infographics

Full Visual Integration

Jen Consalvo of AOL

Perhaps the most noteworthy change in digital media in the recent past is the rise of visual media. From photos and now increasingly videos, we’ve seen Instagram and Pinterest become two of the top social networks, both ranked in the top 50 U.S. web sites overall by Comscore. And to boot, Facebook and Google+ have reacted making visual media core components of their networks. That’s not to mention new upstarts like SnapChat and Vine.

The revolution continues with the full integration of visual media. Jen Consalvo, COO and co-founder of TechCocktail, is presenting next week at xPotomac on the visual revolution. Here’s a sneak peak at some of the things she’s going to talk about…

GL: How has photography changed social networking in the past two years?

JC: Photography has always been a means to communicate, but the tools that have become more mainstream in the past few years have made visual imagery much more integrated and seamless in terms of the flow of our communications.

When the social tools we use everyday include images within the flow, so that we’re not clicks away from images, they become the conversation, not merely an attachment or secondary thought. Just look at all the 2012 memes, like “Texts from Hilary” or the Ryan Gosling tumblr blogs “Hey Girl” – you can quickly see Images and video are the primary communication tool.

GL: Infographics, fad or forever?
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New Flickr Brings Questions about the Visual Media Era

Flickr
New Flickr Interface image via Geeky Gadgets

Flickr will unveil its much-needed new interface today, revamping one of the oldest and still prescient social networks. This significant change comes to a network that features more than 3.5 million photos uploaded everyday, and one of the most popular APIs on the Internet. Flickr’s new interface seeks to make the network relevant to smartphone and tablet users.

As a long term power user on Flickr with more than 4000 photos and 325,000 photo views on my photo blog, I welcome this change. It’s refreshing, and makes the most powerful network for sharing videos not only stronger, but more attractive, too.

For a long time, Flickr’s primary value to me was housing images in a very accessible Creative Commons library. This allowed widespread dissemination of images in a host of online journals, blogs, and in some cases traditional media. Now Flickr could become more than that, competing with personal photo network favorite Instagram for commenting and interacting with other photographers and visually oriented minds.

Invariably, those that don’t understand the difference between a content publishing-based social network and a bookmarking-based network will compare the new Flickr to Pinterest. Ironic, as Flickr just incorporated Pinterest’s opt-out code for photographers who don’t want their original content repinned without credit or payment. In reality, Instagram and Tumblr are much closer competitors because the users are primarily content creators.
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