Social Media Content Creation – 3 Easy Ways to Use Screen Shots

We talk a lot about creating visual social media content here at Socially Sorted.

This post showcases 3 of my favourite strategies for finding quick, easy, content to share on your Blog, Facebook or other sites – using screenshots.

Social Media Content Creation - Screenshots

Content. We all hear about it. We want to post content that hits the sweet spot with our readers, clients and potential clients (because Content is King, right?). And I have talked previously about how content can be:

Created (something you produce, whether it be in image, video or written form) or
Curated (by gathering the content of others, repackaging it and sharing it with your community).

Both are great ways to share information 0n your Blog, Facebook Page, Pinterest, Twitter and the rest of the usual social media suspects.

But let's face it, not everybody wants to spend hours and hours writing (well, some of us might, but I am guessing you have more important things to do right?).

Let me share with you a few ways to grab content that is ready-to-go and ticks all of my visual marketing boxes by having an image included. These examples are all based around the humble Screenshot. A screenshot is an easy way to capture and post information (that rocks) quickly, with minimal fuss and maximum impact.

What is a Screenshot?

A screenshot is simply a screen capture of an image on your computer, producing an image that you can then re-use. If you are on a Mac like me, simply hit COMMAND + SHIFT + 4 and capture the image. If you are on a PC, try a program like Snagit to grab your image.

Here are 3 Screenshot formats that I particularly like using right now:

1. The Tweet

Have you seen a funny, helpful, memorable Tweet? Snap it, and post it! It doesn't have to be yours (in fact in most cases, it isn't) but these can make for quick, helpful content. Here are a few that I have featured lately on my Facebook Page and on the pages of clients :

Julie Goodwin Tweet | Socially Sorted | Content Creation

Masterchef Contestant Julie Goodwin provided an excellent post for Coastwide Driving School. Funny, witty and relevant.

Personally, this was my favourite though. Clever. Just clever.

Kate Miller Heidke Screenshot | Socially Sorted | Content Creation Tips

By the way, for my non-Aussie readers – you can watch Kate's hit song here!

2. The Tip

A screenshot can be a great way to quickly show a “how-to” or tip on something. It makes it easy to capture an action in action and then show it visually to your audience. Yes, video is great, but sometimes it is just quicker to capture an image and post it up. Here is one I just made in a matter of minute using my Mac to take a screenshot and adding a a quick highlight using my right-hand-DIY-visual marketing tool Picmonkey. Uploaded to my blog, the screenshot became a teaser for this post!

I used a screenshot of the webpage, added a highlight and voila…content ready for use!

3. The Tease

The tease is basically where you use a screenshot to “tease” the reader into wanting more. It can be a screenshot of a new blog post. Social Media Examiner do this well:

Social Media Examiner add headings like “Announcing” or “New Article” to draw the reader in to click the link…with a screen shot attached for visual impact.

or this one….

It works for Podcasts too….any announcement, in fact, suits the use of a screenshot as a “teaser” post.

I recently used this screenshot of a client's stats to ask readers to comment if they wanted me to write a case study about how we achieved an engagement rate on Facebook of 341% with strategic posting using visual marketing strategies. Do you think it worked? 66 likes and 72 comments said it did!

The classic tease – ask your clients to comment or like if they would like more information about a particular topic…how-to's, behind the scenes and insider secrets work great for this type of screen-shot teaser!

4. The Brag (Bonus Tip)

The Brag is simple. I talked about this in our last post. Take something nice that someone is saying about you, whether on Facebook, Twitter, your Blog, an Email….and take a screen shot of it. A visual representation of their words packs a punch in terms of impact on the reader (or should I say “viewer”?).

That's it. 3 Easy Ways to Use Screen Shots when you are stuck for Content Creation creative brilliance!

What have you used screenshots for in your online marketing? Do you have any other ideas to share?

Bio
Latest Posts

Donna Moritz

Visual Social Media Strategist at Socially Sorted

Donna is a Visual Content Strategist and founder of Socially Sorted, listed by Forbes as a "Top 5 Social Media Blog You Need to Know About". Donna helps brands leverage the power of visual storytelling and content strategy in their business. Her content has been featured in publications such as Forbes, Inc. & Entrepreneur and she is a speaker and trainer on visual content for the marketing and tourism industries internationally.

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Lena Penteado on January 23, 2013 at 10:31 pm

I loved all the ideas, and I’ll be checking out pic monkey, thanks for sharing!
Reply
- Donna Moritz on January 23, 2013 at 10:39 pm
  
  Oh Lena…you will LOOOVE the Monkey. Check out this post for more. I use it every day for all sorts of things and it makes anyone creative…and if you are creative then watch out! Check this post out too for more info: https://sociallysorted.com.au/create-original-images-visual-marketing-picmonkey/
  Reply
Carolina HeartStrings on January 23, 2013 at 10:42 pm

Great ideas. I feel a little technically challenged on some of this but the IT half of Carolina HeartStrings will understand better!
Reply
- Donna Moritz on January 23, 2013 at 10:52 pm
  
  ha ha glad you at least find it interesting – and you will be surprised – get your “IT half” to show you how to make a screen shot and then all you have to do is treat the screen shot like a photo. Then you can just attach the photo like normal or ….if you want to really jazz it up, try PicMonkey. PicMonkey is super super easy to use. It is so fun to use too that you will be surprised at how much you enjoy it!
  Reply
cathsj on January 23, 2013 at 10:47 pm

Great ideas. Adding to my resources. Thanks so much!
Reply
- Donna Moritz on January 23, 2013 at 10:50 pm
  
  You are welcome – have fun with it!
  Reply
Amy Putkonen on January 24, 2013 at 12:14 am

That is a good idea. I know how to do screen shots, but just never thought of using them as images in blog posts. That is cool. You may be on to something there! I will have to try it.
Reply
- Donna Moritz on January 24, 2013 at 12:20 am
  
  That’s great Amy – you will find it very handy – I screen shot a lot of info now and I often draw upon it for various uses, including blog posts and testimonials. Also great to show case studies. Have fun with it!
  Reply
Erica Ardali on January 24, 2013 at 8:57 am

I don’t think I ever contemplated how to use screenshots. I shared this with my team! Thanks for posting. 🙂
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- Donna Moritz on January 24, 2013 at 10:04 am
  
  Awesome! Have fun playing with it! :o)
  Reply
Julie Myers on January 24, 2013 at 4:04 pm

Donna, I love your tips (and have your article bookmarked on Diigo now!). I see Social Media Examiner every day and you’re right, they do a great job of this. I’ll be looking at doing more screen shots.
Reply
- Donna Moritz on January 24, 2013 at 4:14 pm
  
  Hi Julie – that’s great! It is such a simple trick but one that I use often. Stay tuned – we have plenty more to share just like this in 2013 – I am very excited about some of the visual marketing strategies we are using with clients, and I look forward to sharing them here and in our programs. Let me know how you go with the screen shots and if you have some great examples, I would love to share them!
  Reply