I recently attended a Social Media Club of Atlanta “Coffee and Content” roundtable discussion focused on the power of photos in marketing. One of the topics that came up was how do you measure ROI? Not long after, I read this piece how American Express balances storytelling and delivering ROI.

Hint: there is power in pictures. The American Express campaign highlighted in the article, boosted by a promoted trend, produced reach in excess of 500% of its target and engagement over 120,000.

While Twitter and Pinterest are both introducing ways for users to buy products directly in their social streams, many things can’t – or won’t – be purchased on a whim.

As marketers and PR pros, our job is to inspire others to act. Whether we are promoting sporting events and games, restaurants, travel services and destinations or other social events, our job is to inspire people to the point of action.

A recent article in AdAge discussed how today’s consumers, led by millennials, are more interested in spending their money on experiences rather than material goods.

I love to travel and explore new places and cultures, and my Instagram feed reflects that. Many of the places I dream of visiting are international destinations spread across the globe. Fueling my wanderlust is the steady barrage of the destinations served by hotel chains around the world.

Many airlines and hotels do a great job of showing off the locales they service, but one seemingly small detail makes Westin stand above the rest – the use the location function to tag each photo and most of the time they are tagging their hotel. This allows users who follow Westin to see what other pictures have been taken at the hotel and see other vantages and view points.

It’s important for potential guests to see other pictures because the Westin is an above average hotel at an above average price point. Potential guests want to and deserve to know they are going to get what they are paying for.

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a 1,000 words so harness the power of a picture and inspire your fans and consumers to action.

Follow me on Twitter (@mditt).