Social media becoming more visual than written communication

It appears that social media has increasingly becoming more about visual communication than written communication. In the last week, Instagram and Facebook have made changes to their platform to enhance user/audience features.

Instagram announced that they are going to make their platform available online with web profiles (article here). What does this mean for users and those online? It makes it easier for users to follow and view their friends' photos. Also, available for those who do not have this platform to see some of their friends' photos via Instagram. I know, personally, I do not have an Instagram account and contribute filtered, artsy photos but as a frequent user of social media tools, I am still very much interested in seeing what my friends and favourite personalities or brands have posted. I think this is a good move for Instagram.

After purchasing Instagram, Facebook have finally rolled out the photo filter features for their mobile app (article here). This a good strategic move for Facebook to implement in their platform, since many online users are more inclined to be attracted to visual posts, plenty of users are more engaged on Instagram versus Facebook when it comes to photo sharing. Adding the highly favoured photo filters will get users back on to Facebook. This can potentially enhance user engagement via Facebook even more.