How to boost engagement using photo filters like a pro

Selfies with bunny ears and neon rainbow washes are nice, but your photo filters can do so much more — such as turbocharge the engagement and visual impact of your data.

While most people are familiar with the standard Instagram and Snapchat filters, photo filters have a place in the business world as well. Clean, polished, and consistent images can elevate the overall aesthetic of any brand. Infogram offers the online photo filter tools to easily get started today and boost your company’s presence anywhere.

5 reasons why photo filters are important for your content

1. Keeps your brand consistent

Images are key in keeping the overall look and feel of your brand consistent. When companies agree on a style of editing and establish rules for the saturation of specific colors, the use of patterns, cropping, and the types of subjects used, they’re creating their visual brand.

Customers will remember your business through this image consistency. They’ll return to your brand simply due to their recollection of this repetition. Consistent images convey a sense of professionalism and reliability to consumers.

2. Increase audience engagement

A polished and properly cropped photo is more compelling to look at, whether the viewer is conscious of it or not.

Photo filters help increase engagement by keeping your audience focused on your slides, infographics, charts, and presentations. A poor-quality photo only distracts viewers, taking their focus away from the important content.

3. Helps boost product sales

If your product image features dim lighting, awkward angles, and poor focus, then you’re doing yourself a disservice. People will be less likely to want to purchase your product if the image doesn’t sell it. Think about fast food ads: The food always looks delicious in the images, and even though the actual meal will never look as good as the image, it still draws people to the restaurant.

By using photo filters to adjust the contrast, brightness, and overall tone and feel, you can create images that are not only consistent, but visually appealing.

4. Provides an extensive social media library

Avoid scrambling for a last-minute picture to use with a tweet that might not be consistent with other photos your brand has published. After a successful photo shoot of product images or lifestyle shots, using online photo filters and editing tools gives you hundreds of possible new images based on the existing content. Simply using color saturation, creative cropping, and focus options allows companies to build a robust library of images perfect for social media (and other campaigns).

5. Add to the mood of the brand

When choosing photos for your content, think about what emotion you want to elicit from your audience. Visuals are a powerful medium for telling your story in an impactful way, and photo filters add another layer to that story. For example, a saturated filter might conjure up feelings of nostalgia, while a black and white filter might suggest a more serious tone.

Would you like to experience the full power of data visualization? Try Infogram for Teams or Enterprise for free! With a Team or Enterprise account, you can create up to 10,000+ projects, collaborate with your team in real time, use our engagement analytics feature, and more. Request your free demo here.

How to add filters to your image in 3 easy steps with Infogram

Infogram has recently introduced online photo filters. These filters can be used in any number of formats, including slides, infographics, newsletters, and social posts. These filters can be easily applied with just three steps:

1. Add an image to your project

2. Head over to the Settings panel on the right and click on Filter & Adjust

3. Select any filter you like, and click on the Adjust tab to add some additional magic

You can edit any photo or use specific tools for background images.

Top tips and tricks for using online photo filters

Less is more

It’s easy to go overboard with photo filters. Boosting saturation or overly muting colors can look fake and contrived to viewers. Simply sharpening an image, or gently correcting the color could be sufficient. Just because there are many options doesn’t mean they all must be used.

When in doubt, go for increased warmth or contrast

According to a study by Yahoo Labs on social media sites, an increase in contrast and exposure positively impacts likes and comments on photos. Many of the participants in the qualitative study mentioned that they prefer filters that bring out contrast (like the Inkwell filter on Instagram). Also, filters with a warmer temperature significantly increase the number of comments and boost the number of views.

Photographically speaking, filters that auto-enhance a photo (e.g. correct for contrast and exposure) also drive more engagement. In contrast, filters that make images look like they were pulled from a photo album forty years ago should be used sparingly.

You can’t fix a bad photo by simply using a filter

Always start with something good; hire a professional. Expert photographers will have a better eye and more experience capturing images that are appealing to customers. When sourcing a photographer, create a mood board and make sure to explain the overall look and feel you want to convey with these images.

If your photo is out of focus or lacks depth, it might be wise to start over with a better shot instead of wasting hours trying to edit the image.

Get started with online photo filters

Infogram offers lots of photo filter options for a variety of online and offline projects. Boost brand awareness, drive engagement, and increase sales with online photo filters. Get Started Now