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Graphics grab our attention. They create a curiosity in us to read the accompanying text, more so than the same text would if it was posted without the graphic.

It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words. If the rest of that particular saying needs to be completed perhaps it should be that the picture/graphic also has to be self-explanatory. It shouldn’t take a thousand words or so to explain what the picture is about.

Social media platforms such as Facebook readily lend themselves to being very visual. As I mentioned above, we are more likely to read the message that accompanies a graphic than we are to pass it by.

In writing the above passage I started to challenge the thought that went behind the writing. We accept the fact that visuals grab our attention. I think you will agree with me? But is there any science behind it? Why do we accept as fact that pictures do grab our attention? As I do with many other questions I have, I consulted with the world-acknowledged expert of everything … Mr. Google. I found an interesting article entitled The Power of Visual Communication by Mike Parkinson.

Mr. Parkinson provides the following: “What we see has a profound effect on what we do, how we feel, and who we are. Through experience and experimentation, we continually increase our understanding of the visual world and how we are influenced by it. Psychologist Albert Mehrabian demonstrated that 93% of communication is nonverbal. Studies find that the human brain deciphers image elements simultaneously, while language is decoded in a linear, sequential manner taking more time to process. Our minds react differently to visual stimuli.” He also adds “So visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text, graphics quickly affect our emotions, and our emotions greatly affect our decision-making.”

He provides helpful advice that applies to us as Toastmasters for the production of any handouts, Power Point presentations that we create and yes, Facebook Posts that we are focussing on. Have you ever noticed that the topics that you encounter in Toastmasters can easily take you off in a different direction?

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Utilizing graphics in your Facebook Posts can be quite easy or a bit challenging at times.

If you are sharing a post that you have seen on another group’s or an individual’s Timeline, it can be a simple matter of clicking on the Share button. Facebook will load the graphic that has already been attached to the post and upload it to the Timeline you are sharing it on.

Let’s take a look at a couple different scenarios where you would be adding a graphic to a message and the challenges and solutions that accompany it.

One: The graphic is located on your computer.

You can easily create your own using graphics software. I use two inexpensive b

ut powerful programs for my websites and publications. Snagit by Techsmith is a screen capture program that has photo editing capabilities.

Xara Designer Pro is an affordable alternative to Adobe Photoshop. It has a fairly steep learning curve, however the company provides lots of video tutorials to help you in your projects. You can get a good deal from them on-line for existing products when they introduce an upgrade to the marketplace.

I would suggest that you create a directory on your hard drive labelled Toastmasters Facebook page, then a sub directory called Graphics. Upload any graphics that you collect or create to the Graphics subfolder. This puts all of your graphics in one easy to locate spot.

I would offer a cautionary note at this point about ownership and usage of graphics that are readily found on the internet. Just because it is on-line and somebody else has used it, doesn’t mean that you can too. You do so at your own risk. There are stories of authors and website developers receiving official legal correspondence advising them that they are in copyright infringement and owe the graphic creator $10000, immediately. If you are the creator of the graphic or artistic work, you are considered the author and the copyright owner. With the development of inexpensive graphic artistry software, more and more people are doing so. If you incorporate other people’s work into your own work, a derivative product, you may once again be in violation of someone’s copyright.

Having issued that caution, graphics are readily available on the internet for download. Some are expensive, many are relatively inexpensive and many are available for free. Just do a Google search for “free graphics” and you will be presented with a good selection. With a bit of research you should be able to find a graphic on virtually any topic.

I am fond of Flickr, particularly the Creative Commons. I search for graphics where the author has granted permission to use the photo how I please and all I have to do is provide credit to them in the body of my creative work, whether it be an article, blog post or website. For other times when I have needed a specific photo to make my message I am quite willing to pay a fair price for the product.

So to upload a graphic stored on your computer, locate the following on your Timeline and click on the Photo/Video link.

Your clicking will cause the box to change a little.

I don’t know why they put this extra step in, seems redundant to me, but when you click on Upload Photos/Video this time it will open up a File Upload box as illustrated below, (your file directory will be displayed of course … not mine) where you can locate the file you would like uploaded then click on Open.