I ran across this quick and interesting read on Inc. this morning on how despite the prevailing belief that photos and video are the biggest content trends on social media, it’s still the words — the story — that are most important and keep people coming back.

The most important part of social media marketing is also the one thing everyone says is unnecessary

One of the interesting points the author makes is that even when talking about videos, there’s often times still text involved to the extent that you can watch with the sound down. It’s still about the story and not just the pretty pictures.

I always found it to be true just from my own personal experience that if a video has subtitles or text involved I’m far more likely to watch it to the end. I think that’s very true for people who are watching at work when they don’t want to disturb others (or let others know they’re watching videos instead of working, of course) or in public.

So yes, story still matters, and so does the actual written word.