80 THE POWER OF VISUAL STORYTELLING Marketers are beginning to realize the power of Facebook to connect with fans and to spread the word on new products and promotions. They are using it not only to reach out to new customers but also to turn them into loyal followers of a brand. But how can a social networking site inspire this sense of potential for companies? Exactly how do you make the leap from friends’ sharing photos of vacations, drunken nights out, and funny pets to empowering brands to drive sales through Facebook campaigns? It is unusual now for a company not to have a Facebook page—there 66 are presently more than 15 million brand pages on Facebook —but there is a huge range in the way that companies are using the network. While some are happy to post the same content in a blanket way across their social media sites and link to their made-for-TV adverts, others are really getting behind the unique properties of Facebook to create communi- ties and use it as a spearhead for marketing campaigns—with impressive results. Facebook’s recent brand page redesign focuses more on visuals, with “headline” photos taking center stage and larger images appearing on the Timelines. This is all great news for marketers. Out of all the various social networking sites, Facebook is still one of the leaders for community building and interaction with fans—and visual media are a large part of its success. A 2012 study by ROI Research found that when users engage with friends on social media sites, it’s the pictures they took that are enjoyed the most. Forty-four percent of respondents are more likely to engage with 67 brands if they post pictures than if they post any other type of media. It is especially true on Facebook. Designer paper and analog brand Moleskine has harnessed the power of visual media to create one of the world’s most active, prolific, and creative online communities. The company’s visual content strategy focuses on user-generated content: it creates large-scale projects that users participate in by posting their own images and videos. Moleskine sales have risen 26% 68 since 2006 thanks to a combination of imaginative marketing strategies.