Can photos alone tell a brand story? Can they launch a thousand products? Can they drive sales and repeat sales, and engender and nurture customer loyalty?
Can photos make the written word superfluous?
If the product is digital cameras, perhaps. For most other products, no.
This study says blogs and other text-oriented applications are dying
Some studies and a few experts think it’s true. Ekaterina Walter, a social media strategist at Intel, authored a blog for Jay Baer, a self described hype-free social media and content strategist, with the headline:
Will The Rise of the Photo Apps Kill the Written Word?
I encourage you to read the blog post. It’s really quite fascinating, well researched, expertly analyzed by Ekaterina. You might be surprised by what the data tells you, but then again, you might just say, “Of course! It’s rather obvious actually.”
The answer is, it depends
The early results suggest that photo apps will be a vital marketing communications component for companies with products that sell based on their visual appeal. Ekaterina’s write-up explains this well, so I won’t repeat what you can read in her post.
To Pinterest, or to not Pinterest
As you might expect, some of what is fueling this debate is the rocket-like rise of Pinterest. It has blown up in dizzying fashion to become all the rage in social media realms. Businesses are jumping in and trying to figure out how to integrate Pinterest into their marketing and social media strategy. Inevitably, some will discover that the application adds little to no measurable value for them.
Are company blogs doomed?
Hardly. Blogs will remain a strategic imperative for complex products that are a difficult sell. They’ll also continue to be an important communications vehicle in industries and with companies where innovation is a constant.
We’ve hailed the end before
Remember, experts exclaimed that the paperless office was a forgone conclusion with the introduction of the personal computer for business. That was over a quarter-century ago. They nailed that one, didn’t they?
Pictures are powerful, yet they are like art, which is subject to individual interpretation. In many cases, words ensure the interpretation is as the brand intended.
The written word will never die, and that makes copywriters everywhere, this one included, very happy.
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