Community Building Strategy Series: Connecting Inside Flickr

Here at Meylah, we frequently talk about the power of using social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to expand your community, but there are also several photo based platforms that enable you to meet and network with new folks.  Today, in our third post of the Community Building Strategy Series, I’d like to outline some tools and actions you can take within Flickr to help you expand your community.

Comment on Other Images

It’s so easy to do and fun!  Once you’re logged in and have identified a photo you are interested in, let the photographer know.  Here’s an example of a comment I left on this great image of tulips:

Make Images Your Favorite

Find an image you love and mark it as a favorite by clicking on the star.

Share and Use Images with Creative Commons Licensing

Within the edit function of any of your images posted to Flickr, you can establish the Creative Commons Licensing you would like to associate with that image.  If you’d like to learn more about this, take a look at our post on creative commons licensing basics.

Create or Join Groups within Flickr

You can create your own group or join other groups associated around particular themes.  Groups have various levels of participation.  Some are open to the public where you can freely add images while others are invitation only.  Meylah’s group is called 'Encounters of the Creative Kind' and is open to all creatives.  Feel free to become a member and add any of your creative images!  You can also use the search function to find other groups.  Also, you are able to see all the groups that the image is included in by looking at the right hand column of the page for any image within Flickr.

Request Others to Add Images to Your Group(s)

If you’ve created your own Flickr group, you can request to add other images to your group by doing so in the comments section of the desired image.  Once you’ve made the request, the recipient will be notified and can accept or decline the invitation.

Invite Others to Join Your Group(s)

Invite other Flickr members to join your group!  Just click on the "Invite Friends" link at the top of your group menu.

As you can see, Flickr is much more than just an online space to share images with family and friends.  It’s a tool that enables you to join and build an entirely new community.  What other ways do you use Flickr to engage with your community?