Straight from Regina’s Laptop. Word!

I don’t know if you know this about me, gorgeous ones, but I really enjoy Pinning.  I do know, though, that I’m not alone.  Most of us also enjoy sharing proper credit and give a virtual high-five to our fellow creatives — but then you click on an image’s link and find yourself at a site where there is no information whatsoever.  What to do?

I thought that today I’d give a short tutorial on two ways to find the original source of an image and/or credit, especially for a site such as Pinterest.

SRC IMG BOOKMARKLET

The first way is super quick and easy.  I must give a huge round of thanks to Lynne Rutter for clue-ing me into this in her recent post about wonderful blog policies to keep in mind.  She mentioned a “reverse image look-up tool called Source Image” — and that opened a whole new world to me.  Src Img is a free tool that does the image research for you.

Simply go the site, drag the link to your Bookmarks tab and Voila!  The next time you come upon an image where you would like to know the original source, click on the Src Img link in your Bookmarks tab while the picture is open on your browser.

(above) I’ve used one our studio’s Venetian Plaster projects as an example.  The bookmarklet will bring up multiple white squares with questions marks within them.  As you hover over them, they will individually turn black (like so) and once it does that while you’re over the image you want to research, click on it.

(above) It will then bring up the best guesses for that image via Google Images.  As you can see, it includes Pages and Visually Similar Images.

Sometimes, it will bring up the true original source, other times it will bring up a blog or website that featured it and provides accurate information for you.  The pages it brought up for this image — my Home Workshop guest blog post Venetian Plaster Demystified and my Pinterest page — both lead back to my studio, Garay Artisans.

GOOGLE IMAGES

Let’s say you have an image on your hard drive and you’d like to know the source or you don’t want to install the bookmark.  For this, you can go directly to Google Images itself.  Here, I’ve used an image I had for the post on the book, Living in Cuba.

(above) I paned the Windows side by side, clicked on the image and “dragged” the photo onto the Images bar.

(above) It’ll look like this…

Google Images then gives you it’s best results for that image.  Please note that both those pages come back to Fauxology, where I would definitely have provided proper credit.

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Sometimes it takes just a few more clicks into the pages given to find the right source, but I think it’s worth the extra few seconds if only to provide the proper information and credit.  I always think “What if it could lead to a project for them?”.  I like that thought.   Let me know if you have any questions or if there’s anything else I should cover.  Have a great day, lovelies!

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I love discovering new blogs.  I’m serious — I don’t even want to tell you how many blogs I’m subscribed to in my Google Reader.  I love reading them, perusing the great images, sharing them on our Facebook page, pinning them — about the only thing I am a bit lax on is commenting on blog posts.  I need to get better at that — but I swear I want to high-five each and every blogger!  It’s an incredible community to be a part of.

Often, I’ll come across blogs that I must share in a post and both Inthralld and Colossal are two of them. They both have a heady mixture of science, art, math and design which is then topped with a healthy dollop of the unusual and served fresh daily. Intrigued?  Let’s take a quick look at some of their recent posts…

Inthralld shares a look at the Carlton Hotel in St. Moritz, Switzerland. This is one of the suites and it seems the hotel has beautiful textures and patinas throughout. Do see the Carlton Hotel website as well (the galleries, especially).

These are anamorphic illusions painted by artist Felice Varini — they can only be seen in all their eye-popping glory from one specific angle. The link, via Inthralld, showcases many more examples.

Murals that are finger-painted with charcoal dust. Do click on the link to see more of Colossal’s amazing images.

Inthralld brings you a “Rainbow House” in London…

Colossal shows us what happens when an artist is commissioned to paint a prison’s visitors tunnel.

 Striking mural, no?  It’s made of 450,000 staples.  Click on that Colossal link to see close-ups.

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Did you ever wonder where the world’s largest cylindrical aquarium was?  I did, every day. And know I know. Or, if you can create gigantic ornamental designs on a beach? Yup, got that covered.  All kidding aside – both are very cool and beautiful sites that showcase the contemporary, innovative and surprising.  Inthralld focuses more on Design while Colossal focuses more on the Arts but both produce incredible posts. Hope you enjoy exploring them!

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We love social media here at Fauxology!  It gives us the ability to share our love for both Decorative Painting and Interior Design and also introduces us to more kindred spirits — whether they be fellow artists, bloggers, design enthusiasts or a beautiful mix of all.  Imagine not knowing all the incredible friends you’ve made because of social media…the world would seem less colorful and open, no?

Today, we wanted to let you know that we started a business page for Fauxology on Google+ and we hope to see you there!  Dana Tucker recently wrote a fantastic overview on Google+ for us.  I found another great series specifically for creatives put together by Colleen Jorgensen of Mural Maker & More. Colleen constructed it as a 5-Part series and the first part tackles What is Google+ Anyway?  — the links to the four remaining articles in the series are at the end of the article.  Mashable also shared Google+: The Complete Guide. All are great reads!

If you’re on Google+, let us know — and, of course, share your page with us as well.  Look forward to seeing you there!

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Today’s post is written by guest Fauxologist, Dana Tucker, of Nashville’s Bella Tucker.  Dana and I taught the Building Your Online Brand workshop together last year at the IDAL convention.  She has also written posts for us on Pinterest, Social Media Netiquette and a recap of the Design Bloggers Conference that we attended together in Los Angeles.  She has also recently started her own Internet Marketing Agency, Forest Home Media. I think my dear friend is a fantastic person to guide us through Google+ — take it away, Dana!

I usually pride myself on being an early adapter to technology. I jumped in with both feet to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogging and Pinterest. As a matter of fact I am a little obsessive about checking in with my online friends. I am one of those people who keeps their phone within reach at all times. If I get a minute I will sneak a peak at my email and social networks. I LOVE being connected. So when the new social network Google + rolled out  last summer I fully expected to jump right on the band wagon. BUT, by the time I finally got my invitation, I was tired. I was up to my eyeballs in connectivity. I had more online “friends” than I could physically manage. I had all the bases covered with all my other social networks, right? WRONG!

I read a lot of blogs from some very smart online marketing folks. They all kept preaching about Google +. I started really paying attention to what all the experts were saying. What I hadn’t previously considered was the way that actively participating on Google + can boost your Search Engine Results. Google, the world’s largest search engine responsible for around 65-70% of all online searches had invested time, money, resources, and egos into building it’s own social network. You better believe that they had big plans up their sleeves. The #1 search engine in the world who also owns the #2 search engine, YouTube is now paying very close attention to what people are doing and sharing on Google +. Factor in that Facebook does not currently allow Google to index its posts and you can start to see how it could be beneficial from a Search Engine Optimization perspective to have an account on Google +.

Here is an introductory video on Google +:

So how does it work? Here is the Cliff Notes version of Google +:

The single most important thing you can do on Google + is to completely fill out your profile. The most important piece of your profile is the “Employment”. This is what people will see when they hover over your name to decide whether or not to add you to their circles of people or businesses they are following. You should make the copy informative and clever. This is your elevator pitch on why someone should connect with you on Google +.

• Circles: This is the way that Google + allows you to organize the people you follow and how you share information with them. Adding people to a circle gives them permission to see something that you post. You won’t see what that person is posting unless they choose to follow you back. When you are setting up your circles please take the time to pay attention to how you are categorizing people. I promise this will come in handy later. Another great feature is that you can actually SHARE your circles. Send me a request and I’ll be happy to share my painting and interior design circles with you.
• Posts: This is like your Facebook status update. This is where you will share photos, videos, curated content, blog posts etc. When you post you will have the option of choosing who to share it with: “public”, “your circles”, “specific people”, or “specific circles”.  For me, I like having control over who sees my posts. This is something that is hard to do on Facebook unless you have built a specific private list of friends. Another word about posting, Google will index your publicly shared posts. Use this to your advantage.
• Share: This works much like the Facebook share button. You can share relevant content with your circles.
• Comment/+1: Right below the posts is a comment box. This is where you jump in and join the conversation. That is the #1 way to build friends and circles on Google +. Also below the posts is the “+1″ button. Think of this as the Facebook “like” button. You would “+1″ anything that you would “like” on Facebook.
• Hangouts: This is a really cool concept. It is basically the ability to do a “Skype” type video chat with a group of people. You can also “share screens” like on Go To Meeting.
• Chat: This is Google +’s instant messaging service. You can chat with people right inside the Google + window.

Why you should join Google + today:

1. Google is trolling Google + looking for relevant content to serve up in its Search Engine Results.
2. Google is not indexing “Tweets”, “LinkedIn” posts or “Facebook” status updates. If you are using these as the sole means of your online marketing you are missing a HUGE potential audience.
3. An effective Search Engine Optimization strategy needs to include organic search efforts. You have to do the leg work.
4. Social signals are already influencing Google’s search results. It is predicted that in the future of SEO, social connections might be more important than gathering links.
5. Pages and blog posts shared on Google + are crawled and indexed by Google’s search engine very quickly (under an hour in most cases) This could take months to happen otherwise.
6. Let’s face it, you know you will end up with a profile eventually. People change. They move on to the next big thing. A few years ago everyone moved from MySpace to Facebook. Believe me, Google + is the next big thing, especially for businesses.
7. Listen! It’s a great listening device. You can search by topic and even save searches for your keywords.
8. There are also Google + business pages. These are very similar to Facebook pages but with the added bonus of being able to really help your organic search results when you link the two together along with your website. This creates authority for your website and online profiles.

Just like any other social network, Google + is a relationship building tool. People do business with people they know and trust. Invest the  time to listen, comment, get to know people and share. It will provide huge rewards. Ready to start? You can “CIRCLE ME HERE”. I promise to circle you back.

Cheers!

- Dana

Dana Tucker introduced me to Pinterest early last year — in fact, she wrote an introductory post about it for Fauxology back in June 2011.  Since then, I’ve gone a bit nuts but have learned a thing or two.  If you are just new to Pinterest and need to learn your way around, The Yummy Life wrote a fantastic and thorough tutorial on what all the terms mean and how to get the lay of the land.  Artisphere Online recently shared a post that had some very valuable tips as well.  I’m going to go out on a limb and assume you’ve installed the bookmarklet, are familiar with Pinterest and we’ll take it from there.  You may know some of these tips or all.  Here we go…

Bigger is Better

When seeing a pic, we like to really figure out how they did that analyze a space or finish. Small pics don’t let us see much — and that’s why we want as big a picture as possible.  Some blogs and sites will make their pictures smaller and when you pin it, it’s small as well.  Here’s my quick get-around.

Here are two side by side pics from that awesome blog, Fauxology.  One has yummy canvases and another the furniture close-up. If you were to pin either as is, they would show up in their smaller state.

I click on the image I want to pin — in this case, the canvases — to make it larger…

While enlarged, activate the bookmarklet and now see your “new” sizing options.

Please note that in some cases, the same image will show up twice with both sizing options and in other cases, the largest pin will show up as the last image option.  Just be on the lookout for that.  BTW, if the site really did start with a small image, that’ll be your lone option–  and a bummer.

Copy and Paste

I like to include project information with my pins.  To include as much as possible without having to keep going back and forth to check for information and spelling, I highlight the text I’d like to pull from…

…and when I pin my chosen image via the bookmarklet, the text I highlighted shows up automatically in the description box.  I then edit it by adding my own opinions/commentary and the information I want to keep.  Voila!

Pinning from Facebook

So many great images on Facebook, no? Of course, try to pin them and the dreaded The bookmarklet can’t pin images directly from Facebook. Sorry about that. comes up. Yeah, I was sorry about that too, Pinterest, until a ray of heavenly light shone down on me courtesy of AG Beat.

If you right click on the picture (or Control + Click on a Mac), you will see “View Image” or in the alternate, “Open Image in New Tab”. Choose either and it will open the image in a new tab.  You can pin it from there.  Yay!  A note, though — since Facebook images are not for the general public (like say a blog or a website), I would definitely obtain permission before pinning pics that are not your own.

Search and Ye Shall Find

The search engine for Pinterest is a bit hit and miss for me but I do use it. a) Quite by accident, I found out that I could run a search on it using my native language, Spanish.  It’s how I’ve discovered a myriad of other images and blogs. Something to try? b) By the way, if you’d like to see the pinned activity from a particular blog or site, let’s say Anthropologie, just click on their name from the pin.

Now you can see how many pins come from a particular website or blog — try looking for your own.  Fun fact: the resulting URL reads http://pinterest.com/source/anthropologie.com/ – I’ve substituted other websites instead and it works, too.

c) Finally, you can add hashtags at the end of your description to help it be found.  For instance, let’s’ say you are about to pin an image of pink bunny cupcakes.  Instead of  describing it as “mmm…delicious” try this instead: Love this strawberry cupcake recipe from Martha Stewart! The bunnies are so pretty! #Easter #dessert #bunnyisgoingdown Now, that image will come up when someone uses those highly-searchable words you inserted for your description and hashtags.  One note: Overuse of keywords and hashtags can seem spammy so use them well.

The Price is Right

If you sell gifts or products, online or otherwise, add a $ value to the description and Pinterest will automatically add a sash to it with the price and place it under the Gifts category for you.

Group Hug!

You can tag your friends on Pinterest just like you do in Twitter and Facebook — a) simply by adding a @ in front of their name. If you do so, it will bring you a drop down menu where you can choose the right person and then once done, they will be notified of the pin and it will link back to their profile.  It works on comments, too — you can see I’m about to respond back to Carmen Benoit.

b) Also, if you and your friends have a joint interest, you can create a board together.  The board will duplicate in each of your accounts.   Go to Edit Boards…

You can see how I may choose to add contributors to the board, such as Theresa Cheek.  Any person added can choose whether or not to join and the board itself can be promoted via the group’s individual accounts.

Mix and Match

• If you are sharing your own work, workshops or products you provide and/or pinning from your website, I suggest to cover all bases by adding, on the description itself, a small bit of information and that the work is from your studio.  Many times, an originating source site may not be looked at, but your description will be.  In the Artisphere Online article, Pat Ganino also suggests adding graphics or credit onto the pic itself. As it goes along its pinned adventures far and wide, your studio’s name will (hopefully) go along with it as most people won’t edit out a credit.
• In terms of effectiveness, I also like to test pinning times to see what garners the most activity.  Late nights and weekend mornings are great re-pinning times for those leaning towards design while DIY tends to be more active during the weekdays and Saturday mornings — personal observances.
• An image may belong on more than one board and so I do pin them to all the ones applicable — but at different times. One, a pinner who is not following all your boards may see it pop up since it’s now on a board they do follow and secondly, it maximizes the chance of it being seen by those who follow all your boards.
• Finally, when you pin from a blog, do make sure you are within the exact blog post itself and not the main site.  This will make it easier for you and your followers to find the exact original link.

One last thing…

I did want to touch upon credit.  If I’m including an image I found on Pinterest in a blog post, I make every attempt to locate the right credit and avoid the generic “Image via Pinterest” as much as possible.  As to pinning: All my initial pins had descriptions like “amazing” and “great ceiling!”.  Since then, I’ve opted to scan the original post (click on the pic itself) and write a bit about the artist, designer, location, photographer and/or project itself, if the information is available.  Why? First: it maximizes the search potential for the image; and Second: Although source links are automatically embedded in each pin, most artistry and design are being featured on someone else’s site. It’s wonderful to include the information so they get the credit for their work.  You never know where a pin may lead, so, consider doing for other creatives as you would want them to do for you.

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Tell me, dear Readers, did I miss any good tips?  Was this type of post helpful?  Please do let all of us know in the comments.  I’m continually learning myself as Pinterest is still something to be explored and as they are making changes as well.  By the way, you can find me on Pinterest as well as my Fauxology blog buddy, Peggy Pardo.  Talk soon!

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Do you find your online time takes on a mind of its own?  That managing it — the pages, the tweets, the posts, the e-mails — really digs into the time you need for creativity?  Well, I have good news for you…

If you recall, we had the #DecArts Twitter Party a few weeks ago.  That was just a beautiful ice-breaker so that artists could mingle and meet one another — we had a fantastic turnout!  Well, we are having these chats once per month and they will fluctuate between business topics and creative topics for the decorative painting & design industries.  We kick off the monthly chats with a business topic and our special guest is designer Lisa League.  Our chat subject?

Tips and Tricks that allow you to spend more time on artistry, less time on tech.

Doesn’t that sound great?  The chat is this Thursday, July 28th at 8 pm EST on Twitter.  The hashtag to follow the conversation is #DecArts — be sure to put that on each tweet so that we can all “see” each other during the chat.  In fact, you can use that hashtag at all times if you’d like to get a message out to the participating decorative artist community.

I do hope to see you there as I think it’s going to be an incredible chat for artists.  I’ll be co-hosting the event and we’ll all be helping to guide questions to Lisa and make sure everyone gets the information provided.  It’ll be a fantastic time!  Join us?

ABOUT OUR SPECIAL GUEST: LISA LEAGUE

Lisa takes to tech like a fish to water.

As interior designer for hotel developer The Kessler Collection, she depended on technology to sell her ideas and make her designs buildable.

Now she’s using her marketing and design background to manage web and social media for a select art and design clientele.  Recent projects include the freshly redesigned site for mosaic powerhouse New Ravenna, her husband, encaustic artist Jeff League and Florida gallery, Arts on Douglas.

Within a client’s limited time and budget, shortcuts and time savers make a difference — and she seeks out those to share with you during the #DecArts Twitter Chat.  See you there!

In the decorative painting industry, one of the most popular conferences is the IDAL convention.  (The organization has the cool digital online magazine, Artisphere Online.)  This year it was held in Hampton, VA.  It was my second time attending and my first time teaching.  Dana Tucker and I taught Building Your Online Brand to a class of 27.  It’s amazing how fast the time went — you prepare so much for it (Powerpoint presentations, research, fun giveaways, countless Skype & phone conversations) and then you look up and it’s done.  We tried to pack so much into two hours (and of course, went a bit over…). The students were a really fun bunch with great questions.  I can’t wait to hear of their progress!

If you are a fan of my Fauxology Facebook page, you’ve probably already seen the two notes I wrote on my IDAL experience.  I decided to write this one as well for those who do not have access to the fan page. I was truly excited to meet with many of the artists I correspond online with as well as see what the expo was all about.  The following are some of the images I took during the two days I was there.  BTW, brace yourself — this post is a bit on the longer side.

This is how most of the classes were set up. Nice, large rooms that were organized and well-protected.  This is the Faux Impressions class given by Ed Mattingly of Sherwin-Williams.  BTW, do you know about our contest to win $200 worth of product from Sherwin-Williams?  All it takes is a picture of a space you created that makes a great “Impression”.  Enter the contest here.  Deadline July 29th.

Live demonstrations were conducted throughout the conference.  Here, keynote speaker Pierre Finkelstein demonstrates his considerable skills with woodgraining.  He is very charming and gracious.

There were several faux studios who had fantastic booths at the show.  I didn’t get a shot of one of my faves, Dundean Studios, and a few others but here are some I came upon…

Gorgeous samples at Houston’s Wonderfaux Studios. That feather had crystals and was SO pretty – I’d love to do that one in a powder bath.

Had a great chat here — am considering taking a class by William Cochran.

THE Studio Destin. Fantastic samples all around and they had some of the best counter finishes I’ve ever seen.  (Ye Olde Jaw dropped. Not kidding you.)

Gary Lord’s Prismatic Painting Studio. Even though a “rock star” in our industry, he is totally approachable and friendly to everyone who comes up to him.  Wish I had better pics for you of those great samples in the back.  Totally dying to go to his Greece tour.

Sarasota School of Faux & Architectural Finishing is one of the studios I frequent the most.  Donna Phelps’ samples never fail to impress and I’ve sold quite a few.

Saying there were amazing samples at the Royal Design Studio booth is almost a given, no?  I took this pic before the expo opened — it was paaacked afterwards.

Patterned foils by V-Mask. We’ll be doing some cool stuff with them on the blog soon!

This is the philanthropic mural in progress during the convention.  It’s final home will be the Virginia Living Museum.

After the convention days, artists would gather for drinks and also to firm up dinner plans.  Here is a nice mix of newbies, up-and-comers and well-known Masters at the convention hotel, the Embassy Suites.

BTW, do you remember the gnome whose pic was taken all over the world?  Well, take a look at Faux Buddy…

Faux Buddy hanging out at the Chalk Paint booth...

We wanted everyone back home to get little glimpses of the IDAL convention so we gave him out so that he could travel with everyone and showcase little snippets of all the different classes and locations.  Imagine where Faux Buddy could go and what we all would be able to see with him!  The pics were to be shared on the Fauxology Facebook Fan Page but also on the IDAL page and personal pages, too, of course.  The bonus for our students is that each time they posted a pic, they would get an entry into our contest…someone is going to win their class fee back!   For those who were not in the class, there is a prize, too!  Robyn Story Designs out of Tampa, FL is a fantastic distributor of Chalk Paints and she is giving away a quart of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint to the person who can come up with the funniest caption for a Faux Buddy pic.  Plus, the pic taker wins a quart as well.  Yeah!

Here’s the cool Faux Calendar sponsored bag that was given out.  It’s fantastic to reuse as an extra carry-all for a jobsite or as a green bag for going grocery shopping.

What I love about conventions is that not only do your fellow peers provide inspiration but also just being around so many artists excited about the industry make it easy to tap right into the love and enthusiasm you possess for it.  Unfortunately, I had to head back early since I did travel via car and needed to head back over the weekend.  I did miss meeting so many but I hope to see them soon.  The attendance improved upon last year’s and many of us felt next year would be even better.  BTW, next year’s conference will be held July 25 – 29 at the Grand Sierra Resort & Casino in Reno, Nevada.  It looks fantastic!  Until tomorrow!