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"Marketers just got a powerful new way to reach fans on Facebook: interactive images powered by ThingLink.\nThe popular interactive-image platform officially hit Facebook on Tuesday morning. That means posts there now let fans interact with content embedded \"inside\" an image \u2014 other photos, video or text blocks, for example \u2014 without leaving Facebook Timeline. \nThingLink allows users \u2014 ranging from big national brands to someone like you or I \u2014 to enhance images with links to other selected pieces of content. When you hover over a main image, icons pop up to indicate the presence of additional content. Then, with a click, users can open YouTube videos, audio clips, other websites and virtually anything else that would previously have had to be linked to elsewhere. Check out this Facebook post from Doctors Without Borders for a hands-on example. \nIn theory, the entire package offers a great opportunity for brands, which aim to get as much information as possible in front of fans, but often have very little time to make an impression. \nThingLink isn't the first interactive-image service to hit Facebook \u2014 Stipple did so in January \u2014 but its presence does point to a growing trend. Interactive images essentially give brands (or anyone else) a standalone communication platform within the larger Facebook platform. \nBack in November, ThingLink made its debut on Twitter. Since then, the platform's reps say brands have \"commonly seen\" more than five times as much engagement on Twitter posts using ThingLink images. So if the results are any indication, it's set to become a useful tool on Facebook now, as well. \nDo interactive images such as ThingLink's have a future online? Let us know what you think in the comments.\nHomepage image via iStockphoto, enjoynz"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/04/23/thinglink-facebook/>