Flickr By: Kat Donovan

Flickr

By: Kathryn Donovan

 

I have become involved with Flickr. Flickr is used by organizations and companies to keep their stakeholders informed and interested. While using Flickr, you can upload photos and videos, view your own photo stream, create contact and friend lists, explore other people’s photos on the site and join groups with common interests. Each Flickr user can create a profile that is personal or for their company and build their profile to match their personal interests. It is completely up to the user to become involved with Flickr.

 

One organization that is using Flickr that relates to me personally is Northwest Missouri State University. Since I am a student at the University, I have found it meaningful to find Northwest’s profile on Flickr and view some of the great photos they display on the website. Any of Northwest’s stakeholders can benefit from their Flickr account. Say, for instance, there is a Northwest Alum who wishes to see the campus but cannot be on campus physically. Flickr is a great way to keep in touch and see the huge changes being made on campus.

 

There are a few ways to build a conversation on Flickr. Users can leave comments under individual photos to voice their positive and/or negative views. This can help an organization or company understand their stakeholders and what people or other users wish to see from their Flickr accounts. It is vital for companies to be transparent and to attempt to understand their stakeholders.

 

Another way to build a conversation on Flickr is to categorize your photos. There is an option on Flickr to make groups of photos in a way to organize them. A user can name their photo albums and insert descriptions for users to more easily navigate through a users’ site.

 

I would recommend that companies and organizations create a Flickr account. It is relatively easy to use, quick to understand and as long as the photos are already downloaded to your computer, it takes the user no time at all to upload photos. Since it is so easy, it is just an additional way to keep your stakeholders informed, which is a positive in many ways.