We covered flickr last night. Yes, flickr is a robust Web 2.0 community. We reviewed its history and evolution from a tool set to its current function. We reviewed the community and functions like image tagging (rollover image and see the magic), geo-tagging. We also tried to export an image into my blog after tagging the image, but unfortunately, it didn’t work. That could be an amazing affiliate tool. We talked about flickr groups and the guidelines. (My favorite is Don’t be creepy: You know the guy. Don’t be that guy.) We also talked about the concept of folksonomy.
We then reviewed how flickr could be utilized to build social capital and market your business. The suggestions are listed below.
- When creating your flickr screen name, user your URL
- Your account profile needs to be specific to your business
- The images you upload must be quality photos of your product/service
- The description of your photos should be informational and not salesy
- Join the right groups; share and participate. Again, do this as a human being, not a sales person
- By posting your images on flickr, you have enabled another method of discovery
- and last but not least . . . AVOID THE HARD SELL. This is really true of any online/on-demand medium
Sadly these recommendations were not mine, although I have recommended most of these methods before. (No really.) They came from this post on Small Business Search Marketing. We finished up by talking about Creative Commons and the types of licenses. I’ve included a video we watched that helps explain Creative Commons.
