Insights:Marketing Insights: A picture could be worth a thousand shares.

We’ve all heard the old saying, a picture is worth a thousands words. Which makes sense when you consider how much more and how much faster people learn by being shown something rather than having it explained. This is because 90% of the information the brain receives is visual and our brilliant brains can process visual information 6o,ooo times faster than text.

With all this background, you are probably getting the picture that using visuals within your social media marketing can dramatically improve both retention and sharing of your message. In fact, recent studies have shown that digital content with visuals get 94% more views and is 40% more likely to be shared through social networks.

But before you start posting a pile of pictures of cute kittens and goofy dogs, the key to using visuals online to improve your marketing results is being sure that the viewer understands the context and how your brand relates to the image.

Making sure the right visuals and content are served up together allows you to leverage the fact that interesting images offer stopping power and that people retain 80% of what they see versus only 20% of what they read.

Appropriate visuals for social media use aren’t just limited to photographs; they can also include a wide array of formats such as illustrations, videos, 3D graphics and infographics.

No matter what visual style you choose for your social media marketing, chances are you’ll see better results with carefully chosen imagery that supports your brand message.