The Radiance Mindset

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Let’s say you are in charge of content creation and you post on social media for your small business. And let’s also say that you love scrolling through Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for content ideas. Wahoo! There are sooo many great things out there to share!

Oooh! You just found the PERFECT quote/image/funny/punny to post that will go with what you had planned to share next week.

Pop Quiz: What is your next step for content creation? What do you do? What.do.you.do? (Any Speed–the movie–fans out there?? When I type “what do you do” I always hear Dennis Hopper’s voice in my head. LOL!)

• Do you right click (or hold down on the image, if you’re on a phone) and save the image?
• Do you go into a text app and then add your website and/or logo to it and post it?
• Do you crop off someone else’s website/logo and add your own?

Guess what? The answer is NO to all of the above.

First, lets talk about why none of those are good content creation ideas.

**Right click and Save the Image: There are copyright laws and licensing fees out there in the world. Finding any ol’ image, saving it, and reposting it most likely will be infringing on copyright somewhere (unless it’s a meme or you know it’s free-to-share).

Also, the original person who made the graphic you just saved may have a subscription to a stock photo site. And they PAID to use the photo in their image. Based on most licensing agreements, the original person using the image cannot sell or have anyone else use that image for free. The new person would also need to pay to use the image.

Moral of the Right Click story: It is stealing content and/or taking away from artists earning their income to simply save an image you find out on the internet and repost it.

AND, why would you want to be advertising someone else’s business on your social media, when you could be advertising your own business??

**Adding text to an image you saved: This is poor social media etiquette. And not really content creation at all. While kudos go to realizing that someone else made it and you left their watermark/website there for people to see. You cannot then add your website/logo to make it yours. Please see “Moral of the Right Click Story” above for reasons why you should not do this.

Moral of adding text to an image you saved story: This only makes the person doing this look lazy (because they just took someone else’s image and slapped their own logo on it) but it is also unprofessional and does nothing to help spread engagement for your own brand and business.

**Cropping someone else’s image/removing their logo or watermark and adding your own: The other two issues above can happen simply by a new business owner not having the knowledge yet to know better. It’s totally ok, almost all people new to social media marketing and content creation do this sort of thing.

Moral of the cropping/removing someone’s watermark story: when a person actually takes the time to crop or remove someone’s logo or watermark and THEN add their own logo/watermark and share the “new” image. That is blatant stealing. And oh-so-wrong.

Here’s what you CAN Do when you find something you want to share!!

OK, I don’t like being negative, that is not what the Radiance Mindset is all about. But I see all of the above things all the time. And while I try to give some grace and think the person “just doesn’t know better”. I feel I need to do my part to let everyone know what they CAN do!

There is a lot of great content already out there on the interwebs. And we don’t have the time in our lives or the creative capacity to constantly come up with completely new, original, and brilliant content to share.

• Ask permission FIRST to repost the image.
• Credit the originator in your post.
• BEST CHOICE, HANDS DOWN: Remake the image in your own brand colors, fonts, using your elements and then add your logo and website to that sucker.

I’m not even going to add to the first two things in that list. They are pretty straight forward. Let’s chat about the last choice!

How to REMAKE an image you found on the internet for your own use (You know, actual “content creation”. LOL!)

I am not going to get into graphic design tutorials in this blog post. That’s for another series, another day. But I did want to leave you with ideas that would be beneficial to you and your business!

Here’s an example of redoing the example image above, in my own branding colors, fonts, and style! Same exact content, but with my vibe!

I used Canva to create the image above. It took me about 5-10 minutes to make it. Another quick tip: simply find a halloween image in WordSwag and add the text in there to create a whole new image. It doesn’t have to be branded. You can also use PicsArt, PicMonkey, Photoshop. So many choices for all levels of graphic creation expertise.

What if you have no idea how to create your own content??

Guess what? There are designers out there who can do it for you! 🙂 (I volunteer as Tribute! LOL!)

I have one client, she saves quotes she likes to a Pinterest board. She shared the board with me and each month has me create 30 graphics for her. I have Canva templates saved in her brand colors and fonts. Boom! She can keep doing her income producing activities and not spend the time making graphics. That’s not her strength. But it is mine! So I’m happy to help her with this task!

Example of one of her Pinterest pins:

And here is the example of the image I recreated for my client! And again, posting this image here (that actually belongs to her) with permission from her, and I’m linking to her page.

The long and the short of it is….it is much more beneficial to your business to post your OWN content than to alter or repost someone else’s. Spread your name all over! Not theirs. <3