In the social media world, content is king and photos (or diagrams, graphs or illustrations) act as his crown and jewels.
Photos are a great way to introduce your topic, break up an otherwise overwhelming amount of text, support and enhance your content. Also, did you know a tweet containing a picture link often has a click through rate five to ten times greater than a typical tweet?
Adding photos to your written projects is easier than ever before with photo sharing sites. While they are certainly not new, the picture universe has exploded. According to Yahoo, Flickr attracts nearly 80 million monthly users worldwide. Thousands of photos are uploaded each minute, totaling approximately 4.5 million new photos per day. Meanwhile, Photobucket may not have as many users, but is still quite active with 40 million users.
By utilizing a photo sharing site, members can showcase their works of art, browse through various categories and comment on their favorite photos. Set up is fast and collections can be linked to Facebook and Twitter.
But what if you’re not a photographer or an artist? You don’t have to run to the corny stock photo directory. All you have to do is ask and give credit where credit is due.
Flickr enables artists to protect their work with copyrights. The user can then decide if he or she would like All Rights Reserved or Some Rights Reserved. If all rights are reserved, the artist requests for his or her work not to be used, but it is still possible to ask for permission. If some rights are reserved, the photo can be used, but with certain restrictions. You can learn more by visiting the Flickr Community Guidelines.
You remember as a kid, books being more fun with pictures? The same holds true today for blogs, tweets, and more, but we need to remember to respect the property of others along the way.
Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rafaeldecozar/28725715/
