Tools for Finding, Editing, & Sharing Images in Social Media

In the #ChSocM (Church Social Media) tweetchat on May 6, 2014, we talked about the power of using images in social media. 

The #ChSocM community shared some of their favorite resources for finding, editing, creating, and sharing images. Those resources are posted below.

If I missed one that you'd like to endorse, please add it in the comment section. And you can find the tweetchat conversation in its visually pleasing entirety on Storify here.

Happy imaging!

Free Stock Photos and Images

123rf - www.123rf.com Royalty-free stock photos from as low as .21 per image

Flickr - https://www.flickr.com/ - images with a variety of licenses

freedigitalphotos.net - Small versions of images are free, larger versions obtained for a fee

freeimages.com - “leading source of free stock photos”

freerangestock.com - “High quality, high resolution, free stock photos and free textures.”

Google Images - http://images.google.com/

New Old Stock - nos.twnsnd.co - “Vintage photos from the public archives, free of known copyright restrictions.”

stockvault.net - “Free stock photos, textures, and graphics.”

:unsplash.com  10 free high-resolution photos every 10 days. “Do whatever you want.”

Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page - “A database of over 21,000,000 freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute.”

From Buffer: 53+ Free Image Sources for Your Blog and Social Media Posts

Faith-based Images

CreationSwap - www.creationswap.com  “Free church media shared or sold by thousands of Christian artists. Search videos, photos, logos, church bulletins, sermon graphics and more”

Lightstock - www.lightstock.com “Say goodbye to clipart. Faith-focused, cheesy-free, stock photos and footage”

Live Intentionally Photos - https://www.facebook.com/LiveIntentionally/photos_stream A collection of inspirational quotes set on photos.

Sermon Quotes - https://www.facebook.com/SermonQuotes  Inspirational sayings, ideas, videos and scripture.

Typographic Verses - http://typographicverses.com/ Bible verses set graphically.

Create Designs, Edit Photos

 Aviary - https://www.aviary.com/ “Make photos magic.”

canva.com - Create designs with graphics, images, and text.

Flipagram - http://flipagram.com/ - “Create beautiful short video stories using your photos, set to music you love!”

Gimp - www.gimp.org - “a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.” 

Google Nik Collection http://www.google.com/nikcollection/-   “Advanced editing, simplified.”

IFTTT - https://ifttt.com/ “Put the internet to work for you.”

PickCrew - https://pickcrew.com/ - Hire high-quality, hand-picked, vetted design professionals to do creative work.

PicMonkey.com - “Photo editing made of win.” Edit, touch up, design, collage.

Pixlr - http://pixlr.com/  - “Welcome to the most popular online photo editor in the world.”

PrintStudio - http://printstud.io/  - “No hassle printing from your desktop or mobile.”

ribbet.com - “Online photo editing made fun and easy.”

shareasimage.com  - “Create micro content anywhere on the web. Turn images or text into viral, eye-catching micro-content that you can share in seconds.”

Studio - http://www.madewithstudio.com/ - “Create and share amazing designs with your friends.”

WordSwag - http://wordswag.co/ - “Add awesome text to your photos in seconds.”

www.bonanza.com/background_burner - Removes the background from photos, saves them with white or transparent background.

Make Memes

Quickmeme - http://www.quickmeme.com/ Create memes to share.

Meme Generator - http://memegenerator.net/ Create memes to share.

Apps

Instaquote - add text captions to photos and pictures for IG “Create beautiful text pictures for instagram.”

Over - http://madewithover.com/  “The app for adding text and artwork to photos.”

PicLab - http://piclabapp.com/ “Add beautiful typography, artwork & effects to your photos.”

PicStitch - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pic-stitch/id454768104?mt=8 - Make photo collages, add effects.

Popagraph - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/popagraph/id587595362?mt=8 Popgraph: a photo editing app.

Snapseed - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/snapseed/id439438619?mt=8 Photo editing app.

Host a Social Media Helpdesk at your church

Offering a Social Media Helpdesk on a Sunday morning at your church is a great way to get more eyes on the content you are already creating and curating, and helps turn fans in the pews into brand ambassadors for your church online. 

Here are a some things to consider as you plan your event.

Equipment

You’ll want to have some basic equipment on hand: 

• wifi (make sure you have the password!), or a wifi hotspot
• multiple devices for demonstrating; at a minimum, have a smart phone and a laptop
• a working electrical outlet nearby, preferably with a surge-protector strip
• paper and pens so people can take notes
• your own passwords to platforms or apps you might be demonstrating
• a table and chairs

Get Ready

You should let people know in advance about your upcoming Social Media Helpdesk so they’ll come prepared with their questions and devices. 

Use your usual publicity tools: bulletin, announcements, newsletter, word of mouth, etc. Obviously you’ll also want to use social media to invite people to come. 

Go!

On Helpdesk day, post signs so people know where to find you.

Invite some social media or tech-savvy volunteers to join you at the Helpdesk to answer questions. Don't have any? Hold a Helpdesk anyway, and do what you can. You can always use Google to find answers you don't know. 

Invite the youth group to share their social media expertise and watch the intergenerational ministry unfold.

Repeat “No question is too stupid.” Repeat it again (even if you think there are some questions that are too stupid). 

What to Expect

Count on getting questions about how to use devices, including managing privacy and apps. While you have a captive and interested audience, offer to help them like or follow your church on social media. 

Teach them how to like, comment, and share content from your church’s accounts, and stress the importance of doing that in reaching out to their friends and the community. 

(Remember that whole Great Commission thing?) 

Invite them to connect with you on social media, too.

After the Helpdesk

After the event is over, use social media to personally thank all those who stopped by. Be sure to tag your church. 

Host additional Helpdesks, as people in your church will be discovering social media for the first time next month, and six months from now, and next year...  Ask those who attended to come back with more questions or to help someone else. 

Invite them to participate in or follow the weekly Church Social Media tweet chat on Twitter on Tuesdays at 9pmET, using the hashtag #ChSocM.

Be sure to acknowledge their social media ministry as you notice them sharing, inviting, and ministering to others using social media. 

Don't forget to check in and post some pictures from the event.

Finally? Check your analytics in a week to see if your Social Media Helpdesk created a bump in engagement.

Have anything to add?  Please post it in the comments below! Also, I'd be pleased to know if you’re planning your own Social Media Helpdesk. 

Find me @singingcarolyn with any questions or thoughts. 

Social Media Sunday

One of my great joys is doing social media for the Episcopal church I attend, Trinity Episcopal Church, in Tariffville, Connecticut.  I got started as a social media explorer for fun and adventure, and I became the person making the most noise about our parish's need for a new website.  A couple of years later I've found myself on Trinity's vestry, managing the social media, leading the communication team, and serving as the webmaster. 

That'll teach me to make noise.

On June 30, 2013, we held a "Social Media Sunday" to encourage parishioners to engage with our parish social media channels and to spread the word about our church to their friends and followers.  You can read all about it on the #chsocm (Church Social Media) blog here.

A key to great engagement on Social Media Sunday was the announcement I made in church before the service began.  This both alerted the congregation that their pewmate just might be using their smartphone in church, and invited them to participate.

In case you're interested in doing your own Social Media Sunday, I offer you the pre-service announcement I made. And be sure to let me know about your event; I'd enjoy following along.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Welcome to Social Media Sunday! 

Obviously,

• Moses wasn’t using TripAdvisor to find a nice, reasonable hotel in the desert
• Martha wasn’t on Pinterest looking up recipes to serve Jesus
• David wasn’t posting his latest psalms to his YouTube Channel
• Jesus wasn’t live tweeting events (although all the Beatitudes are 140 characters or less, making them perfectly suited for Twitter!)

However, our faith has gone viral since the very beginning. Paul might not have had a smartphone, but he used the social media of his time: Epistles, which continue to spread throughout the world today. 

Today, we are asking you to join us in being a part of making the Good News go viral.
I did a little number crunching, and if even a minority of you who are already using social media post about Trinity today, almost 5000 of our friends and family will learn something about us and our church. 

You might want to scoot over and make a little more room in your pew. 

I invite you, today, to be a part of the easiest evangelism you will ever do:

• Check in on Facebook or Foursquare
• Post something about Trinity on Facebook or Twitter
• Take a photo of something here and put it on Instagram
• Tweet interesting points from the sermon

Please use the hashtag: #tctville so others can follow along. 

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, come up to the Parish Hall after church for Trinity’s Social Media Help Desk. We can help you get started on Social Media and answer your questions. 

To paraphrase Acts 1:8 

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses on Instagram, and in all of Twitter and Facebook, and to the ends of the earth. 

Go now to love and tweet the Lord!

#twitterjail

I'm a sometimes moderator in the church social media (#chsocm) tweetchat that happens each Tuesday at 9pm over on Twitter.

Last Tuesday, one of our esteemed moderators (@azrork) finished up the chat from Twitter Jail.  What is Twitter Jail?  It's when Twitter cuts you off, and you're not allowed to tweet for a period of time.

Twitter has limits on various account activities.  These include:

• number of tweets an account is allowed to send per day (1000)
• number of daily direct messages (250)
• how many accounts that can be followed in one day (1000)
• number of tweets (including retweets) that are allowed in "semi-hourly intervals" (the exact number is not officially stated by Twitter, but rumored to be around 100 per hour)

For most of us, this doesn't pose a problem.  I would have a difficult time sending 1000 tweets in a day, and I can assure you that most of my followers (including my children) would unfollow me if I did. 

But, if you're moderating a tweetchat, responding to tweets, and retweeting the conversation, you can easily hit the 100 tweets per hour ceiling, and when that happens, you'll get a message something like this:

Sigh.

And you might feel something like this:

But, never fear. Twitter Jail only lasts for 30 minutes up to several hours.

What to do if you're put into Twitter Jail?  Do what our brilliant #chsocm moderator did: plan ahead and have a separate twitter account from which to tweet when you're in jail. Or switch to another platform if you still have more to say (Facebook, Tumblr, etc.). Or just use your virtual imprisonment as a suggestion to step away from your device and go fold a load of laundry or something.

Either way, you'll be back to the tweet life soon.

Starting a blog. Again.

I thought it was about time to get back to blogging, so I...

Look! A squirrel!

Squirrels are cute, considering they are essentially rats with bushy tails, but those excessively friendly ones make me uneasy. The one in this picture was stalking us on a family picnic on Roanoke Island, NC a couple of years ago. It was far closer than a "wild" animal should be, and those beady eyes were chilling. Can't you feel the fear, just looking at it?  Maybe you had to be there.

I once read an interesting factoid about squirrels: when their nests get too messy, they simply leave them behind and build new ones. As the mother of three teenagers, that frankly makes a lot of sense to me.

Back to blogging. 

I had a little-used Wordpress blog called finewithme, on which I posted 11 times in 8 months a couple of years ago.  I enjoyed the writing I did on that blog, but it was largely ignored (by me and others).  I was never quite sure what I hoped to do there, and I couldn't figure out how to transition it into some of the circles on the Venn diagram of me.

So, like the squirrel with the messy nest, I'm leaving that blog to build another. Maybe I'll visit from time to time, maybe not. I expect that I will write here about things related to my life as an educator, an Episcopalian, a social media fan, a wife and a mom, and more.

Obviously we'll be singing. And of course we'll have some laughs along the way.

Thanks for coming along.