Visual artists and businesses of all kinds invest a great amount of time, talent and money into creating graphics that market their appeal. Whether it?s an infographic, illustration, humorous de-motivational or creative photograph, reaching out to consumers may not be the hardest part. Sharing enticing graphics is one thing, but spawning leads back from these works is another.
So what can we do to improve our business? fortune in photo sharing via social media and beyond? And how might we track its success?
Watermarking initiatives
We?ve all seen and heard the worst about digital watermarks on images: amateur photographers creating their very own logos and showcasing them through the most obnoxious and aesthetically-hindering translucent signatures.
But how often do businesses utilize watermarks when sharing over social media, and what benefits might it have?
The image above was found on Pinterest (among other watermarked photos), on the first results page (the 8th image displayed) from the search term ?photography? with 83 likes and 265 repins. It?s apparent that watermarks don?t have a negative effect on sharing as I initially expected they would. It?s also evident that watermarking is far from a rare practice on social media sites, especially visually-oriented ones.
Nature photographer Nate Zeman reported that when using large watermarks on his images, he noticed no decrease in the frequency of image sharing across the internet. ?It also didn?t seem to have any effect on the number of sites that were sharing my work. I?m still seeing my photos all over the place with the watermark on it,? said Zeman.
He uses watermarking in different ways depending on the website on which he shares a given photo. For social networking sites, Zeman adds a large and distinctive watermark to the middle of the image. This is because users on social media networks are the most likely to borrow and share photos, so Zeman ensures that his works can be traced back to him and his personal website.
On photography communities such as Flickr and 500px, he includes a smaller watermark for each image because photographer colleagues are far less inclined to perpetrate photo theft than an arbitrary internet socialite.
And on his own site, Zeman leaves his images watermark-free. This is so that visitors (and potential buyers) can have an optimal and undistracted viewing experience. He leaves photographs in his galleries decidedly low resolution so that anyone who would still be tempted to grab one of his unmarked graphics couldn?t pose much of a threat to the integrity of the originals.
Zeman explained that his ?funnel? strategy is aimed at ultimately bringing fans of his work to his personal page (where they can buy prints), drawing them in from shared content on third party sites.
The real lesson in Nate Zeman?s analysis of photo watermarking is that the traffic to his website was split nearly in half between direct links from outside sites and verbatim organic searches for the phrases he left in his watermarks. This means that people who were interested in his photos were frequently tracking him down through the brief plug in the watermarks.
As long as internet users continue to reuse photos, whether it?s technically legal or not in various contexts (hint: for the entire foreseeable future), then content creators, visual artists and marketers alike will be able to use this traditionally frowned-upon practice to their fiscal advantage.
Remember, even if an image thief isn?t going to buy your photo, someone on her page may be interested. Your watermark may be the only thing that?s going to direct them to your website, and in turn yield you possible income. (Notice the watermark on our image above!)
Metadata
It?s important to leave a trail of breadcrumbs, per se, when sharing visual works over the internet. As evidenced above, the way you?ll generate leads from said sharing initiatives or image thievery is from people linking back to your own site. And the only way they?ll know enough to look you up is if you provide them with the information.
While watermarking is perhaps the most straightforward and blatant way to give the customer information about yourself, including image metadata is a supplementary measure that provides necessary contact information and protects your virtual property interests.
If you?re new to metadata, it?s a relatively cut-and-dry concept. Every image file (a jpg, for example) contains text-based information that gives details about the graphic.
A wide variety of information can be stored in metadata. Here are a few highlights:
- Creator?s name, website, phone, address and country
- Copyright holder, rights and usage terms
- Caption information and headline
- Document rating
- Keywords
- Camera information (if the document is a photograph)
- GPS location
- Personalized instructions
There are many types of metadata. The most common is IPTC ?legacy?, which was originally created in the early 90s as one of the first (and still most widely recognized) schemas of metadata. I would personally encourage any graphic artist or copyright holder to include their information in as many metadata forms as possible, but if nothing else then IPTC should be considered the highest priority.
There are a slew of other metadata schemas including IPTC Core, PLUS, XMP and Exif. IPTC Core is a successor to the former legacy format, with added descriptive fields that are utilized by many stock photography shooters and agencies. PLUS generates a code that aids to identify information associated with the creators and copyright holder. XMP is a metadata format that can be stored either within the photo or as an accompanying file, and I?ve seen it used alongside RAW photo files in the past. Exif is a format used for photographs and stores shooting information such a camera and lens model, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, focal length and GPS location so that users can identify them later on.
It is, however, worth noting that metadata won?t always stick around through repeated shares. Any given image file?s metadata is free to be altered (or completely wiped) through a number of methods and programs.
Despite the fact that metadata inclusion isn?t fool-proof, including personal information such as your name (at the least) and website is going to hint potential leads into where they can find you.
Reverse Image Search tracking
Once you?ve ensured that your images can be traced back to you and your website, it?s time to track your progress.
An extremely effective way to monitor photo sharing and reuse is through Google?s reverse image search function. It?s an easy tool to use that will yield valuable insight into who is using your photos and where they?re showing up.
To reverse-search an image, click on the camera icon in the Google image search bar:
From there you can upload a photo and keywords to the search:
A results page follows, listing each instance of the photo and visually-similar images on the internet:
This is a fantastic way to see where particular photos are getting the most attention. Reverse image search may also reveal illegal or otherwise unfavorable uses of your photos. If a company has used your image in an advertisement without your knowledge or permission, you?ll be able to see for yourself and take steps to liberate your work from competitors and imposters.
It is worth noting that there is an expected degree of delay between an image actually appearing somewhere and successful results on a reverse image search. Google (and every other search engine) has what we call ?spiders? that crawl around the internet, documenting new or previously unnoticed websites and their content. The spiders move as fast as they can, but the search results for newly-uploaded content will always be staggered until the spiders stumble across it.
In a world where image reuse is rampant, the contemporary visual artist needs to adapt or perish. So stop living in the dark ages; it?s time to be proactive and save yourself from lost opportunities.
If anyone already uses watermarks and/or metadata or tracks their photos via reverse image search, we?d love to hear what you have to say about your experience! Any tips or tricks? Let us know below.
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