The Use And Misuse Of Stock Photography In Websites

Posted by bloggertone under Marketing
From http://bloggertone.com 4827 days ago
Made Hot by: steeldawn on February 25, 2011 12:17 am

If you are going to put a photo of two business people shaking hands up on your website then why not take a photo of YOU shaking the hand of one of your current customers and put this up on your website...

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Written by FrederiqueMurphy
4828 days ago

Having said, I do think it can work, and you give great advice on how to pick the pics; personally, when people are involved my preference is for the use of real photos and the use of their face; this is particularly applicable with my market as I work with entrepreneurs and business owners. Like Bob Burg said "people will do business with, and refer business to, those people they know, like and trust" and a real photo (and a video to echo Fred's comment) will tremendously help with that. (On a personal note, a funny anecdote, my husband is a photographer and he takes all of my pictures and at the beginning, I was using a "posed" picture of me on some of my pages and people thought it was stock photo ;-) ahaha

Talking about business owners, the primary objection I get, which can be understandable is when their long-term vision is to sell their business, then they don't want to attach themselves too much and tend not to want to use their face as part of their branding and positioning efforts. I don't have this problem as it is very clear to me that in my business, my clients are working with me because of me and even though, at the beginning, I was shy (yes!), I am now fully recognising that my best brand is me, and it also suits my personal development niche.

Wow, you see Beatrice, I don't think I've ever written such a long comment, you got me going!

Frederique

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Written by FrederiqueMurphy
4828 days ago

Hi Beatrice (and waving at you from the Curragh)

I love your post, it is so fresh and funny (because it is true!)

This is a topic quite close to my heart as I really do not like the use of stock photos and to be more precise, I do not like the use of stock photos for people. Years ago, I was a management consultant in charge of the communications team and working on a change programme affecting 60k employees; one day, I was reviewing posters (it was a culture programme) and the messages were great, the design and layout were great but and to use your expression, why of why, did the designers use "fake" people for the pics. The reason why I mentioned the number of employees above is that 60k, is a lot of people to choose from ;-) To cut the story short, we did end up using "real employees" and the communication campaign was a real hit, the rapport and connection factors were brilliant.

To expand, from pictures and move onto video, there is a chain of DIY stores, over here and they are actually using employees of the month for their in-house posters and even on their TV ads -- I think that is brilliant; and a great win/win, a win for the company as they do not have actor fees and a win for the chosen employees, who surely must be very flattered to be publically recognised for their outstanding work, and it also allows the company to tie in these activities as part of their recognition achievement programme. Also, I was in Orlando, FL, last month for some meetings and we went on a Walt Disney Business Behind the Scenes tour and there were using very similar strategies; all in-house pictures used "cast" only captures (that's how WD wanted to refer to his staff).

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Written by nialldevitt
4828 days ago

Hi Beatrice, great piece and great advice! I am certainly guilty of some of the sins above. I love your advice around taking a photo of you. I would also extend this advice to cover video. Video is accessible, can be produced inexpensively and to a high standard by anyone. Businesses don't have to produce TV advertising standard stuff or Oscar performances, but customers will love to see and hear the about the people behind the business and it's a really effective way to stand out.

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