Video vs Image: A Battle of Engagement
Visual graphics whether video or images, both are very essential when it comes to engagement. Both are able to generate a big amount of engagement in comparison to standard text posts. When it comes to social media marketing you can really rely on these two. But one thing that bothers marketers is which one to use to gain more attention.
Well, both come with their own advantages and disadvantages. But you can choose one without testing them out in the practical world. You can not just read some research report and thing that the same will work for you. TBH, it does not work like this. Social media experience is different for everyone. A strategy that works for someone, might not work for you. This experience changes with respect to the company, the audience, and the objective of the company.
Let’s dive deep now to understand how strong these two are in catching the eyes.
Images on Social Media
Photography, it is one kind of social post that was brought to life by Instagram. Instagram promoted photography with its editing and photography tools and features. When Simon Rogers was at Twitter, he did research on approx 2 million accounts. He found out that adding an image to a tweet increases its retweets by 35%. This research is quite old but this much big data is still helpful.
On Facebook, an image increases engagement by 2.5 times compared to posts without images. Most of the time social media is used on mobile phones. This means screens are vertical and content also needs to be the same.
One downside about an image is, sometimes it needs explanation. When you go a little creative, it becomes hard for some users to understand it. For that, you need help from a caption or text on the image. As this text content is introduced, the engagement goes down. Images need to be made carefully with a perfect balance between text and visualization.
Videos on Social Media
What I just told you about as a con for images is pros for videos. When you want to explain something to your audience, videos are the best option out there. No need to write big captions, all you need is an attractive yet simple video. As videos come with an option to add sound to it, explaining and engaging becomes easy.
Facebook also prefer videos that can be understood easily. Research from Facebook shows that 47% of the value in a video campaign is delivered in the first 3 seconds. Third-quarter is delivered in the first 10 seconds.
That means you need to grab the eyes of your audiences in the first 10 seconds. Try to put interesting content in that first section of the video. Also, try to introduce your brand in the early part so audiences get introduced to it. The boost a video makes for you is 28% in comparison to the posts without videos.
But one problem is that not everyone likes to watch videos. People usually use social media to pass the time like while using public transport, waiting for someone somewhere, break time at the workplace or else. So when it comes to a video, they usually scroll it because they don’t have earphones or not at the right place to play a video.
Also, The cost of making a video is higher than creating a simple image. A user spends at least 5 sec on a post. In this time period, you can explain a lot by video than an image. Still at the end choice is yours as you also have to take the measure of the budget too. You can use both kinds of content in a time interval. Try to learn how this is working for you and apply that knowledge to your campaign.
All the best.
Visual graphics whether video or images, both are very essential when it comes to engagement. Both are able to generate a big amount of engagement in comparison to standard text posts. When it comes to social media marketing you can really rely on these two. But one thing that bothers marketers is which one to use to gain more attention.
Well, both come with their own advantages and disadvantages. But you can choose one without testing them out in the practical world. You can not just read some research report and thing that the same will work for you. TBH, it does not work like this. Social media experience is different for everyone. A strategy that works for someone, might not work for you. This experience changes with respect to the company, the audience, and the objective of the company.
Let’s dive deep now to understand how strong these two are in catching the eyes.
Images on Social Media
Photography, it is one kind of social post that was brought to life by Instagram. Instagram promoted photography with its editing and photography tools and features. When Simon Rogers was at Twitter, he did research on approx 2 million accounts. He found out that adding an image to a tweet increases its retweets by 35%. This research is quite old but this much big data is still helpful.
On Facebook, an image increases engagement by 2.5 times compared to posts without images. Most of the time social media is used on mobile phones. This means screens are vertical and content also needs to be the same.
One downside about an image is, sometimes it needs explanation. When you go a little creative, it becomes hard for some users to understand it. For that, you need help from a caption or text on the image. As this text content is introduced, the engagement goes down. Images need to be made carefully with a perfect balance between text and visualization.
Videos on Social Media
What I just told you about as a con for images is pros for videos. When you want to explain something to your audience, videos are the best option out there. No need to write big captions, all you need is an attractive yet simple video. As videos come with an option to add sound to it, explaining and engaging becomes easy.
Facebook also prefer videos that can be understood easily. Research from Facebook shows that 47% of the value in a video campaign is delivered in the first 3 seconds. Third-quarter is delivered in the first 10 seconds.
That means you need to grab the eyes of your audiences in the first 10 seconds. Try to put interesting content in that first section of the video. Also, try to introduce your brand in the early part so audiences get introduced to it. The boost a video makes for you is 28% in comparison to the posts without videos.
But one problem is that not everyone likes to watch videos. People usually use social media to pass the time like while using public transport, waiting for someone somewhere, break time at the workplace or else. So when it comes to a video, they usually scroll it because they don’t have earphones or not at the right place to play a video.
Also, The cost of making a video is higher than creating a simple image. A user spends at least 5 sec on a post. In this time period, you can explain a lot by video than an image. Still at the end choice is yours as you also have to take the measure of the budget too. You can use both kinds of content in a time interval. Try to learn how this is working for you and apply that knowledge to your campaign.
All the best.
