Everyone likes taking photos. But can they really get you more leads?

Whether you are out with friends and snapping to keep a memory alive, or are holidaying in the most heavenly place on Earth, you take photos so you can remember and share an experience. Publishing photos online is the new way of sharing your story. We all know Facebook is one primary place you can go to upload your latest snaps but why stop there? And why only do it for your personal life? This article examines why photo sharing online can increase your online reputation and gain you a significant following as well as increased interaction.

Why Personality And Passive Selling Works

Whether you use your Twitter account for work and business combined, sharing photos and delivering a human side to your followers can work wonders. Constantly tweeting sales pitches and selling your product can turn off your audience. No one likes being constantly sold, so only tweeting about how much they can and should buy from you isn't the best idea. But, there's such a thing as "passive selling." Sharing personal touches and glimmers of your personality helps keep your audience engaged, and lets them see less salesy, human side. One company which is a perfect example of this testament is "Mobal," who provides phone and communication methods for people who travel. They have shared photos via their Twitter account of pretty destinations. Nothing to do with the phone, per say, but a great passive way to gain more attention.

As you can see, this one image has been viewed over 300 times and shared on Twitter 22 times meaning that this one single photo has helped increase active as well as passive traffic to Mobal's accounts and sites and increased awareness in their brand. The fact that this is not a sales pitch, is not even entirely work related is a fantastic example of why photo sharing is key to your online brand and persona. Break away from that hard business character and tweet out real, meaningful content which your audience can relate to and engage with. Everyone likes a pretty or interesting photo, even your customers.

Engage And Explain

Another great example is @robertz who uses photos to not only help engage with his audience but also as a way of completely and fully describing his surroundings. Why write what you see around you when you can take a photo and share it knowing it will be seen?

As you can see by the arrow, @robertz has one of his images in the most popular with over 500 views 7 tweets by others. This type of viewing technique can really help boost general awareness around your Twitter account, your audience's perception of you, and ultimately help increase online engagement. It becomes the talking point, an ice-breaker, common ground...all of which will only help enhance your own and business reputation.

Getting Seen

These photos were actually uploaded and shared via the Free Social Media Dashboard: MarketMeSuite. MarketMeSuite has a Photo sharing feature called Phto.Me and these images show on the MarketMeSuite website. Every time someone visits the website itself, they see the images, and discover new Twitter accounts, people and businesses. It's a great way to get your photos seen, not just on your own Twitter/Facebook walls, but shared over a collective body of images where people can sit and browse at their own leisure and explore the photos origins. It's also a good idea to set up a Flickr account and use services like "Instagram" if you have an iPhone.

Key Take Away

Sometimes, words just cant fully explain a sight, a time, a moment like a photo can. Not only can they inspire, they can help facilitate passive following. Your photos work for you even when you're not online engaging and trying to convert customers. Whether it's a photo of the office dog, of a new product for your business, or even just a photo you took and want to share, they add a lot of value. After all, if a tweet is worth 140 characters a picture is worth 10,000.

Who Wrote This Article?

I'm Nikki and I work at MarketMeSuite, the social media marketing dashboard. We have some Great news! We are now free! Please check it out and be sure to let me know what you think!