Everyone knows about Flickr by now. The photo and video sharing community started up in 2004, was bought by Yahoo! a year later, and has since grown into a behemoth. Flickr boasts 50 million registered users and attracts 80 million unique visitors every month. While it doesn't have the sheer size of Facebook, nor the rapid response of Twitter, it can be an equally (or even more) powerful tool to connect with and engage your customers. Why? Photography can open up whole new worlds.
But how would you take advantage of this? Like any other social network, Flickr should not be considered a marketing platform. It's not a place to tout and sell products. It's a place that can help you develop your brand and get close to your customers. And most importantly, it's a place for them to interact with you, and become a part of the experience.
here is a quick 10 point list written by EMILIA DOERR on how to start on the Flikr road of social media marketing.
These days, Google search results show not only webpages, but also images, videos, maps, audio, and other media (called “universal search”). Certain kinds of local businesses can take advantage of images that may show up when people search for keywords related to your business — especially travel-related businesses (hotels, restaurants, etc.), clothing boutiques, photography businesses, gift shops, galleries, some corporations, etc.
Flickr is a highly indexed website for photo and video sharing owned by Yahoo. Local business owners can share images on Flickr to boost their online brand and increase search engine visibility.
Each photo page you create on Flickr will get indexed by the search engines and may even rank highly on its own — boosting your local visibility and your potential to drive additional traffic to your site.
How to Use Flickr to Boost Your Local Business:
- Account. Open a free account with Flickr. If you find you’re using Flickr a lot, the Pro membership is $24.95 annually. Select the option to make your photos publicly viewable.
- Uploading. Start uploading quality images to Flickr. These can include logos, headshots, travel scenes, and product images.
- Titles. Create strong, keyword-rich, catchy, and descriptive titles for each photo to boost search engine visibility. Think about unique ways to motivate users to click on your image.
- Descriptions. Write careful descriptions for each image. Your local organization may have a killer logo or a great product, but ask yourself why prospects for your business would care about it. Then in the description, tell them something you may not be able to share with them on your corporate website. Give people a reason to connect with you.
- Links. Add hyperlinks in your descriptions to relevant pages on your site — making sure to use local keywords in the linked text.
- Local place names. Boost your local search engine visibility by using local search keywords for communities you are targeting (for example, Ventura, CA or Camarillo, CA) in your titles, descriptions, tags, and linked text.
- Tags. Tag each photo with descriptive, searchable keywords. Be sure to include place names in the tags to attract qualified searches.
- Profile. Optimize your Flickr profile page and Flickr photo “sets” with search-friendly titles, tags, fun and informative descriptions, and links.
- Flickr Groups. Be social. Get additional exposure for your photos by joining relevant groups and posting your photos there. This is also a great opportunity to connect directly with locals in your area of service.
- Other social media connections. You may want to share your Flickr photo pages on social sites such as Facebook and Delicious, especially if your image or video has viral potential.
Regardless of the site of your business, Social media platforms are the new phone book, the new newspaper ad, times are changing and so are the way we advertise.
you can click this here to see a slideshow made using Flickr to showcase some of my old artwork, the same can be used to showcase a new product, a grand opening or event, or anything, skies the limit!
