Sometimes I think I should have been a nun instead of getting into marketing and social media. Not the kind of nun that sings, like on Sound of Music or Italy’s “The Voice,” but the kind in the 1950’s who walked around with a ruler, ready to smack children on the knuckles when they used crappy images on their social media posts!
There are only a few things that send me over the edge when it comes to how poorly some companies are using social media: One is when they don’t respond to a comment or question left for them on one of their social sites, proving they don’t really want people to talk to them, they simply want everyone to read their stuff.
Another is when people use those idiotic services like TrueTwit validation to make others on Twitter prove they are not robots by going to a robot site and jumping through a bunch of hoops. ( See a past post for more on that rant here ).
And the one that my team, here at SocialKNX, has heard me preach over and over again (with my ruler in hand) is when people and especially brands, use crappy images on their social media sites. I think my issue started back in the days when Microsoft's Screen Bean characters were all the rage in corporate presentations and marketing material.
I wanted to rip things apart when I would see them. (Anger management courses have helped a bit.)
But today it's even worse when great visuals are available everywhere and the cameras we carry in our back pockets take fantastic photos, there is just no excuse for poor images (except laziness, or a love for screen beans) being used on our websites, blog posts or social media sites.
Every social platform allows for very large images and we want to take advantage of every pixel we can. I love using Canva to ensure we are sizing the images correctly. Their templates for social media sites are very helpful, and they do a pretty good job of keeping up with the ever-changing sizes.
Here are some of the types of images that will get knuckles cracked, and why:
Clip Art (of any kind)
These just have the same smell as my great grandmother's TV room. They are old and stale. A great photo of an actual boy on a tricycle or a cool close up of a tricycle would be more intriguing and interesting than this one. Take a trip this weekend and snap some great photos to use instead.
Why not go with something more interesting?
Phony team or corporate porn
Oh, these are bad on so many levels, it's hard to know where to start! First, any of the overly staged, fake corporate team photos tell the world you don't even try. You may have purchased these photos from Shutterstock or iStockPhoto, but you didn't look past the first 3 or 4 choices. A personal favorite is the overly enthusiastic team meeting photo that shows everyone giving high fives around a flipchart! Come on! Show us, REAL people, doing real office activities. I know they are harder to find. You have to look at new collections or unique sites like Unpsplash . Better yet, get your own team members to pose for a few shots, or look for great photos that depict the message you are trying to convey. The fake looking, overly-staged pics are called corporate porn. They should be banned and someone should lose their job for even looking at them on company computers!
Photo by Steven Lelham on Unsplash
Corny Images
No explanation needed! You're just embarrassing yourself if you are using these anywhere. Don't make me get my ruler out.
Where to Get Great Images
So where do you go to find these GREAT images? Here are 11 stock photo libraries to get you started. You will still have to look through their collections to find the great ones.
The photographs from the first 8 sites are free from copyright restrictions or licensed under creative commons public domain dedication. This means you can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.
However, some photos may require attribution. We’ve done our best to identify which license they fall under but we still advise you to do your own research and determine how these images can be used.
The last 3 resources are paid stock photo sites that are great for those who blow through hundreds or thousands of images a month. You need more than one place to find just the right image to tell your stories!
Here you go:
Don't forget that photographer inside of YOU. You can take some great pics with your mobile devices and then add a bit of pizazz with apps like A Beautiful Mess, or even Instagram. Don't settle for boring images.
Infographics are another great way to add visual appeal to your social media marketing. Check out tools like Canva , Easel.ly , Piktochart, Venngage , and if you want a little help, check out Visual.ly