tech girls ::SWM
BY KATE BRODOCK
I’ll give you three chances to guess what types of photos are some of the most posted and engaged with online. If you’re active on Facebook and take a look at your newsfeed at any given time, you probably don’t even need three chances. It’s food. Forty-seven percent of people age 18 to 32 text or tweet photos while they eat. Close to 50 percent of people who post food photos are either creating their own “food diary” or documenting their own creations. Foodie sites — mostly photo-based or with a slick photo-focused feature — have exploded in the last years. I’m not here to tell you to start Instagramming your food, but for a business, this trend offers a good lesson on how you could use imagery and storytelling to connect with your audience. What can we learn from this “food porn”?
Imagery
Food, to many, is an art form. Creating dishes that not only taste good, but are well-constructed, is the sign of a good chef. Food also gets our senses going. I don’t know about you, but my mouth starts watering when I scroll through Instagram, where a lot of my connections post their meals. Imagery is a good way to showcase expertise, quality and value, while also eliciting emotion with your audience. The emotion doesn’t have to be hunger, but it could be laughter, compassion or excitement. What do you want to show people about your business and how do you want them to feel?
Storytelling
One might argue you can also tell a lot about a person by what they eat, and therefore what they choose to share. Do they enjoy trying new things? Do they only eat local? Do they cook everything at home? Often times, people who chronicle their meals are telling you a story. By
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july 2013 :: syracuseWomanMag.com
presenting their fare to you in a highly stimulating format, they’re bringing you into their world. Through a series of photos, you can gain real insight into a company. Perhaps it’s a look at their history or their culture. Or it could be the key components of their brand or vision. Either way, it’s an opportunity to tell more about your organization than you might be able to with a paragraph of text.
Quality & Engagement
Now that you’re thinking about delicious food and tantalizing dishes, I want to remind you that not all photos are created equally. Even with some of the excellent photo filters out there, there are some plates of food that just plain don’t look appetizing. These are the ones I scroll right by and don’t come back to. But the ones that do capture my attention, I stop and admire, and I’ll often at least “like” the photo, perhaps even comment. And if they consistently post delicious photos, I remember them specifically and continue my interactions with their content and, by extension, with them. By refining the imagery you use to showcase your business and really understanding what type of photos will work and on what platform, you’ll be able to create content that’s more valuable to your audience, and therefore more engaging. Next time you’re scrolling through Facebook or Pinterest, don’t just let your mouth water, but think about some of the ways visually-compelling content could be used to engage your audience and tell your story. Kate Brodock is Founder and Principal of Other Side Group, www.othersidegroup. com, an integrated marketing and communications firm. She is president of Girls in Tech, a global organization focusing on women in and around technology and entrepreneurship. She can be found on twitter at @Just_Kate and email at kate@ othersidegroup.com.