There’s only one thing you need to understand when it comes to social media marketing, or marketing in general for that matter: a picture says a thousand words.
People have moved from blogs, to microblogs, to micro media blogs. Today, social networks like Instagram and Pinterest exist where the only way to communicate is through images and visual media. If anything, it just goes to show that words are not always necessary.
According to 3M and Zabisco, 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual in nature and visuals are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than plain old text. To take that a step further, Zabisco also says that 40% of people will respond better to visual information than text alone. It’s no wonder that photos on Facebook, or image based posts generate 53% more likes than the average content post.
What can you conclude from this? Having a wall of images or a news feed full of visual content may have become trendy in recent months, but it’s always been around. If you’re not using images to get your point across to your customers and followers, you’re doing social media marketing wrong. Here are some ways to improve your marketing campaign and strategies through the use of visual aids.
How Do You Implement Them?
How can you use images in your marketing efforts? The best way to extract engagement out of your followers is to offer them something in return. If you want your content or image to be shared by a lot of people, then you have to make sure it’s helpful and informative. Not only that, it has to interest your target audience directly – which means figuring out who fits in that particular demographic.
If you have a lot of information to portray such as facts, tips or how-to guides, then an infographic is certainly the way to go. If you just want to tease an upcoming product or build some hype, then a simple photo with an inline call to action will work. If you want to garner exposure, create an uplifting or helpful image with quotes that many of your customers will relate to.
Some other great ways to drive interest to visual content are to use tips, quotes, checklists, or even questions. Mosquito Magnet for example, publishes images to their Facebook feed offering funny and engaging posts about mosquitos. One such image states there are 100 trillion mosquitoes in the world, and each one of them is responsible for at least 5 human bites a day. That is exactly the type of content that will encourage others to share and engage with.
What Kind of Images are We Talking About?
Really, they can be anything from a mobile phone snapshot all the way to full scale professional big-budget advertisement. It depends on your audience, what you’re trying to say and where you’re sharing the content. If you’re sharing an image on Facebook, the network gives precedence to large, attractive imagery. That means you’ll want to use higher resolution photos, most likely captured with a professional grade camera. If you’re sharing the content on Twitter or Instagram, mobile captured photos will do just fine provided you include the right message along with them.
Ceramcor, for instance, has an Instagram stream dedicated to showing off healthy meals that can be prepared in their cookware. Even better, they offer the recipes for each meal to all followers. On their Facebook stream they offer more than just recipes and photos, they also provide information guides on cooking in general and using their products. You’ll notice the Facebook stream balances the mix between visual and text content, while the Instagram stream is, obviously, entirely about the visual elements.
Do Videos Count?
Absolutely! Videos are just another form of visual media and they are just as effective as images. Sometimes videos can be a bit more difficult to edit and put together, especially if you’re operating on the go from a mobile device. That being said, networks like Vine or Instagram allow you to quickly upload small clips which could very easily be implemented into your brand’s marketing campaign.
Bacardi runs a campaign on Vine dedicated to showing off how cocktails can be made with their drinks. Using the tag #sixsecondcocktail, Bacardi shows followers exactly how to make a great cocktail in – you guessed it – six seconds.
Be Innovative
To be perfectly honest, all the case studies listed above are just examples of what you can do when you really put your mind to it. The idea is to put together visual media content that begs to be shared all on its own.
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