Leverage Image Assets To Differentiate Your Business

Content is king. Before you roll your eyes and stop reading, I'm not talking about text content here. In a Web universe where blended search increasingly becomes the norm and consumers look for richer and more interactive experiences online, it is the responsibility of Web professionals to to develop content that satisfies that need.  So how do you do that? Differentiate your online business by using images and using them well.

You may not realize it now, but look around your own computer and you'll find image content. These photos, screenshots, logos, etc. are for many an untapped resource just waiting to be presented to potential customers and website visitors. Below you'll find three very practical ways to leverage image assets to differentiate your online business.

Create Music Videos With Photos: While you may never see your music video on the likes of MTV or VH1, Animoto (a web application that generates fully customized orchestration of user-selected images and music through its Cinematic Artificial Intelligence technology) enables anyone to easily create music-enabled videos from photo sets on Flickr, Facebook, Picasa, and others. For $249 per year, business can create unlimited videos and download DVD quality materials.Learn more at Animoto but consider yourself warned - it's immensely addictive (and fun). 

Create Slideshows with Photos: Granted, after you try out Animoto everything else will seem rudimentary when it comes to technology. If you're not looking to wow your audience with video however and believe that a simple slideshow will do the trick to impress upon users that there are people behind your online enterprise and that you are making an effort to share content, FlickrSlidr is a easy way to go. The simple tool instantly creates nicely formatted slideshows from your Flickr photos that can be embedded in your blog or website. PictoBrowser is good alternative. These days you can even take your slideshow to social networks with services such as Slide and RockYou.com.

Create Sales Materials: You might run a Web-based business but that doesn't mean that you're not tethered in some way to the brick and mortar world as well. Business cards, stickers, brochures and even postcards are exceptional ways to leverage image assets stored on your computer or in the cloud at social networks. Moo.com is an excellent service for business cards, notecards and stickers but if you're looking for virtual brochures or another image-based project, check out FormatPixel.