2012 is the year of visual storytelling

When it comes to telling their story, companies must remember that a picture says 1,000 words (Image credit: Jens Goeman http://www.flickr.com/photos/goesman/6767398821/)

You have to feel bad for mobile. 2010 was supposed to be it’s year, but it wasn’t ready for primetime yet. Kind of like Peyton Manning in his first season with the Indianapolis Colts when the team went 3-13 before going 13-3 and winning the division the next year. Then 2011 was supposed to be the year. We all heard the stats about 50 percent of the U.S. population having smartphones by year’s end. But the reality didn’t quite live up to the hype — kind of like the TV series Pan Am — so we were left with a “wait til next year” taste in our mouth.

Enter 2012, which I really do believe would finally be the year of mobile if it weren’t also already the year of Pinterest, Facebook Timeline for brands and Instagram. I mean, Ray probably would have won best picture at the Oscars almost any other year than 2004, when no one was going to take the stage away from Clint Eastwood and Million Dollar Baby. The same could be said for mobile, which is set to make a bigger splash than in any previous year, but likely won’t be able to outsplash the best “picture” for 2012 — visual storytelling.

Facebook’s role

Back in college, I had a journalism professor who said we weren’t just writers. We had to be storytellers. Talk about someone being ahead of their time. What’s interesting is that visual storytelling isn’t something that we heard about a lot in the past from the pundits before it emerged on the scene like gangbusters this year. If you think about it, Facebook actually started this trend last year around F8 by increasing the size of the photos we regularly upload to the platform and making them four times larger than they were before.

Have you noticed a difference in the type of content friends and brands are uploading to Facebook since then? And the type of content you are drawn to when looking at your news feed? I have. Images stand above and beyond the text and link posts now more than they ever have before. And research backs it up. Last November, eMarketer noted two different studies that show Facebook posts with images earn higher engagement rates than video, text only and link updates.

Like Zuckerberg or not…the dude is wicked smart. And this evolution of photo prominence in Facebook is just one of the latest examples. Zuck and team increased the size of photos in personal status updates last summer. Then they brought that feature to brand pages a month or two later. Toward the end of 2011, they increased the size of pictures in the Facebook viewer. And just last week they launched Timeline for brands and began to show how it’s going to change the way companies tell their story to consumers. The biggest change — you guessed it — is through visual storytelling. This great post by Shelly Kramer highlights it. And check out how AT&T and Ford are already doing it. Guess that Zuckerberg guy kind of knows what he’s doing.

Instagram and Pinterest effect

All is not lost for mobile in 2012. In fact, the mobile app Instagram has been right there with Facebook in leading the charge toward the “your story isn’t good enough without visuals” mindset I believe customers are starting to, and will continue to, adopt. You’ve likely heard the Instagram story or the eye-popping number of users — 25 million, adding up to 3,000 per hour.

But if you’re looking for factors that show the impact Instagram has had on how we consume visual content, consider these three: 1) Facebook recently made an update that allows Instagram photos to appear the same size as photos uploaded directly to the platform — If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. 2) Celebrities like Justin Bieber have adopted the platform as way to connect with fans and made it cool. 3) Brands like GE and Levi’s have deemed it worth their time and investment. Plus they see it as a way to show customers what goes on behind the scenes and give them a chance to be a part of that — and access is something we know people like to get from their social media use.

We can’t finish out the visual storytelling conversation without mentioning Pinterest. Let me start by asking this question…What’s the difference between Pinterest and Diigo or Delicious? Answer: Visuals. That’s it. Otherwise, all three platforms are used for content curation. Yet Diigo and Delicious never blew up like Pinterest has in the last six months.

Maggie and I were at brunch with a friend the other day. He isn’t the biggest fan of social media. But he starts telling us this story about his daughter. She’s home for the holidays and they’re sitting in the living room chatting — his daughter, his wife and him. A few years back, he says, this conversation might have been accompanied by a holiday movie on the TV. Maybe a little Jimmy Stewart and Clarence. But this year, his daughter is leading the conversation based on different pin boards she’s looking at. “Dad, look at this.” Have you seen this before, mom?”

He laughs as he recalls the conversation. But he quickly follows it up by noting at least they were spending some family time together. When you think about it, this story isn’t surprising either. I can’t tell you how many holidays my family spent at my grandparents’ houses huddled in front of the TV watching movies.

So what does this mean for brands?

Society responds more to visual stimuli and storytelling than any story we read in magazine or on a website. We always have. But now the visual stimulation is coming from all devices. And the same goes for status updates and content curation. It’s not enough anymore to live tweet from a conference or corporate event. Customers are now saying: “Don’t just tell me. Show me.” And brands better listen. Or 2012 will be the year they got left behind.

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