The power of visual communication has rocketed with the rise of digital and social media. Businesses are increasingly using stock images to build and entertain their audience.
One platform where images are a powerful tool for communicating your message is Twitter, in the last 12 months Twitter has transformed itself from a text only platform, to one where media is king.
Originally focussed on 140 text characters, Twitter has under pressure from other platforms such as Pinterest evolved to allow images, videos and GIFs to be embedded into a tweet. These images can be viewed in the twitter timeline and enlarged without leaving the platform.
The Power of Images On Twitter For Businesses
Businesses are able to gain traction on Twitter by creating content that promotes their brand message and the products they sell, whilst encouraging users to share their content.
This means that brands create a mix of content related with the aim of having it shared so that other users will view it and decide to follow their brand.
This then builds a bigger audience for when a company tweets something promotional or related to a specific product offering. Allowing images onto Twitter timelines, has meant that businesses need to create interesting and visually striking content in order to get noticed.
Research has shown that images on Twitter are twice as likely to be retweeted as plain text posts, making images a very powerful tool for marketers.
How Are Stock Images Being Used On Twitter
Images are being used by businesses to set a scene, add context, inform or entertain the audience. . Images do not have a character limit; they can also be used to convey more information within a solitary tweet.
There are a range of different ways that businesses are using to do this.
- To entertain using quotes, memes or other images
- To share large amounts of information via infographics
- To add additional context to a tweet
- To promote blog content
- To showcase products/services
- To showcase the companies story, where it is, who it is etc
- To highlight events the company has attended or taken part in
Each business will use a variety of these image types to tell its story and encourage their followers to share their content. The key is finding the right images and sharing them to your audience on the right platform.
