Flickr has been a renowned social networking used for image and video sharing site since February 2004. Flickr was acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. It was among those first few websites that implemented the idea of web 2.0 applications that allow users to collaborate with each other by sharing and editing public contents.

Flickr allows users to share and edit photos, videos and organize content. By using Flickr, users can view contents according to their location and even create new content out of existing images. This content includes greeting cards, photos, books and calendars. Flickr is cited as one of the first few websites to allow users to practice Folksonomy, which is collaborating to create and manage tags to annotate and categorize content. The tags added to a photo or video make it easier to find them in a search.

Since Flickr was created, it has been very popular with users who want to share their memories in the form of photos. People can rate and post comments on different photos to show their interests and views. Flickr users can create groups according to their common interests. The groups on Flickr can be public, by invitation only or completely private according to set privileges.

Flickr – Alexa Statistics

We know that Flickr is used for social networking and that it is among the top sites on the web. According to Alexa statistics, Flickr has a global traffic rank of 35, and a rank of 19 in the United States.

We can easily  judge from the ranking and statistics on Alexa website about Flickr that marketers can use Flickr to promote their business and services. The marketing on Flickr needs to be totally different than conventional marketing because Flickr users understand the language of images and videos.

Flickr – Social Media Marketing

Flickr can be a great marketing tool for photographers, painters, designers and animators. Besides that, professionals and businesses from other walks of life can also take advantage of this great photo and video sharing website.

What makes Flickr unique is that people can access photos and videos through different means, such as sharing, emailing and embedding on other sites and blogs. Some ways that you can use Flickr as a coordinating website for social media marketing are:

Add photos of conferences with links

Businesses can create photo repositories on Flickr to add the photos of their important meetings, conferences and press coverage with links to their websites and a description of their organization and the photos. The pictures of conferences or meetings can be shared within a group or several groups for added publicity and marketing.

Add photos of new products

Marketers can use Flickr to add photos of new products being launched with appropriate links and information. They can even upload banners and posters of their ad campaign to Flickr and promote them by sharing with each other.

Take advantage of Flickr videos

Flickr allows its pro users to add their own videos. The size of the videos added on Flickr should be no more than150 MB and 90 seconds long. Marketers, businesses and professionals can create short videos, screencasts or animations to convey their message to other users. They can create advertisements, videos that describe their services or screencasts of their work, just to name a few ideas. Visitors can share videos and embed them in other web pages and blogs.

Take advantage of social aspect of Flickr

Many people user Flickr groups to socialize with other uses. You can take advantage of this to grow your business. Why not join different social groups on Flickr and share your photos, videos and ideas and grow your customer base? This will have a positive impact on your social media marketing campaign. After all, it is all about being social!

Tips for effective marketing on Flickr

If you are a photographer, artist or painter then you definitely need a medium to promote your work. By joining Flickr as a Pro member you can benefit from all of the privileges of a proper advertising campaign. Use Flickr to publicize your work and excel in your career. Shawn, a photographer, is using Flickr to market his work and has shared some very good tips in his blog. He tells you how to take full advantage of Flickr. Here is a brief overview of those tips and ideas:

·         Always add keyword-rich titles, descriptions and tags to your photos.

·         Add watermarks to your photos so they represent you whenever they are used online.

·         If you are worried about the theft of your content, sign up as a Pro member so you can choose a license that best suits your needs.

·         Comment on photos of other members and participate in discussions and groups.

·         Increase your contacts by subscribing to the work of other members.

Right now, Flickr is being used by bloggers, entrepreneurs and regular users as a photo repository. There is great potential in using Flickr as a marketing tool in terms of photos and videos.

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