I’ve been dabbling around on Flickr for quite a while now and so far, have never really taken it any more seriously than a nice place to visit occasionally, share my views, get some opinion back, post a few pics and converse with like minded enthusiasts and pro’s.
That was until this weekend, when I started chatting with one of the team here at the studio and we started to hypothesise the benefits of perhaps getting a lot more involved in Flickr than we have done to date.
So what did we come up with? Well, after our initial chat we headed off our own ways, I opened a bottle of red (I understand he did too) and got surfing to do a little research on the topic, before getting back together the next morning to discuss what we had found.
The results were sufficiently interesting that I thought I’d share them even before we embark on getting much more involved in bringing Flickr into part of our business workflow...
There are lots of posts out there with people telling you how you can make money out of Flickr. But after a little thought, that seemed to be the wrong approach. The whole success of Flickr is the exact opposite ethos - It’s a place where people can go without all the usual annoyances and sales pressures associated with web presences that do in fact sell/distribute images. Flickr is a community first and foremost - and that is what people love about it and it is what draws them back usually daily, if not more frequently.
If you’re a happy go lucky kinda person, likes a laugh and generally fun and/or pleasant to be around, you’re going to get more party invites than some miserable, profit obsessed git. That’s just the way life is - thankfully.
Flickr is the same. If you have something interesting to contribute and are pleasant in return in the comments and discussions you have, other members will want to get to know you, listen to what you have to say and invite you their parties (image groups).
So you could almost suggest that Flickr is to photography, what socialising is to life.
Now if you’re just looking to make as much money as you can and are reading this in the hope that it might just guide you to upping your year end profit margins and not even remotely interested giving anything back. Might I suggest that you stop reading now, save your time, return to Google and look for something along those lines in your search. Because this post isn’t about that.
It is something that may very well happen as a result of what we are going to do. But it’s not the purpose of what we are going to do and want to share.
Those who know us, know that we love our work, in fact, we live our work and the fact that we make a nice living out of it is a fantastic bonus. And as a result, we love to help others in their development where we can and in return, learn more ourselves. Just time pressures have meant that we can’t do that as much as we would like.
Now, if there was business value in us being able to more of what we enjoy, then that provides a justification for ensuring that we invest the required time and effort...
And this is the business justification we have come up with for us and you, as professional photographers or wannabe professional photographers, why don’t we get ourselves organised and allocate some time to invest in our participation in Flickr. And to be honest, any of the other clones/comparisons that are out there.
The number one benefit of being involved in and, the constructive participation in Flickr has to be ‘Networking’. It is the lifeblood of business and without it, no matter how good you are, the chances of folding are that much higher.
Simply because if people don’t know who you are or what you do, they are unlikely to ask you to what you do for them. Simple really.
The more individuals who know who you are and what you do - and very importantly, how good you are at it. The more likely it is that someone will ask you to do it for them. That is after all the premiss of the entire global advertising industry.
In addition, your network can also become a support structure. Help and advice can go both ways after all. And as you get to know members and their skills, there is no reason you can’t ask them for assistance. The worst that can happen is they don’t have the time and say no.
Taking this a step further, you can use these opinions you have come to value and respect (there are some damn good photographers in there) to great effect in your work, if you feel it is good for you. The whole feedback chain has the potential to add so much value to your work, skills and confidence when it comes to putting your work in front of paying clients.
The odds are, that as a practising professional photographer you’re pretty good. You’re images are going to be quite well differentiated form a lot of the snaps that are on there. So you’re likely to get visibility pretty quickly and no doubt a lot of nice comments, which seems to the norm for Flickr - If you’re after uber-criticism however, try DPReview - You’ll find plenty prepared to offer it there.
So basically, if you’re good, you are actively contributing to the community, networking well and developing yourself as one of the more respected professional photographers. The odds are that your exposure as a valued and respected contributor is going to be pretty huge. Plus it is a targeted market - These people are interested in photography. Sure, not many of them as a percentage are likely to be the buyers of photographic services, but they may well be within earshot of those that are.
In addition, there are the API services that Flickr allows. I have a number of ‘friends’ accounts and favourites displaying on my Apple TV. These API’s are available cross platforms and across technologies. So your potential exposure is even greater.
Now obviously if your exposure is now pretty huge and at a global level, the chance of someone using one of your beautifully crafted images illegally is likely to increase too. You will also have a massive number of people who will recognise those images as well and who are likely to tell you if they are seen out in the wild - You’re in a community after all. Then you can sue the user of the image or just charge them for it and make quite a lot of money.
As with everything in life, there are risks. Some things will work and others won’t. But, what is a certainty, is that if you don’t try, there is not a hope in hell it will work.
The more people who know you as a very good and a very nice, helpful photographer, the more likely it is that you are going to get invited to those parties... And we all love parties!
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