New York SBDC Research Network

From Forbes : A pitcher of cold ice water. A social media account. And a smart phone. Those are the elements of philanthropy’s feel good hit of the summer – the Ice Bucket Challenge, starring a millennial near you and almost every celebrity you can name. This August, it’s been as inevitable as a sun burn. Yet as with every great instant movement these days, the backlash is here like a late day summer thunderstorm. You’ve probably heard the criticism. It’s a stunt, mere “slactivism.” It’s a substitute for real long-term involvement and engagement. It’s all about showing off for social media. It won’t change a thing, or cure ALS or ease the suffering of those with the disease. Which is true, I guess, to some degree... But [have you] ever been to a big ticket charity gala?

Getty Images, the premiere collection of professional quality photos on the Internet, has for years charged licensing fees to those who wanted access to its extensive portfolio, but that is changing. In a surprise move,  Getty Images is freeing up around 35 million photos from its collection spanning over a hundred years  so that websites and bloggers can post them without getting smacked in the face by a lawsuit. These images will not contain a watermark, though people who post them will need to use Getty's Embedded Viewer tool and abide by the company's Terms of Use. Acknowledging that its images have been widely pirated on the Web for years by users merely right-clicking on photos, Getty says the purpose of the program is to find new revenue streams for the photographers and the company.                  Because the metadata remains with the image, users can click back to Getty Images for more information on the image or photographer or to license the image for other purpos

If you want your readers to click “like” or “retweet” or “reblog” or “pin” or “plus,” you gotta ask for it. Not for nothing do two of the web’s most popular sites--BuzzFeed and Mashable--serve up big buttons at the top of each article, beseeching you to “share me now!” What’s more, these icons now include the number of shares in real time, boxing you in with peer pressure: “Don’t share me--I dare you!” This is marketing at its finest: so subliminal, you think you’re making a considered choice. Too often, however, those in the communications field blanch at making an explicit ask. We think of ourselves as marketers, not salesman. We trust in the purity of our craft, rather than tricks of the trade. Yet there’s a reason “marketing” and “business development” often find themselves in the same job title. More from the ASBDC blog .