Five uses of a photo sharing web service

We think of sharing ordinary photos on a photo sharing web site, but what else can you do with them?

• Post screen shots of presentations. I can hear you say "why????" For a conference where participants heavily use tagging and photo sharing, posting screen shots is a way of promoting your talk ahead of time. You can also then refer to the screen shot in your blog, wiki, etc. and draw people to it that way.
  

• Post information that you want people to review or comment on. One person who has done this well is Michael Habib, who posted various version of this graphic in Flickr, with links to his blog post about them. With the combination of the graphic and blog post, he was able to solicit input from people and refine his thinking.
  

• Post photos to use for instruction (formally or informally). These may be screen shots or photos that you want to incorporate in a presentation or maybe you want to use a photo sharing site slide show as your presentation!
  

• Store photos that you want to use on your organization's web site, then use a widget to display those photos. Flickr has badges that you can place on your web site that will use photos you've stored in Flickr. (Likely other services has the same feature.) This is a great way of making a site more dynamic. See photos on every page of the Taoist Tai Chi Society of the USA - Syracuse Branch web site as examples of how a Flickr badge can be used.

• Search photos for ideas. Here's an example from the library-world. If you were going to remodel a library, you could search photos to see how other libraries are setup and to gather ideas (e.g., The Libraries and Librarians Pool). Since you can message people who post photos in the services, you can then ask questions to help clarify your thinking.

I was reminded recently that Flickr has rules around using it for commercial use. Specifically, they say:

Flickr is for personal use only. If we find you selling products, services, or yourself through your photostream, we will terminate your account.

I think most of us can live with that rule easily, as with the others rules they have put into place. If you have not read the rules for your photo sharing service, take a moment to do so. It is likely that the rules will not limit your use at all, but it is good to be aware of what the rules are.

Okay...so...don't have a photo sharing account? Many are free and they are very easy to use. Now that you know more about what you can do, why not give them a try?!