Video vs Text [with video]

When you create content with just text alone, versus content that includes video, is there a difference in the way the message is received by your audience? Are they equally effective? Do they have the same appeal?

Research

According to M Booth, a global communications company, who paired up with Simply Measured, a media measurement and analytics company, visual content is taking the online world by storm AND driving engagement.

Together, they researched engagement and sharing habits on social media and compiled their data related to visual content. They summed up their data in this an infographic.

Here are a few highlights:

• On Facebook, videos are shared 12x more than links & text posts combined
• On Facebook, photos are liked 2x more than text updates
• On Youtube, 100 million users are taking social action on videos every week
• Photo & video posts on Pinterest are referring more traffic than Twitter, Stumbleupon, Linked and Google+

Their verdict is: imagery rules across social media!

There’s no doubt that visual content is more pleasing to the eye. In fact, research has shown that someone viewing a video will remember its message 58% more than if they read text alone. Most website visitors would rather spend 5 minutes watching a video, than spend 20 minutes reading text.

Connect with video

Videos help you connect with your audience in an engaging way. While watching a video, they can just sit back and absorb rather than put in the time and effort to read paragraphs of boring text. The goal is to make it easier for the viewer to see and hear your message.

Remember the old saying, “take a picture, it lasts longer”?  That’s what video marketing is all about.

With video, you can personalize your message, entertain your viewer and demonstrate your product and services in ways that print by itself can’t. Some people would rather be “told” than to read it themselves and video offers the opportunity to appeal to non-readers, by bringing those picture and words to life.

Combining sight, sound, motion AND text gives you the opportunity to better connect with your audience. It gives the viewer a better ‘feel’ of your brand and personality, which increases influence – and we know that people buy from those they know, like and trust. With videos that offer tips, strategies and product or service information, you’ll soon be seen as an expert in your field.

Using video in your online marketing sets you apart from others and they’re a fun way to bring people to your website and get their interested.

With a video’s music, text, pictures, visual effects and voice-over working together to stimulate all the senses, it’s more likely to stir up an emotional response in the viewer and create a more lasting memory.

Do you have a preference? Would you rather read or watch a related video?