Are you a Photographer? Using Flickr for Social Networking

Is one of your talents being a good photographer? Build your brand and business using your love for photography. You can do this by sharing your photos through a social networking site called Flickr.

Visit Flickr and set up an account. Make sure you add your photo and your profile so people can search for you and find you. Make sure you include key words in your bio, like the towns you service, the type of real estate you specialize in and what you have a passion about.

Once you set up your account you can upload your photos and start a photo stream.

Flickr can become your photo online storage cabinet. Many of us take digital photos and just  leave them on our computer and forget to back them up. When you use Flickr, they are now active on the internet and you will always have a copy of it. Flickr allows you to archive your photos by date taken and date uploaded by year and month. Sometimes you can find a photo easier in your archive on Flickr than you can on your computer hard drive.

So, how can your photographs help promote your business?

1. By Search Engine Optimization. When you upload your photos to Flickr you are given the ability to title and tag your photos. This becomes extremely rich content for Google. Google can find them quickly and so can consumers.
2. 1. Set up a Flickr account for your self, and your brokerage.

These are the must dos when you upload a photo

Title -  Make sure you change the name of the photo from IMG0004.jpg to something descriptive.

If it is a listing photo the address and type of room is good. Example: Bostonrdlivingroom

Description – Write as many words as you need to describe your photos, use keywords to aid in search.  No 3 br with 2 ba, PLEASE

Tag it – This enables the power of the Google Search. Add as many as you can think of and separate them by commas.

The address, county, town, subdivision, type of home, brokerage name

Imagine if a buyer is searching for a town and a subdivision. Your photos may very well show up in their search. What a great passive prospecting tool. As people are looking for information on an area, people will find you in a Google search

Sets – each listing gets set up as a set. Add as many photos as you want, and create slide shows

Join Groups

Start with Photography for real estate. This particular group is a wonderful place to upload your photo and have them reviewed by other photographers. If you want you can also just  learn from reading the comments if you are not brave enough to post your own

Search

Have some fun, and use the search function. You can search for People, type of photos and groups. Join some local groups or

Set up a group for your town or area.

Lots of photographers will join your group and share photos. This could be one of your virtual farms! A great way to meet more prospects.

Farm and Geographic area

Start a conversation with other people taking photos in your area. Real estate is a relationship business. What better way to network but with other people who love what you love doing. Remember if someone favorites your photo send them a message and thank them. Build the relationship.

Photo Walks

Check in your area for photo walks by local photographers. It is what is says, go and network with locals and take a walk and take photos as you go, and meet people in your farm area.

Newspapers and bloggers search Flickr for photographs to use. make sure they know what your rules are. Check out the Creative Commons Pool – a new way of sharing photos. You can set up licenses on your photos either all rights reserved or consider allowing creative commons. This  allows other people to use your photos on their website and blog and even newspapers. They will give you credit.

Flickr is easy to use. Don’t be afraid, just discover all the things it can do for your business. So here is a recap:

• Upload photos
• Write good titles
• Learn how to write tags

• Related Posts
• Bookmark
• Tags

2 Responsesto “Are you a Photographer? Using Flickr for Social Networking”

1. Eric Bouler says:

   May 26, 2009 at 1:28 am

   I have not used that in a while but should revisit. I put an awful lot of photos up in my blog and site as it is. Picnik is something I use daily. I have albums on Facebook. Thanks for the reminder.
2. Bobbi Blades says:

   May 28, 2009 at 7:30 pm

   Thanks for the info, Amy. You put it such simple, easy to understand language. I can certainly see how Flickr can be of great use in my business.