Improving Your Social Media With Professional Stock Images

The modern world simply isn’t livable without at least a basic knowledge of technology. The more the digital technology advances, the more of us need to get ourselves online merely to keep up with the competition! But what do you do if you are a technophobe, if the internet baffles you and if it is all you can do to post a status to your online domain without breaking the whole system? Don’t worry… stock photography was designed especially to help people like you!

The first thing you should consider about using stock photography is that you will always, always- always have professional photographs to hand. This is vital for creating interesting and engaging social media content as many people remember an image more than they remember words – that’s the whole reason we have logos!

Statistics Don’t Lie

• Articles with images get 94% more total views
• Including a Photo and a video in a press release increases views by over 45%
• 60% of consumers are more likely to consider or contact a business when an image shows up in local search results
• In an e-commerce site, 67% of consumers say the quality of a product image is “very important” in selecting and purchasing a product
• In an online store, customers think that the quality of a products image is more important than product-specific information (63%), a long description (54%) and ratings and reviews (53%)
• Engagement rate on Facebook for photos averages 0.37% where text only is 0.27% (this translates to a 37% higher level of engagement for photos over text)

Source: Jeff Bullas

Do You Have Permission?

According to Alamy, the second most important reason to use stock photography in your social media content is that using these photographs means you will never be confused about licensing. Without using stock photography you are pretty much taking your chances and hoping the owner of the image doesn’t mind if you use it. Certain sites will allow you to get around this law with permissions: but stock photography still remains the best way to ensure you are not breaking copyright law.

Additionally, stock photo firms have all sorts of pricing structures that can be adapted to fit your needs – as well as starting from prices as low as a dollar! Why would you hire a photographer, go to the expense of finding a location, shipping everyone there and taking all those photo’s – when you can get one at the click of a button for hardly any cash at all? According to Stock Photo Secrets, this is one of the most important points in making your decision between hiring and buying.

Isn’t It More Expensive?

Next, a fact that is widely agreed by all, stock photography is a lot cheaper than hiring a professional photographer to do your bidding for you. Additionally, you have huge amounts of choice available at your fingertips, meaning that you should find the perfect photo to match your content without too much effort. Stock Photography is an online resource that we really should be using already for our online content. But if you are not, it is never too late to start!

What do other businesses say?

That stock photography works wonderfully, that memberships on sites will get you perks and that the only time you shouldn’t use a stock photo is when you are seeking the personal touch. All in all, we think everyone should be using them. There are too many benefits and not enough drawbacks for us to conclude anything else. Using Stock Photography helps your firm to create interesting and visually engaging online content… and you really can’t argue with that.