check out our Visual Strategy in the Information Age playbook.

This story is based on National Journal Leadership Council’s member exclusive research study Strategic Visual Communications for a D.C. Audience. If you are interested in learning more about this research and National Journal’s membership offerings, please contact David Hirsch at dhirsch@nationaljournal.com.