Social Media Icons on Chalk Sticks by Jamie Spencer (CC BY 2.0)
The digital era has seen an ever-increasing use of diverse sorts of visuals. Apart from visual-based social networks such as Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat, other platforms have also found still images, videos, infographics, memes and screenshots are being taken full advantage of.
What are the causes of the ubiquity of visual content on social media?
A majority of the population are visual learners
According to William C. Bradford (2011), 65% of people are visual learners. As such, for more than half of the population, getting news and acquiring knowledge through visual content is straightforward. On the other hand, they may have difficulties with text-based content only. For instance, social media users prefer reading a story with still or moving images to one without, thereby they can understand and memorize what they have read easily. Thus, the more eye-catching visual aids used, the more attention people draw on social networks.
“A picture is worth a thousand words”
A picture or a video is a convincing demonstration of what is written about. Not only does a visual tool bring out the meaning of written words, it also points out the writer’s implication that words solely may not carry. Take job advertisements on Facebook as an example, to attract potential candidates, recruiters often add to the text photos or videos capturing their staff working in a modern office and participating team building activities. The purpose of this is to approve employees enjoy working for the company due to its friendly and professional environment. As a result, via such vivid description, the number of job seekers interested in the job as well as the company will be increased. Also, in selling products online, visuals are a powerful tool to persuade customers that one’s products are quality and reliable.
People are willing to try new amazing things online
In recent years the creation of live-stream and 360-degree videos has contributed to the rise in users’ engagement on social media. Specifically, there were three times as many hours Facebookers spent on live videos as on traditional ones (Kant & Xu, 2016); and according to Magnifyre, there were 29% more users watching 360-degree videos than those with the same content in traditional format. Besides viewing such intriguing videos, users have enjoyed the experience of making interactive videos by themselves.
References
Bradford, W. C. (2011). Reaching the Visual Learner: Teaching Property Through Art. The Law Teacher, 11, 1. Retrieved from http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=587201
Kant & Xu, 2016, News Feed FYI: Taking into Account Live Video When Ranking Feed, 6 December 2016, < https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2016/03/news-feed-fyi-taking-into-account-live-video-when-ranking-feed/>
Magnifyre, 360-Degree Video Case Study, viewed 31 July 2017, < https://www.magnifyre.com/360-degree-video-case-study/>
Hannah's PhotoGraphic 