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B2B vs B2C – Images

Continuing our B2B vs B2C discussion, our topic in this post is Image sites. The biggest names include Instagram, Flickr, Picasa and Pinterest. Pinterest is big enough to warrant it’s own post, it will be next.

People are very visual. When I read the paper or a magazine, I scan the headlines, look for images and if either of those things grab my attention, then I might read into the article a bit further or the whole thing. A picture draws the attention of a reader – that could be why picture books are so popular with small children. They can’t read the words yet, but bright colors and imagery draw their attention.

Image sites all you to have images posted, sometimes into photo albums that may (or should) include backlinks to your website. According to an article from MediaPost, 70% of all interactions on social media sites now involve pictures.

How can that help your business?

B2B – Many vendors will post images of their products so that businesses that purchase will see the item. Consider showing the item in “action”. Share images of company events, participation at trade shows, or internal employee recognition occasions. Include links to images in your white papers and definitely in blog articles. Use images to announce new products, especially in press releases.

B2C – Image sites are much more suited to consumer sites. Take for example a restaurant or a bakery. How many people post photos of themselves in a new outfit and take the store in an Instagram post. That is one of the reasons why Instagram now has 200 million users who have posted 60 million photos a day. Once you have found your platform of choice, encourage customers to share their photos and tag your business in them. While we didn’t mention Facebook as a photo platform, it is a huge player in images and probably one of the main reasons Instagram was snapped up. Share product images, people enjoying your products or services and participation at community events.

In my opinion, the clear winner in this category is B2C.

Why do you use the Social Networks you do?

When I speak to groups or to individuals, one of my standard questions is do you have a LinkedIn profile, Facebook profile, Twitter handle and do you have a company page for each of those?

Recently I read an article entitled Why Google+ Wont Succeed. The basis of the article is that people don’t like to dance alone and there aren’t enough people on the dance floor on Google+.

When I started in social media everyone spoke about the “Big 3” that referred to LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. I feel that people still tend to think of those before some of the other networks – like Google+. Do you have an account on G+? for you? for your business?

What about Pinterest? Flickr? YouTube?

As of this writing, YouTube is the #2 social network. It boasts over 800 Million unique users and 3 Billion hours of video watched monthly. Now the “Big 3” might just refer to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Check this infographic –

Facebook as of March 2012 had 901 Million monthly active users and Linked in has 161 Million professionals.

As of April 2012 Google+ had only 170 Million users but there are predictions of 400 Million by the end of the year. Again, do you like to play on a playground that no one else is using?

Pinterest is another animal. With only 10 million plus users, the demographics on that is a bit more defined. It is a good tool for the right user and audience, but so are Flickr and Picasso.

Picking the social networks that are the best for your company can be the biggest challenge, but participating in at least one is crucial for you to stay in front of potential clients. Setting everything up to have a consistent brand is important and engaging your audience is critical. How often and on how many channels to choose to engage is up to you, your time or your budget. Sometimes just getting your feet wet and scheduling some time to do the updates is the start of something new and exciting.

Should you need guidance or assistance, there are firms like Time2Mkrt available for your support. Call on me or them, but get started soon.

A Picture is Worth a 1000 words

We all struggle to come up with the right words to say when we are working on blog posts, status updates and keeping our respective clients, fans and followers properly updated. But one of the biggest struggles might be finding the appropriate picture to accompany that most recent post.

posts_w_pictures — Click on the picture to enlarge the view

With Facebook’s new Timeline update, one way to get better peeks at your posts is to include a photo. Look at the picture on the right – did you read the words or did you immediately gravitate to the picture? I am a visual person. I go right at the pictures. Many people are the same way. Enhance all of your posts, status updates, blog posts, even tweets with an image that relates to your post.

So the next question begs, where to find good, royalty-free, free use photos. I always check sources even though I quite often will set-up and take images and photos to use in my posts. I would like to share a few in this post and invite you to share other sites that you may have found.

Image via CrunchBase

Zemanta is a new to me resource of which I just learned. What is great about this, is there is an extension for Google Chrome that you may install and it offers suggestions for pictures and links for your WordPress blog posts. In fact I used this app to find some of the images for this post.

Dreamstime is a resource that offers free photos as well as photos that you can purchase. As with most free sources, you will see a picture that really works, but it costs money. Depending on the use, you may want to break down and make the purchase.

PhotoPin is a free photos resource designed specifically for bloggers.

Flickr – not everything you search for on the web can be used, as not everything in Flickr can be used just because it is there. But you can check the group “Free Use Photos”.

Wikimedia – is another source for free images. For example, I typed in the word popcorn and found this image as well as about 7 others. All of the information and licensing requirements can be found at this link.

iStock – is a photo service that offers a free image each week and a free vector graphic each month. If you take advantage of this opportunity by saving the images, you have just obtained 52 new free images in a year. Many are seasonal. You might not use it now, but keep it in your files for later.

Compfight – Are you a WordPress user? This is a plug-in that you can search for photos by clicking a little icon next to your upload/insert button. Following is a screenshot of a search for golf –

Gimp – a photo editing program if you don’t have Photoshop.

As always, you should credit a photo that you use and the source especially if you found it on Flickr or another website.

What photo sources or editing tools have you found?

Tag: Flickr

B2B vs B2C – Images

B2B vs B2C – Images

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