Three Useful Digital Media Tools #10

In this edition of “Three useful digital media tools”, I have included a tool that I have been using that has helped me manage my Twitter account better than I used to. As usual, the three tools included in this post are focused on social and digital media communications and, and are free. They do offer advanced features for a fee.

So, here are the three.

Twopcharts

Twopcharts

Though I had been using this tool on and off, I did not look at it seriously until it caught my eye through a Walls Street Journal Tech blog that read “44% of Twitter Accounts Have Never Sent a Tweet.” The best thing about Twopcharts is that it is free. When compared with some other tools in this space, you get a lot more features with Twopcharts. Looking up the historical activity of an account or comparing two profiles to see how they match up is easy using this tool. And, if you want to see a list of all those folks who are not following you, you get it, along with their profile pics. You can then decide if you want to continue your one-way connection or not. This one is certainly worth checking out.

Watermark with uMark

uMark

uMark is a watermarking application that lets you add text, image or Quick Response (QR) codes to images. If you occasionally upload images to social sharing sites like Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook or Twitter, you probably run the risk of someone downloading and using them without your explicit approval. This issue is compounded if you are a professional, or a semi-professional photographer and your images potentially have a monetary value associated with it. With a fully customizable application like uMark, you can add watermarks to a single image or a batch of images, as needed. While there are a number of watermarking applications out there, I found the uMark’s interface simple and their blog informative. Adding a watermark to this aerial image of San Diego took me less than a couple of minutes.

Getty Images

This March, Getty Images announced that they will be making thirty-five million images available free for non-commercial use, in blogs and social media sites. Stock photos have been around for a while, and Getty Images have been in the business of stock photography since 1995. If you are not familiar with stock photography, it is the concept of creating a bank of high-quality images with the express purpose of licensing them out for a price.

Stock pictures are used by marketing companies, advertising agencies, interior designers, and the like when they don’t have images of their own that suit their purpose. Before you start getting too excited about this, it is important to understand that, at this time, the images are offered only as embeds in blogs, Twitter, and Tumblr. Other forms of downloads, including screen captures, would be deemed unauthorized.

So, have you used these digital media tools before? Why not add your comments below?

Check out “Three cool gizmos that you can buy without breaking the bank!”

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