Know-How Exchange : Social Media

No. It's not OK. Unauthorized use of copyrighted material is a violation of the copyright holder's intellectual property. Either buy the rights to images or use images you've created. I know of people and companies that have been fined tens of thousands of dollars for use that wash;t approved in some way. Proceed with extreme caution.

Many of the stock photo sites DO allow you to license their images for use within social media. For those who copy the images and re-use them without permission and a license is wrong, and I don;t see why you would be held accountable for someone else's actions.

Getty has recently opened up thier image library for use in social media providing you include their attribution and link back to their web site. I really would not recommend going along with Getty's new usage program because of their past misdeeds suing anyone and everyone (including me)...{see https://www.extortionletterinfo.com/ for more information}. I simply DO NOT trust Getty and their policies after what I went through (was eventually found not guilty ...but still, it was an experience)

If you DO use images from Flickr, make sure that they are Creative Commons license, or attribution license.

I would recommend that you buy an inexpensive digital camera and take some of your own photos. You can use them as much as you like, and it adds to the impact of your social postings. Of course, I am assuming that you have a social page that would benefit from including images of your business, interest, or group.

Darcy Moen
Customer Loyalty Network