Sam Laird2013-04-23 12:42:28 UTCMarketers just got a powerful new way to reach fans on Facebook: interactive images powered by ThingLink.
The popular interactive-image platform officially hit Facebook on Tuesday morning. That means posts there now let fans interact with content embedded "inside" an image — other photos, video or text blocks, for example — without leaving Facebook Timeline.
ThingLink allows users — ranging from big national brands to someone like you or I — to enhance images with links to other selected pieces of content. When you hover over a main image, icons pop up to indicate the presence of additional content. Then, with a click, users can open YouTube videos, audio clips, other websites and virtually anything else that would previously have had to be linked to elsewhere. Check out this Facebook post from Doctors Without Borders for a hands-on example.
In theory, the entire package offers a great opportunity for brands, which aim to get as much information as possible in front of fans, but often have very little time to make an impression.
ThingLink isn't the first interactive-image service to hit Facebook — Stipple did so in January — but its presence does point to a growing trend. Interactive images essentially give brands (or anyone else) a standalone communication platform within the larger Facebook platform.
Back in November, ThingLink made its debut on Twitter. Since then, the platform's reps say brands have "commonly seen" more than five times as much engagement on Twitter posts using ThingLink images. So if the results are any indication, it's set to become a useful tool on Facebook now, as well.
Do interactive images such as ThingLink's have a future online? Let us know what you think in the comments.
Homepage image via iStockphoto, enjoynz
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