Posts on Facebook that have images have a higher engagement rate according to Buffer, with those posts bringing in 34.7% more engagement than text-based posts. If you have an Instagram account, you also absolutely need a graphic or video just to be able to post – meaning those photos could be gold for your business if you have news to put on your social media but no photo to go with it.
Using evergreen photos for news releases is a major way to utilize those photos, but here are a few other ways holding on to photos can bring viewers to your page.
1) Popular Industry Days
Depending on your industry, there may be certain days where many accounts post the same thing – so lean into that. If it’s something that happens often, it’s almost guaranteed followers will be engaging with posts that follow the theme.
For example, if you’re a breeder and have foal photos you already have a post for every Friday. Foal Friday is popular in the equestrian industry and also gives you a chance to promote your business as well. Some stallion farms use Foal Friday to show off foals by their young stallions, while breeders may show photos or videos of foals out of their mares.
The best part about trends like these is that you can plan for it weeks in advance. It doesn’t hurt to see what other businesses do for the day, but don’t let that affect the vibe you’re going for too much. If you want to make it more of a joking post, don’t be turned off of the idea if you find a mix of both serious and joking posts when researching ideas. As always know what your goal is with the post and go from there.
2) National and International Days
Did you know that there are organized national and international days? For example, earlier this month March 1 was National Horse Welfare Day and March 8 was International Women’s Day. You can find a calendar of the United State’s National Days here and International Days acknowledged by the United Nations here.
While many days may not relate to your business or seem too silly to celebrate, if they fit in then definitely use one of those photos or videos you’ve taken to make a post. Popular days are often leveraged by other businesses enough that it will have the algorithm showing more of those posts, even to people who don’t follow a page – bringing you a potential new audience. As an added bonus, you can also use relevant days to either introduce or reiterate your company’s values. Believe strongly in supporting veterinarian medicine? April 26 is your day to share why you feel it is important and spread awareness about the cause. There are plenty of opportunities in this category to match your media to or even give you an excuse to have a new photo shoot.
There are also plenty of opportunities to use sillier photos you have for these days. For example, this coming Wednesday, April 2, is National Ride Your Horse to a Bar Day. You can showcase a less serious part of your business’s personality by posting about this day and create a fun post that will put a smile on your followers’ faces.
3) Educational Posts
Do you like making educational posts for your followers? The sky is the limit with those photos you have sitting in your phone. Educational posts that also include an entertainment component (such as sharing tips or industry insights) are called edutainment posts and are incredibly popular on social media. According to Sprout Social, two-thirds of social media users find these posts to be the most engaging content from brands.
Just one example of an edutainment post is a Transformation Tuesday post.
This is one I do for clients and for my own business occasionally because they’re not only informative, but also interesting to look back on. A recent one I created for a client showed one of their most promising horses going over his first hurdle last February and then schooling almost exactly a year later.
If you don’t have photos of the same thing over an extended period of time, then finding a topic you can talk about relating to a photo or video is also a good way to go. When I ran Amplify Horse Racing’s social media, I would use photos I had saved to run a spotlight on certain careers or to talk about a piece of tack or something else related to the Thoroughbred industry. Below is an example of one of those posts.
4) Updates
Does your business have an update that relates to something you have a picture of but don’t know how to use? Or is a popular horse on your farm celebrating a birthday? Run with it!
Birthday posts are always popular, but you also can’t go wrong with posting about a big winner’s relatives (or the horse themselves, if you worked with them and have a photo). If a horse won a big race or show and you have a picture of a relative, post it. People absolutely love seeing current photos of big winners’ dams and siblings, especially if one of the subjects is a foal. This is also the perfect time to advertise plans for the foal or yearling if you’re aiming at the sales or if the horse is actively for sale. If that big winner was raised at your farm, dig back into your archives and find a picture of them. This is your perfect opportunity to promote your business and showcase what you can offer to potential customers.
We only have one birthday today, but it’s a big one.
Everyone is celebrating Old Friends Cabin Creek resident COMMENTATOR, who turns 24!Photo © Laura Battles
— Old Friends Farm (@oldfriendsfarm.bsky.social) March 27, 2025 at 8:38 AM
5) Throwback Thursdays
The tried-and-true Throwback Thursday will never get old, even if you’re throwing back to a more recent time.
People also like to post for Wayback Wednesday and Flashback Friday, but Throwback Thursday is the most popular of the group so your leverage will be highest on Thursdays. Studies have shown that Throwback Thursdays often boost engagement and reach for a page – especially if you have some fun with it or use it to show the history of your brand.
But don’t just throw up a photo and call it good. You need to properly plan for a Throwback Thursday post, make sure you use the #TBT or #ThrowbackThursday hashtag, and come up with creative text that fits your goal.
“To see him come out and do that under penalty, it’s a nice performance. He’s done it well.” – @HarryFryRacing1 #ThrowbackThursday to Sherminator winning for Riverdee at Taunton last week to stay undefeated over hurdles.
Learn more about him👉https://t.co/DmZyMPAX18 pic.twitter.com/fYzrVJ4XN4
— Riverdee Stable/Clancy Bloodstock (@RiverdeeStable) March 20, 2025
While putting a lot of thinking into your caption goes for any of the five ideas here, it especially goes for Throwback Thursday posts. Those post may be getting added reach, thanks to the popularity of the day – but that means that you can easily lose people if your caption and photo aren’t engaging enough.
That not only could lose them for that post, but keep them from coming back to your page as well. The downside may sound scary but the potential reach and engagement you may get outside of your normal audience is well worth putting in the effort to make this post stick in peoples’ minds.
If you aren’t sure where to start with your social media or photography, Pyrois Media offers both social media and photography services. Email Melissa@PyroisMedia.com for more information. Have a topic you’d like to see covered here? You can also email your suggestion, and you could see it in a future blog!
“When I started the social media for Amplify Horse Racing in 2020, I was juggling multiple other jobs on top of building a growing nonprofit and trying to increase our online presence. I had a vision for the type of content I wanted to be sharing, but neither the time nor the knowledge of strategy to execute on it. Melissa and I had met in passing at various horse events, but it was another client of hers who officially connected us and recommended her to begin overseeing our social media. Melissa has been instrumental in providing advice and guidance while carrying out my vision of delivering educational social media content. Since then, Amplify has grown into a national youth organization for the Thoroughbred industry, and our social media channels have been an instrumental part of reaching our target audience with our messaging as an educational organization. I would highly recommend Melissa and Pyrois Media!”
– Annise Montplaisir, Amplify Horse Racing