The Importance of Image Analysis for Brands

Using images on social media has become a trend. Whether it’s a meme, a photo, or a link to an article, our feeds are often filled with more images than words. They are more likely to be shared and re-shared, making them an engaging and memorable medium.

The growth of image sharing has become a major issue for social media analytics. How can brands capitalize on this trend and monitor the number of images being posted to their networks?

Why Images are Important

As social media and the web become more visual, brands can no longer rely on text alone when analyzing their audience data. There are over three billion photos shared on social media every day. Many of these contain logos and products, but almost all of them don’t include a text link to the brand. Without image analysis, brands are missing out on a huge portion of the conversations around their products and competitors.

What is Image Analysis?

Computer vision, also known as image analysis, is a process utilized in analyzing images. It can recognize various attributes of an image. Apple’s Photos and Google Photos both use computer vision features to identify faces in their photos. They can then be used to look through all of your photos of a specific individual. 

Although social media analytics started with text analysis, computer vision is becoming more prevalent. This is because it’s an extension of the text analysis features that are used in visual content.

Categorization is similar to image analysis in that it uses object recognition to show you the most relevant posts that contain the images you’re looking for. In addition to identifying faces, computer vision can also determine various other details about an image, such as its age, gender, and mood. It can recognize multiple elements in an image at the same time. For instance, it can automatically caption an image that shows a man and woman wearing a pair of Patagonia shirts.

Ways That Brands Can Use Image Analysis

Although image analysis is a new component of social media analytics, it has a wide range of useful applications.

1. Track Brand Mentions More Easier

One of the simplest ways to measure brand mentions is by using computer vision technology. Social media analysis tools allow companies to analyze how their products and brands are being talked about on their networks. In the past, this method only looked for text-based mentions.

2. Improve Sentiment Analysis

Social media analytics is a tool used by many companies to monitor how their products and brands are being talked about on their networks. If you’re only looking at a text, you might not see the full picture.

3. Find Influencers

In the case of Adidas, a post by Skrillex on Instagram shows the company’s logo. It’s not clear if this is an organic or paid plug, but it’s worth keeping track of how the artist is promoting the brand.

4. Measure the ROI of Sponsorships

With the help of logo recognition technology, you can now measure how many impressions and exposure your brand is getting from a sponsorship. If a company wants to know if investing in a certain sponsorship will be worth it, computer vision can help answer that question. With text analysis, this wouldn’t be possible.

One of the most powerful ways to measure the effectiveness of a brand’s marketing is by looking at the number of times its products have appeared in social photos. According to research, a correlation has been found between the number of times a product has been featured in social photos and the number of sales.