When talking about social media, you often hear people talk about the goal of “going viral.” What would happen if you had a photo go viral and there was no way for people to know it was your photo? Sure, it may have originally been shared or retweeted from your post, but someone could save the photo and repost it and then there would be no easy way to track it back to you.

For this reason, you should really add a watermark to your photos before posting. It is also a good idea for copyright purposes. I will typically add my Twitter handle (@fostercoburn) as a watermark on the photos I post. It is relatively short and gives people an easy way to find me. Now let’s look at some pictures! The photos will not appear if you are reading this in your e-mail client so go to the Web page to see the photos.

First up is a picture of some flowers blooming on a saguaro cactus outside our office. I love to show off photos of things unique to the desert and who doesn’t like pictures of pretty flowers? Do you like these flowers?

So how do you create such a watermark? It is really quite easy and you can do it in CorelDRAW, Corel PHOTO-PAINT or whatever other graphics software you desire. In CorelDRAW, create text with your desired watermark and color it appropriately. If it stands out too much, add some transparency until you get exactly what you desire. The process in Corel PHOTO-PAINT is similar in that you’ll create some text in the color of your choice. Then adjust the opacity slider in the Objects Docker until it is just right.

I’ve posted a number of sunset photos because we get some really awesome sunsets here in Arizona. I told you a few weeks ago in Observing Your Surroundings Leads to Better Pictures how I am able to capture nice scenes. Do you like this sunset shot?

Another very popular type of social media post is a quote. I posted one of my favorite Maya Angelou quotes superimposed on her photo when she died recently. In the corner, I included a small watermark.

The last picture looks down on the spines and flowers of a barrel cactus outside of our office. I took the time to edit the photo so it was just right and then forgot to add a watermark. I’m not aware that this photo has gone viral. It would be an unlucky break if it did since I forgot the watermark. Do you like this barrel cactus photo?