The problem with stock photos

Not too long ago, I shifted my career a little. Instead of working in the copier, printer and document management industry, I build websites for that industry. It has been a great shift... of course, I work more hours now than ever before. One thing that keeps coming to mind is the idea of stock photography. I have been looking at a lot of stock photography lately to build my sites. I want to make sure the image I provide is professional. I want to make sure the photographs are top notch. As I have been becoming more familiar with stock photography, I have realized that the same stock photography I find on one particular site I can also find on many other websites. I don't think that the average web user will recognize the same stock images across multiple sites, but I recognize them. But, it brings to mind something that has always bothered me. That is using stock photography in customer testimonials. When I see a website that uses stock photography of a "customer" next to a customer testimonial, it brings a question into my mind that maybe the testimonial isn't accurate. The most believable testimonial is that from a customer you can relate to. Not someone that is a professional actor. It is far more credible to see a picture of a not-so perfect person on with your testimonials than it is to see a perfect model. Any web user that is somewhat savvy will know that the picture on your site is just a little too perfect to be an actual customer. If you user real customer photographs and they are professionally done, make sure that you comment somewhere obvious that they are the real deal. Here is a suggestion. Why not offer your customers something more than doing you a favor by giving you a quote? Why not feature them in a case study? Take pictures of their facility and key employees. Build a web presence for them on your website that can show that you are truly partners. If you are afraid that your competitors will steal your business because you are telling them with whom you do business, then you are obviously not that great of a vendor for you customer. Be bold in how you talk about your customers and they will be bold in how they talk about you. Don't do it because you get paid, do it because of your partnership. Sure, it takes some time... it takes some money... it takes some effort. In the end, it will payoff more than you can imagine.

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Corey Smith is a co-founder of Resumango where you can build a better resume for free.