Recently, a research shows that brand images that do not contain a human face are 23 percent more likely to receive a repin than those who have. Using custom algorithms to evaluate more than 500,000 Pinterest images, it was revealed how an image’s visual characteristics influence social media activity.
By examining 30 different visual characteristics, including color, texture, lightness and saturation, the study found that images with lots of color are preferred. Images with red, orange and brown colours are twice as likely to be repinned over blue pictures.
Moreover, images of medium lightness are 20 times more likely to be repinned versus mostly black images, and eight times more likely to be repined than white images. While the study confirmed that brand images lacking a face resulted in more pins, it also noted that Pinterest has 4.25 times more images without faces, than images with faces.
Other images more likely to be repinned include vertical “portrait” style images with 2.3 to 4.5 aspect ratios over long or wide images. Images with multiple dominant colors receive the most repins overall, with 3.25 times more repins per image than single-color images. Images with 50 percent saturation are four times more likely to be repinned than images with 100 percent saturation, and 10 times more likely than completely desaturated images.
Background and texture also play a role in an image’s popularity. The study found that images with less than 30 percent background are repinned the most, with repins dropping off at a rate of two to four times for images that contain 40 percent or more of background space. Images with smooth textures are preferred more than rough textures, earning up to 17 times more repins.
This type of data is critical to brands and retailers, as it helps them to anticipate which images will prompt consumer action before they post on visual sites like Pinterest.