We can process visuals 60,000 times faster than text – surprised?

Think about it, if we take a sunrise, for instance; if someone were to describe one to you or show you a picture of one, which would you understand more quickly and in more depth? It would more than likely be the picture. This would certainly seem to suggest that when we’re trying to portray our ideas and messages to an audience, the communication methods we use should move away from lengthy text or descriptions and make way for images or visual aids.

At work, there are so many opportunities for you to optimise your communication by using visuals – here are a few examples to get you thinking:

1. Presentations

Everyone has sat through a bad presentation – slides and slides of lists, bullet points and paragraphs read word for word. Presentations like this are not only sinfully boring, but they will not be as effective in getting your points across. This is because you will not captivate the attention of your audience, so they may zone out when key information is being put forwards and there is nothing there that will jog their memory to remember aspects of the presentation.

Images and visuals are a really good way to prevent presentation monotony – if used cleverly, they will reinforce your points, ensure that focus stays on you and they can also act as visual prompts to help your audience remember and relate back to what you have explained.

2. Social media

Whether you have control of your company’s social media or are sharing things on your own professional profiles, try not to always post just plain text, use photos and pictures too. Images may not only do a better job of communicating your message, but they give your posts a bit more character. In this particular arena, visuals can also be effective in grabbing attention, therefore a funny or thought-provoking image can really lure your audience in and make sure your post is seen.

3. Selling/advertising

Images obviously play a huge role in advertising or selling a product or a service and are arguably more influential than the words that accompany them due to them being the first thing the audience sees. First impressions count, so if this is something you are involved in, make sure that the images you use are very carefully selected to benefit your campaign. The images used can have a profound effect on the success of an advert or product. Think: are they targeting a specific audience? Do they display enough information? Do they grab your attention? With consumers making much snappier decisions, the visual image needs to do a lot of the work for you.

There are many other ways that you can try to incorporate visuals to make your communications stand out. Keep an eye out for visual opportunities, they’re everywhere!

Take a look at the infographic below to discover more about how visuals communicate better than words: