Use Flickr to Promote Your Cause
With over one million users, Flickr (http://flickr.com) is the most popular photo sharing website. Flickr members upload their pictures to make them accessible to the public – and tag the photos with keywords so that they are easy to find.
Flickr Photo Sharing
Setting-up a fully-functioning Flickr account takes less than an hour and does not require daily upkeep.
Since "a picture is worth a thousand words," upload photos to Flickr that depict the problem you're trying to solve, the people your organization serves, and the projects or rallies that you organize.
For instance, Greenpeace has an account dedicated to photos from its ship, the Esperanza (http://flickr.com/photos/greenpeace_esperanza/). As it sails on a year-long voyage, Esperanza crew members upload snapshots of the anti-whaling actions they take, along with pictures of animals and landscapes they encounter.
Allow Flickr members to use your photographs on their own websites, blogs, and other online or print mediums.
You can attach a Creative Commons license to each photograph. Theoretically, the "Attribution-NoDerivs" license is supposed to help protect you from misuse. As part of the license, people using your pictures agree to:
- not alter the photos
- list the photos as your work, with your organization's name and web address in the byline
However, don't rely on everyone to follow the rules. So, if your primary goal is to use Flickr as a method to promote your website, then adopt a practice used by TV channels: "emboss" your photos with a semi-transparent (or at least unobtrusive) logo or domain name, which is usually placed at the bottom-right corner of photos.
Flickr Keyword Optimization
Add as many relevant keyword tags as possible to each photo. The more tags you include, the more opportunities you create for Flickr users to find your photographs when they are searching based on keywords.
As a bonus, whenever you upload a photo, create keyphrase-rich text links to your website in the "description" box. The text you enter will be displayed underneath the photo. You can create text-links by using this simple HTML code:
<a href="yourwebsite.org">related keyphrase</a>
Flickr Groups
Participating in Flickr Groups is another way to gain exposure for your photos. Flickr has thousands of groups, covering a wide range of topics. After joining a group, you may submit a specified number of photos each month.
Starting a Flickr Group yourself will take more time, but can be the best way to get publicity from Flickr. Consider holding a contest and requesting entries from other Flickr users. For example, OxFam America asked users to send in pictures of themselves with signs saying: "I support Ethiopian coffee farmers." In addition to allowing group members to upload photos, OxFam also provided an email address where those without Flickr accounts could send photos. At last count, they received over 580 photos from users all around the world (http://www.flickr.com/groups/starbucksphotopetition/).
