Last modified on January 28th, 2015
By Alexis Hammond

We’re living in a visual culture where images increase emotional connections and enhance relationship building strategies. If you’ve spent more than twenty seconds on social media, you’ve noticed that video and static images garner more comments than text-only posts. Don’t take our word for it, there’s an abundance of research to back up these claims.

Did you know that adding photos to your property management website can dramatically improve page views and site traffic?

Articles with visual elements capture 94% more views, more blog post comments and stronger reader engagement than articles without images. Tagging and labeling images for SEO effectively drives traffic to your site and expands your audience, too.

Images allow you to build your brand with visual representations that express your ideals, showcase the people on your property management team and share common experiences with current residents.

Processing images is easier on the brain, too. Research from noted psychologist Albert Mehrabian demonstrates that only 7% of communication is verbal.¹ Written and spoken language takes more time to process. Our minds react quicker and absorb information faster when exposed to visual stories and images than other communication methods.

When you have the power to deliver your message 93% faster to online customers, why wouldn’t you take advantage of visual stimuli?

Photographs on social media sites gives you freedom to express your sense of humor, motivate viewers to take action and create powerful, authentic brand impressions to build trust with your customers.

People want to share their experiences with others. Visual formats allow people to tell their personal story outside the boundaries of grammar and syntax.  And, people want to “see” experiences from friends and family, or even strangers with common interests, hobbies or causes.

The social media data sharing machine generates millions and millions of conversations every day. Research statistics published by Newstext is mind boggling.

Every minute of every day and every day of every year:

• Twitterers tweet nearly 300,000 pieces of content
• Instagram users add more than 215,000 photos
• YouTube files grow with 72 hours of new video
• Pinterest users pin more than 3,400 new photos
• Vine users share 8,333 new videos

And, those numbers don’t include Facebook status updates (more than 2.4 million), WHATSAPP photo shares (344,000+) or any of the other popular social sites.

Combining engaging text with science-based color schemas motivates viewers to take action.

Although not everyone will have the exact reaction to certain colors because they bring personal experiences, cultural differences and preconceived notions with them when they visit your site, exploring color psychology can help you fine-tune your brand messages. This article published on Entrepreneur.com gives you some unique clues about how images and color work together to inspire and motivate viewers.

Adding photos and other visual elements to your blogs is no longer optional. If you want to propel your property management website and blogs to the top of the search engine results, add images. Want to engage your viewers and drive traffic to your community? Add photos. Looking for ways to convert more browsers to buyers? Add photos.

Do you have a story to tell about adding images to your online sites? Comment below and share it with our followers.