Krista Neher - Visual Social Marketing For Dummies

Visual Social Marketing For Dummies

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Copyright 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2013948032

ISBN 978-1-118-75348-4 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-77225-6 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-77226-3 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

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Chapter 1

In This Chapter

Understanding what visual social marketing is

Evaluating how visual social marketing can help your business grow

Benefitting from the efforts of successful social marketers

How visual marketing impacts social networks and websites

Building awareness of the legal issues surrounding visual marketing

As social media marketing has grown and evolved over the past ten years or so, an exciting trend that has emerged is visual social marketing. I've been involved in social media marketing since its inception and have noticed in the past couple of years the phenomenon of adding visual content to the social media marketing space.

Visual social marketing is powerful because visual elements allow marketers to create deeper connections via social media. The expression A picture is worth a thousand words indicates that humans can process a lot of information relatively quickly by looking at an image.

While recently examining trends related to tablet devices, I saw that Flipboard, a visual news application, was the most frequently downloaded app for the iPad. Pinterest, an image-based sharing site, was the fastest-growing social network. Instagram, an application for editing and sharing photos on mobile devices, was gaining in popularity (and was eventually purchased by Facebook for a billion dollars). At the same time, social networks such as Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and Twitter are all increasing the prominence of images on their sites. Also, studies have begun to emerge, showing that images on Facebook were generating more clicks and engagements than any other content.

All these shifts, plus video, now continue short-format video especially is growing in popularity. Twitter launched its Vine application, which allows users to share 6-second videos, and Instagram added video sharing to its popular photo-sharing application.

The growth in the popularity of visual content in social media is undeniable it creates an opportunity for marketers to connect with customers on social media in the formats that customers are most interested in. Savvy marketers are creating visual content on visual social marketing sites and existing social networks in order to break through the clutter and connect with consumers in a deeper way.

With the proliferation of the iPhone and other types of smartphones, creating visual content such as photographs, videos, and drawings is easier than ever. Technology is no longer a barrier to creating stunning images or videos that connect with customers. In this age, every individual and business has the power to create powerful visual content at their fingertips by way of the smartphone.

In this chapter, I explain what visual social marketing is and why it's a vital part of any social marketing or communications strategy.

In visual social marketing, you use images and videos to connect with consumers via social media. Visual social marketing can take place on visual social networks, such as Pinterest, YouTube, or Instagram, that focus primarily on sharing visual content, or on other social networks such as Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and Twitter.