Somebody posts a lovely photograph of your product. Reposting it seems obviously fine — they made it about you. It is still their photograph.
What a credit does and does not do
Naming the author is right, and it is not permission. Copyright sits with whoever took the picture from the moment they took it, and “found on the internet, credited” has never been a defence anywhere.
Asking, in one message
“Love this shot — may we repost it on our account with credit to you?” That is the whole message, and the answer is nearly always yes.
Keep the reply. A screenshot of somebody saying yes is the entire paperwork for this, and it costs nothing to save.
The parts people get wrong
- A hashtag campaign is not blanket permission unless your terms say so and people can find them
- Permission to post once is not permission to use it in an advert
- A person in the photograph is a separate question from the person who took it
- Removing a watermark is the one thing guaranteed to turn a polite request into a complaint
If you build a habit of asking, people start sending you photographs unprompted. Accounts that repost without asking get sent fewer, not more.