Pictures have always been a way to capture moments in time that you and your friends can look back on. Now, with social media, the majority of those photo memories are instantly uploaded onto photo-sharing social channels such as Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Even your favorite brands are using photos to push products because they are easily consumed, transfer information quickly, usually require less reading and can project a great deal of information. Pictures allow users to visualize the story a brand is telling and garner more engagement than anything else on social media.
Pinterest and Instagram can be extremely valuable for brands that have visual products because images catch and hold the attention of shoppers by offering much more stimulating information than text. It’s like allowing your customers an opportunity to window-shop online. On Instagram alone, more than 150 million photos have been shared and at one point, users were uploading 60 photos per second on Pinterest. That’s not all; most of those photos end up being shared on other social networks such as Facebook.
Facebook holds the trophy for most uploaded images with 50 billion, cumulatively. A study by Harvard Business School estimates that 70 percent of all activities on Facebook – from “liking” and commenting to looking at friends’ content or uploading your own – revolves around photos. Facebook will rank posts higher and will serve more impressions if the post contains an image. The ability to extend the exposure of your message and increase your chances of that message reaching the target simply increases your chances of action on your message. And with the addition of Facebook’s Timeline, brands are able to make a bolder visual statement via the prominent cover photo feature and the ability to “highlight” a post, which doubles the size of the photo on your Timeline.
In all, it’s safe to say that images are one of the most powerful tools in social media. Facebook may agree, as they did just purchase Instagram for $1 billion.