By: Britnee Johnson

Sight is the most-highly developed and dominant sense for human beings. It is human nature to trust and believe in things we can visualize, because they feel more familiar. In the virtual world, the trust that comes with visualization can lead to loyalty and even conversion.

Just a few years ago, storage was the online photo and video service of choice and the folks at Yahoo! Photos, Flickr and SmugMug did a pretty good job laying the world’s nostalgia-driven, digital foundation.

Today, the photo sharing technology circuit has evolved from simply storing memories to stylizing, sharing and promoting them through apps like Instagram, TwitPic and PicPlz. In less than two years, Instagram reportedly gained more than 4.5 million users  (even with being only iPhone compatible).

And photography isn’t the only visual trend that’s in vogue in the world’s social experience. Social video tools such as Tout are gracing the digital devices of users from celebrities to reporters, while plenty of other social-media enthusiasts are finding their daily moments are best shared live. When Shaquille O’Neal shared his retirement announcement via a Tout video, he bypassed traditional media outlets and became the media, sharing a personal message with those he valued the most: his fans. Simple, short and quintessentially Shaquille, the visual announcement evoked emotions no press release or news story could.

Tout creators explain, visual sharing is about ‘Life as It Happens’ instead of ‘Life as It’s Written.’

As social sharing moves from textual to visual at a rapid pace (more than 11 billion phone photos were shared via social media last year alone), brands should step into Shaquille’s shoes (you could probably get both feet in one) and begin acclimating to the evolving exchanges and establish your presence accordingly.

So how can you use photo/video sharing to increase your brand awareness?

1) Visual Optimization: This may not be photo “sharing,” but its arguably the most valuable visual property a brand owns online. Many brands don’t optimize avatars to be as eye-catching and effective as possible. On Facebook, avatars can be up to 180 pixels wide and 540 pixels long. The avatar acts as premium branding space, so take advantage of the valuable property.

Twitter is no exception. Even though avatars are limited to squares (48×48 pixels is optimal) more advanced customization is popular and encouraged for instant personalization and branding consistency.

2) Vlogging: There is no better way to establish your brand as an expert or thought leader than through blogging. With the web being inundated with blogs, a great way to stand out is with video blogging and image-rich text. Whether it’s leaving 15 second tips via Tout or creating visual tutorials, your blog should have plenty for readers to look at, in case they don’t have enough time to read an entire post.

3) Search Engine Optimization: Photos and videos are great for increasing your page’s rank in search. By naming and tagging your images appropriately (don’t try to fool Google), you increase your relevance and credibility to search engines. In addition, videos encourage longer stays on pages and the probability of other pages linking to yours (both factors in Google’s search ranking algorithm).

In addition, you can increase your EdgeRank score (Facebook’s algorithm for deciding if news stories should appear in a user’s newsfeed) by sharing posts with visual content.

4) Humanizing the Brand: Whether your brand is in the sports, hospitality, entertainment, service or other industry, social media should be about humanizing your brand and creating deep, loyal connections with users. One of the best ways to do this is sharing behind-the-scenes moments with the brand. From UFC Fighter Joe Lauzon sharing his pre-fight preparation via Tout to DoubleTree by Hilton sharing “cookie confessionals” along their CAREavan cookie tour on YouTube, these brands are showing the human behind the brand and creating a community in which fans feel included.

To ensure fans come back again and again, be sure to tag your videos and photos for SEO purposes and infuse value into every post.

To learn more tips and tricks about leveraging your online presence, contact info@thedigitalroyalty.com to learn more about Digital Royalty University.