11 Nov It’s said a picture is worth 10,000 words…
Picture this though..
We prefer to consider this quotation attributed to Ivan Turgenev which really needs no further explanation
“The drawing shows me at a glance what would be spread over ten pages in a book.”
It is true, we won’t try to explain it but we are going to explore the power of visual information when it comes to your digital story and the impact of your brand.
Visual Memory
There is nothing like a collection of photographs to stir our emotions.
A picture can represent joy, innocence, despair, curiosity, and undying perseverance within all of us – our memories are locked in as picture, if you left your keys somewhere you ‘picture’ what you last did with them.
No matter who we are, it is these emotions that unite us.
Think of a group setting. It is the visual of the ball going into the goal that stimulates elation or disappointment (depending on your team) among a group of strangers– it’s what makes us human. The memories stirred by a family looking at a photo album – we see the picture and discuss the memories contained within.
Visual Creatures
We are visual creatures, 30% of our brain is engaged with processing visual information. That is x5 times more engaged than touch and x10 times more than just hearing content – this is why story telling is about ‘painting a picture’.
Naturally this visual ability carries over to how we communicate socially.
Images play a crucial role in the world of social media marketing. You’ve heard it time and time again: a post with visual content will garner more engagement than its text-based counterpart.
When people hear information, they’re likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of the information three days later.
This is known as the Picture Superiority Effect. It refers to the fact that people are more likely to remember concepts when they are presented as pictures rather than as words.
Social Media Interests
Did you know that visual content is more than 40X more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content? (Source)
[bctt tweet=”46% of people say a websites design is #1 criterion for judging a company’s credibility #WhatsYourStory?” username=”SquarevMedia”]
Or that articles with an image once every 75-100 words got double the number of social shares than articles with fewer images? (Source)
Here’s a statistic that will have you checking your website design:
Click for full Infographic on The Importance of Visual Content
You only have to consider the growth in visual social media platforms like Instagram, Snap Chat, Pinterest to get an indication of how much value people place on images. That’s not to say that these platforms are necessarily the right fit for your business model – but you can not ignore the power of using images on your website, in your blogs posts, your tweets and Facebook updates.
[bctt tweet=”Eye-tracking studies show internet readers pay close attention to information-carrying images. ” username=”SquarevMedia”]
It is true though I could have used an Infographic to get this information to you in an easy to assimilate format without lots of words!
Eye-tracking studies show internet readers pay close attention to information-carrying images. In fact, when the images are relevant, readers spend more time looking at the images than they do reading text on the page.
So next time you are writing a digital story don’t forget the power of the picture. Let the pictures do the talking!
Feel free to Contact Us for more information or help on developing your business picture.
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