Crediting your sources, particularly for images, is seen as important in good etiquette, copyright practice and good manners. It is often emphasised in posts about blogging and indeed, it was part of the judging criteria in the recent Blog Awards Ireland awards.
Crediting your sources is just as important on Facebook. A business page was recently closed down by facebook and lost its appeal to be reinstated. The reason seemed to be that the business was repeatedly posting pictures and wasn’t crediting the sources.
I’m noticing this more and more that businesses are posting pictures that are spectacular or striking, capable of being rewarded with lots of comments, shares and likes hence increasing the ‘number of people talking about it’ and raising the business profile effectively. Unfortunately, many of these businesses are not crediting their sources. It came to my attention the other day that a particular UK business posted a picture of a poster designed by an Irish designer without crediting the source. The design of the poster was a perfect fit for the brand in question and received 1265 likes, a massive 300 shares and hundreds of comments. (I’m not going to name and shame by the way but the page is a successful one with 88,000 fans, 11,000 people talking about it.) The Irish designer noticed it, was hurt and annoyed and brought it to the attention of friends and followers on facebook and twitter with the result that many of them commented on the said facebook page with ire and surprise (and probably resolving never to support that brand by buying their products).
It took them a full day to contact the designer with an apology and they fully admitted their mistake by stating what they did, crediting the source, buying ten of the posters and offered them as competition prizes. (Unfortunately, they broke Facebook’s rules once more by running an illegal ‘like and share’ competition!) That update received 168 comments, 380 likes and 58 shares.
How do you credit a photo on Facebook?
1. You can link to the website page, however, that tends to just show the image as a thumbnail within the link.
2. If you copy and paste the image onto your desktop and then upload it so that is shows up as a large photo (403 x 403) for maximum visual impact, you will need to write something like Source: Name and link to website or Creative Credit: Name and link
3. Using Pinterest Images on Facebook: Pinterest is a treasure trove of wonderful images and it is just as important that you link to the pin (which, of course, is linked to its original source) if you link to the pin it will show as a thumbnail. If you wish the image to be larger, you can copy and upload it but must show the link to the pin. Just write your description, upload your photo and then add the link (in that order as otherwise the link will bring up the thumbnail).
Credit your sources and not only are you adhering to Facebook’s rules, you will also be viewed as professional as you carry out good practice of etiquette.
(Source of Icon: Iconbug.com)
