A benefit of putting photos in a photo-sharing service

A benefit of placing photos in a photo-sharing service is that people use them (with the correct permissions). Sometimes those uses can be pretty cool. For example, last year Schmap ask to use my photo of the National Museum of the American Indian in one of its online tour book. I gladly said "yes." Yesterday NowPublic emailed to ask if they could use three photos of Seattle manhole covers I'd taken to help illustrate a story they had done on stolen manhole covers in Ottawa. I said "yes." Because of those requests, my photos are being seen by a very different audience. Cool!

In both cases, the organization said they would give me proper attribution. In both cases, there was no exchange of money. More importantly, in both cases, I retain rights to the photos. Best of all, I benefit because more people get to see my photos (and then might be curious about what other photos I've taken...and then maybe curious about who I am). The other organization benefits because they get great photos and they get someone (me) who is going to talk about the interaction. A win-win situation, eh?!

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Technorati tags: Flickr, photo sharing, NowPublic

Wordless Wednesday

The Linked Intelligence blog does "Wordless Wednesday." On Wednesdays, the blog post is a photo that can be related to networking and is presented without any text. Below is the image from Feb. 6:

Here's a question for you... Can you use images to communicate your message? Could it be effective to sometimes use an image without any words? Note that royalty-free images can be found in places like stock.xchng and free photos with Creative Commons licenses can be found in Flickr.

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Technorati tags: Flickr, photo sharing

Article: Flickr Introduces Traffic Stats for Pro Users

Quoting...

Users with a pro account at Flickr are now able to view a variety of interesting statistics about the viewers of their photos. Heather Champ said in a post on the Flickr blog this morning that the stats are intended to "give you all sorts of insight into how people arrive at your photos."

More here.

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Technorati tags: Flickr, photo sharing

Photo sharing web site statistics

According to HitWise for the week of Aug. 25, this is how the photo sharing web sites ranked in percentage of users:

Photobucket -- 38%
Flickr -- 8%
Slide -- 7%
Kodak Galley -- 4%
RockYou -- 3.6%
Others -- 39.4%

I use Flickr and most of the people I network with also use Flickr. Obviously, though, PhotoBucket is very popular. PhotoBucket allows you to share photos, videos and graphics, so it is very versatile. PhotoBucket is also free, while Flickr charges for more features and storage space, as well as ad-free browsing ($24.95/year).

Which photo-sharing service is right for you? If the one you're using works for you, you may want to stick with it. Consider sharing, though, if another service will give you better functionality OR if the people you want to network with are already there.

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Technorati tag: Photo Sharing

Blog post: 31 Flavors - Things to Do With Flickr in Libraries

Although geared for libraries, undoubtedly you'll find useful ideas in this blog post. For example, instead of showing what new books you have, take photos of what is new with your company, put them in Flickr, and also use them in your blog or on your web site.

BTW some people are taking photos of their business cards (especially if they get a new one) and then sharing the photos through a photo-sharing service. Did you get a promotion or a new job? Announce it with the photo of your new business card!

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Technorati tag: Flickr

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?!