By Chris Lee

The rapid growth of online content combined with continued offline demand for high quality photography and artwork has led to the rise in so-called ‘microstock’ sites, which enable publishers to select and purchase images online for use in blogs and other publishing, marketing material and merchandise. The sites enable photographers and artists to contribute their work often in exchange for a cut of the download fee when the image is purchased by a site user.

One such site is Shutterstock. Shutterstock “provides royalty-free content to creative professionals worldwide” and has been using social media platforms for several years as part of its wider marketing programme. This includes embracing Facebook (22,000 fans), Twitter (36,000+ followers) and running its own blogs for microstock users, as well as an online forum for contributors and email marketing.

Facing up

Jon Oringer, Shutterstock’s founder and CEO, talked to NMK about which social channels were working best for the company.

“Social media is a living thing, and different channels expand and contract over time, sometimes quite quickly,” Oringer said. “Looking at 2010 so far, Facebook has grown from a lower level of engagement to showing very strong levels of activity. Email marketing has been a consistently good performer.”

Shutterstock – a largely business-to-business (B2B) operation - attributes a great deal of its social media success to social network Facebook, traditionally a business-to-consumer (B2C) channel. How does Oringer account for this?

“We are somewhat unusual among B2B businesses in that we crowdsource our content from thousands of photographers, illustrators and videographers,” he explained. “Some of them are also customers, or have relationships with designers who are Shutterstock customers. The result is that we have an established, enthusiastic fan base using Facebook and other social channels to talk to us, talk to each other, and spread the word.”

So how does Shutterstock evaluate the value of social media and link it back to sales?

“We monitor how many visitors from various channels sign up for free browse accounts on our site, and how many of those browsers become customers,” Oringer added.

Top tips

So what is Oringer’s advice for companies looking to successfully exploit social media?

“Listen to what your audience says and respond. Look for metrics that track your level of engagement, not just your number of fans or followers. Understand that social networks evolve rapidly, so stay nimble and follow your customers,” he concluded.