With platforms like Instagram and Snapchat taking the world by storm, it’s clear to see that images play a central role on social media. But if your business is yet to consider the use of images on social media, we’ve put together a few statistics that highlight their importance and provide some more insight into how they should be used.
First and foremost, let’s look at why you should be using images on social media in the first place. Above all else, it comes down to engagement. When scrolling through their newsfeeds, social media users are more likely to stop and read a post with an eye-catching image.
In fact, Buzzsumo found that Facebook posts with images got more than double the engagement compared to text-only updates. Elsewhere, Buffer found that Twitter updates generate 150% more retweets when they have images.
When you post on social media, you want new, existing and potential customers to take note of what you have to say. But is it going to stick in their mind? Perhaps not, according to molecular biologist, Dr John Medina.
According to Medina, people only remember 10% of information three days after hearing or reading it. With a relevant picture, that can increase to 65%. The takeaway tip is to make sure your social media posts are shared with relevant images, allowing users to naturally link to information and the image.
We’ve firmly established that images are great, especially on social media. But it’s important to get the right balance between images and text. Sharing images with little or no text defeats the purpose of sharing them at all – what’s the point engaging customers if you’re not saying anything? On the other hand, sharing too much text will simply lead to users switching off, even if a great image drew them in initially.
Thankfully, Buzzsumo have found a sweet spot when it comes to images and text. Studying over a million blog posts and articles, they found that those with one image for every 75-100 words got the highest number of shares. While this research was based on articles and the number of shares they get, it still provides a good rule of thumb when it comes to your posts on social media.
With the right approach, sharing images on social media can provide a huge boost for brand engagement and even sales. But it’s important that the images you’re sharing are on-brand and relevant. At iBase, we can make that a lot easier with an innovative digital asset management system.
Using our software, you can meticulously organise your images, making it quicker and easier to find the right files when required. Want to put it to the test with a free one-to-one demo? Simply contact our team.
