Mediaboss Marketing

The future of marketing is visual.

At least that's what about 3,000 marketers told online social media magazine Social Media Examiner in this year's Social Media Marketing Industry Report.

According to the report, marketers value social media marketing--especially visual marketing--more highly than ever before.

With 92% of marketers indicating that social media is an increasingly essential tool, there is also a growing trend towards using (or planning to use) visual content on more traditional platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Additionally, there has been an uptake in marketers using visually based platforms such as Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram.

Marketers are now looking to create original visuals and videos to engage audiences, and theres no question that marketers need to think about shifting their content strategy that way.

If you don't want to take my word for it, here are six findings from the report to back this assertion up:

One of the data points that quite surprised me was that marketers with longer experience in the industry rate the importance of visual networks, such as Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram, higher than their less experienced colleagues.

According to the report, marketers with less than 12 months experience with social media marketing select Facebook as their No. 1 choice of the platforms they use, followed by Twitter and LinkedIn.

For marketers who have been employing social media marketing for one to two years, Facebook and Twitter remain the top two choices. However, the use of YouTube rises from 37% to 63%, Pinterest rises from 32% to 46%, and Instagram from 15% to 26%.

When you start looking at the platforms used by marketers with more than five years experience, the move towards more visual platforms is even more marked. YouTube is now the fourth most popular platform with 74% of marketers active on it, while Pinterest is used by 66% of marketers and Instagram by 47%.

More here:
Why Marketers Love Instagram And Pinterest