Instant content | Royalty-free content for digital natives
Digital-savvy and socially-minded, Gen Z (alias digital natives) is the most ethnically diverse generation ever with a purchasing power of over $140 billion. This group of 2.1 billion individuals born between 1997 and 2015 never knew an age without high-speed Internet or portable digital technology. They consume content on social platforms at a startling rate. 'How to feed this content-hungry and educated crowd who wants to see content that looks like them?' became a conundrum for a lot of small businesses.
A solid and accurate social media content calendar is the cornerstone of a successful social strategy. But regular and inspirational content can be hard to come by and expensive to produce.
While Ironing the details of your upcoming calendar, you might identify gaps for specific post dates. Luckily, there are brilliant creatives out there that can give you a hand and fill the blanks, for free. Canadian platform, Unsplash, used to be an absolute favourite for royalty-free images. Here, at Our Social Creative, we favour their German counterpart, Pexels.
On Pexels, we discover incredible gems every day. A lot of the royalty-free images and videos have an artsy and editorial vibe, a great deal of grit and oomph. The visuals we create with the curated Pexels content allows us to connect with digital natives and tastemakers alike.
There are a plethora of truly brilliant creatives on Pexels. The videos come in MP4 and most are Instagram story ready. We couldn't list all the amazing talents who share royalty-free content, however, we do have a soft spot for these inspired and inspiring creatives:
But, how free is Royalty-free? The legal status for royalty-free images and footage can be confusing. What is royalty-free and what does it actually imply for content downloaded from Unsplash and Pexels?
Pexels
All photos and videos on Pexels are free to use. Attribution is not required. Giving credit to the photographer or Pexels is not necessary but always appreciated (please do).
— DONT'S: Identifiable people may not appear in a bad light or in a way that is offensive. Don't sell unaltered copies of a photo or video, such as a poster, print or on a physical product without modifying it first. Don't imply endorsement of your product by people or brands on the imagery. Don't redistribute or sell the photos and videos on other stock photo or wallpaper platforms.
Unsplash
All photos can be downloaded and used for free commercial and non-commercial purposes. No permission needed (though attribution is appreciated).
— DONT'S: Photos cannot be sold without significant modification. Compiling photos from Unsplash to replicate a similar or competing service.
Nothing beats original content produced exclusively for your brand. But once in a while, you might need some help to fill the blanks. Royalty-free images and videos cannot and shouldn’t be the blueprint for your social media content calendar. Keep in mind great content is contagious. You will most definitely come across the same images and videos on other social profiles and lose that uniqueness factor. Royalty-free parsimony is strongly advised. Remember you can support and thank the creatives with a donation (via pexels) and, of course, with attribution.
Insight, foresight, solutions.
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