Visual Social Media: Are You Moving Forward?

Social media is a valuable tool for your business, but if you’re still focusing solely on text-based content you may be putting yourself at a disadvantage. Over time social media has become more visually focused, which makes sense when you consider that 90% of the information transmitted to the human brain is visual. While it’s crucial that content as a whole must continue to be compelling, it’s just as important that it includes your relevant, appealing imagery to help you stand out.

If we take a look at the stats, content that includes visuals gets 94% more views than content without, and these include blogs and articles. When we focus solely on social media the statistics are even more mind-blowing with visual content being shared 40 times more frequently than other types of content including links, text-only posts, videos, and photo albums. Yes, you read that correctly – shared 40 times more frequently. And before your mind begins to wander, no, not just any image will do.

Graphics, photographs, infographics, and other types of visual media need to represent the message you want to communicate to engage your followers. We all know a photo of a puppy can be cute, but if you’re running a coffee shop does that really do anything for your business? Instead, try using images of your newest beverage offerings or even coffee alternatives so customers can bring non-coffee drinking friends and introduce them to your varied menu. Starbucks may be a corporate franchise, but even their marketing experts know that there’s no sense in overthinking, just have a look at their social content.

When it comes to your business whatever approach you take when it comes to your visuals it has to make sense and relevance is key.

If we dive a little deeper into some of the most popular social networks, we can see that Facebook posts accompanied by an image see 2.3 times more engagement than those without images, including 53% more likes, 104% more comments, and 84% more click-throughs. On Twitter tweets with images receive 150% more retweets than tweets without images. Essentially: visual social media is an engagement gold mine. As for other popular platforms Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat are all visually-based services, just furthering the point that if “content is king” in the digital realm, then visuals are queen.

If you want to take your visual social media even further – get creative. After all, 80% of content is shared, don’t you want to be in the 20% of content creators? Snap your own photographs, modify them, add text, create infographics, work with a designer for custom illustrations, and reach out to your marketing team for the things you can’t do yourself. By embracing creativity, you offer your consumers something the competition can’t – originality. And all while you’re benefiting yourself by increasing awareness of your own brand and engaging with consumers you’re also attracting new customers.

And never forget to highlight yourself. Tell the story of your brand, showcase your employees, even feature customers if it’s appropriate; find ways to vary your visuals so that you don’t fall into the trap of being repetitive or boring. As previously mentioned, this type of content doesn’t just appeal to your current consumers, it may be exactly what someone else needs to see for them to visit your business, buy your latest product/service, and become a new customer.

Over time we’re sure to see changes in the social media world, but for now visual social media is where the focus has shifted and every business owner needs to be mindful and take advantage of the trend.