{"id":1278,"date":"2010-09-09T13:30:53","date_gmt":"2010-09-09T13:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/?p=1278"},"modified":"2010-09-09T13:44:30","modified_gmt":"2010-09-09T13:44:30","slug":"picture-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/picture-this\/","title":{"rendered":"Picture This"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"One of the oft-overlooked elements in the routine of blogging is image selection. Now, not every blogger uses images, charts, graphs, or other visuals as part of their storytelling approach (Seth Godin<\/a>, most notably, is almost always a text-only blogger). <\/p>\n

But for those of us who do, our photos can be just as important and compelling as our written copy.<\/p>\n

The art of communications and marketing is largely one of storytelling. As someone with small children, I can appreciate the necessity of images to help tell stories. Images can help to set expectations, evoke emotional responses, draw attention, provoke<\/a> laughter<\/a>, or symbolize irony, among hundreds of other things.<\/p>\n

So you see, the cavalier approach to image selection simply won’t do for blogging. Or shouldn’t. Similarly, the sources and the rights of images needs to be taken just as seriously as choosing an image. This post is designed to help you think about where and how you choose images for your blog (or site, or brochure, or whatever), with some bonus content thrown in.<\/p>\n

Finding Images<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let’s start with the basics. You need an image for a blog post. Where should you look? There are a number of great resources that are either low-cost or free:<\/p>\n