Tips & Tools: Using Visuals on the Web for Your Org

As the Internet and social media continue to seep into nearly all aspects of our culture today, a visual revolution grows.

It’s no coincidence that web and social media content are moving toward fewer words and more visual representation. That’s because people are hard-wired to respond to visual stimuli. Visuals grab our attention, tap into our emotions, and move us to action in ways words can't do alone.¹ 

Consider these fascinating stats:

• By the end of 2012, 300 million pictures a day were uploaded to Facebook, and 40 million to Instagram.
• Ten percent of all the photographs made in the entire history of photography were made last year.¹

Here is an overview of the what and why of some of the most prominent photograph and video-sharing websites and mobile applications: YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and Vine

YouTube is a video-sharing website that allows users to upload, view and share videos. It is the #2 ranked search engine. Yet, it only searches videos within the YouTube site. So, it is a little surprising to find out that each day, more people are typing searches into YouTube than do so in Yahoo, or Bing, or any other search tool, beside Google. If you have a message you want people to find or to hear, it’s time to think video on YouTube.

Pinterest is the fastest growing new social media tool on the web. People now spend more time there than on Facebook.³ Pinterest functions like it sounds- as a pin-board for people to collect images. Users create and manage images based on themes, such as interests or hobbies. It allows users to browse other user’s collections and “re-pin” images or “like” an image. Pinterest will also collect YouTube videos as if they are images, so you can use it for both.

Instagram, although less popular than Pinterest, also packs a visual impact punch.  The mobile-only, photo share app received the Apple App Store’s App of the year in 2011.  Instagram can provide a medium for HBHE health campaigns or other HBHE professionals to communicate with tech savvy populations and younger generations in their preferred language. 

Vine’s six-second video snippet is Twitter’s means to tweeting brevity in visual form. Launched less than a year ago, Vine is already being used in many profitable and creative ways.

¹ http://www.resource-media.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Visual-storytelling-guide.pdf

² http://www.forbes.com/sites/capitalonespark/2013/03/14/a-pictures-worth-a-thousand-likes-visual-media-tips-for-small-businesses/
³ (P. Anderson, Personal Communication, March 22, 2013)