I've received a bunch of emails asking about how to get images into Posterous. You would think the simplicity of Posterous would allow you to upload photos easily, but that isn't the case if you are using the "Post by Web" interface, which I am using now.

If you have a single photo, one of the easiest ways is to write your post as an new email and then email it to your personal blog at post@posterous.com or to the class blog at post@newhousesocialmedia.posterous.com, draft your email and just click send. The image will automatically attach.

One cool thing about posting via email is that if you have multiple images, they will all appear together in a fun Posterous-style slideshow. However, this isn't always ideal as we bloggers may want to put an image at the beginning, write a few paragraphs, then have one or two images later on.

And yeah, it's great to use the bookmarklet to post links and comment on other sites, but hey, we're hardcore bloggers now and often have our own opinion...so we need to use the regular web interface to create a post.

So how do you upload images to your post and get them to appear correctly?

Well, Posterous makes it easy—and difficult. There is no upload image button within the web interface. But wherever you want an image to appear, you simply copy/paste a link to the image directly into your post. The only thing is you have to have an image already uploaded somewhere on the web—Flickr, Picasa, or other sites. Flickr tends to be the easiest, but creating an account and all the hassle that goes with that makes Posterous seem like a lot of extra work.

Use Image Sharing Sites

One of the easiest ways to do this is by using one of the image sharing sites that have become popular mostly due to Twitter, such as Twitpic and Imgur. Those like Twitpic are geared for Twitter users, but others like Imgur are for anyone to quickly upload a photo and get a link to that photo as fast and easily as possible.

Just visit the Imgur site, click the Browse button, and click Continue to upload your photo.

The copy the URL address on the next page:

And come back to your Posterous post and just paste the link directly into your post on its own separate line—don't paste the image link within a paragraph or a sentence because it won't always work. Just hit that return button, paste the link, hit return again, and continue typing.

Easy.

The same thing goes for any image on the web with the usual .jpg, .gif, or .png extension. As well as links to YouTube videos. Posterous is pretty smart at recognizing links to different types of content.

For more on this, check out a related post on the Official Posterous Blog.

Learned: In class yesterday, I learned that a company's code of ethics really says a great deal about the employees working there.  I don't remember the particular company, but one of the code of ethics we looked at was simply, "use your best judgement."  This shows that the company truly trusts the people that it employs.  The company recognizes that the face of the company is represented by its employees, and it is confident they will lead with their best food forward.

Left unanswered: I'm still interested to learn about how companies use social media strategically in their endeavors while still upholding to their code of ethics.

Learned: Not only did Tuesday's class include a great guest speaker, Joe Chernov, who spoke on blogging in a new, guided environment, but it also dealt with transparency. If there was one major takeaway for me personally from Tuesday's class it would be to stay open and honest at all times. As we start to develop our personal blogs, twitter and social media universe, these issues become increasingly more important and higher on our radars.

Question: The 140 character issue on Twitter is a big concern among social media experts and how one can stay honest about affiliations without going over the limit. To go along with this, would all "disclaimers" need to be within that 140 characters, or could a subsequent tweet do the job even though they would essentially be looked at as two different statements?

Joe Chernov's talk was pretty great - learning about the importance of transparency in social media was pretty interesting in and of itself, but it was extremely worthwhile to hear him speak about the new FTC blogging guidelines.  I really liked hearing the examples of how poor transparency or overall social media ineptness can have real backlash for an organization (such as for Target or Motrin).  Learning about how the government views social media made the topic even more pertinent and worthwhile.

I'm curious to see where the FTC will go from here now that they recently released their guidelines for blogging.  On the topics of government, social media, and transparency, I'd like to learn about how different governmental agencies, departments, and individual politicans use social media to their advantage.  I know the White House has started to break into social media, for example, and I know individual politicians are all over Twitter.  Does using social media make the government more credible, or is transparency the key factor, no matter what medium is used?  That's something I'd like to look into further.

During class on Tuesday evening, I found it most intriguing to hear the perspective of another professional in social media. As a student, I know one side of social media and once we received the presentation on FTC guidelines, it took me for a loop.

The readings assigned for that class in Tactical Transparency discussed the situations companies are in when they endorse or discretely advertise via social networks. These were all beyond my knowledge of the use of social media. It is neat to see the directions corporations are headed; it really seems like they are trying to adapt to our internet-savvy generation.

In class, I found it shocking that Kim Kardashian was paid $10,000 per tweet. And if I may comment on it, I think she is very intelligent in her branding. The internet, and social media are there to use for our own individual advantage and that is exactly what Kim Kardashian did. Even the FTC can’t keep up with “regulations” to abide by regarding social media… that is why the FTC refers to them as “guidelines.” I also thought it was silly that another form of government is trying to intrude of the social sectors of the internet—it’s like they see a possible outlet for control so they try to take it over. I believe (and hope) our social media is ever changing so that the social internet is one medium they can’t run.

Things I learned: I used to appreciate the way organizations and companies brand themselves through personal blogs. Now I know it is illegal. As future PR practitioners, we should all be aware of the ethical issues brought by social media. Since social media is becoming more and more popular, transparency means more to organizations and companies. 

Questions: I am curious about how will they implement the policy. It is not news that some columnists are paid to comment on certain products or magazines are paid to give more pages to certain brand. If they still do that why does FTC only give restrictions on personal blogs.

What I Learned:

As an inexperienced blogger, I found Joe Chernov’s presentation on FTC blogging regulations to be extremely informative.  I was completely unaware of the need to disclose product endorsements when reviewing or commenting on items in a blog or other social media platform.  His presentation taught me the importance of being a careful (and somewhat skeptical) consumer when reading about products on the social Web. 

Question:

I agree with the FTC’s decision to implement blogging regulations because I believe the need for disclosure of endorsements is necessary to protect consumers who are looking for credible product reviews. However, the enforcement of these rules is an extremely daunting task due to the expanse of the social Web.  My question is this: has the FTC has designated a task force to specifically monitor social Web sites?  If not, how do they intend to make any impact on low-profile bloggers who include undisclosed product endorsements?

Yesterday in class I learned that the FTC has implemented guidelines in an effort to protect consumers and increase accountability on the part of organizations. These FTC guidelines have led me question whether legislation governing the internet is the next step, and if so, what will this legislation look like and what will the implications of it be?