Your customer has just posted the perfect photo showing your product on her Instagram feed. Should you #regram it? Or ask permission first?

If you want to use customer photos (or client photos) then you won’t want to miss this week’s episode of Ask Kiff.

Watch the video | Read the show notes | Read the transcript

Show notes

• What qualifies as fair use? Read this post to learn more about one of the trickiest copyright topics!
• Leave a question or sign up to vote on future episodes here

Transcript

You are scrolling through your Instagram and see that one of your customers has posted the perfect photo.

Can you just go ahead and repost that on your account? Or do you need to ask them permission?

That’s exactly what we’re going to cover in this week’s episode of Ask Kiff.

Hi, I’m Kiffanie Stahle founder of the artist’s J.D. A place designed to add ease to the legalese of running your creative business.

This week’s question comes to us from Angela in Idaho. She says,

Do I need a process to use photos created by my clients or customers? If so, how do I do it without scaring them off?

Great question Angela.

Any time you are using someone else’s content, we have three options.

1. You’re committing copyright infringement
2. What you’re doing is okay because it qualifies under fair use
3. What you’re doing is okay because you’ve gotten permission

So we don’t want to commit copyright infringement. So we are left with the other two options.

Could using customer photos be fair use?

Now, is there an argument that you sharing your customers’ photos would qualify as fair use?

It’s probably a hard argument because the reason behind why you are sharing that content is to increase sales of your products or services. And so trying to squeeze it into fair use, isn’t probably the smartest move.

So then our only option is to ask permission.

Two ways to get permission to use customer photos

There are two ways that this permission could be granted.

The first way is permission via a terms of service.

So when we signed up for Facebook. When we signed up for Instagram. When we signed up for Pinterest. When we signed up for various social media platforms, we agree to their terms of service.

And one of the terms of service that we agreed to when we signed up for those services was,

Sharing is built into this platform.

Once you post something on Facebook, Facebook wants users to share it with their networks.

And so if your customer post a photo on Facebook, and you hit that share button and share it on your Page, you’ve gotten permission.

You’ve gotten permission via that terms of service. And it’s totally okay to do that.

If you are in Instagram and you hit the little paper airplane and share it to your story, that’s allowed under the Instagram Terms of Service.

So if you want to go ahead and share according to the tools built into the platform, then you’ve gotten permission and it’s totally okay because the terms of service allow it.

Now, what if you want to do something that that is outside of that?

You want to post something in your Instagram feed. There is no share to your feed built into Instagram. You either have to use a third-party tool or you have to take a screenshot and upload it yourself.

Or maybe that a photo is really great, and you want to include in your newsletter. Or you want to put it on your website.

In those instances, because you’re doing something outside of that service, then you’re gonna need to reach out and ask permission.

Now, this doesn’t have to be something long and complex and scary. It can be as simple as commenting on their photo. “Oh my goodness, this is such a great photo! Would you mind if we shared it with our customers on our newsletter? Or on our website? Or would you mind if we used this in our feed?”

It doesn’t have to be anything complex.

It can be a comment, it can be a DM, it can be something as simple as that.

But you’re just gonna want to reach out and say,

Hey, can we get permission to use it in this way?

And then if they give you permission, go ahead and use it. If they don’t, then you’re gonna have to move on and use a different photo.

Build brand loyalty when using customer photos

It is also is another great opportunity, not only to make sure you’re on the legal up and up, but to build relationships with your clients and customers.

Clients and customers love to hear that you’ve taken notice of them. That you think that they’ve created something that’s great.

And so it’s another great way to build brand loyalty and build relationships by saying,

Hey, what did with awesome! We love having customers like you. Can we share the awesome ways our customers and our clients are using our services or our products? Because we’re sure that it’ll give other people ideas.

And people love to get that pat on the back, “You’re doing a great job and what you’ve created is great.”

So not only is it gonna help you keep on the legal up in up, but it’s gonna build great brand loyalty. By just making that simple ask of, “What you did was awesome, can I use it?”

So, Angela, I hope that answers your question.

Yes, you should get permission, but it doesn’t need to be something long and complex. It can be as simple as:

• leaving a comment on that post
• sending someone a direct message
• if you’ve got their email address popping in their inbox

Next week I’m going to talk about LegalZoom. Is a good? Is it bad? Should you run far from it?

Thanks so much and have a great day.