Social media and the power of images

The photo of the coffee and breakfast of the best friend, the vacation picture of the colleague or the video of the influencer, who is always in the gym at five in the morning. On social media, we are confronted with a flood of pictures and videos every day, which sneak into our everyday lives unnoticed on our smartphones. The picture is mostly nicely draped, considered with a filter and is supposed to entertain us. Platforms such as Instagram and YouTube are becoming the number one distraction and entertainment in the little everyday moments in which we are looking for a pastime. While waiting for the train, during lunch break in front of the microwave or even in bed in the morning if you don't want to get up straight away. It is precisely this escape into the world of images that marketing can take advantage of and gain new customers and interested parties with entertaining content.

Why information is no longer sufficient?

Especially with the change from print to online marketing, some maxims have changed. It is no longer enough just to offer as much information as possible and to publish long texts. The target group is often completely overwhelmed with this flood of text and retains little of the presented content. Since 90% of the processed information in the brain is visual information, this is also becoming increasingly useful in marketing. The motto “content is king” still applies here, but the focus is now on visual and online content, especially on social media. In visual content marketing, photos, infographics, videos or short clips are used to illustrate the information briefly and concisely and as simply and entertainingly as possible and to present the target group. It is important that the digital assets match the general company language, values ​​and corporate identity and round off the marketing mix. In addition, the target group and the place of publication should also be taken into account when making the selection. Graphics that are published on the company's website ideally differ in terms of format and tone from those on social media such as Instagram.

The social media and the pictures

The visuality of the content is particularly important on social media. The platforms Instagram and YouTube have already completely focused on visual content, here you can only communicate using pictures and videos. But also on platforms like Facebook and Twitter it becomes clear that posts with visual support are significantly more successful and bring with them almost twice the engagement rate as pure text posts. This greater interest and better reach also creates a better chance of reaching potential prospects and increasing the conversion rate of the contribution. Social media also offer the advantage of publishing both paid and unpaid contributions. The distribution of graphics on your own page is less classified by the followers as advertising and is therefore viewed less negatively than advertisements on external accounts or paid contributions. With the correct use and creation of relevant content, it can also be achieved that prospective customers and followers voluntarily share the pictures and videos or that collaboration with influencers is possible and thus an even greater reach can be achieved.