Humphreys Media   •   July 22, 2017

The era of Local SEO Marketing has began. Start collecting and uploading those product pictures and demo videos on your website and social media profiles! Google and Facebook recently announced how businesses should ‘think visually’ when it comes to local marketing. The message is clear: you will get more leverage on your business if you start investing on visuals. It’s not just for luxury, it is now a requirement if you want to succeed on your online marketing.

Last April 10, 2017, Google rolled out a better way to do search using images. This “similar images” feature allows users to use images to look for items that resembles a product they are interested in purchasing. Facebook, on the other hand, also announced a launching a Camera Effects platform which will accelerate uptake of augmented reality.

Most major content publishers are obviously working towards a more visual future. This is a clear sign that businesses need to take a closer look at how they use all forms of visual storytelling to attract and retain customers.

Here are some statistics shared on Search Engine Land about how powerful images are when it comes to establishing social media presence and local marketing.

• Tweets with images get 150 percent more retweets than those tweets without images.
• Instagram has more than 700 million active users.
• In 2016, people sent each other 2.3 trillion mobile messages that use emoji.
• Visual content was expected to account for 74 percent of all internet traffic this year.

Humans have always been very visual, which is why it comes to no surprise why visual assets should be treated as valuable as their written content and data. Many brands are getting creative on their storytelling not just on images they post but also on their videos, stories and vines.