Why Visual Storytelling Is Crucial for Brands

Marketers take note: On Facebook, uploaded photos receive the most attention out of any type of post.

According to the social networking site’s data and Mashable’s Matt Handy, “Posts that include a photo album or a picture generate about 180% and 120% more engagement than the average post respectively.”

Each day, more than 250 million pictures are posted on Facebook. And a quick look at the new Timeline design makes it clear that photos are now the most prominent objects on the social site.

With the rise in popularity of infographics, Instagram, and the heavily visual social media site Pinterest, there is no doubt a hunger for visual content exists online. It was even found that “page views were 94% higher for pages with visual content than pages that contained only text.”

Handy suggests posting photos of customers using your brand’s products, just like Starbucks does on Twitter, for example. He also says that brands should “turn real-world interactions into shareable visual stories,” pointing out the fact that JetBlue held a nationwide campaign to get users to send in photos. Disney practices the same method year round by promoting photos of their fans at the theme park and giving them the option to create Facebook memory albums.

All of the data leads to the same conclusion: People value visuals. Thanks to HD, crystal clear graphics on the iPad, laptops, and cellphones, and the importance placed upon pleasing graphic designs on infographics, visuals are more popular online than ever. A picture is no longer worth a thousand words — perhaps it’s worth a million “Likes.”

Image courtesy of Flickr, Shermeee