Social Media Branding: Anti-Theft Widget

Social media branding is very important and part of that which I’ve believed in from the very start 15 years ago is the use of anti-theft widgets in photos and videos to prevent others from taking your imagery and brand and calling it their own.

I had some scrap Pine left over from another job so I decided it was time to make a bunch more social media branding anti-theft widgets as I keep looking for them all around the shop for use to promote CNCROi.com.

Social media branding is important with every business, SEM, SEO etc. are all part of this and the most important part of all of this is making sure your brand is on everything you produce so users know where that photo or video or even blog post originated from.

For CNCROi.com the challenge we have with Social Media Branding is that we produce items across a whole swath of materials, design styles and distribute them around the world – most of it unique enough to gather attention.

Anodized aluminium is another material I’ve used extensively for branding through the years, unlike stainless steel, it’s generally not very reflective and visible in just about any angle but it is a flat result.

If all CNCROi.com did was Pine coasters, then it’s very straight forward for us to “own that Social Media Branding market” but in reality, we can make coasters out of hundreds of different materials, from wood to steel, plastics to paper.

Most of the stuff CNCROi.com produces never actually gets documented either, I make samples that are similar to something we’ve made for NDA customers but like these Pine Social Media Branding signs, if it didn’t have our logo on it, you’d have really no idea what awesome company made them to get your own made.

As I keep on expanding CNCROi.com all our videos and promotional items have our branding somewhere, whether it’s watermarks added after the fact or background pictures with our logo in the frame, all of these are vital for proper and effective Social Media Branding.

A great alternative if it suits your needs is actually having CNCROi.com produced a custom rubber stamp for all your branding requirements, it’s quick and durable… and one time costs can last thousands of impressions before needing to put in more ink.

I really enjoy making stuff at CNCROi.com for our customers, whether it’s simple items along the lines of this anti-theft Pine widget or something far more complex, each job is unique in that respect, specs are to be adhered to and challenges met.

For Pine, the advantages are numerous, it’s really my go-to material when it comes to Social Media Branding because it’s incredibly light weight, very durable and provides amazing contrast after proper care and attention.

I’ve tried Social Media Branding using other materials of course, lamacoids are pretty neat but they just don’t have the same wow factor to really stand-out while metal tends to be mixed in with the background too easily even if painted.

I’ve tried MDF as well for branding widgets but it produced mixed results, mostly because the contrast isn’t strong enough when trying to take pictures and video with distracting lights or weird angles.

A light surface color with dark laser engraving, UV protection built-in (important for a shop with an active CNC plasma cutter), durability that can be refreshed with just sand paper years down the road are all very important factors when it comes to making custom Social Media Branding anti-theft widgets.

When it comes to Social Media Branding widgets, size is relative because closer to the camera makes them bigger while further away smaller, but it is important to have different sizes, at least for CNCROi.com, because our products can be very big or very small.

For CNCROi.com lamacoids for use in branding anywhere near our CNC plasma cutter isn’t a good idea due to the very intense radiation and UV light produced during the cutting process – another reason why wood is superior in this case for us.

There is a great flexibility that comes from having different sizes to play with to produce optimal photography and video to promote your business… and there is no problem with having more than one widget as I do at CNCROi.com.

The repeatability of our production method also allow a cohesive message to go across all your different Social Media Branding channels, so even if you have multiple offices and marketing managers in each, they can all use the same widget to standardize promotional efforts.

Do keep in mind that wood is a unique material, they all have unique grain structure and distance, producing a unique look with each, going with plastic like Corian would be a more even method identical widget production rather than natural materials.

The thickness of the CNCROi.com Pine widget I use in this blog posts and many more into the future is 3/4″ or 19 mm thick, the contrast is amazing along the laser cut edges and engraving on the top surface.

Corian is a great material for branding big or small because of it’s incredible consistency and durability.

These scraps of Pine are being put to very good use, I can’t wait to use them for years to come.

CNCROi.com has years of experience producing custom projects for our customers across a wide variety of industries, from industrial to aerospace, military to individuals wanting something neat in their home.

For the production of these Social Media Branding anti-theft widgets, you’ll notice the same pattern was used as with most of our jobs, the first is engraving the surface and then cutting the inner parts followed by cutting out the project from which the project came from.

Another option available to you by CNCROi.com is metal, you can literally use a flame thrower or less fun, a propane torch, to brand your pallets and shipping crates.

The reason for this is simple, the longer something is part of a bigger whole, the less likely it is to move and thus, fall out of spec, or produce a non-sharp result.

The next step for these Social Media Branding widgets was sanding, I didn’t put a mask over them because sanding is just so easy with Pine, above you can see what they look like straight out of the laser and below, after a little sanding.

Here’s a close-up of the brand new CNCROi.com Social Media Branding across a few different sizes to account for the varied productions we make at the shop.

Need a custom Social Media Branding widget? Contact CNCROi.com right now!