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Use Pictures to Get More Comments on Facebook

Facebook Status Updates That Get LikesWhen I attended Digtial Summit last week I heard both Jordan Franklin (@jordanfranklin) from Clickable (@clickable) and Matt Peters (@fracked) of Pandemic Labs (@pandemiclabs) speak about how you can use the quirks of the human mind to craft Facebook status updates that are more appealing and may encourage more comments, clicks, Likes, and shares. I knew you’d want the scoop.

Both Jordan and Matt mentioned the algorithmic theory of the aesthetic, but discussed it in different ways. It was fascinating. Here’s the gist: People distinguish between what’s beautiful and what’s interesting, and interestingness (a word which I may or may not have just made up) corresponds to perceived beauty. In many instances (if not all), simplicity is perceived as the most beautiful. When you accomplish simplicity in beauty, you create something interesting.  When you’re learning something or viewing something, you are drawn to the simplest form. The less explanation (i.e., learning about the object) involved, the more interesting it is. In other words, the shorter the learning the process, the longer the user is interested. In Facebook terms this translates into using photos that convey a lot of information and letting them stand on their own.

The Human Brain Takes Shortcuts

As you consider what to share on your Facebook business page, keep in mind that your audience is drawn to things that require minimal attention and cognitive resources, but that have high emotional value.  If you share an image that has complimentary colors, implied motion, or simply conveys a feeling, our eyes are drawn to it because our brains have made an association with it using minimal attention.We tend to focus on things that we can emotionally attach to, even if that attachment is fleeting. We don’t get that same reaction to large blocks of text. Yet, how often do you see pages that have paragraphs of text as their social media updates?

It’s especially useful to use pictures and video on Facebook, where users are scanning the News Feed quickly and usually skip most text-based updates. Our brains aren’t good at perceiving and understanding images and text at the same time. We have to look at one, then the other, then maybe back again. If you can, try to play to our brains’ natural predilection for using minimal cognitive resources by using pictures that can stand alone. It’s best if the pictures don’t need a text explanation to accompany them, but if you can’t resist, try to keep the caption to 14 words or less and let the image speak for itself as much as possible.

Tips for Using Pictures to Get More Facebook Interaction

Your key takeaways from this article should be

  • Use simple pictures that can speak for themselves and invoke an emotional response.
  • If you have to use a caption, keep it to 14 words or less.
  • Since Facebook is blue, use pictures that have red or orange in them (the complimentary colors to blue).
  • Don’t use large blocks of text as your status updates.

What have you had the most success with? Look at your Facebook Insights (analytics) for the last few weeks or month and let me know in the comments which of your status updates have had the most impact with your community. Have you had more success one way or the other with your personal profile?

 

12 thoughts on “Use Pictures to Get More Comments on Facebook”

  1. Another important thing to know regarding pictures is that when someone likes or comments on a photo on a Facebook page, all of their friends are notified of their action and are exposed to the picture as well. If you have a page with over 30 likes and have access to your page’s insights, you can see this firsthand. I’ve had some picture posts receive only 50 organic views, but a whopping 2000 “viral” views. Because of this, I almost always try to use a picture when I post status updates on Facebook for my pages. There’s almost no reason not to with numbers like these, right?

  2. Pingback: 2012 Year in Review Edition of Talk of the Parent Blogosphere | Type-A Parent

  3. Yes. Pictures are great for not only Facebook Other Social Sites Too. I am Using pictures and Getting the result.

    When posting picture, we should be creative and post something NEW.

  4. Danyelle Franciosa

    I agree. You can get more comments on Facebook if you use pictures. Facebook users nowadays are more fond of looking pictures especially when it is catchy.

  5. Sometimes some little changes can make a huge difference in our business. This is a perfect example of that!

  6. Using photos and simple, straight forward but captivating comments is the perfect way to get people to visit your facebook timeline. Attractive photos usually work for me. They capture the attention of the reader at a glance.

  7. Well for me, pictures are also important in every blog and we should be aware with this always.. It can catch up the attention of the readers..

  8. I agree with you, when promoting your post via Facebook, it’s recommended to use interesting and appealing photos to attract readers. I have used FB for purposes like that, and I must say that it works, especially when I include a funny picture related to the post.
    Thanks for sharing!

  9. My most impact was my change in my cover and avatar photo. Thanks for letting me stopped by here in your site.

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