8 Strategies For Building Your Business With Flickr

Most people have at least a passing familiarity with Flickr, the photo sharing service.  You create a free account, upload photos, and send your friends and family a link.  You can do more with Flickr than just share personal photos, though.  You can also give your business a presence on this popular and powerful social media site.

Let’s be clear on one point, though.  Flickr’s terms of service specifically prohibit using their service to pitch your business.  Part of the reason Flickr is so popular is that it connects real people.  It does not (and has no intention of) connecting faceless organizations.  That being said, work is a big part of most people’s lives.  And most good businesses owe much of their success to the individuals that work there.  So there is some overlap, and that’s the area where you’re going to be active on Flickr.

1.) Promote your corporate culture.

Take candid shots of your work environment and the people there.  This is a great way to give potential clients some idea of what you would be like to work with.  Is your office fun and whimsical?  Very professional and down-to-earth?  Even showing how offices and desks are arranged can give people an impression of how collaborative your work process is.  All this information is also useful for potential employees.

2.) Use Flickr as a CMS.

Although you’ll need a true CMS (content management system) to do the heavy lifting on making updates to your website, connecting your site to the Flickr API makes it very easy to update photo galleries.  You can take a picture with your phone and have it appear instantly on your website by sending it to your private Flickr email address.  This isn’t appropriate for product catalogs, but it’s perfect for “about us” and “meet the team” pages.

3.) Build buzz about product and event previews.

Have a new product or a big event coming up?  Take pictures of some of the early stages of development and planning.  Start sending your contacts to the pictures and asking them to leave comments to generate early interest.  If you plan well, you can release a series of pictures as the big day gets closer.  When it’s time to finally unveil what you’ve been cooking up, you’ll have built up a bit of a following.

4.) Create photo sets for an event.

Once the event is over, you can keep getting good use out of it.  Document the entire shindig in photos on Flickr.  When you meet someone 6 months later, they’ll be able to see images from the big open house or launch party that you had.  You can still enjoy the credibility and other benefits of having an event with more than just the people who were in attendance.  (This approach ties in really well with #2 above.)

5.) Find relevant groups.

Now we’re really digging in to the social aspect of Flickr.  Users can create groups where like-minded people post and talk about photos on specific topics.  If you run a greyhound rescue, you’ll want to spend some time in greyhound group.  You probably have the expertise to answer some of the questions that come up in the discussions.  It would probably even be appropriate to post photos of some of your greyhounds.  It isn’t appropriate to make pitches at the group, but if you are adding value in the photo collections and discussions, you will get to know and be welcomed by many people in your target market.  If there aren’t any groups for your area of interest, create one.

6.) Use the Flickr map.

It may not be practical to attach every photo you upload to Flickr to the map, but it’s a good idea to put some of your gems there.  It’s a particularly good idea for pictures that are tied to a location.  Do you have a picture of the front of your building?  Is any of your work visible at a well-known client site?  Did you take your team on a corporate retreat?  Searching for pictures on the map is another way that people can find you.

7.) Follow your brand.

As with every social media service you want to follow your brand on Flickr.  This is extremely easy to do.  Just regularly search for mentions of your business or product names.  If someone uploads a picture of your custom lamp that arrived broken, you should immediately respond through Flickr.  Ask how you can help and offer to make it right.  Potential customers will see how you respond to the problem on this public forum.

8.) Invite people from outside the Flickr community.

Your photos are going to be seen by people who find your through Flickr, but don’t stop there.  When you upload photos, send a link to people you know who will be interested.  Emailing all the people in the photo is a good place to start.

What Not To Do

• Don’t upload your entire product catalog
• Don’t spam notes and comments with keywords to try and get search engine juice
• Don’t use Flickr to make sales pitches

Listen to your gut.  If your uploading a photo or typing anything that feels commercial, don’t do it.  You should be focusing on connecting with people and humanizing your organization.  Anything less is probably a waste of your time because Flickr will delete accounts that ignore their terms of service.  Respect the Flickr community, and it can be a great ally in growing your business.