If you think back to the last time you were on social media, you are more likely to recall an image or a video you saw on the platform rather than a post you had to read. This psychological phenomenon is referred to as the “Picture Superiority Effect,” and it’s rooted in the science of the way people engage with content online.
While it is true that people are hardwired to engage with imagery, many marketing agencies feel that well-designed social media content can help people remember what they are engaging with well beyond their initial impression.
Companies that rely on social media content to funnel their engagement with products, people, and places understand that social media users interacting with content on websites is an important facet of business. Billo, a creator marketing company, strives to help companies advertise through user-generated content, all while helping them understand how images and videos engage users online.
Imagery as an entryway to engagement
For many people on social media, images are an entryway to engagement with almost any type of content. This could be the image accompanied by an article, a video shared by a news network, or even several snapshots one sees on a social media platform.
Photos and videos create immediate emotional connections with an audience, and communicate feelings such as joy, nostalgia, or inspiration, which further drives user interaction and even memory retention.
Images and videos don’t stop working after they have been seen by a single user, however. The interactions that occur upon them, whether they be comments or reactions such as likes, trigger social media algorithms to treat the content as valuable. As a result, they push that content out to additional people.
How marketers can utilize images for engagement
Social media marketers can utilize imagery in a variety of ways to trigger engagement across platforms, some of which include:
Prioritizing authenticity by using real photos of a team, products, or customers to build trust.
Telling a story through visual narratives, which can help take the consumer on a journey.
Leveraging emotional connection to build stronger brand bonds.
Implementing “Social Selling” visuals through reels and carousels to showcase products as they are being used, rather than just static shots.
While tactics vary depending upon the organization and what is being advertised, including whether it is in a newsletter, on social media, or on a website, understanding how content relates to a viewer is an important part of knowing how to communicate effectively with them.
How brands are utilizing UGC sourcing platforms to build content
Platforms like Billo aim to be a place where brands can source creator-made video for social media ads. However, the platform now positions itself as a full creator marketing stack, with a single, data-fed network that covers launching, testing, and scaling video ads.
Through their CreativeOps layer, the company strives to help brands understand why certain videos perform better than others, and how they can repeat that success through the proper planning of scripts, storylines, and ad variations. Their tools aim to answer the question of knowing what will work on social media, rather than relying directly on intuition that may or may not be measured by real data. This can help brands see which styles of videos, hooks, and messages have moved more viewers toward a purchase.
At a time when viewers are increasingly being engaged by static images and moving video content, companies need to understand that there is no going back to the old ways of the past. The rise of image and video content has set a certain expectation, and those who fall behind may see losses in their business, in their advertising, and in their overall sales trajectories.
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