Social Image Libraries

Did you know that social media posts that include images have 650% higher engagement than text only posts? And, even scarier, the average reader only remember 20% of the text they consume without visuals!

Whats more, in early 2016 Facebook reached 15M active Australian users. Considering the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) now has Australia’s population at 24 million Australians – this means 62.5% of the total Australian population has a Facebook account.

Depending on what style suits your brand, how many you need & how often, there is a stock image library which will suit everyone’s social media needs. Think about your branding & do your research before buying in.

References:

boutique stock libraries

Haute Stock

Haute Stock is a boutique stock library offering styled stock photography for Women Entrepreneurs. They have a curated collection of gorgeous styled stock photos, created specifically for women entrepreneurs.

You can take a quarterly or annual membership.

Aus Stock Photo

At Aus Stock Photo you will only find quality, contemporary Australian stock photography. As designers, the owners know what it’s like to feel exasperated by the time and money it can take to source ‘Australian-looking’ images from international stock libraries. Their aim is to help facilitate more authentic-feeling advertising by making images available which have been shot locally.

subscription services

99 Club

THE 99club ♥: is a fairly new kid on the block (owned by ingImage ♥) so at the moment it has a super special deal (until sold out). They offer a subscription of $99USD pa which entitles you to download 200 images through out your year. Need more? No problem, further downloads will cost you 99c each.

Graphic Leftovers

GraphicLeftOvers: is a marketplace for creative royalty-free stock photos and vector illustrations. GL Stock Images made its debut as Graphic Leftovers in early 2008 with a modest 200 images and has since grown to become one of the best collections of high quality vectors and images on the web. Make a deposit (min $20USD) so you can download as needed or purchase one-off images by paypal.

Shutterstock

Shutterstock boasts over 125 million royalty-free images, video clips, and music tracks.

Thinkstock

Thinkstock offers millions of premium art-directed and user-generated royalty-free photos, vectors and illustrations selected from Getty Images, iStock and worldwide image partners. Its goal is – to give you the freedom to focus on being creative.

Not the cheapest around but that’s why you won’t find their images all over the internet.

ingImage

ingImage ♥ gives you access a bank of over 3,000,000 high quality images. This is a popular bank with designers but it does nave a hefty annual fee.

Stock Unlimited

StockUnlimited ♥ has a stock library of 600k+ visuals for Business & professionals. When I first signed up they mainly had vector images but they’ve recently started adding photos so it is much better value for money. Downloads are categorised into Animals/Wildlife | Banners | Beauty/Fashion | Buildings/Landmarks | Business/Finance | Celebration | Environment & Floral. Or of course you can just search all images.

You can sign-up for a months unlimited access, 12 months access or the best option is a lifetime plan @$89USD*. If you use a lot of social media images this is a good way to go.

* correct May 3, 2016

Graphic Stock

GRAPHIC STOCK ♥: I have had a yearly subscription with these guys for years, in fact if was one of the first libraries I subscribed to. If you use my link you’ll get unlimited downloads $99USD per annum.

pay as you go services

Dreamstime

Dreamstime ♥: Online since 2000 as a Royalty-Free stock photography website, Dreamstime has evolved into a powerful and active community-based site. The stock image gallery you can browse today has been uploaded by photographers from all over the world, shot on film or digital & quality approved by in-house editors. Either purchase credits or a subscription.

Photodune

Photodune: Part of the Envato Market, a creative eco-system with over 35,000 designers, photographers and developers building all the assets you need for your projects. Every kind of stock photo for all kinds of projects, PhotoDune’s library is huge! Whatever kind of images you need, you’ll find plenty in the collection. Pay as you go, royalty free stock from $2.

123rf

123rf ♥: These guys boast over 48 Million Stock Images, Vectors, Footage and Audio Clips. They have a couple of different ways you can purchase ON DEMAND:No Daily Limit Standard Images, Editorial Images, EVO, Vectors, TIFF, Footage, Audio or SUBSCRIPTION PLANS: Standard Images, Editorial Images, Vectors. If you only need the occasional image on demand 123rf may be the go for you.

STOCK IMAGES: free

There are loads of great free stock images on-line but be sure to check their licenses. Remember you get what you pay for, nothing is free you either pay for the images in hard cash or on time searching for them.

Check out our ultimate list of free stock images …

PLEASE NOTE: all information & prices were correct at the time of writing. Although we try to ensure all our information is correct, things change quickly on the internet so please do your own due diligence prior to making financial commitments.

Should you find any errors, please let us know so we can correct them. Thanks