SCIENCE… is the real reason visuals work in social media marketing.

People are wired to process and respond to visuals much faster than words. In fact, our brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than text.

Research shows that we retain only 10 to 20% of the information we read, but as soon as that information is paired with an image, our information retention skyrockets up to 65%.

In today’s era of content overload, the majority of people on social media want to consume information quickly and without the hassle of reading extensive text to get to the final point.

Reason the human brain craves visual content

Visual content is easy to consume and digest. The following statistics indicate the same:

… Around 50-80 percent of the human brain is dedicated to visual processing such as vision, visual memory, colors, shapes, movement, patterns, spatial awareness, and image recollection.

… Visuals with color increase people’s willingness to read a piece of content by 80 percent.  If you hear a piece of information, you might remember only 10 percent of it. Adding a picture to that results in a rise of recall up to 65 percent.  Posts inclusive of images produce 650% higher engagement than text-only posts.

… It takes only 150 milliseconds for us to a process and image, and then another 100 milliseconds for us to attach any meaning to it.

… People following directions with text and pictures do 323% better than people following directions without pictures.