Winning in today’s competitive digital space requires creating content that generates conversations around your brand. This explains why brands the world over are designing social-specific content – to drive higher engagement. Thismoment unearthed some interesting studies which indicate that increased visual content (Videos, Photographs, Live Streaming, User Generated Content) is the direction where social media marketing is headed in 2012:
- +65% consumers enjoy interacting with visual content online (ATYM Market Research).
- In 2011, YouTube reported 48 hours of video uploaded every minute. Which is why most brands today consider YouTube as a crucial content marketing channel.
- The recent launch of Facebook’s Timeline means brand pages will be more visually appealing than before.
Brands today understand that content marketing isn’t just about text. Visual content (like Videos, Photographs, Live Streaming and User Generated Content) is finding its way into not just campaigns, but also into brands’ social pages.
The Relationship between Visual Content and Engagement
The short attention spans of global audiences on social media make it harder for brands to attract and keep people on their social pages. This is why we think powerful visual content is the first step to successful engagement.
- Think Visually: Consumers are likely to spend more time on brands’ visually appealing Facebook pages or watching videos than sifting through heaps of reading material. For marketers looking to establish long-term relationships with consumers, we recommend videos, photographs and visually spruced up social media pages. Once they have their audiences’ attention, engaging with them and eventually converting them into customers is much easier.
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Balancing Text and Visual: Overloading your brand’s social pages with more text than audiences can digest, lowers engagement opportunities. The Garnier Canada YouTube Channel, for instance, shows how marketers can resolve the text vs. visual dilemma by designing their social pages in line with their brand’s objectives. The YouTube page focuses more on photos and videos showing people using the company’s haircare products. Having understood that their target customers want to “see” how to style their hair rather than “read” about it, we think Garnier has got this one right. Conversations and interactions? Check out the conversations tab to see how enthusiastic fans are engaging with the brand.
Selecting the Right Channels and Managing Your Visual Presence
- The Must-Haves: Irrespective of what social channels you choose, we strongly recommend including YouTube and Facebook in the ‘must-haves’ list.
YouTube with + 4 billion views and Facebook with +840 million users, are great platforms for brands looking to engage using visuals.
- Facebook: The cover image posted on top of the brand’s page is great for featuring frequently rotating campaign specific images. This will help users decide whether or not they want to stay on the page/ engage further.
- YouTube: Today’s social consumer would rather watch informative videos than read something. The viral nature of YouTube means brands have better chances of surpassing geographical boundaries, reaching and engaging with audiences globally.
- Managing Visual Content: Managing brands’ visual presence on multiple social channels can be challenging. This is especially true in case of brands that post company-generated content and encourage UGC in form of photos and videos. By using content management systems like Thismoment’s DEC, brands can deploy and manage company-generated as well as user-generated visual content from one place. Once managing campaigns becomes easier, brands can then focus on engagement instead of getting overwhelmed with too much to handle.
The Road Ahead…
Facebook’s Timeline and YouTube’s recent revamp mean increased opportunities for marketers to incorporate visual content into their campaigns and brand’s social pages. The fact that powerful visuals can hold audiences’ attention long enough to encourage engagement with the brand and then convert them into customers, means brands will be partial to visual content in the future. After all, more visual content equals more engagement, which means more conversions and sales.
- Shama Ahmed
Thismoment
