We have been doing our class presentations on the various social media outlets and how they can be used effectively by public relations professionals. While doing my research on Pinterest, I came across an interesting article about the Visual Web and how it is influencing the virtual world.
The Visual Web is made up of websites that value pictures over text (think Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr). As many of us have discussed from our own experiences and what we have heard from various presenters, images tend to attract more traffic and generate more "hits" than lengthy, wordy posts. Looking at a picture takes less time and energy, which allows visitors to stay on the sites longer. Another positive of having so many pictures is that advertisements are less obvious. Many people have complained about the overwhelming presence of ads on Facebook, while Pinterest was having problems with their users seeing the ads at all.
It took some time before the tech world knew what to do with Visual Websites. They tend to attract the younger generations as well as women, however, they have begun to reach a broader audience world-wide. In the UK, studies of Pinterest have found that it is actually dominated by men, but this is not typical). What they are finding is that these sites are bringing in more ecommerce traffic, they are more lucrative, they have faster growth and more active members. This is probably what led Facebook to buy Instagram for a massive sum of $1 billion and Yahoo to buy Tumblr for $1.1 Billion. Pinterest is estimated at being worth $3.8 billion.
Seeing how effective using the Visual Web can be, how can public relations specialist re-think their way of interacting with their publics to incorporate these websites to generate more attention to their own business?
I, personally, think that companies will begin to use these websites more and conduct more research into how they can use them effectively. I think we are only beginning to know how to fully take advantage of these tools and I foresee them being utilized more than Facebook down the line. A picture speaks a thousand words, and I think, once communications specialists understand it fully, the Visual Web will become an important PR tool for all businesses.
Links to articles:
1. http://voyagegroupin.wordpress.com/2013/10/27/where-social-media-is-heading-its-time-to-invest-in-visual-web/
2. http://readwrite.com/2013/07/25/mindboggling-facts-that-will-make-you-care-about-pinterest#awesm=~olBrhTIdpHCChv
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