????照片正迎來屬于自己的輝煌時刻。Pinterest、Tumblr和Instagram是三大基于圖片的互聯網平臺，這些公司似乎每周都會超越一個新的發展里程碑。最近剛剛上市的Facebook此前拿出10億美元巨資收購了Instagram，還可能買下Face.com——顧名思義，這是一家提供面部識別軟件的公司。同時，虛擬創意板Pinterest的估值一路飆升至15億美元，輕博客網站Tumblr最近憑借2,350萬獨立訪客打入了康姆斯科（comScore）前50大網站榜單。

????這一切，各大品牌顯然都看在眼里。

????營銷人員對其他新技術——無論是早期電視廣告還是社交媒體——的反應都頗為遲鈍，但這次照片類應用的大發展，各大公司倒是早早就加入進來。它們紛紛創設Pinterest啟發板、開設Instagram賬戶，指望用高質量圖片吸引顧客的關注，最好還能進一步鼓勵他們在線下購買其商品。“為了在網絡上打造良好形象，用視覺化的形式講好故事至關重要，”全食超市（Whole Foods）2011年7月起就開始利用Pinterest，其全球網絡社區經理邁克爾?比珀科稱：“我認為它使我們得以用海報、旗幟廣告和文本講故事，我們可通過圖片分享傳達特定信息——傳播極為迅捷，瞬間可達。”

????這也符合商業界最基本的規則之一：受眾在哪里，我們就跟到哪里。“帶攝像頭的手機和可聯網的移動設備無處不在，使得數碼照片的社交分享呈現指數級增長，”紅牛數碼營銷總監奈特?華納說。“我們看到，不斷有網民分享自己拍攝的關于我們主辦的活動的照片，或者從我們的網站中復制下來的圖片，還有很多人轉發紅牛社交網絡賬戶上的圖片。這種現象的持續增長強化了我們的粉絲對紅牛品牌的正面聯系。”紅牛是最早登陸Instagram的品牌之一，也是該網站最熱門的品牌之一，粉絲數量已經超過23萬，用戶上傳了逾8.7萬張帶有#redbull標簽的圖片。

????人們或許會說，啟動這種相對新穎的品牌與其顧客之間的圖片驅動型社交聯系乃是Tumblr。各大公司紛紛涌入這一輕博客網站，分享幕后照片，而其粉絲們熱忱地轉發幾千次。每一次轉發，都代表某位用戶不僅堅定地站在這一品牌背后，而且還認同這些圖片所宣揚的美感。比如，在凱特?絲蓓（Kate Spade）品牌的Tumblr賬戶下，有2,275位用戶在一張上世紀50年代沙灘鞋的股東照片后面進行了互動，這些人可以說是集體表達自己的觀感：即懷舊風格有助于提升該品牌現在的形象。

????Photos are having a moment. Companies such as Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr, the big three image-based platforms on the Internet, seem to be reaching new milestones every week. Facebook bought Instagram for a whopping $1 billion, and the newly public company may be purchasing Face.com, which provides software that recognizes, well, faces. Meanwhile, virtual inspiration board Pinterest's valuation skyrocketed to $1.5 billion and microblogging site Tumblr recently broke into comScore's top 50 web properties with 23.5 million unique visitors.

????Brands have taken notice.

????Unlike the slow uptake by marketers of other new technologies -- from early television advertising to social media -- companies have jumped on this bandwagon quickly. Companies are creating Pinterest boards and Instagram accounts, hoping high-quality images will grab customers' attention and, hopefully, encourage them to buy offline. "Visual storytelling is essential to building a strong online identity," says Michael Bepko, global online community manager of Whole Foods (WFM), which started using Pinterest in July 2011. " I think it allows us to tell a story – through posters, through banners, through text – we can get particular messages across through image sharing...in a very instantaneous way."

????It's also following one of the first rules in business: go to where your audience is. "Ubiquitous camera phones and connected mobile devices has exponentially boosted social sharing of digital images," says Nate Warner, Red Bull's digital marketing director. "We saw a constant stream of people sharing their own images from our events as well as images pulled from [our] properties, or re-sharing images from Red Bull's social media accounts," he continues. "The ongoing growth validates this type of positive connection our fans feel with the brand." Red Bull – one of the first and more popular brands on Instagram -- has more than 230,000 followers and more than 87,000 user-submitted images tagged #redbull on the app.

????One could argue that Tumblr started this relatively recent need for image-driven social connection between brands and their customers. Companies have flocked to the microblogging site to share behind-the-scenes photos that followers are only too eager to reblog thousands of times. With each repost, a user firmly aligns themselves not only with the brand, but the aesthetic being pushed through their curated images. The 2,275 people who interacted with a vintage photo of 50s era beach combers on Kate Spade's Tumblr are collectively saying they get how the bygone look inspires the brand's quirky prep creations today.