Have you seen this amazingly hilarious spin on stock photos produced by the cast of Vince Vaughn’s new movie “Unfinished Business” and iStock by Getty Images? It’s viral gold. This photo here starring Vince Vaughn and Dave Franco is a masterpiece titled, “Work Your Magic.”
Who hasn’t been shot this look before; sitting around the boardroom table surrounded by executives that don’t know your name, in complete doubt of your fourth quarter forecast. It’s perfect. Tweet This Quote
Images really are the beginning, middle, and end of your content – or at least they SHOULD be! Grab your audience, keep your audience, and release your audience with engaging, complementary, and meaningful imagery that delivers your message. Work your magic with images.
Now if you are not willing to take my word for it – here are several impactful stats proving the importance of visuals:
- Articles with images get 94% more total views (Source: Jeff Bullas) Tweet This Stat
- 40% of people will respond better to visual information than plain text. (Source:Zabisco) Tweet This Stat
- 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000X faster in the brain than text. (Sources:3M Corporation and Zabisco) Tweet This Stat
- Visual content drives engagement. In fact, just one month after the introduction of Facebook timeline for brands, visual content — photos and videos — saw a 65% increase in engagement. (Source:Simply Measured) Tweet This Stat
Of course there are plenty of horrible stock photos out there today, sending all of the wrong messages, and not aligning with your brand. Therefore, you need to take the time to find the best source for your brand. The right style, mood, medium, etc…are all important to telling your story – whether you are writing about Social Media Marketing, Human Resource Tools, or IT Code Hacks you need to complement your writing with visuals.
So, I’m here to make your selection process a little bit easier. Check out my Top 5 Favorite Stock Image Sources (FREE) and do yourself a favor, bookmark all 5!
Top 5 Amazing and Free Stock Image Sources
1. Unsplash.com: An absolute favorite photo source for me is Unsplash. New photos are added every week, styles vary but are similar, and the quality is terrific. I find myself scrolling through the new and old photos constantly just to take in the view – the photos are simply awesome! Plus, the download process is simple, no login required.
2. Gratisography New favorite site! Very cool and comical assortment of free images updated weekly, no login required. Perfect source of “caption this” images.
3. Pixabay.com Pixabay creates a community of images by encouraging users to upload their own (this feature directly grows the database and unlocks the advertisement block feature). Pixabay also includes a selection of images available for purchase from Shutterstock.
4. Picjumbo.com “totally free photos for your commercial & personal works” Picjumbo includes a great selection of free photos for download with login. Picjumbo PREMIUM offers a paid membership for $6/month including an exclusive collection of images.
5. iStock by Getty Images: The source of all the fun this week with the “Unfinished Business” photo release, iStock by Getty Images offers an enormous assortment of images. Twelve images from the movie shoot will be available for free download—for editorial use only—over three weeks.The first four are available here.
(bonus!) Canva.com: Now this isn’t exactly a stock photo site, but Canva is a great tool for simple design purposes. Templates, fonts, graphics and stock photos are all included in this very simple design tool. Canva is a great tool for creating your own custom work (some of mine shown above)– use their assets or upload your own. There is a great selection of free media, plus a huge assortment of designs available for just $1. Pretty great site!
“Stock photos have a bad rap. They’re campy and cheesy and the butt of plenty of jokes,” explained by Alfred Maskeroni, writer for Adweek Vince Vaughn and Co-stars Pose for Idiotic Stock Photos You Can Have for Free Getty and Fox team up for Unfinished Business stunt
Stock photos don’t have to be cheesy. Do yourself a favor and bookmark each of these amazing resources. Don’t let your next blog or social media post go live without an engaging feature image again. Work your magic people – it’s simple! Tweet This Quote