5 Best Types of Social Media Visuals for Schools

In today’s social marketing environment, whether it’s for schools or other brands, visual content is critical for the success of your campaigns. Visuals are what make your content stand out from all the rest of the content “noise” on the internet.

Why is visual content so powerful? Our brains process visuals 60,000 times faster than text. Ninety percent of information transmitted to the brain is visual. Visual content is social media friendly; people love to like, comment on and share visuals. And, thanks to Google’s algorithms, social engagement is more important for search engine optimization (SEO).

There are lots of ways to make the creation of visuals easy and fun. Need images? Try finding the perfect image for your visual using my list of 40 Free Stunningly Beautiful Stock Image Sites. Need help with graphic design? There are lots of great tools out there; 3 of my favorites are Canva, PicMonkey and Typorama.

Once you have your visuals ready to publish, don’t forget to do your hashtag research. Click here to discover some great hashtag research tools (download your free .pdf to reference in the future and share with your colleagues.)

What type of visuals get shared the most? Here are the 5 best types of visuals to use when marketing your school on social media.

Exclusive Bonus: Download the pdf of the 5 Best Types of Social Media Visuals for Schools to reference in the future and/or share with colleagues in your school.
  1. Question or Puzzle Type Posts

People love a good intellectual challenge, which is why question or puzzle type posts are immensely popular and are shared thousands of times. Look for public domain sites with brain teasers, puzzles or come up with your own questions.  Create your own visuals and remember to include your logo. Get creative and have fun with this!

  1. School or Student Related Statistics

Statistics related to your school or students are of great interest to parents. Or, look for national statistics or school-related facts. Wondering where to get statistics or facts? Try Pinterest or other social media networks. Search for “school Infographics” and see what comes up.

  1. Humor and Memes

Everyone likes to have fun and laugh. Humorous posts and memes receive the most engagement (without having to pay for advertising.) Search for “funny” on free stock sites to find humorous images or try using a meme generator – Meme Generator, MakeAMeme, Meme Center Gif Maker or Meme Center Meme Builder to name a few.

  1. Parenting or Educational-based Tips

Educators are seen as authorities when it comes to kids; helping parents become better parents benefits everyone. You are the expert here – educational tips help your audience realize what a treasure trove of tips and resources your school can be for them. Showcase that you have a knowledge-base and give value.

  1. Image Quotes

Image quotes are the most shared type of content on social media, hands down. Whether on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest, everyone loves a good quote. Inspirational or motivation quotes tend to resonate the most. Canva, PicMonkey or Typorama are classic tools for quotes, but there are tools that specifically are designed for creating image quotes like QuotesCover or Recite This Quote Maker. Try playing around with different layouts, fonts, colors and images to make your quotes stand out. And don’t forget to add your school’s logo so everyone knows who created the visual.

Visual content taps into the intuitive part of our brains and takes place at lightning speed in the human brain. Americans spend almost 1/3 of every day staring at screens; most of the times the type they hold in their hands. Visual marketing is becoming the very essence of the way we need to connect with our audiences. I hope this guide will help stimulate your creativity to design visuals your audience will love and want to share.

Exclusive Bonus: Download the pdf of the 5 Best Types of Social Media Visuals for Schools to reference in the future and/or share with colleagues in your school.

What types of visuals have you had success with in your marketing efforts? Please comment below – I’d love to hear from you!

About the author 

Brendan Schneider

Hey, I’m Brendan, and this is my blog. After 28 years working in private, independent schools in mostly admissions, enrollment, marketing, communications, and fundraising roles, I decided to make SchneiderB Media my full-time job, where I help schools get more inquiries through my Fractional Digital Marketer program. I also started the MarCom Society, a membership created expressly to help, support, and train marketing and communications professionals at schools.