Improving Your Images

Images are important to your online reputation because they often demonstrate your authority and understanding in your subject area, as well as your willingness to share what you know with the community.

Google’s Image Search function enables people to find your posts via pictures. However, online culture tends to revere the new and different, so to stand out, your images need an element of novelty. In this section, I show you how to optimize your images for sharing and where the best places are to showcase your work.

Popping their peepers

This section can also be called “Making your pictures compelling,” but eye-popping posts and status updates that beg to be investigated further are one way to catch people’s attention.

Another way is to include an intriguing image. Believe it or not, an image that’s a little “off” gets more attention than a slick, technically precise image. It pays to be a little offbeat.

Some tips for making your pictures more intriguing:

Go nuts: Surprise your viewers with something unexpected, like a pig wearing a tiara.

Use animals: Internet users are famous for their love of animal photos (such as Figure 13-2, which shows my dogs lounging in the sun). Be playful and use animal pictures with funny expressions.

Use primary colors: The human brain is hard-wired to take action when it sees primary colors.

Play on words: For example, “Writing with a broken pen is pointless” or “a backward poet writes inverse” may make cute titles for a writing-related image.

Be authentic: “Real” pictures (as opposed to professional, touched-up looking photography) engage visitors for much longer periods of time than fancy stock photography.

Be inspiring: The most compelling images online build people up, inspire them somehow, or make them laugh.

Bringing sharing savvy back

Whether you’re sharing a picture to enhance your blog post or launching an exciting infographic, your strongest online reputation boost comes from identifying that picture as yours. When people share your images online with their own audiences, then, a little bit of your brand spreads around the virtual world.

As your pictures get shared and spread across the Internet, you can generate more traffic for yourself by doing a few simple things. Optimize your pictures for sharing by

Including your name in the title

Including your name in the caption

Using your Twitter hashtag (for example, #Dummies) in the title

Using your Twitter hashtag in the caption

“Watermark” the image before you share it. A watermark is a faint logo or line of text visible within the image. You can add them by using

• Plug-ins that can automatically watermark uploaded images

• Photo-editing software

Protect your original photography and artwork with watermarks. If the images you use aren’t yours, give credit where it’s due. And make certain you have permission to use them. Just crediting the photo source may not protect you from copyright violation.