Social Media: Photo Guidelines

In the beginning stages of using social media for your church or ministry it is important that you establish guidelines. Today I want to look at some ideas for photo guidelines!

• Photos
  • Remember that photos are not just personal to you but personal to the individual they are of.
  • You don’t need to be afraid to use a photo on the internet but taking a few extra steps before you do so can be really important.

- Churches

• Permission from parents must be obtained in order to post any photo of a child under 13 years of age on the internet.
  • Create a permission sheet for the parent to sign and provide the parent with a copy of the image before posting
  • Because many parents are concerned for their child’s privacy. Consider asking parents if you can use old photos of their child instead of recent images. That way their child no longer looks like the photo you are posting and you are still able show your churches children’s ministry.
  • Permission should also be obtained from any other individual that you wish to post a photo of on the internet
    • This is a great reason to take advantage of photos church members take and post on Facebook. Permission is already obtained.

- Ministries

• Only post photos of children that you can easily gain permission from parents to use. Unless you travel and speak to children or young adults in which case:
  • Get lots of crow shots without faces
  • Bring permission slips for parents
• Since you travel and do not have direct content with individuals from your meetings post photos of adults with digression and be willingly to take down anything if someone asks.

When posting general public photos online everyone should guidelines to make it harder for photos to be stolen: Don’t be afraid to post photos just take a little extra time and use wisdom when posting photos online!

• Post photos in low-resolution. Low-resolution photos don’t enlarge well
• Include a digital watermark on the photos
• Use Flickr – Because it has been set up with a mechanism so that an images cannot be copied. (Yes there are those who have the ability to crack and copy the image but it prevents those looking for a quick photo to swipe from using your image)
• For your website use Flash to imbed photos instead of placing a jpeg. It is a lot harder to steal a flash image.
• Give every photo you post a unique file name. On occasion do a search to see if you can find your photo elsewhere online

Use wisdom and discretion and create a photo policy that will help you as you move forward. Also as a church communicate with your congregation. Make them aware of your social media presence, and the fact that you will be using photos online. By getting church members involved everything will go much smoother and you will have a lot more to use!