TOOL TUESDAY: Find that Photo with TinEye Reverse Image Search

October 4, 2011 by Kerri Karvetski

Tool Tuesday features digital tools I actually use and recommend to my clients. No one pays me to say these things. I just like sharing.

A few weeks ago I was putting together a presentation and found an image on my hard drive that I really loved. Being a firm believer in obeying copy rights, I wanted to give proper credit for using the photo.

Problem was, no matter how I searched on Flickr (that’s where I find most of my photos), I couldn’t find the photo again. Then I remembered TinEye.

TinEye is a reverse image search engine. You give it a photo (via upload or URL), and it seeks out a match. TinEye finds exact and altered copies of the images that you submit, including those that have been cropped, color adjusted, resized, heavily edited or slightly rotated.

Truth is I had bookmarked TinEye a long time ago and never had an opportunity to use it. Just before my presentation I read Who Is This Man, and Why Is He Screaming? about a shy photographer named Noam Galai who discovered that people all over the world were using his scream self-portrait without attribution.

He used TinEye as his image detective to retrace his photo’s journey to advertisements, street protests, t-shirts and more in Spain, Iran, Mexico, England – about 40 countries. See Stolen Scream for his version of the story.

Noam’s story prompted me give TinEye a test run. The tool passed with flying colors, cutting my search from minutes to seconds.

In addition to the web search, TinEye has browser add-ons for Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer. It also lets you sort results and share them on Facebook, Twitter, via email and on other social networks.

WHY USE TINYEYE

I used TinEye to find out where an image came from. Other uses include:

Research or track the appearance of an image online
Find higher resolution versions of an image
Discover modified or edited versions of an image

TinEye is free and fun. Be sure to bookmark it…I bet someday you’ll need it.

Posted in General, Photos, Search | Comments

6 Tips For a Better #FollowFriday on Twitter

September 22, 2011 by Kerri Karvetski

One of the Twitter traditions I share first with clients is Follow Friday.

It’s simple. On Friday, send a Tweet that recommends other people to follow on Twitter. Include the hashtag #followfriday in your tweet, or better yet, #ff, which saves you a few characters. It looks like this:

Follow Friday was created in 2008 (Mashable has the origin story) and has been one of the most consistent traditions (some call it a game) on Twitter ever since. Who you choose, how many people you recommend, and how often you participate are completely up to you.

This is social media karma and curation at its best. Trust me, the beauty and benefits of the game will become clear to as you get a few rounds under your belt.

6 TIPS FOR A BETTER FOLLOW FRIDAY

1. GIVE CONTEXT. Group like accounts. Give a reason why you are recommending these people by adding an additional hashtag or description. In the example above, I added #humor. Try these – #location (#hudsonvalley), occupation, specialty (#politics, #nptech), #donors, #advocates, #customers or #clients, #foodies, #runners, #yankees.

2. HAVE PURPOSE. Be strategic with your groupings. Use them to highlight clients, donors, volunteers, thinkers, influencers, show gratitude, give respect, welcome newbies, wake up a Twitter account you think should be more active.

3. SHOW VARIETY. Recommend big accounts and little accounts. Your recommendation could attract the attention of someone influential or bestow credibility to the small but mighty Tweeter. Also, mix it up. Don’t do the same recommendations every week. It’s OK to repeat, but the same #ff every week is a bit lazy and dull.

Use Follow Friday Helper (pictured below) to get easy recommendations based on who’s mentioned you recently.

4. RECIPROCATE. Minimally, review your Mentions on Twitter to see who recommended you. TopFollowFriday (pictured below) is a tool that will show you #followfriday recommendations, but not those tagged with #ff, so it’s only a partial record. It does go back in time more than other apps, which helps you find and recommend your longtime followers. Definitely thank the people who recommended you, and consider recommending them in return.

5. GIVE PROPS. A slight variation of Tip #4. When you are recommended, check out the other people recommended in the tweet. If you end up following those folks, give thanks for the recommendation! EXAMPLE: @HeyAwesomePerson, I followed @WickedSmartPerson from your #ff list. Thanks!

6. CURATE FROM TWITTER LISTS. This is how I do much of my themed #ff recommendations. I go to my Twitter lists, see who’s tweeted interesting stuff lately, and recommend those people.

For example, during Hurricane Irene, there were a few heroic Tweeters who made it their business to get the word out on road closings, water advisories and rescue and recovery resources. I made a list, checked it twice, and made #ff recommendations.

Have any tips to add, or experiences to share? Share them in the comments section.

Posted in General, Twitter | Comments

HOW TO: Post as a Person, Not an Admin, On Your Facebook Page

April 9, 2011 by Kerri Karvetski

If you are an admin on a Facebook page, sometimes you want to post as you, yourself, a person – not as an admin.

This is especially handy in a number of circumstances:

If you are not the main admin (I’m a backup admin on several pages; having a backup admin is always a good idea) and don’t want to be the “official” voice of the page
Most people know your name but not your company name
You prefer the personal touch

With the new page design unveiled this winter, you can post something on your page as you, with your personal profile photo and name and link!

Begin on your page, and in the upper right corner click Edit. Then click Your Settings on the left. Use Posting Preferences to easily toggle between posting as a person and posting as an admin.

One little bug Facebook has fixed – you can tag people and pages in comments regardless of whether you are posting as an admin or posting as a person.

Posted in General | Comments