There's a great YouTube video that pokes fun at random objects that on their own seemingly have no specific meaning unless one "puts a bird" on them. So, before I dive too much deeper trying to glue my point together, here is the video:

So, as a Web Content Manager, I [now, jokingly] think to myself when looking at a web page, "What's our bird?"

In some companies the "bird" on their web pages is a big, red flashing button or big blobs of underlined red text in big bold fonts to drive a point home. (Note: The author of this blog frowns upon such practices. Why some people still insist on using them it is beyond me.)

Then I started thinking about stock art and looking at it in different ways. My team will always try to use one of our own images whenever possible, but there are times when you have to turn to stock to find an image that conveys a very specific message for a page or a call-to-action.  

There's a sort-of twisted genius to stock art; it's not so much the subject of the image but the objects around it that usually tell the story.  What's the different between a picture of a "girl" and a "student"? It might simply be a stack of books or an apple [however terribly cliché that is].

So, take this post for what you will. I hope it inspires you to find the "bird" in your next web content project.    And if this fails to inspire you, perhaps some BIG, RED BOLD TEXT will do the trick.