A Flickr of Hope?
October 11, 2009 6:25 pm Business Strategies, Free Business Tools, Online Business, eMarketingGuest Contributor: Lauren Neilson
With so many new social media sites (Facebook), ecommerce platforms (eBay), media (Source Bottle) and article banks (Free Sticky) popping up, navigating the World Wide Web is becoming a mammoth task for business owners everywhere!
On top of the day to day operational aspects of your business, you now have to contend with finding, and then becoming a part of, the ‘next big thing’ online that claims it is going to forever change the way your business communicates online, explode your online earnings and increase your brand exponentially!
Frankly it’s a daunting task to even the most tech savvy business owners and I would hazard a guess that not many of you would have unlimited time and resources to research and analyse every single site’s value to your business.
So I am going to do it for you!
One by one, I intend to research, analyse, summarise and provide the skinny on a range of sites across the web! Sites that you have most likely heard could be useful for your business , but have not had the time to review.
The (unscientific) criterion that I will be using to evaluate each site includes:
- What the site developers believe is the purpose of their site.
- How easy it is to open an account, use the site and what does it cost?
- Will this site bend the time space continuum to suck my valuable time into a vortex?
- How can I use this site to benefit my business?
- The Skinny!
First cab off the rank is Flickr!
Flickr is known as one of the most popular image sharing sites across the globe (7th most trafficked social networking site on the web), it comes with a formidable amount of features that qualifies it as a social networking site. Flickr’s popularity, structure and features would appear to make it an ideal vehicle for business promotion and SEO.
What the site developers believe the purpose of their site is.
“Flickr - almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world - has two main goals:
- We want to help people make their content available to the people who matter to them.
- We want to enable new ways of organising photos and videos.”
How easy it is to open an account, use the site and what does it cost?
Joining and using Flickr is free and easy. You will, however, need a Yahoo! ID to sign up. If you do not have one, they will happily redirect you through to Yahoo! to sign up (also for free). There are limitations to your free account, not to worry though, for US$24.95 you can upgrade to a Flickr Pro account which pretty much makes everything unlimited.
The site is relatively simple to use and has a familiar social media layout and feel to it, but it can take some time to get your head around the terminology.
Will this site bend the time space continuum to suck my valuable time into a vortex?
Yes … and No!
Initially there is a lot of time that must be spent on setting up your profile, entering photos, inviting contacts, linking to external sites and joining groups. However, once you have spent the time at the outset, the ongoing maintenance of this site can be structured into a weekly or monthly routine to update and optimise.
It will only suck your time into a vortex if you let it!
How can I use this site to benefit my business?
Firstly, let me emphasize that conduct is key! Like any social media site, blatantly advertising your products and services will turn off the community and hinder your credibility and Flickr themselves may also take offence!
That said, by being a genuine and active contributor to the Flickr community, your business can potentially get indirect marketing exposure and here’s how:
- You can create a profile that allows your web address, contact email and a description of you or your business.
- You can create unique URLs for your profile or Photostream, e.g. http://www.flickr.com/photos/yourname/, to directly guide people to your images from anywhere on the web or via email.
- You can ‘tag’ your image with keywords that you associate with your photo. This will make it easy to find by users when they are searching and lend keyword weight to the photo’s page.
- Link each of your Flickr photo pages to relevant sections on your website and blog. Use text that has a call to action, or which tells the user what to expect if they click on the link, e.g. ‘if you find this photo interesting visit our website.’
- By selecting the public view on your photos you will allow anyone, anywhere to view your images and therefore find out more about you and your business.
- You can use keyword rich titles and descriptions to add keyword weight to your photo’s page within Flickr to assist with searchability.
- You can ‘geotag’ your images for localised awareness.
- You can create your own Flickr Group or join an existing one, add your images to the group and encourage others to join. The more links to your photo page, the more important your photo will be considered, so add it to a number of relevant groups.
- Finally, the many pages of pictures linking back to your site will help build your overall PageRank which is important to your search engine visibility, which translates into more people finding your website.
The Skinny!
There are rumours flying around the web at the moment that Flickr is cracking down on people who use the site specifically for selling products, services or themselves through their photostream. Take the time to thoroughly read their guidelines. In the past they have tended to look the other way - perhaps not any more.
If your business has a visual element to it, for example artwork, photography, fashion, celebrity or personal, Flickr could be a viable option – as long as you are a genuine part of the community first and a business owner second!
The reality is, until Flickr offers a commercial account, your time and effort could potentially be wasted. I have contacted the ‘Flickreenos’ direct to find out if this is on the cards and will keep you posted on their response!
For now though, focusing your time and effort on enhancing the imagery on your web site with relevant and keyword rich Alt tags and finding more business accepting social mediums would be time better spent.
You can find out more about internet marketing, web design and web development by visiting the ISP Media Blog .
Related posts:
- Encourage Social Sharing of Your Content
- Networking – The Social Norms
- Free Report – Social Media for Small Business
