ahhhhh

I said to a friend of mine yesterday “Well, the good thing about being kicked off twitter is that I finally got my Flickr strategy firmly in place.”

And she said “What’s a Flickr Strategy?”

So in light of making my “private conversations public” and sharing my strategies with the world, here’s what I told her.

One thing I’m always telling my clients is this: “Social Media is not JUST about brand awareness. However, done right, that’s a huge added benefit. Happens every time.”

In fact, I keep hearing the words about my own personal brand “Lisa, you’re everywhere”, a comment which has led to more than one proposal.

So my Flickr strategy is, partly a “be everywhere” strategy. But it’s also the following:

1) It’s a way to create a collection of original imagery I can use for my other social media channels.

I love great photos. I’m not a great photographer. In fact, I never bring a camera unless it’s a wedding or graduation. But guess what I discovered? With my camera phone and Picnik, I can create cool looking web-friendly photos with only a smidge of effort.

Picnik is like “photoshop for dummies.” My kids showed me how to use it in about 10 minutes. (And yes, you design purists out there: I KNOW. I KNOW. I KNOW! It’s like telling someone it’s okay to use desktop publishing even if they don’t know the first thing about design. But. Still.). You can create all sorts of effects, fix flaws, colors, etc. Your photos are saved at the correct resolution to use on the web. And they can be stored directly to your Flckr photostream.

So now, part of my strategy is to take pix with my cell phone – “visual observations of life”, I like to call them — “picnik them”, and then store the images on Flickr. Then they are available to me – to use when appropriate in blogs, Facebook, twitter, etc.

2) It lets me share with others.

Oh right! Social media is about sharing, lest we forget. : )

So now my images are also available for other bloggers or anyone to use, as long as they link back to me. I also have a strategy (go figure!) for how I license my images through Creative Commons. Most of my images are available for anyone to use, for any purpose, even commercially. The pictures of my kids, I’m stricter about how they can be used. The licensing part is great. It spells out exactly what your intentions are. Take the time to figure out what you’re comfortable with.

Oh, and here’s a good article by Chris Brogan on how he uses Flickr as a blogger to find images for his site.

3) It reinforces the fact that I am a visual thinker.

I love design. Love love love it. I like nothing better than seeing a brand who has great design sensibilities. It makes me go “Ahhhhh…”
And the thing that took me a little while to get about Social Media is that design can and should still be an integral part of any social media strategy.

So part of my Flickr strategy is to use this as a proof point for myself. How does great design get used in Social Media? What do images say about you, as a person, as a brand?

Even to the point of having part of my design strategy be this: I write “headlines” which speak to my view of the world. Design them so they look cool. Post them on Flickr. Brand myself as a visual thinker. Ahhhhh….

Anyone else out there with other strategies? Other sites that they use for “visual social media”? Other thoughts, ideas? Would love to hear from you.