By Elena Zanone
Marketers just scored a powerful new way to engage their Facebook audiences through interactive images. The free interactive tech is courtesy of ThingLink, which integrated with Twitter earlier this year.
ThingLink’s platform allows publishers to embed content such as music, video, sound, site links and text inside Facebook images. The aesthetic and functionality is similar to YouTube video annotations.
When users hover over an image they can experience a menu of content. It’s an appealing draw for brands and advertisers on Facebook, where they can add loads of content that can be consumed without ever having to leave Facebook Timeline. It can certainly help a brand cram a lot of information into a single impression.
“Images are becoming forums for conversation and discovery that include sharing, touching, commenting, and remixing rich media content created by others,” said ThingLink CEO Ulla Engeström. “ThingLink is now enabling a new kind of discovery experience on Facebook Timeline that evokes emotion and brings moments to life in ways that drive higher engagement.”
According to Twitter representatives, measurement of branded content on the network last November showed ThingLink drove five times more engagement for brands that used it. It will be interesting to see how it plays out on Facebook, currently the most rich media friendly social network.
Los Angeles Times, Hyundai and Ikea and are among brands taking advantage of the new tech. Los Angeles Times’ creative approach has been to upload a virtual photo of their hardcopy newspaper packed with links to top stories on their website.
ThingLink isn’t the first interactive-image service to hit Facebook. Stipple did so in January.
“ThingLink allows content producers to better understand how their images are being used by consumers on the different social media platforms, both in terms of interactions with the image as well as a wide range of social behaviors.” said ThingLink in their blog.
The technology is available for users now. What are creative ways you can see brands or even users taking advantage of ThingLink powered photos?
Source ThingLink
