Like a moth to a flame. Could there be a more perfect analogy for humans' innate attraction to visuals? I think not. If you agree with me on this, then you can easily understand why visuals have become so important to online marketers' content strategies, especially when you think about the increased emphasis social networks like Pinterest and Facebook are giving them.
Just consider the facts. According to HubSpot's own research, photos and images on Facebook generate 53% more Likes than the average post. Furthermore, Shareaholic recently reported that Pinterest is now the 4th largest traffic driver worldwide. These stats and more are highlighted in a new infographic from Socially Sorted, which features how the shift toward visual content in social media has developed, as well as six tips businesses can follow to leverage the power of visual content in social media. Check it out ...
(Click infographic to enlarge.)
8 Tweetable Stats
1) 44% of users are more likely to engage with brands if they post pictures than any other media. (Source: ROI Research) Tweet This Stat
2) As of 2012, YouTube now streams 4 billion online videos every day. (Source: Reuters) Tweet This Stat
3) In August 2012, Instagram (7,302,000) surpassed Twitter (6,868,000) for daily active mobile users, an 8.5-fold increase in 6 months. (Source: comScore) Tweet This Stat
4) Photos and images on Facebook generate 53% more Likes than the average post. (Source: HubSpot) Tweet This Stat
5) Pinterest is now the 4th largest traffic driver worldwide. (Source: Shareaholic) Tweet This Stat
6) In just 8 months, online photo editor PicMonkey averages 1.6 million visits per day and 4.3 million images edited per day. (Source: PicMonkey) Tweet This Stat
7) Over 80% of pins on Pinterest are repins. (Source: RJMetrics) Tweet This Stat
8) Engagement from Instagram users is as much as 10 times greater than other platforms. (Source: CEO David Atkinson, SumAll.com) Tweet This Stat
Ready to get moving with visual content? Check out this blog post to learn more about how to incorporate visual content into your various marketing channels.
Inbound Marketing Blog Feed
Photoshop actions 2:10 PM on December 19, 2012
Very informative. The industry is ever changing and Goggle leads the pack!
ande spenser 2:34 PM on December 19, 2012
Putting text into a jpg with a cute border around it is still text.
And it's really difficult to read on a smartphone.
I'm interested in what you might have to say here... But can you also post it as regular text? That way, us Gen-Xers who haven't yet gotten our reading glasses can find out WtF you are saying.
Also, those stats about how graphics are liked better than plain text posts are conveniently not mentioning that a whole lot of those text posts are teenagers complaining about school, their parents, each other... It would be a relevant statistic only if FB takes the *content* into consideration. Sure, pictures/graphics will generate more likes, because people don't usually bother to make a graphic that says "the lunch lady was so rude to me today", where they do enjoy seeing bumper stickeresque sayings and share those around.
In the 80s we bought buttons with cutesy sayings and wore them around for a while. In this decade, the FB "graphics" are the equivalent. That doesn't make it good for marketing.
On the other hand, people do like pictures of stuff I make and of the staff here, and especially illustrations to go along with blog posts. Actual photography, in other words, not just words in a box with a cute border. It helps them connect with us and get a running leap on what to expect from our store.
Pictures are important for businesses because a lot of people have that social shyness thing, a slight fear of going into a new place. Bringing it to them even on a virtual level can help them feel a lot more comfortable with the idea of stopping by.
onlinebz.com 8:50 PM on December 19, 2012
A very convincing post, especially the 8 tweetable stats. Love to share.
Susan Wayo 12:33 AM on December 20, 2012
There is an old adage that "a picture is worth a 1000 words." BUT, I'm finding this and most infographics are far too often worth 1000 head scratches rather than even one valuable insight or ah-ha.
Infographics are creative constructs that too often are more arty than communicative. What exactly is this infographic telling us? It isn't telling us that we're communicating more effectively with pictures and videos - only that we are using more graphics and video.
The fact is, picture can create more questions and confusion than clarity. And viewing videos can consume far more time than reading copy.
The key point I want to make here is really a warning: Visual doesn't necessarily mean clearer communications. As marketers have known for years, to communicate effectively you need to SIMPLIFY rather than complicate your message. In my opinion, most infographics - including this one - complicate rather than simplify.
Sprink Digital 4:48 AM on December 20, 2012
Great insight of Visual Social Media, These statistics shows that visual graphics are more powerful than text (at least in case of marketing, not sure about others), they are easy to understand, readable which provokes a user to look at it. Well, who would like to read a text based post if you have got an info-graphic which can elaborate all the things which are there in the text based post.
Nazmul Alam 5:39 AM on December 20, 2012
Thanks for this useful info graph which really appropriate in this holiday season. Specially Stats about Instagram and Pinterest, two relatively new players on social media which are doing great and connected businesses with the people and generate more leads than others.These success stories inspired us a lot and every new comers should take important lessons from them. And It's also a good blog about how the big players like Facebook and Twitter are doing now and offer new services for their fans and followers. All these stats and tips surely help people who are looking for social business ideas and appropriate channels for their businesses.
Gypsy 9:27 AM on December 23, 2012
It's a well thought out blog and I agree with the idea that infographics can really help get an idea across. However, rather than illustrating your point, the infographic on this page demonstrates exactly the opposite. It's complete overkill. I couldn't imagine trying to read it on a mobile phone (which is where I read most of my blogs). I ended up skipping over 80% of it because it took a simple concept and made it more complex.