Brands

Why the Best Brand Storytelling Is Visual [INFOGRAPHIC]

By Kylie Jane Wakefield

One of the best ways to foster customer engagement online is through storytelling. Combine that with visuals, and marketers have hit gold.

On Facebook, videos are shared 12 times more than text and link posts combined, and photos are liked twice as much as text posts, according to a new infographic by SimplyMeasure and M Booth.

This year has been huge for visuals on social media. In 2012, 700 YouTube videos were shared on Twitter every minute, Facebook introduced Timeline, which showcases videos and photos, Instagram grew by 10 million users in 10 days, and it was found that Pinterest users follow more brands than those on Twitter or Facebook.

Thanks to social media networks, content is now becoming focused on visuals rather than text. To keep up, Marketing Prof’s Nick Westergaard recommends hiring professional photographers in order to keep the imagery interesting.

Hunter Public Relations says that brands should be creating and curating visual content, whether that means posting on Facebook or holding a photo contest on Pinterest. Brands can also produce and encourage fans to make their own humorous memes that center around the company. “The rise in popularity [of memes] showcases consumers’ love of sharing funny things with their friends, but it also highlights a desire to co-create content with likeminded people — and brands. When consumers participate in the creation of visual content, everyone wins.”

Digital strategist Justin Goldsborough emphasizes that if marketers want to be part of the conversation, they must start visualizing their content.

“Society responds more to visual stimuli and storytelling than any story we read in magazine or on a website,” he says. “And the same goes for status updates and content curation. It’s not enough anymore to live tweet from a conference or corporate event. Customers are now saying: ‘Don’t just tell me. Show me.’ And brands better listen. Or 2012 will be the year they got left behind.”