5 Ways Businesses Are Using Visual Storytelling on Facebook

Are you looking for creative ways to use visual storytelling in your social media marketing?
Do you have a great story to tell, but you’re not sure how to share it?

Every company has a story to tell.

It could be anything from brand history to internal innovation to fun customer feedback. Unfortunately, few businesses share their stories effectively on Facebook.

In this article I’ll show you five imaginative ways brands are using pictures to tell compelling stories that generate engagement on Facebook.

Why Tell a Visual Story?

A picture is worth a thousand words. It’s a cliché for a reason. When you’re scrolling through the news feed, what catches your eye? Most updates are text, but Facebook users like pictures.

Posting images can help increase engagement and shares on Facebook. Photo posts account for 93% of the most engaging posts on Facebook. They can get 53% more likes, 104% more comments and 84% more click-throughs on links than text-based posts!

Are you using pictures to your advantage? Below are five examples of companies that are wowing their fans with visual stories.

#1: Use Clever Photo Collections

The American Express Facebook page strives to give a strong visual representation of the brand.

That can be a tall order for a service-based company. American Express rose to the challenge by taking photographs of related items, then sharing them with short updates that ask a question or evoke a certain feeling.

Recently, the freezing weather in the US has everyone talking. American Express shared this simple
 but hugely descriptive picture on their Facebook timeline.

American Express connects with fans through a simple image.

Not only does the picture convey winter and snow days, it also subtly includes an American Express card. To me, that picture said, “You’re probably having a snow day, but all you need is your American Express card in case you need to order pizza, download a movie or do some online shopping without braving the weather.”

The company used the same technique on December 23:

Interesting pictures and fun questions encourage Facebook engagement.

The post asked, “Guess whose holiday essentials these are?” It was a clever alternative to the in-your-face holiday posts that had been doing the rounds, and invited plenty of discussion and good-natured responses. Hey, doesn’t everyone need a credit card? Those reindeer vet bills sure do add up.

Tip: Photograph your product with everyday objects or in a live setting to tell a fun story or spark an emotional connection with your community. Take advantage of trends that are relevant to your audience to show how a customer could use your product.

#2: Create Stand-Alone Visual Campaigns

Sometimes a company’s marketing gimmick can take on a life of its own. Several years ago, UK-based insurance comparison site Compare The Market created a campaign around the idea that market sounds just a little bit like meerkat.

They introduced Aleksandr Orlov, a meerkat with a Russian accent and an aristocratic heritage. The campaign was a huge hit. Even though Compare The Market isn’t actually on Facebook, Aleksandr has his own page, with more than 800,000 likes!

The story of Aleksandr, his friends and his family (including the new baby, Oleg) is played out on this fun, interactive page, which drives traffic back to the company website with its clever use of storytelling and merchandising (a free meerkat toy with every purchase through the site).

Compare The Market uses Aleksandr Orlov, a meerkat, to share stories with its audience.

Tip: If you don’t have a mascot, why not tell the story behind your logo, choice of location or something else that makes your company unique? Marketing is not about B2B or B2C anymore, it’s about P2P (people to people).

Your fans want a human connection with your brand and your people. They want to peek behind the scenes and explore your culture, understand your mission and find out what inspires your innovation.

#3: Develop Community Around a Charity

Many businesses make a point of giving back to their community, but TOMS shoes goes much further. The company was founded on the charitable concept that for every pair of shoes they sold, they would donate a pair to children in poverty around the globe.

TOMS makes an impact on their fans by sharing pictures of those they’ve helped. It’s one thing to know a company has a strong charitable background, but seeing it helps fans appreciate the effect they’re having on the world.

TOMS gives their fans a connection to the people they (both the company and its fans) are helping all over the world.

Tip: Share your company’s passion with your fans. Every brand has a story about the inspiration behind the innovation or employees’ passion for company product(s). Use pictures to convey your brand’s core values.

#4: Incorporate Fan-Generated Content

The Starbucks’ Facebook page celebrates the most important people to the company: their customers. Starbucks posts Instagram photos from their fans to give a customer’s-eye view of the brand.

Not only is this a fun way to show customer appreciation, it’s a really clever way of generating fresh, relevant content that brings business and customers closer together.

Starbucks uses fan-generated content to show customers its appreciation.

When Starbucks shared the customer photo above, it generated a massive response with over 78,000 likes, 460 comments and 1,500 shares.

Using customers’ own photos to tell a brand’s story is an inclusive strategy and clearly resonates well with other fans. This authentic word-of-mouth is priceless.

Tip: Your customers are your greatest asset; make them feel like a valued part of your story by sharing their images. Ask fans to use a specific hashtag when they share photos of your brand so you can find them easily.

#5: Share Your History

Positive nostalgia fosters true emotional connection. Reflecting on your brand’s history brings a whole new dimension to your marketing.

IBM has an illustrious history of innovation and the company capitalizes on that by sharing pictures from their archives on their Facebook page. Some of the company’s most liked and commented-on posts are those that show how much technology has changed and how IBM led those changes.

Fans love to see how things have changed over the years.

Showing how your brand started, the challenges you have overcome and celebrating some of your best achievements can make your followers proud to be associated with you and all the great work you have done over the years.

Tip: Don’t bury photos from your past in offline archives. Use them to show how far you’ve come and the moments you’re most proud of. Celebrate those moments with your community and ask them to share their own memories.

Share your stories.

Your brand has some great stories, so why not tell them? Don’t settle for long text updates that get glossed over in the news feed. Tell your story with pictures and rich media so your fans connect with you. Customers who feel more connected to a brand display greater loyalty and are more likely to advocate for your brand.

What do you think? How have you used pictures to share your company’s story? Do your fans respond more enthusiastically when you post pictures? Share your comments below.

How Brands Can Leverage Holidays for Their Social Campaigns

Do you plan marketing campaigns around major holidays?

Do you need ideas for your 2014 holiday social media marketing?

From Valentines Day to Easter and beyond, holidays are an important time for brands to engage customers and promote products in new and exciting ways.

And holiday-themed storytelling is an especially great way to build and cultivate a growing and engaged audience.

Here are four ways brands use social media to create and promote holiday campaigns throughout the year.

#1: Show the Fun Side of Your Brand With a Holiday Vine

Because Vines show up in Twitter’s main feed, they’re eye-catching and easy for people to share across Twitter and Facebook. Marketers have been quick to adoptTwitter’s 6-second video looping app to show a lighter and more creative side to the brands they promote.

Home improvement store Lowe’s used Vine to animate everyday household tools to look like bursting fireworks and wish their followers a happy 4th of July.

Lowe’s has used Vine in a number of ways to reach their followers.

Use stop-motion video to bring your products to life in a quirky animation and send your followers a holiday message. It’s a simple and clever way to draw attention to your brand and celebrate a holiday.

#2: Promote a Dedicated Microsite Campaign With Twitter

Microsites are a great idea if you want to set up a central hub for a competition or event, but keep it separate from your main site. Once the event is done, you can easily close it down or remove links and then reinstate it later with minimal hassle.

But how do you let everyone know about your campaign if it’s tucked away on its own? Integrate Twitter functionality!

Cosmetics and beauty brand Sephora‘s Sephora Claus campaign proved hugely successful. On the microsite, fans were asked to wish for a Sephora beauty product and connect to their Twitter account to complete the wish. One wish was granted each day for 30 days.

All the wishes are collected on the microsite in the form of clickable gift tags, which look really stylish and give a fun visual twist to the page.

Requiring wishers to connect their Twitter accounts meant that the ‘wishes’ were visible across social media, which boosted engagement—a staggering 50,000 tweets were sent overall.

Sephora made user-generated tweets an integral part of their latest holiday campaign.

Build social media functionality into the holiday campaign on your microsite toensure visibility.

#3: Add Facebook Games to Your Annual Product Campaigns

It can be challenging to encourage engagement that makes your campaign visible to people outside your fan base. Adding a gaming component to your campaign is a surefire way to bring it to people’s attention who’ll spread your message to wider networks as they play.

Every year, Cadbury’s Creme Eggs are sold for a limited time (January 1 until Easter Sunday) in the run-up to Easter, and every year Cadbury comes up with a fun campaign to boost sales in this limited timeframe.

The Creme Eggs are so popular they even have their own Facebook page with an incredible 2.6 million likes, which shows how successful Cadbury has been at increasing online engagement.

In 2012, Cadbury capitalized on their massive fan base and used their status as one of the London Olympic Games sponsors to introduce the Goo Games as part of their annual Creme Egg marketing.

Based on real Olympic events, fans could choose from several games including ‘Pole Yolk,’ ‘Goodles’ and ‘Triple Bump,’ and were rewarded with virtual medals and real-world prizes. Participants in any of the Goo Games had to like the Facebook page before playing, which helped to widen the campaign’s reach and generate huge levels of sustained engagement on the page.

Goo Games created sustained engagement for Cadbury’s Facebook Easter campaign.

Visitors to the Cadbury site and Facebook page could also participate by sending in a photo of themselves “getting the goo out” of their own eggs by splattering them in original and funny ways.

Combine user-generated marketing with a high-engagement activity like an online game for maximum reach and visibility.

#4: Get the Most Out of Image Sharing With Pinterest Boards

Although brands still produce traditional TV and print ads, some of the biggest brands are putting their most creative input into their digital content. Image-sharing sites likePinterest are becoming the focus of some exciting new targeted campaigns that drive engagement, as well as website traffic and online sales.

When Target partnered with Pinterest last spring to pilot Rich Pins—pins that work like a catalog with prices and other product information—it resulted in a 70% increase in visits to Target.com from Pinterest.

This Thanksgiving, Target teamed up with one of the most sought-after event producers in the world, David Stark, to offer guests a first-of-its-kind party-planning resource on Pinterest with a board called Best.Party.Ever.

The Best.Party.Ever. board features David Stark’s “secrets to creating the perfect holiday party, from DIYs to recipes to unique decorating ideas,” as well as rich pins that make shopping easy and videos that show tips and ideas.

Target’s Best.Party.Ever. campaign used rich pins to drive holiday engagement on Pinterest.

Build up your campaign’s secret board through the year. Unveil it by making it public in the lead-up to a holiday and remember to move your current holiday-themed boards to the top of your Pinterest profile to increase engagement at key times of the year.

Conclusion

Forward-looking brands are putting social media at the center of their holiday marketing campaigns and taking advantage of themed campaigns to build up long-term loyalty.

When you use the tips in this article to make the most of frequent, relevant campaigns, you’ll benefit from increased engagement and a growing audienceas well as enjoy a greater online presence, increased sales and website traffic.

What do you think? Are you using any of these tactics to get noticed? Which will you try in the coming year? Please leave your questions and comments in the box below.