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Is Adding Photos and Videos in Social Media Worth the Hassle?

Snippet of M BOOTH infographic of power of photos and videos in sharing social media

M BOOTH Infographic Snippet

It should come as no surprise that photos and videos engage social media users more than plain text. Here’s an infographic of the results of data measuring engagement related to our favorite social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and more.

The use of an infographic, another popular visual media form, in telling this story is a great example of how to add interest using images to enhance text. If the article stated the results in numbers and text, readers would quickly lose focus and then move on to the next article that catches their attention. Numbers hold very few people’s attention and for many can be intimidating. When the numbers are explained in the form of a picture, whether photo or infographic, the image makes sense of the numbers for the reader.

Videos Shared Twelvefold

Videos drove the most engagement and were shared 12 times more than links and text posts. Again, this should surprise no one but it’s nice to have the numbers to back up the logic for spending time and money to produce videos. More telling would be an analysis of what kind of videos were shared, and an attempt to understand commercial success. The former is easy to categorize after some sampling, but the latter is more difficult to determine.

How do videos of specific lengths perform in sharing? How much of the videos are watched before sharing? Does music or sound quality play a role? Are the videos most likely to be shared personal or commercial in nature? Are they funny, serious, informative, or cat videos? This information would be very useful for small and medium size businesses to understand in order to produce the most cost effective and engaging videos possible.

The danger in a study with this data, is that tastes change quickly rendering results meaningly and even misleading. We also risk seeing cats in every FaceBook Page video. The point here, is to allow for some experimentation and don’t rely on only one video style to show off your business or personality. Make them fun and informative, but vary the lengths and settings enough to gage visitor reactions. Look for patterns of engagement using video insights, or analytics tracking. If a video receives a poor response, look for contributing factors such as what day and time it was posted.

Bottom Line

Bottom line: if you wonder if adding a photo or video is worth the inconvenience, it is. Just look at the infographic, or show it to decision makers who want proof, in a pretty format, why it’s worth the effort. Users share more when photos and videos are involved and that is a prime indicator that you’ve reached your audience in a meaningful way.

Find The Most Popular on Social Media

Fan Page List categories to filter searches

To the Point Logo

Using fanpagelist.com provides an easy way to drill down into who, and what brands, are most popular in social media. There are useful filters to find people and brands relevant to your industry. Use these results to find people and brands to follow. This shows your potential followers that you align yourself with the best. It also keeps you up-to-date with the key players in social media related to your field.

If your industry is small, or somewhat obscure, this might require a bit of digging to find brands of interest. Look for brands that are loosely related, and then see who they follow. This can point out great brands to follow that may not be sexy enough to make the big lists.

Trending on Facebook and Twitter

By hovering over Top Users, a second menu line appears below that provides links to Trending Facebook and Trending Twitter. Currently sports, celebrities, and some politicians are trending. These tools can indicate areas of interest that you may be able to use for content on your website, or your own Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Drill into the top trends

Search the Top Trending

It also provides an opportunity to study why someone might be trending. Some will be obvious and not relevant, like the VP running mate selection. Look for the hot trends that are surprising and click onto their page. What is the conversion like? Are their images and videos that are compelling and pulling in followers? How are they capitalizing on these new followers? Learn what you can from these real world examples and how you can incorporate what you learn into your own social media tactics.

Any Hidden Opportunities?

As you search around, you may notice areas that seem underserved. Maybe there’s an opportunity to enter an area as a test to determine if building an audience holds promise. Explore a bit more to decide if data might be missing, or if there’s a reason why no one yet has built their own following.

Travel news category has no FaceBook presence

Where’s are the FB Pages?

Does Klout Manipulate Your Behavior for Their Gain?

Klout tricks to suck you in

Forbes article screenshot

 

Anthony Kosner, in a Forbes article, claims that Klout purposely makes users feel bad in order to manipulate their behavior. He points out that when first signing up to Klout, your score is posted artificially low as it “gathers” information about you and slowly raises your score. In the meantime, users feel bad about their score so Klout offers ways to improve it by getting you do what they want.

He goes so far as to use the word “groom”, which conjures up the tricks that pedophile’s use to lure potential victims. Even the dictionary uses this as an example, see Apple Dictionary app definition of one use: “prepare or train (someone) for a particular purpose or activity: star pupils who are groomed for higher things…(of a pedophile) prepare (a child) for a meeting, esp. via an Internet chat room, with the intention of committing a sexual offense.”

What motivates Klout?

Mr. Kosner points out that,

Klout makes its money by collecting your data that it uses to help advertisers who want to promote their products using your social influence.

Considering that, who really benefits from you spamming your friends with your Klout invites and activity?

Read Mr. Kosner’s article for some tips on how to limit some of the pitfalls of participation. There’s a lot of good food for thought here. While it would be difficult to prove the ranking is doled intentionally to entice users into following Klout’s pre-planned behaviors, it’s very reasonable to believe.

It’s also interesting to see how the other platforms tend to manipulate as well. Facebook likes, Google +’s, Twitter followers, etc., are all metrics that encourage users to do everything they can get more of. It’s a game in which the platform gets the users to add content, data, and behaviors that they can later tap into for advertisers.

Pinterest Mobile and Mainstream

CNN ran the announcement that Pinterest released new mobile apps on the front page of their website today. There’s no better reminder of the importance of social media than seeing it covered so highly in the mainstream media. In case you’ve been hiding under an internet rock, Pinterest is a social bookmarking service that skyrocketed in popularity to become a social media powerhouse behind Twitter and Facebook. Yes, they just released an Android app, an iPad app, and a refresh of the existing iPhone app.

Announcing new Pinterest Android, iPad, and iPhone apps

CNN Pinterest Apps Article

 

The second interesting point, is that Pinterest held a special event as their press release, rather than an online announcement. According to CNN:

The summer-themed event featured paper lanterns, finger sandwiches and stations inspired by popular Pinterest topics — a polaroid photo booth with mustache props, DIY postcards, temporary tattoos and a design-your-own terrarium table with the ultimate Pinterest staple, mason jars…An in-person announcement is a departure for Pinterest, which typically rolls out features slowly and announces them on its blog. However, the shift to mobile and the gathering of people tied into its newest theme: using Pinterest to do more in the real world. “Our goal is to actually get you offline, to get you to go out,” said Pinterest co-founder and CEO Ben Silbermann, citing the large amount of do-it-yourself actionable content people pin on Pinterest.

Pay attention to this shift in “offline” thinking and how to integrate your message, product, or service to a mobile format. Go where your customers are. Take a look at the new apps to look at how Pinterest is managing this, and consider how to apply this in your business.

If your business, or an aspect of it, is a good fit for Pinterest then it should be a big part of your social media strategy. Pinterest is not perfect – with all the attention, comes spam. Count on the fact that at some point they’ll roll out filters to control it. As always, play by the rules of the platform you’re using and any future updates can only improve your standing.

Pinterest continues to get big time press and there appears to be no stopping it. The fact that they are recognizing the importance of “offline” content by going mobile, is a trend to consider in how you market your own business.