Social Media Tip: How to get the best social media images
These days it's all about the visuals, as content-heavy websites become more unpopular. People want easily digestible content, that's quick and accessible. Gone are the days of trawling through large block text. Posts containing rich content, like videos and images, receive more traffic than those without. It's doing amazing things in the online marketing world, with marketers who use visual content seeing huge returns in revenue, leads and customers. According to Zabisco, 40% of people will respond better to visual information than to plain text. But how do you go about finding the best quality social media images?
Source: socialmedia.org
Source: icanhasinternets.com
Flickr
The photo sharing website that we all know, Flickr hosts a multitude of amazing photos and images, from amateurs to top-range artists. It's the biggest photo sharing site on the web, with free images for almost every category. Be careful though, there are a range of rights on the site, and authors can choose to turn off downloads.
Stock.xchng
Stock.xchng offers over 400,000 free images, for every topic. The photos are free, but you'll need to register first. A word of warning: you need to read their image licence agreement very carefully before registering, it is one of the more complicated out there.
Morguefile
Morguefile is a great website with an amazing range of free photos available, despite the slightly freaky domain name. It has one of the best search tool filters out there, enabling you to search by category, keyword, size, rating or colour. They also, conveniently, have a very generous licence.
Open Photo
Open Photo have been around since 1998, meaning they have a great catalogue of images available. They are well categorised, but the licence terms and conditions vary from image to image.
Stockvault.net
The collection of photos offered by stockvault.net is small but very high quality. They offer logo templates, clip arts, textures, backgrounds and photos. The only catch is that the images are provided free for personal use, not commercial use.
Unprofound
Unprofound offer a smaller selection of good-quality photos. They're ideal if you want no-fuss photo sharing; they have no significant restrictions, you don't need to register and they are non-profit (= no annoying ads!).
It's not just photos that are essential for driving traffic; drawings, infographics, charts and even text designed as an image can draw crowds. You have to imagine that images take up more space in news feeds and timelines; if you provide the right eye-catching image, people are more likely to remember your post in general.
Sometimes, when trawling through photo-sharing sites or Google images, you just can't find that one image you are looking for. It's hard to settle for something when you have a particular idea in mind, and nothing can quite replicate it. If this is the case for you, then why not try your hand at creating your own images?
Nowadays, there's scores of websites out there offering easy photo-editing tools. You don't need to be a technological genius to create your own striking images.
PicMonkey
This easy to use editing tool runs in your browser. With PicMonkey you can edit your image, create a collage or put together a design. What's more, for Facebook, Pinterest or Etsy users, it has specially built-in collage designs.
AP Social Media Image Maker
The AP Social Media Image Maker is a great tool if you are editing images specifically for your social networking profiles. It has a huge variety of options, including YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn and Tumblr.
Pixlr
Pixlr is an in-browser photo editor that works more like photo-editing software. It's ideal if you're looking for a feature rich editing tool.
Photovisi
Photovisi is a collage tool that's simple and easy to use. You simply have to choose your layout and upload your images. You don't even need an account to use it!
If you find an inspirational quote, or statement, and you want to make an impact with it, why not turn it into a visual. By turning text into an image, you can make it more captivating.
Quozio
Quozio is simple and easy to use. First you type in your chosen text and its source. Secondly, choose a background and a font. Voila! Your image is ready.
Recite
Recite works similarly to Quozio; you type in your text, and choose a background from the stream at the bottom of the page. If you are unhappy with it, you can easily click on 'try another template' and have another go.
Infographics are another key way to drive traffic to your site. They are especially popular with Pinterest, which generates more referral traffic for businesses than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combines, according to recent studies.
Websites like easel.ly, infogr.am and visual.ly enable you to create and share infographics online. They also offer share and embed tools, and pre-made inforgraphics to download.
Charlotte is a trainee journalist, who loves writing about anything and everything. Currently an intern at Social Media Frontiers, you can follow her @charlotteatsmf and @CharlotteR_4
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Social Media Tip: How to get the best social media images
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Wednesday, February 19, 2014
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Reviewed by Anonymous
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Wednesday, February 19, 2014
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