Credit where credit’s due, after all!
I don’t want to sound cross but when you see something you like the look of online –
- a tasty little insta snap,
- a song that you think sounds just like that new product you’ve launched,
- a video of a landscape that’d go perfectly with your piece about taking time out
do you feel a bit like that ol’ kid in a candy store? You just going to take it? Not tell anyone? It is, after all, the caring sharing Internet. No one will know anyway. Anyway, it’s going free, isn’t it?
Now then. Stop that right now!
Giving credit is an essential part of ‘netiquette. It’s good manners. It helps spread the marketing love for the source of your candy-lust. Not only that, it looks good on you. Because it demonstrates you as a good, ethical business that respects the work of other like-minded enterprises. It also gets to be more diligent, like checking the small print – whether you have to pay or there’s a disclaimer asking you not to use it.
It works for photos, film, music as above. Like the fab&crazy photo – I do like that photo, don’t you? – from Preslie Hirsch above. It also works for statistics. Because if you don’t credit the source of your “52% of all YouTubers eat margherita pizza”* then you might find yourself not only losing your credibility but you could also be in trouble. And what if your source is inaccurate!?
So, don’t be a Muppet, Give Credit!