How to Market on Flickr

As a small business owner, you’ll have to work harder and smarter on the web to compete against the likes of Big Company Widgets and Deep Pockets Doodads. You’ll also have to be more creative and take advantage of a lot of marketing opportunities the big guys have overlooked. And you’ll have to make marketing opportunities where none exist.

Let’s look at one marketing opportunity that very few businesses are using: Flickr.

What Is Flickr?

Flickr is a web site owned by Yahoo! that offers photo sharing and a host of related services for users of any level — beginners to professionals. It’s tremendously easy to use, and when used with friends / associates it can be great fun. (And if this sounds like a bit of a commercial, here’s my disclaimer: I love Flickr.)

More than just being a web site, you should think of Flickr as a community — one with a very strong and active user base. According to Nielsen/NetRatings, Flickr is currently the fastest-growing photo sharing site on the web, and the 5th most popular overall. And comScore recently announced that, according to its stats, Flickr had 5 million unique visitors in May, 2006, making it the 7th-most trafficked social networking/media site. Clearly, opportunity is knocking for the smart, creative small business owner.

How does Flickr work?

A Flickr account is free. You’ll need a Yahoo ID to sign up. Once you’ve joined, adding photos to Flickr is done through a simple upload system. At any time, you can look for Flickr groups to join. When adding photos to a group, make sure you read the group’s posting rules. Don’t add a photo of a widget to a group specifically for photos of doodads.

Most Flickr members are active in groups. Groups are where like-minded users post photos related to the group’s theme. For example, I’m a big music fan, so one group I’m in is Live Music. I’m also an Apple computer user, so I’m in the Apple group. And as a resident of Tri-Cities, Wash., I’m also a member of the Tri-Cities, WA group. (Notice that each group has both photos and discussions….)

The typical experience for most users of Flickr would involve uploading a photo, adding the photo to a personal photo album (a “set”, as Flickr calls them), and then sharing the photo in whatever appropriate groups the person has joined. Posting to groups is the main way your photos get exposure.

How do I market my business on Flickr?

First, let me emphasize that it’s against the Terms of Use to “exploit for any commercial purposes” the Flickr/Yahoo service. Posting a photo specifically for the purposes of advertising your company, your products/services, etc., would be against the TOS and would turn off the Flickr community.

That said, by being a smart and active contributor to the Flickr community, your business (web site) can get indirect marketing exposure via Flickr. Here’s how:

1.) Use your web site address as your Flickr screen name. Your screen name will be attached to every photo you upload, every message you post in a Group discussion — everything you do on Flickr. Let your screen name advertise your web site URL. The photo below, for example, is a picture I took at the SEW Live event in Seattle in May. The two circles in the upper right show where “SmallBusinessSEM.com” appears. And with each photo you upload, you can add “tags” (or keywords) that describe the photo, and a description of the image — these are both opportunities to mention your business name and web site address. (I didn’t use the tags or description to mention SBS in this example.)

Read more: http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/articles/marketing-on-flickr/#ixzz3HjkM3mUt