3 Fantastic Flickr Hacks For Business

Social media, as I have now written countless times over recent weeks, has gone visual. This hasn’t just recently happened by any means, but for some reason I find myself increasingly trying to drive this point home to social media marketers across the web.

As a marketer, you will no doubt have already worked out which of your social networks is most valuable to you in terms of generating revenue, and the more discerning amongst you will have also taken note of those networks that engender the most engagement and have the liveliest community. Indeed, it may be that the same network furnishes both of these business requirements.

Even so, business is never about staying within your comfort zone. It’s about taking risks and striving for growth. And that’s why your job as a social media marketer might at times feel like spinning plates. You’ve got Pinterest set up as your main channel for sales, and you’re finding that between Twitter, Facebook and Instagram you’re keeping up an engaged community of regular followers and commenters, some of whom are targeted for conversion over the coming days, weeks or months.

Phew – it’s not an easy task, is it? No, it’s not, to be fair. The social media marketer needs to always have his/her finger on the pulse, be jumping on the back of hashtags, catching the latest trends, and just plain and simply keeping up with where the action is.

Adding Flickr To Your Ever-Growing List Of Networks

Now, it may seem that all the attention these days when it comes to photo sharing social networks has been piled upon Instagram – and you’d be right, to a certain extent.

Instagram has managed to claim the ‘cool’ in the photo-sharing world. It is a community made up of mostly young users, and brands have been quite forthcoming in getting on the back of it, and have indeed found some very innovative ways to use the still photograph to market their products (check out how the marketing masters behind Oreo do it on my recent post ‘How To Build A Super-engaged Instagram Following’).

However, that doesn’t mean that there’s not room for Flickr as well, and indeed, in the strive for business growth, it will pay to explore as many social media channels as you can handle, and you can actually do a lot worse that Flickr.

A Little History Lesson…

Flickr was actually one of the pioneers of social media. It was around long before Instagram, long before Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn. In fact, Flickr was launched less than a week after Facebook on February 10 2004.

Interestingly, Flickr didn’t actually begin as a standalone social network, but as part of a series of features in a MMOG (massively multiplayer online game) called Game Neverending. The game, unfortunately, failed, but, in its wake the firm launched Flickr as a standalone site – and less than a year later Yahoo acquired it for $35 million.

Today, Flickr has stood the test of time, and, despite perhaps being out-beaten in ‘coolness’ and popularity by Instagram, it nonetheless still has 112 million users, can boast over 1 million new photographs being uploaded every day, to contribute to a database that now includes over 10 billion images. Put simply, Flickr is a live and kicking social network, with bags and bags of potential, millions of users and a fantastic resource that should be utilised by marketers both as a platform on which content can be shared, and as a resource for high quality images and contacts.

But let’s delve into these hacks one at a time…

3 Fantastic Flickr Hacks For Business

#1. Sourcing Free Images

You may recall less than a month ago a blog that I wrote for this very website – ‘5 Fantastic Sources For Free Stock Images’. I made somewhat of a noise about social media becoming visual in that article as well. And of course it’s very true. Each and every blog that I write for has a featured image attached to it, plus a few extra dotted down the page to break up the reading. As a social media marketer you will of course be writing a blog for your website as well, which means that you will be needing some great resources of free photographs that you can use to smarten up those blog links and start driving traffic to your site.

Now, I didn’t mention Flickr in that last post, but it is actually one of the very best image resources available on the web.

Not all of the photography on Flickr is made available for free use, but there nonetheless seems to be a bottomless pool of pictures that are. So, make sure that you use these, and, so long as you credit the photo, you’re good to go.

If you’re running your website and blog on WordPress, then you can even make use of a very handy plugin called PhotoDropper, which enables you to import Flickr photos right into your editor. Nice one.

#2. Tell Your Story In Pictures – AND Sell Your Wares

Shall I say it again…? Go on, then – social media has gone visual. Slap it on your Facebook status and print it on a t-shirt. And the reason that it’s gone visual is because internet users need images in order for their attentions to be captured. It’s as simple as that.

And so, it makes sense to establish yourself on as many visual platforms as possible – Flickr, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, Vine, you name it, you need to create a visual presence for yourself in as many arenas as possible.

But what should you visualise? Well, first and foremost, you need to remember that Flickr is a social network, so that means that there should be a social element to the content that you produce. Every brand has a story, and an ongoing one for that matter. So why don’t you start using Flickr as a means to tell that story through pictures. Behind the scenes shots are great for humanising your brand, which of course is very important in this modern, hyper-connected world. So, take advantage of the platform and start telling your story.

Secondly – and this really should be your secondary use of the site – you can use Flickr to advertise your wares. Your followers will get annoyed if all you do is shamelessly plug every line that you’ve got day in and day out. But, mixed up with some storytelling, the odd promotional post will slip in nicely. It will remind your users that you are actually a brand as well as being a damn entertaining storyteller. And, of course, you should be creating content that not only sports your products being used as they were primarily designed, but also showing off all of the other alternative uses for them as well. And don’t forget, if you can manage to muster up some user created content then all the better. Here’s a screenshot from Burger King’s Flickr page.

#3. Auto-upload Your Content Across The Web

Of course, just because you choose Flickr to be the primary platform for sharing your photography, this doesn’t mean that your blog or other social media followers should miss out. On the contrary, you can create a Flickr feed on your website, which will allow visitors to always see what your latest updates are on the photo sharing network. Indeed, it will encourage them to sign up and start following you on there too.

In fact, you will do well to make sure that all of your online accounts are linked to Flickr – from your blog to your website to your Twitter to your Facebook, your Tumblr, your Google+ and your Instagram. Spread the word far and wide!!

Continue reading here: Tweeting: How To Get The Most From Your 140 Characters

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