They say a picture is worth 1,000 words. In social media this is very true – with words, as well as with 1,000 clicks, site visits, and other means of engagement. People absolutely love pictures – sharing, tagging, and posting them – to show that they have ‘been there done that’ or to flip to see what others in the world are up to as well.
The photograph, at it’s core, is the main (and simple) reason why Instagram is wildly popular and without question the fastest growing social media platform to date. Why? Photos are simple to ‘digest’ – users can view, understand, and engage easily. You can get users feeling familiar with you and your content, increase your brand personality, and portray information more efficiently and effectively. Photography even has an easier time evoking emotion than simple text does.
You can also utilize photos on Facebook and Twitter to boost your brand’s marketing campaign, recognition, and ultimately… your profits.
On Facebook, at the start of 2015 it was reported that around 70% of all business page posts were photos and, of that, almost 90% had engagements of shares and comments from fans, current customers, and potential clients. And, in the 140 character world of Twitter, photography is absolutely key in making your own noise in the consistent chaos of tweets. A tremendous example of Twitter photo engagement is an analysis I did of my own over a three-day time period with two different posts: one with, and one without, a photo.
I posted a motivational quote with two pertinent hashtags, but no photo. This post garnered 184 impressions, 10 total engagements, 1 retweet, and 3 favorites.
I then posted the same motivational quote with the same two hashtags, utilizing a photo that created imagery for the quote. This post had 5,617 impressions and 213 total engagements including 20 retweets, 52 favorites, and 18 profile clicks.
In summary, taking a few moments to create and then upload a photo to post on your social media stream will gain you more likes, comments, shares, retweets…more engagement. So don’t be shy… be visual with your social media to see brand and business improvements!
