But, don’t worry. There are ways to combat the issue of image and content theft effectively. Here’s how you can go about it:

Measures for Image Protection

#1 Using a Watermark 

This is possibly the easiest and the strongest way to protect images from being stolen online. All you have to do is place a visible watermark suggesting copyright anywhere on the image. You can go with myriad forms of watermark styles. For instance, you can put up a symbol, date, name of the image owner, etc. You can either place it across the image or in one small corner.

Remember – With watermarks, there’s a tradeoff that happens. For protection, you’re also compromising on the quality of the image for the sign can often acts as a visual distraction.

#2 Using Low Resolution to Protect Image

Another excellent trick to discourage downloading of images is to go with low-resolution photographs. Aim for a 550 pixel at 72 dpi. This is supposed to be a good sizing for images meant for internet usage. 

There’s not much to work with images this size other than viewing them in a browser. In any other application, the image will look distorted and horrible.

#3 Using Tables to Prevent Downloads

Most users will right-click the image as a quick way to save, copy, or find the image. If you happen to have your own website, you can prevent this by using a fairly simple CSS code that puts the image as a background in the table.

Here’s the code to disable/prevent this action:

Disabling the Right Click Option

Another method to prevent the right-clicking of the mouse and selecting the ‘save image as’ option is to simply disable this option for all your images.

But, how can you do it?

You can use plugins to do it such as Envira Gallery Lite. 

Include Copyright Notices

A copyright notice is another thing that websites can use to scare people from downloading your image and using it for free. It’s just a warning that stealing an image could result in a lawsuit and that they’re about to commit a serious offense. While it won’t always discourage everyone – it will work on those with honest intentions.

You can do this by adding a copyright disclaimer inside the footer file with the help of an HTML tag that needs updating every year.

Preventing Content Theft

Another thing that many website owners fear is getting their content copied and published elsewhere without their permission. Legally, only a few excerpts and headlines are allowed for copying. But, stealing an entire article can be a cause for grave concern.

To protect website content from copying, you can try a bunch of methods, such as:

Feed Delay Plugin

A common issue that bloggers face as soon as they publish a postpost is that it gets scraped by the robots and gets added elsewhere without any attribution links. It will index the content before your own content is indexed. Result? Search engines will think that your content is the duplicate one and it might impact your SEO campaign. And, your page will rank below the page that stole the content.

This can be disheartening.

As a fix, you can use the Feed Delay plugin. It avoids scraping the content by delaying the post from being added to the RSS feed for some time. The timing can be adjusted based on when the content is indexed by search engines.

Get a CC License

Obtaining a CC license (Creative Common) to safeguard the content on your site is a simple yet effective method. It is not time-consuming either. It’s a copyright licensing service the purpose of which is to inform the rightful content owner any time their content gets plagiarized by someone else. It’s a free service and an excellent one against online content fraud. Only someone who gives credit to your content will be able to use it.

DMCA Warning

This is one scary warning. The DMCA service aims to safeguard the content on any site against any malpractices. Right from the very first paragraph, those with bad intentions will get a fair warning. You can think of it as copyright protection for web content.

Track Scrapers

Although you can use a myriad plugin that will inform you any time your content gets copied you can also use Google Alerts for the same purpose. This will tell you any time a sequence of your content is copied. One more way in which you can do that is to use a plagiarism scanner. One of the highly recommended tools for tracking scapers is – copyscape.

Bottom Line

As you can see, there are multiple ways to protect your content and images from being stolen. In the end, it depends on which formula/tool works best for you. Remember, even with all the best measures, many will still find a way to work their way around those safety measures.

When nothing else works, you can always file a DMCA complaint.

The post Preventive Measures for Image & Content Theft appeared first on Tech Web Space.

Rather than lamenting over lost in profits and potential revenues, it’s important to learn about the situation and prepare for what’s next. In some niches, the changes might be permanent and so businesses must plan to pivot as soon as possible.

Based on our evaluation of the last couple of months, here are some key changes in social media, advertising, and digital marketing in general. 

Impact of COVID-19 on Advertising

Advertising is often one of the first expenses cut by companies’ time of crisis, and this COVID-19 crisis is no different. 

Cowen analyst, John Blackedge, estimated that US advertising spend will drop by 11% in 2020 when compared to 2019. In the UK, advertising spend is also expected to fall by 16.7%, according to WARC’s expenditure report. 

This expected decline is indeed disappointing because advertising spends during the early Q1 2020 was pretty high. The original estimates for the UK advertising spend in 2020 would grow by 5.2% in 2020.

Due to the self-quarantine period of the crisis, many B2B marketing consultants like Mike Khorev adapted their marketing plan to focus more on digital advertising. On the other hand, traditional campaigns like TV and print ads are expected to suffer more. Online display advertising spend is expected to drop by 12% in 2020, but TV advertising is expected to fall by 19.8%.

So, what can we do to adjust our advertising during and after this COVID-19 crisis? Here are a few tips:

Adjust your message

Many brands have adjusted their visual content to avoid using images displaying human interaction (such as shaking hands, hugging, etc. ), and on the other hand, images featuring people washing hands and health-related activities (including sports and fitness) are on the rise.

Target the platform where your audience is

Your target audience might have changed their platform preference due to them being forced to self-quarantine and WFH. They might consume social media more than usual, and so it’s probably better to shift your budget to social media advertising. Know where your target audience is, and pivot.

Help your audience

Many brands have offered public services during this quarantine period. HBO, for example, have offered some of their most popular shows for free. Figure out how your business can business your audience and the general public during this time of crisis. 

Impact of COVID-19 on Social Media

The Coronavirus crisis has changed how people used social media across the globe. 66% of social media users expect their social media habits to increase significantly as they stay at home. 

Out of those, 64% expect to watch more content on YouTube, 63% expected an increase in Facebook, and 43% expect to use Instagram more. Almost all of them expect to make online purchases, especially for groceries. 

On the other hand, during this COVID-19 crisis, there has been a significant surge of social media content creation: more celebrities are active on Instagram nowadays, and a lot of them have suddenly started their YouTube channels during this quarantine period. 

So, how can marketers capitalize on this opportunity to connect with their audience? Here are a few tips:

Engage people, don’t always promote

While this basic social media marketing principle has always been there even before the coronavirus crisis, but this is even more important right now. Even if you are a company, you can use this time to highlight the exceptional people in your company to bring more personality to your social media messages.

Adjust your message

Again, adjust your message. A lot of people are in fear at the moment, so don’t add to the fire. Post encouraging content, avoid images visualizing human interaction, and so on. 

Help when you can

This is really a time to show empathy and help your audience where you can. Figure out where your business can make your contribution, and take this opportunity to stand out from your competitors. This can significantly help in building your brand and amplifying your reach.

Impact of COVID-19 on Digital Marketing

Based on our observations, there are three main issues in digital marketing (and marketing in general) faced by the majority of businesses:

1. People are only looking for daily essentials (food, shelter, clothes), so it’s obviously more difficult to sell any non-essential products and services.
2. Many people are avoiding physical interactions at all costs, and so businesses that rely on interactions are simply the ones hit the hardest. For these businesses, communication about how your business has taken all the necessary precautions (and more) is very important. 
3. Many people are dealing with lay-offs and/or are jobless at the moment, so businesses selling relatively expensive products and services might need to re-think their pricing strategies.

So, businesses must find new ways to tackle these obstacles. Use this period to build your brand and show your values to the customers. Show that you will take the necessary steps to help them regain trust by delivering valuable, relevant content and offers according to their needs. 

Also, we’d advise not to solely focus on messages centred on COVID-19 but focus more on communicating your brand value. This is the time to build trust and lasting relationships, with the hope that after this crisis, you can leverage these newfound loyalties. 

Conclusion

Above anything else, we have to stay positive and we have to remember that sooner or later, the COVID-19 crisis is going to pass. Hopefully, it passes soon and it had minimal impact on your lives. For the moment, practice physical distancing properly and take care of your health. 

As for your marketing, we also have to remember that in every crisis, there will always be new opportunities. If you do have the budget, it’s time to double down, adjust your marketing messages, and capitalize on these new opportunities.

The post COVID-19 Impact: Advertising, Social Media and Marketing appeared first on Tech Web Space.