Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, marketing professionals, businesses, educators, photographers, general public.

The reason Facebook paid $1 billion for Instagram is the same reason why Pinterest is one of the fastest-growing social media sites in history.

It’s also the reason why Facebook redesigned pages to the new Timeline layout: People love pictures.

People upload more than 300 million photos to Facebook every single day!

Facebook users love liking, commenting on, and sharing photos more than any other type of content on Facebook. So posting photos automatically gives you an advantage in the EdgeRank game.

Here are six ideas to help you get more from the photos you post on your Facebook Page.

Post big photos

1Make sure your photos are at least 851 x 403 pixels to accommodate highlighting or possible use as Facebook cover images by others. That said, you should also consider posting sizes even larger so that when users view photos in fullscreen, they’ll see the image at the highest resolution. This varies depending on screen size, but as an example, a 17-inch Macbook Pro is 1920×1200 (iPhone photos are 2592 x 1936 pixels).

Use Reddit

2Reddit, like Craigslist, is probably one of the ugliest but most useful websites on the Internet. You can easily search for photos related to your cause and sort them by recency or popularity. And if your photo gets a lot of attention on Reddit, chances are it will do well with your Facebook page.

Inject virality

3One common factor that helps content go viral is the ability for users to make it their own. Americans Against The Tea Party created an image (shown above) that allowed users to point an arrow at their profile pic once they shared the photo. Make sure you mention your organization in small print at the bottom of the image.)

You can see how that works by sharing on of these more politically neutral images.

Create covers for fans

4You’ve been busy focusing on your Facebook page over the past month, which is understandable given the switch to Timeline. But don’t forget that your fans are looking for ways to make their profiles look great, too! One way to help them, and promote your cause in the process, is to create cover images. Check out the batch that Best Friends Animal Society created to promote their Spring Pet Super Adoption campaign.

Post photos as links

5Because photos have a huge EdgeRank advantage over other types of content, why not post photos as links on your Facebook page?

Here’s how to do it:

1. Select an awesome photo within a recent blog post (I hope you have a blog).
2. Post this photo on your Facebook page.
3. In the “Say something about this” field, post a short description about the article along with a link (as shown above).

Users will be more likely to share, comment on and like an amazing photo than they would a link to an article containing that same amazing photo. A better means to the same end.

Use Pinterest

6If you use Pinterest, you’ll love this approach to amping up engagement on your Facebook page. When you post photos to Pinterest, you have an option of including a URL users can click on in the image. Try reposting a few photos from your Facebook Page onto Pinterest and link back to the photo on Facebook. Eventually, you can use Facebook Insights to find out how much traffic Pinterest is sending to your Facebook page.

Do you use photos to spark engagement? Please share your ideas in the comments below.

The post 6 creative ways to use photos to increase engagement on your Facebook page appeared first on Socialbrite.