Talk of the rise of visual social media is everywhere these days. Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram each have an inherent visual quality that Internet users flock to. And between cover photos and Timeline, Facebook is trending visual, too. But who’s to say that embracing this new “visual social media” really drives Facebook engagement?
We dug into our Facebook posts from the past 7 months to see how visual post formatting affects engagement levels. Per Google Digital Marketing Evangelist Avinash Kaushik’s recommendations, we focused on three success metrics: applause rate (# of likes per post), amplification rate (# of shares per post) and conversation rate ( # of comments per post).
As you can see, our Facebook audience was far more likely to likely to applaud, amplify and converse about a photo versus a link.
- Photos received 5.58 times more likes than links.
- Photos received 15 times more shares that links.
- Photos received 7.07 times more comments than links.
Crafting Facebook messaging with photos
The stats certainly support photos when it comes to Facebook posting. Plus, as you can see below, a photo gets a bit more newsfeed real estate than a link.
Whether it’s a blog post, company update or an article you found elsewhere, consider using a visual format to share that message on Facebook. This means using images from the content itself (giving credit where credit is due, of course), or creating a custom graphic to communicate your message.
When you get to Facebook, rather than hitting Status, click Photo/Video and upload your image. Finish it off with a quick explanatory message and a shortened link.
Have you seen experienced success using photos to communicate with Facebook fans? Which types of images tend drive engagement for your page?
