Imgur Cracks the Viral Image Code

Brands can get a better idea as to what makes an image go viral on the 'Net, thanks to a new analytics platform from Imgur.

The popular image sharing platform has introduced Imgur Analytics, which aims to reveal the lifecycle of an image as it travels and is shared online. Through the platform, brands, advertisers and Imgur Pro users can identify where their images travel and better understand what drives image content to go "viral."

"Imgur now hosts more than 650 million images and attracts up to 1.5 million uploads daily," said Alan Schaaf, founder and CEO, Imgur. "As one of the world's top entertainment destinations, we have a huge opportunity to build out the data and analytics piece of our business and to create advertising channels that drive new revenue streams for the company."

The new analytics platform enables users to track total image views over time, graph image views by date range and by the hour, view top referral sources and obtain detailed traffic referral paths within each top referral source. It is also important to note that Imgur Analytics ties in with Imgur's new native advertising business model. This enables users to track image views during active campaigns as well as earned media views following paid campaigns to better gauge success.

"Brands are tired of ineffective banner campaigns," said Schaaf. "Sites like Imgur present fresh alternatives to dated approaches, and our ability as a platform to help content go viral is a primary reason brands are attracted to us. Brands have already started to recognize the platform's potential as a vibrant, influential online community and as a distribution mechanism for viral content."