Do you want to get started with creating visual content but don't know where to begin? Not sure what to create? Can't get motivated to just do it?
Then you need to check out the Socially Sorted Visual Content Challenge!
Lake by Shutterstock
Now, let's be perfectly honest about something. I hadn't planned on writing this post. I hadn't even planned on the challenge being a big deal.
But once I saw the way people were creating and posting (and commenting and liking and +1ing and pinning and repinning) across all platforms, I had to share it beyond our group.
The Skinny on the Challenge
Here's how it works. The challenge runs on a daily or weekly basis. The goal is to help the members of our Visual Content Creators Group on Facebook (and on Instagram with our Instagram Account) to create more visual content. You can join the Facebook Group at any time by clicking here .
Over the 3 weeks, participants will have the option to create 21 pieces of visual content (or even more if they get clever about it using some of my tips!).
You can drop in or out of the challenge as much as you like, and participate as much or as little as you like on any platform that you like – it's designed to be flexible to suit the social platform you want to focus on most!
We have people participating across Facebook and Instagram … and sometimes both of them!
Can I tell you something?
I did not expect to see the enthusiasm and engagement we have seen from our group members.
People are not just commenting on images in the Facebook Group – they are clicking through, visiting websites, Pinterest accounts, Facebook Pages, Instagram accounts…. engaging with images and sharing them.
Maybe it is because everyone has a great sense of humour, like Kym:
I have written before about the importance of content curation as well as creation. We are creating awesome content in this challenge but also “curating” content.
My sharing of visual content from other accounts has going through the roof – I have so many great images to share and all my social sites are getting a boost of engagement.
When you throw in a few Daily Challenge Prompts and some fun bonus challenges ..Boom! We have a very active, engaging community creating visual content for their businesses.
And that's why I decided to quickly write this post – to share this challenge with the wider social media community, as you can join the challenge anytime by going to this link.
You can also check out some of the images by searching under the hashtag #VisualChallenge on most platforms, but let me give you 3 reasons why you should jump into the Visual Content Challenge.
3 Reasons Why You Should Jump In
#1 You'll Create Visual Content You Wouldn't Otherwise Have Created
Trust me. If I said: “Go and create 21 pieces of original visual content” you would look at me as if I was stark raving mad!
But… if I drip feed small challenges to you daily, you will give it a shot, right? And doing one task per day means it is achievable for most of us.. and fun!
One simple Daily Challenge image is posted each day.
You see, the best part about this challenge is that it is pretty cruisy… there are guidelines (like play fair, how to make it work best for you, rah rah rah) but you can create as much visual content… or as little… as you like.
Or you can just watch and learn and jump in when you are ready!
Each day there is an image “prompt” with the Daily #VisualChallenge posted in the Facebook Group. You can choose to do each of the daily challenges or you can just do a few – it's up to you!
Wouldn't you love the feeling of knowing you have the next few weeks of original visual content wrapped up on your social sites? Sorted!
#2 Hands on Experience with new tools, skills and strategies
We have everyone from small business owners to content creators and social media managers for some of the world's most successful companies playing along. And they are ALL supporting each other.
People with no design skills are joining in with those that are pretty talented. All learning from each other.
Participants are creating awesome images using the tools they like to use, or learning about new tools, tips and strategies in the challenge. For example the first strategy we discussed was using an image to anchor a conversation, ask questions or survey your audience. Lisa (from Chipmonk Media) nailed it with this awesome question:
Not only do you get the daily prompts and all the tips, help and support in the group by the other challenge participants but.. if you want more, we've got more for you…
You can subscribe for “bonus” tips, tricks, strategies and tools for each of the challenges.
And if you miss one of the emails, the next one will catch you up with the upcoming challenge tasks.
So anyone can play, in their own way in their own time, and if you subscribe, you get advanced tips to help you and you can refer back to all the information at any time later on.
#3 The #VisualChallenge Drives Traffic
This is the part I love and it is the part that I hoped would happen.. but until I saw it happening, I did not realise how powerful it would be.
Images produced in this challenge are getting shared and driving traffic. In cool ways. Across platforms.
People who are not usually G+ users are venturing over to check it out.
People who are not really active on Pinterest are joining and pinning to our Group board.
People are visiting Instagram images and commenting and double-tapping. It's all kinds of awesome.
Some of the prompts are encouraging participants to own and showcase their knowledge or niche in authentic ways – not just promoting their product or business but learning to post native content that catches attention and creates an emotional connection with their fans (on any platform).
Here was one of the Daily Challenge Prompts:
When asked to quote themselves, participants found some innovative ways to do it, producing some awesome shareable images for their industry. Here are some examples:
Cooker and a Looker is a blog with a food theme – this was a perfect example for blogger, Amanda, to create an original piece of content to “quote herself” while entertaining her audience (and making me hungry):
Take these examples.. they were posted on Facebook, which acts like a “doorway” through to the original image pinned on another social media site (or Facebook Page).
Here, both Kim and Azure have posted links to their images in the Facebook Group, and we can easily click through to comment on their Instagram and Google+ posts respectively:
I followed Kim's link (note: this is what we are all about in the challenge, engaging ON the participant's platform of choice) and commented there. Here it is:
Then I headed over to Instagram with one click and could easily comment on Azure's image…
Not only did I comment but I am sharing a lot of these on G+, Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram… as other other participants.
And don't get me started on the group support, networking and natural growth of interested, relevant fans and engagement on social sites. It's awesome.
In 2 days I had a 100% increase in engagement on my Facebook page which I had deliberately let drop (I stopped posting as much for a week or two beforehand) to see what would happen. Oh and in case you were wondering, yes, I play along too… Here's one I did for Instagram:
…and here's one I did on Google+ that posted well on Pinterest and Facebook too – many of the challenges work well on your platform of choice!
Interested?
Jump in and come and play with us. Join the #VisualChallenge.
PS Or even if you don't want to participate but you are looking for some cool content to share, search #VisualChallenge on your favourite platform to find some great images!
Lake by Shutterstock
Over to You.
Are you participating? Thinking about it? If you are participating, I'd love to hear what you think in the comments.
Donna Moritz
