Let's Get Visual: Four Tips for Using Photos to Engage With Your Customers

It’s a mantra we’ve repeated time after time: content is king.

While that is unfailingly true, it’s important to remember that content is more than words on a page. There’s good reason for the saying “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Sometimes there’s simply no better way to drive home a message, evoke an emotional response or bring your brand to life than through the impact of an image.

Here’s how you can harness the power of photography to forge deeper relationships between your customers and your brand:

1. Just do it.

You’re not a professional photographer. You don’t have the thousands of dollars of equipment necessary to stage the types of perfectly polished shots you see on the pages of glossy magazines.

Don’t sweat it. A modern smartphone or digital camera is all you really need to get started. Worry less about technology and technicalities and more about the effect you want to achieve.

There’s no more important objective for today’s marketer than establishing bonds of trust between your brand and your customers. And there’s no easier, more efficient way to plant those seeds of trust than by pulling the curtain back and giving them a peek behind the scenes.

Tiffany & Co. is a high-end brand with high-dollar price tags to match. The company uses its Instagram account to share photos of its inner working with the world, showing that there’s more inside that classic turquoise box than merely a status symbol.

2. Let your customers do the snapping.

These days, everyone walks around with a camera in their pocket. As such, mobile photo sharing has become an integral part of today’s culture of the Web.

Let this trend work in your favor by putting your customers behind the lens generating great content that shines a spotlight on both your brand and the people who love it.

Warby Parker, an eyewear company based in New York City, invited their fans and customers to join them on a photo adventure through NYC called “Walk of the Town.” Over 100 fans participated, resulting in nearly 700 photos generated and tagged with #warbywalk.

This is a fantastic marketing concept on two levels. First, what cooler way to showcase the company’s unique, funky frames than against the backdrop of one of the world’s most iconic cities for style and fashion? Second, consider the residual PR value that results from each of these 100 fans sharing their photos with their own followers and Facebook friends, who also likely commented on and shared them with their own circles in turn.

3. Branch out.

When it comes to using social media to connect with customers, most companies focus on the big four: Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn. But there are a number of niche social sites that offer excellent opportunities to use images to gain exposure to both your existing customer base and new prospects alike.

For example, in addition to Instagram, Warby Parker is also active on Pinterest. As its name implies, Pinterest is a pinboard-style social photo sharing website. Users “pin” photos on boards they self-classify by category, allowing them to keep track of anything and everything they find appealing, from recipes to fashion to home decor ideas and more. The social aspect comes into play when pinners follow others users and can like, comment on or “repin” images to their own boards.

People of the Second Chance, a faith-based nonprofit, uses Pinterest as a vehicle to boost awareness of their organization, advocate for their mission of spreading love and grace and drive donations. They feature products for sale in their online store as well as inspirational images that represent core elements of their mission.

By being willing to experiment with these smaller niche networks like Pinterest and Instagram, you can gain exposure to your existing customers in new ways and catch the eye of new customers, too. It all begins with a little daring and a little creativity.

4. Think before you snap, but don’t over-think it.

In the age of social media, once you send something out into the world, it’s really out of your hands. So before you get too snap-happy, take a second look at your photos and make sure you’re sending the message you intend so you don’t accidentally invoke a negative backlash.

That being said, don’t be paralyzed by aspirations of perfection, either. There’s no better way to let the personality of your brand shine than through quirky, unique, cool, artsy or clever images.

There’s a reason why Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm puts such a high value on posts that include pictures: People love looking at photos. At the end of the day, it’s just that simple.

So have fun, be creative and take a few risks. After all, one great photo really can do the work of a thousand words in conveying what it is that your brand stands for.

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The New Rules of Customer Engagement

The rise of the culture of the Web has revolutionized the nature of how businesses and customers relate to each other. Whereas companies could once shape and direct the perception of their brand through carefully crafted ad campaigns, direct mail and press releases, today the flow of information runs fast and free, and customers now own the conversation. And because whoever owns the platform dictates the culture, the world is a more human, less institutional place to do business. Today’s customers want to feel good about the products they buy, where they came from and how they were made. Moreover, they want to like the company behind the product – that is, genuinely like it, not just press a Facebook button. We are entering an age of emotive economics. Corporations have been forced to adapt to this new, people-centric culture by connecting with customers on their own turf in more casual, conversational ways. There’s little room or respect for old-school corporatism’s pomp and protocol. And those businesses that cling to traditional behaviors in the online community will earn its scorn very quickly. Those companies that have embraced this new landscape and its risks have enjoyed great reward. For this reason, the human face, rather than steal and glass, has become the façade of big business. Yet with style must also come substance. It is no longer acceptable to be about profit alone. Companies are expected to contribute to the world in ways that make their customers’ lives better. Consumers are demanding that business be done on their terms. It should come as no surprise, then, that human values – transparency, respect, conscientiousness, kindness, trust, generosity and the like – are the keys to engaging with customers in this brave new world of business. So how can you use this new dynamic to your advantage to grow your business? You must embrace the new rules of engagement, understanding that when you put people first, profit will follow:

1. Don’t treat customers like they’re stupid.

When Netflix bungled its attempt to change its pricing structure last year, the backlash in the online community was severe, with many customers threatening to cancel their accounts immediately. It was clear that customers viewed Netflix as a value-priced alternative to more expensive traditional paid media channels, and therefore many felt betrayed by the company’s sudden doubling of their fees. While the price increase itself wasn’t really so unjustifiable, what made it unpalatable for customers was the company’s lack of transparency in explaining the business drivers behind the rate hike – the rising operational costs of maintaining a physical DVD business and the growing licensing fees for content streaming. Instead, Netflix spun the move as giving customers a “choice,” offering the option to subscribe to a DVD-only service at its lowest price ever. Here's an excerpt from their ill-advised news release: To his credit, CEO Reed Hastings acknowledged the poor handling and chalked up the misstep to “overconfidence,” which still sounds like PR spin, but hey, we’re making progress. The lesson? If a change in product or policy may have negative consequences for your customers – even if only in perception – acknowledge them, express empathy over the inconvenience or added cost, explain the reasons if possible and then point out the benefits or offer alternative options. People understand that businesses must evolve and that profit is still part of the equation. Don’t assume that your customers are beyond reason or treat them like they’re too stupid to detect what’s really going on.

2. Over-serve your customers.

It’s always good business to go the extra mile for customers, but never more so than when trying to recover from a mistake. How you handle disappointment is what determines whether your customers write you off and tell everyone about it or trust you more and spread the good word about you. When Google decided to phase out Wave due to poor user adoption rates, they didn’t just shutter the windows and bury the technology as if it never existed. Instead, they gave users months to move their data off the service, converted Wave into an open-source project and gave the Wave community the tools to get involved:

3. Be humble and listen to your customers.

Building on the success of its breakthrough app Wunderlist, Berlin-based software firm 6Wunderkinder recently launched Wunderkit, a project collaboration and management tool designed around the social connections of today’s work environment. Wunderkit was made available in a “freemium” model, offering standard features to all users for free with additional functionality available for a small fee to power users. As the company analyzed feedback from its beta release of Wunderkit, they realized the community’s dissatisfaction with project collaboration between users – one of the platform’s central features – only being available to premium users. What follows is a fantastic example of how to demonstrate that you’ve heard your customers loud and clear, understand their feelings and are acting to resolve the issue:

The customer is king, and the king is here to stay.

Never underestimate the commitment required to engage with customers effectively in today’s marketplace. Human relationships are not managed well with rigid rules and policies but instead must be governed by human values like compromise, sensitivity and transparency. It takes much more than a Twitter account and Facebook page to win the hearts of customers. You must develop a culture that is focused on and driven by the customer through and through. Be purposeful in growing such a culture. Establish your own rules of engagement. Make sure every employee is encouraged to embrace and exhibit those values. Empower them to do whatever it takes to take care of your customers. The journey may be a bit rocky at times, but if you walk the line faithfully, you’ll earn something from your customers that can never bought with advertising dollars – trust, respect and even passion for your brand and what it stands for.

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