According
to a Mashable article about a study made by Georgia Tech, people are more drawn
to pictures with faces in them. Over a million Instagram pictures were tested,
and the results were that pictures featuring a face were 38 percent more likely
to receive likes from followers, and 32 percent more likely to receive
comments.
The
article goes on to say that we are naturally drawn to faces, which makes
perfect sense. We like people and looking at people and reading about people. I
think that’s part of what makes social media so successful. It allows us to
interact with people without ever leaving our couch.
I
checked out my own Instagram, and noted that I have received the most likes on
pictures of myself and my friends, even though only about 25 percent of my
photos have people in them. I’m not one to take selfies and post them for no reason.
It is interesting that faces
inspire more likes. I do seem to stop more often when there are people in the
pictures while I am scrolling through Instagram on my phone. I want to see who
they are with and what they are doing.
I think this discovery is important
for businesses and their social media strategies. It would be easy to assume
that an ad on Facebook with an image of a person vacuuming rather than just vacuum
would cause a user to be more likely to click on the ad and check out the
product. People want to see people, and relate to people. It’s important to keep
in mind that when it comes to marketing a product or service.
After reading your post, I thought about my own tendencies, and I have to say that my preferences agree with this article. I always seem to like pictures with people in them more than pictures without. I think that it makes the pictures easier to relate to, which is a large part of the purpose of social media. I think this could be applied personally and in a business sense. If someone wants to raise their Klout score, this is a good way to start. Businesses will also find a lot of help in this when it comes to marketing, as you mentioned.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Julie. When I scroll through Facebook and Instagram, I tend to stop and look at the pictures that have people in them. Many pictures of random objects or outdoor scenes do not catch my attention as well and I tend to just keep scrolling over them. I like to see what other people are doing so I find those pictures much more interesting than just plain object photos.
ReplyDeleteI think that this study examined something that is indeed very true. I noticed that my girlfriend posts a lot of pictures of us, or with her friends, and those pictures get many more likes/favorites than whatever I post, which usually doesn't have people or a face in it. I like your connection of this idea to ads, and I think that are trying to take advantage of this tendency.
ReplyDelete