Image courtesy of PANPOTE at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image courtesy of PANPOTE at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

These days companies are creation visual content at a staggering rate, and the question soon arises, how and where to manage these assets? The sheer quantities of images, infographics, videos and creative web art bring into play the need for a cohesive strategy for keeping it all organized should and when you need it.The reasons behind having a practical visual content strategy are rooted mainly in time-savings and asset protection. How often have you personally searched for what seemed an eternity for a specific visual? Painful memories, I know.

Also, in this day and age of easy litigation, should you need to have the provenance of a particular image or other visual, having it easily accessible can be the difference in whether or not you prevail in court.

5 Tips for managing your visual content

Create or purchase a system – If you have someone on your team who can make a system for you, wonderful. If not, there are a number of solutions available, including off site cloud solutions. A company called North Plains is a leader in digital asset management.

Name your files appropriately – Naming your files with a filename that can actually identify the content is a must-do. There’s nothing worse than having to open dozens of files that are named IMG457723760 searching for one particular picture.

Limit access and establish guidelines – Make sure that you have some control over who accesses your files. This can change with time, but keeping up on it is better than having problems down the road.

Store your content in one central location – Make it easy on everyone by storing your visual content in one location, assuming you have appropriate backups enabled. This obviously saves time and expense, and if they are stored in a cloud, there is little risk of data loss.

Have a protocol for how it is used – Ensure that no one uses images or videos in a fashion or manner that isn’t what you want. Eager and over-zealous employees can cause havoc with well-meaning but misguided adventures.