Expanding your social media audience
We all want our social media content to be seen by more people, the first thing you can do to attract attention for your posts is to include a photo or other graphic element. The importance of adding one of these visual components, cannot be underestimated. A quick Google search will yield a myriad of articles with tips for creating compelling and engaging social media content, and the first thing most will mention is adding an image. Here are just a few statistics to get you thinking:
- LinkedIn posts with images have a 98% higher comment rate on average
- Tweets that include visual content are three times more likely to get engagement
- Facebook posts with photos get more likes and comments
- Social media platforms rank posts with images higher than those without
This is a great tip, but most of us are already posting photos with our content, but did you know that you are missing out on an entire segment of your potential audience by not posting your images with image descriptions and alt text? Taking a few moments to add a description of what the image that you are posting contains can open your content up to a whole new audience.
Image descriptions
Technology users who are blind or visually impaired often rely on screen readers to describe what is on their screen. Screen readers are built right into most operating systems, including Windows, Mac, and all recent smartphones. The screen readers will read texts, posts, emails and just about everything else. They accomplish this task deftly, even reading the text in a meme. Where most screen readers fall is when they are required to describe an image. Recent advancements will often deliver something like “may be an image of a tree by a lake” instead of the dreaded “image description not available” which was a hot button for many a visually impaired user. While the tree by a lake description is better than nothing at all, as a content creator, you are passing by an opportunity to share your service, product, or art with a new audience. What if a photographer could utilize image descriptions to tell a bit more about their image, and in the case of the tree image described above say something like: “a tall pine tree stands next to a small lake covered with lily pads and ducks under a blue sky with light fluffy clouds”? The person hearing about the image is going to enjoy the description a lot more than a stark tree by a lake description.
Those who sell products online are also missing out. Imagine a visually impaired customer listening to a listing about a dress that says: blue dress, the size and the price. I don’t know about you, but that description would not sell me a dress. If the seller said something like: Knee length, blue chiffon dress with three pearl buttons at the neckline and open sleeves, I would be much more interested in the product with a better description. Even worse, many online stores just have “dress” or “image 1” as their descriptions.
As a longtime member of the blind community online and off, I know that visually impaired users who use screen readers will often pass by posts that do not contain image descriptions rather than engaging with the author.
Talking about alt text
We all love to share our travel photography (myself included), and an image makes a social media post stand out from the crowd, but what if you can’t see the screen? In web design terms, alt text is meant to be used as a descriptor and placeholder with vital details about the contents of an image. This text is displayed in the event of an image load failure and search engines like Google index the contents of this field and factor it in when considering search engine ratings and viability for a website. Alt text should include the most important information about an image and should be no more than 125 characters to ensure compatibility with most common screen reader software. Any text contained in the image should be written out, especially if the text is a script or similarly difficult to read font. For sites like Facebook and Twitter, alt text is the primary way to describe an image for a blind or visually impaired user.
Things change
Social Media site features change incredibly fast. This information is current as of 2025, but be aware that the locations of menu items or the way you get to them can change. In general, when posting on any social media platform, click on the image you add to your post and look for either an alt or edit option. When you click those it will bring up the dialog box to add alt text.
Adding Alt Text is easy
Adding alt text to your photos on Facebook is simple, when adding a photo to your post click edit and you will be brought to the photo details page. Choose Alternative Text from the links on the left menu, this will open the Alt Text section. Here you will see an example of the alternate text Facebook adds to images, and an option to add custom alt text. Add your description and click save, that’s it.
Twitter (X)
On Twitter, when inserting an image into your post, choose the +alt button at the bottom of your image. Twitter will let you know about alt text, and on the next screen you can enter your image description and click done. Now that you know how to add alt text to your images let’s cover some basics.
Instagram is similar to Twitter when entering alt text. After selecting your photo and choosing your filter you are brought to the new post screen. Choose advances settings and then scroll down to write alt text
What if I do it wrong?
One of the most common questions we bet is “what if I add alt text to my post and I do it wrong?” The first thing to remember is that those who use screen readers are often provided bland or no image description at all as they scroll through social media. It is not uncommon for the screen reader to identify an image as “web image”, or “may be an image of a bridge” and the dreaded “no image description available”. If you take a moment to thoughtfully add alt text description that does not use “fluffy” language (poetic etc.) the experience the person using the screen reader receives from your content will likely be significantly better than having the system try and figure out what the image is.
We have found that photographers and other visual artists often gain a new perspective on their art during this process. Many mention that they notice things when creating descriptions that they would have not seen before. We maintain that the best person to describe an image is the person who created it. You know why you chose that image out of the others to show, and you know the parts of the image that are important to you as the artist.
An example
A black lab sits on the floor in front of the viewer. The floor is made of light colored hardwood and the dog is wearing an N95 mask.
Could you add more? yes. You could say that the dog does not look comfortable, or you could say that she has a resigned look on her face. The key is to provide a succinct but informative description without going overboard.
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