Flickr is a great place to post pictures that can be seen by your friends and family. But using Flickr for business is also great for your shop and blog. It’s free to join and can give you a lot of exposure. There are a few things you should do once you’ve uploaded your photos to maximize Flickr marketing potential:
Profile
It’s very important that you fill out your profile when using Flickr for business. Here, you can link to your shop, blog, and any other place you’re present on the Internet. It’s against Flickr’s rules to post a link to your shop in your photo description, but it can be in your profile. You can, though, post links to your blog in the photo description. Your profile is a good way for people to be able to find you and your goods elsewhere.
Widget
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Once you’ve started Flickr marketing you should put a sidebar widget on your blog that points to your Flickr account. The widget shows pictures that you’ve recently uploaded to Flickr and allows your blog visitors to visit your Flickr site. This way, they can also see other things you’ve been working on that you haven’t blogged about or put in your shop. Besides your customers getting to know you better, it could lead to custom work or referrals — another important reason to consider using Flickr for business.
Groups
Joining groups on Flickr is an easy way to connect to people that have the same interests as you. If you primarily put pictures up of your polymer clay work, search for groups dealing with polymer clay. Join them and share photos of your work as part of your Flickr marketing strategy. Do this for all your posted pictures. There are groups for virtually everything imaginable. It doesn’t have to be craft-related, either! Join cat groups and share pictures of your cat; people will look at your photos and then click on your page where they will be introduced to your work.
Favorites
Hearting other people’s pictures is a great way to make contacts when using Flickr for business. Initially, it gives them a nice warm feeling, and then they might click on your page and see what you’re working on. Doing something as nice as giving a heart to a person’s picture or commenting will, in turn, do something good for you!
Participate
Within the groups, you will sometimes find swaps, contests, or other events that you can participate in. If you have the time and the resources you should! It’s a great way to send out your goods and get presents in return. Contests are a great platform to show off your work and be noticed by many, many people. Participating in these little events are so much fun and you will gain a larger audience and customer base by doing so.
Yahoo reported in June 2011 that Flickr had a total of 51 million registered members and 80 million unique visitors. While buying ads and business cards are great ways to boost your creative business, Flickr marketing is one (free!) way to reach more people than advertisements ever could. Most of all, it’s fun to connect and share with one another while doing great promotional work for your business.
