2014 has seen a sharp rise in visual content especially on social media. A picture is worth a thousand words and it looks like businesses and social media users in general have finally realized that it’s the surest way to grab attention.

“Initially it was 1000-word blogs spanning an entire web page,” says Social Media Professor, Dr. William J. Ward. “Then we moved to status updates on Facebook which could consist of about 100 words. You would argue that 100 words were still too many for a status update but at that time it came as a huge relief. Later on micro-blogging sites, most notably twitter, shortened updates to only 140 characters and it felt like the best thing since slice bread. Now we are skipping words altogether as we move towards visual content!”

The shift towards visual content is being driven by shifting user tends

Unlike in the past where text was the most popular way of communication, users are discovering that there is more fun in sharing pictures on the go. In any case, isn’t it much easier to take a picture on the go and share it instantly on your smartphone than create a text to describe the same situation?

A 2012 research found that pictures shared by others are the most enjoyed by social media users. According to the findings of the research, forty four percent of users will interact with your brand if you are frequently posting fresh pictures.

63% of social media is made up images according to a Citrix report. This is about two-thirds of all content on social media. According to a 2013 report, more than half of all users who come across an image or video on social media will report or share it. The same report also indicates that content with visually pleasing images get 94% more views compared to those without and tweets with images receive 150% more retweets.

7 reasons why you should be including a few great images in your tweets

•Visual grabs attention– even if you didn’t intend to include a picture, you should consider doing so just for the increased visibility.
•Photos promise increased engagement– according to data released by Twitter earlier on, photos promise the highest levels of engagement. Pictures and image links now account for 35% of twitter engagement. Hash-tags, as popular as they are, only account for about 17% of engagement on twitter.
•Pictures can become the center of conversation- even where you have content made of images, videos, and text, the images will on most occasions become the center of conversation.
•Visual content may be used as an extension of your message– there are a few things that are almost impossible to describe in words. In such situations you can use images to effectively pass the message across.
•Consumers are clicking on images more than any other content– You’ll realize an increased number of visitors coming to your site. Of course you’ll first need to appropriately optimize your images for search engines.
•Images can be used to reinforce content– you can use the images as a visual aid to guide users through the rest of the content.
•Our brains process images much more quickly– the brain processes visual content 60,000 times faster than it processes text.

Summary

For best appearance in feeds, Brittany Leaning, Social Media Manager at HubSpot, recommends incorporating an image every 3 to 4 tweets. The best images are rectangular in shape, landscape oriented, and 2:1 in dimensions.