For companies with respected online brands using stock photography can be a terrible disservice to all Web site visitors and your online reputation. In user tests at Interface Guru, we have found the more tech-savvy users (like engineers and programmers) are particularly intolerant of stock photography and will think less of a brand if they see it used on a Web site.
Stock photography recognition is no longer a skill limited only to the more fluent Web users. There are now tools called reverse image search engines available to all users. With these specific search engines, users can instantly discover the source of an image on a Web site as well as find other Web sites using a particular image.
Here is a quick breakdown of the more popular reverse image search engines:
1) TinEye (http://www.tineye.com/) - Exact match of an image uploaded or image URL linked by the user. Arguably the most popular of the reverse image searches, it even provides plugins for Firefox and Chrome browsers. With a simple right-click on an image, users can check to see if your graphics are used elsewhere on the Web.
2) Byo (http://labs.ideeinc.com/) - Searches for images based on similar colors.
3) Gazopa (http://www.gazopa.com/) - This engine will search based on color and shape similarity.
4) RevIMG (http://www.revimg.net/) - This reverse image search is focused more on art and architecture. It looks for the exact image (just like TinEye), but users must specify the artistic category that applies to the image before they can conduct the search.
5) Google's Similar Image Search (http://similar-images.googlelabs.com/) - While less robust than specific reverse image search images, this functionality is now built right into Google Image search returns.
Chris Barton, photography blogger, has an entry where he uses a reverse image search to find all instances of sites using a particular employee stock photograph: http://fairtradephotographer.blogspot.com/2010/03/microstock-why-would-reputable-company.html
In a follow-up entry Chris provides a risk assessment breakdown of all your available options for providing images on your Web site:
http://fairtradephotographer.blogspot.com/2010/04/microstock-how-to-avoid-poisonous.html
He rates stock photography as the highest risk to your organization and creating your own images as the lowest risk.
At Interface Guru, we agree that using stock photography is a risk - you do not know what other Web sites have purchased the image and are using it on their site. Your images on your Web site should be as unique as your company; create your own graphics and images on your Web site and tailor them to match your content.
- by Kyle Kulakowski
Showing posts with label corporate culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label corporate culture. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Social media and culture fit: You can't fake it
While listening to my colleague Mike Schmidt's podcast on "social marketing," (a good primer for newbies, featuring Jerry Harkins of MacTutorTucson.com) I considered my setup experience with Google Buzz this morning, and my Mayorship of the Hotel Congress on Foursquare, and the status updates I posted to Facebook and LinkedIn on the way. Another day in the roiling surf of social media. Which service gets your allegiance and time?
As with all digital media, it depends on your users and your business. Some truisms are helpful; we know that bands prosper on MySpace, and charitable causes flourish on Facebook. But in our view, the key to social media is culture. Are you willing to be what Schmidt calls a "good social media citizen"? Are you willing to help people solve problems even when the dollar is not immediately attached? Or are you only willing to invest time in exchange for dollars?
The greatest challenge for conventionally structured organizations is to become those "good social media citizens" when lack of transparency and buyer-beware have been the standard marching orders - until the emperor-has-no-clothes power of the Web came along.
The selection of social media most valuable to your business is a tactic. The strategy: Support a corporate culture whose values are revealed by social media. Successful strategic values include collaboration, humility, helpfulness, expertise, hard work. Going the extra mile. You can't fake these values in social media. At least, not for long.
You should never ignore a technology because you don't know what it is. In our practice, we frequently encounter Web teams that don't use the very technologies about which they are expected to make decisions. "You have to try it to understand it," says Schmidt, the principal of Anchor Wave, and there we agree wholeheartedly. Kudos to managers who understand they may have to rock the boat by introducing - dare we say it - meritocracy. Who are willing to experiment. Who understand that workers must demonstrate interest AND capability. In some organizations, where seniority and longevity rule, this is a tough battle. But it must be fought, and it must be won.
Those who hold back until someone else figures it out (a philosophy proudly stated to me by the principal of a New York "digital design agency" a couple of years ago) are simply walking into the theatre in the middle of the metaphorical movie. You'll never catch up with the story, much less the subtleties. How can you make good decisions about digital media that way? The answer is, you can't.
But where do we find the time to filter out the valuable social media endeavors from the less productive ones? Find that time - because as co-podcaster Jerry Harkins points out, people filter out conventional marketing messages without even realizing the are doing so. People are likelier to trust peers over authority - a finding Interface Guru first realized during a usability test for Clickability in San Francisco in 2001 - and your conventional marketing message may be pointless in 2010. Harkins directs listeners to The Purple Goldfish Project - a great resource on how businesses (and people) can - literally - blow people away with a gesture of respect and service. When you see the examples, you realize the winning companies' strategies are less about what they spend, and more about the core values they hold dear. What can you learn about your own brand that's worth sharing with the world via social media?
You can't have a robber-baron culture and a collaborative social media strategy. One of the two will lose.
As with all digital media, it depends on your users and your business. Some truisms are helpful; we know that bands prosper on MySpace, and charitable causes flourish on Facebook. But in our view, the key to social media is culture. Are you willing to be what Schmidt calls a "good social media citizen"? Are you willing to help people solve problems even when the dollar is not immediately attached? Or are you only willing to invest time in exchange for dollars?
The greatest challenge for conventionally structured organizations is to become those "good social media citizens" when lack of transparency and buyer-beware have been the standard marching orders - until the emperor-has-no-clothes power of the Web came along.
The selection of social media most valuable to your business is a tactic. The strategy: Support a corporate culture whose values are revealed by social media. Successful strategic values include collaboration, humility, helpfulness, expertise, hard work. Going the extra mile. You can't fake these values in social media. At least, not for long.
You should never ignore a technology because you don't know what it is. In our practice, we frequently encounter Web teams that don't use the very technologies about which they are expected to make decisions. "You have to try it to understand it," says Schmidt, the principal of Anchor Wave, and there we agree wholeheartedly. Kudos to managers who understand they may have to rock the boat by introducing - dare we say it - meritocracy. Who are willing to experiment. Who understand that workers must demonstrate interest AND capability. In some organizations, where seniority and longevity rule, this is a tough battle. But it must be fought, and it must be won.
Those who hold back until someone else figures it out (a philosophy proudly stated to me by the principal of a New York "digital design agency" a couple of years ago) are simply walking into the theatre in the middle of the metaphorical movie. You'll never catch up with the story, much less the subtleties. How can you make good decisions about digital media that way? The answer is, you can't.
But where do we find the time to filter out the valuable social media endeavors from the less productive ones? Find that time - because as co-podcaster Jerry Harkins points out, people filter out conventional marketing messages without even realizing the are doing so. People are likelier to trust peers over authority - a finding Interface Guru first realized during a usability test for Clickability in San Francisco in 2001 - and your conventional marketing message may be pointless in 2010. Harkins directs listeners to The Purple Goldfish Project - a great resource on how businesses (and people) can - literally - blow people away with a gesture of respect and service. When you see the examples, you realize the winning companies' strategies are less about what they spend, and more about the core values they hold dear. What can you learn about your own brand that's worth sharing with the world via social media?
You can't have a robber-baron culture and a collaborative social media strategy. One of the two will lose.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Tony Silber on corporate culture: What most of US business needs to hear
I was blown away by Tony Silber's blog post, "When Corporate Cultures Break, They Can’t Be Easily Fixed" (12/02/09). Using publishing company fiascos to illustrate his points, Tony outlines the wrongheadedness that is destroying businesses across America. Sound too strong? I personally see this far too often. Decisionmakers are laying the groundwork for failure by refusing to adapt to post-Web transparency while retaining the worst practices of the brick-and-mortar days.
The Web has removed the emperor's clothes entirely. Poor business practices that hid behind PR companies are now exposed. Your policy IS your PR.
Notable quotes:
"These companies have been through too many cycles of change in ownership, changes in management, downsizings, layoffs, salary cuts, loss of talent, loss of spirit, loss of camaraderie."
"Job one should be fixing the culture."
"He fell into the idea of protecting his turf rather than working for everyone else."
"...firing a lot of experienced, talented, knowledgeable people..."
And the saddest part, from our perspective: These problems manifest themselves in the Web presence.
Truly, collaborate or die.
The Web has removed the emperor's clothes entirely. Poor business practices that hid behind PR companies are now exposed. Your policy IS your PR.
Notable quotes:
"These companies have been through too many cycles of change in ownership, changes in management, downsizings, layoffs, salary cuts, loss of talent, loss of spirit, loss of camaraderie."
"Job one should be fixing the culture."
"He fell into the idea of protecting his turf rather than working for everyone else."
"...firing a lot of experienced, talented, knowledgeable people..."
And the saddest part, from our perspective: These problems manifest themselves in the Web presence.
Truly, collaborate or die.
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