56 THE POWER OF VISUAL STORYTELLING marketers keen to connect with customers—and to have their messages amplified with shares, likes, and comments. Too many companies opt for a blanket coverage approach to social media. They share the same posts in the same way to all channels, and then they question why their followers aren’t engaging with their content. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to social media: each network has its own character and audience. To get the most out of your social media channels, you need to create strong content—and then use it to start a conversation that is appropriate to that network. In this chapter we’re going to take a look at how to get the most out of some of the most popular networks for sharing visual content: how to use that content to engage your audience, how to build it in to your campaigns, and how to make your brand stand out The people in your audience above the chatter. don’t want to be broadcasted Social media are increasingly offering solutions to the to: they want to be part of a demise of traditional marketing and the fragmentation of conversation—and to feel like our attention across so many channels. We’re going to look you’re listening. at how some of the most successful brands have used the visual strengths of social media to grab their audience’s attention—and to keep it. Pinterest The dark horse of the social media race is surely the image-community site Pinterest. On the surface, Pinterest is a whimsical pinboarding site where members share their favorite images and photos, grouped around themes. Users can follow pinboards or whole profiles and repin images to their own boards, adding comments and likes. Pinterest’s meteoric rise in only a few years shows that the site is more than just a pretty community for people interested in fashion and life- style. Marketers are all over Pinterest’s lead-generation aspects, because online hits on products from the site have proved a marketing sensation.