The rise of the ‘social’ photograph
Social media is becoming increasingly visual in nature and the photograph is fast becoming the centre of a large proportion of social media engagement.

A recent Harvard Business School study suggests that Facebook’s new Timeline layout has contributed to the fact that as much as 70% of all Facebook activity is based on photographs.

But Facebook is only the tip of the iceberg; Pinterest, a wholly image based social network, has taken the digital world by storm – it hit 10 Million unique users faster than any other site in history and continues to grow.

The increasing usage and popularity of mobile SmartPhones also means people are taking and sharing pictures as part of their everyday lives like never before.

Instagram is a photo-sharing programme that allows users to take a picture, add an effect or filter, then share it across a variety of social networks.

Now in the process of being bought by Facebook, Instagram went from 1 million users at the beginning of 2011 to 27 million in March 2012.

The growing importance of digital photo sharing to brands
In short, the use of photographs in a company’s social interactions directly increases customer engagement – that means brands ignore the phenomena at their peril.

Posts of Facebook that include an album, picture or video increase engagement by an average of 180%, 120% and 100% respectively*.

Our own experience running and analysing social media campaigns for a wide range of clients at Qube Media has shown a marked increase in customer engagement related to posts with photos in over the past two years.

Photos can help to reflect your brand without being directly sales related. Social networks differ to traditional media in one key respect – they allow two way conversations. This mean brands can ask their customers to share and contribute pictures with them, as well as publishing their own.

Photo sharing facts at glance

• Facebook has 850 million active users, with 250 million photos uploaded every day
• As much as 70% of all likes, comments and shares in Facebook are related to photographs
• Pinterest (a photo based social network) is the fastest growing site in history
• Twitter has more than 465 million accounts and in excess of 100 million active users, all able to include pictures directly into their tweets

Useful links

The Rise of the Visual Social Network (Infographic)
http://www.adverblog.com/2012/04/28/visual-social-network-infographic/
Great infographic showing the emergence of visual media, photos and video on the social web from Adverblog.

Will the rise of photo apps kill the written word?
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/blogging-and-content-creation/will-the-rise-of-the-photo-apps-kill-the-written-word/
Article discussing the rising importance of photographs in company’s social media presence.

48 significant social media facts
http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/04/23/48-significant-social-media-facts-figures-and-statistics-plus-7-infographics/
Facts and figures about the largest social media platforms and their current usage, from Facebook to Linked In.

*Source: The Rise of the Visual Social Network