“A picture is worth a thousand words.”
Social media platforms today are all about visual content. Brands rely heavily on visual content to draw the attention of their audiences. These images can elicit emotions that then play a part in memory building and long-term brand awareness through social media marketing.
Visual content has a fantastic ability to trigger parts of the human brain that allows one to connect with content more than words ever could. Customers are more likely to purchase a product after having watched a video about it. Having access to social media platforms today has allowed brands to promote their product and services to their audiences in a visually engaging manner. Here are a few scientific facts that can help marketers with social media management when engaging their audiences:
1. The human brain
Our knowledge of the world begins from the moment we open our eyes. Humans can process and make sense of visual information. It’s known that we’re able to process and remember graphical images 60,000 times faster than text. So when developing a strategy or making content, don’t be afraid to throw in some infographics, gifs, video clips, and so on.
2. Colour & Movement
Rods and cones are two primary components in the eye that help capture visual information and send it to the brain to process. Cones help in capturing color, and rods are sensitive to movement.
Colour is known to be a powerful tool and can help elicit certain emotions as well. Humans today still have a positive and negative association with color. Though these associations might differ with personal experience, some can still be generalized. For example, associating green with nature or health, the color red with love and yellow with happiness, etc. When creating content, marketers shouldn’t be afraid to use color. However, it might be helpful to reference a color emotion guide!
Additionally, humans tend to keep an eye on a moving object once spotted until our brains can rule them out as a threat. Make use of animation videos and B roll footage when creating visual content! Marketers can use this to their advantage – including moving bits of information can help keep viewers engaged.
3. Keeping it simple
Despite being complex organs, our brains have a remarkable ability to break down complex information into something simple and faster for us to retain. Processing visual information requires less effort than when processing written information. Social media platforms have given people access to a lot of information. The key when creating content is to keep things simple and to the point in your social media strategy. Our brains work better when given easy and simple bits of information to remember!
4. Emotions
Human brains can pick up on two things – visuals and emotions. Humans are truly experts when it comes to reading facial expressions and emotions. Not only are we good at that, but we also can feel in three various ways- nostalgia, imagination, and empathy. We can think back and remember feeling a certain way, imagine ourselves feeling a certain way, and even feel what the other person is feeling. Using human faces in your content pushes your audiences to connect and engage on a higher level.
By using some of these pointers, marketers can engage with their audiences on a higher level which in the long run can do wonders for your brand in terms of recognition and sales.
