The Other Networks Part III: Flickr

Let’s take a minute to pause and remember the tragedy our nation suffered nine years ago on this day with the attack on the World Trade Center.

This article was influenced by this day and by a piece featured on Mashable that I encourage you to check out. There was also a History channel piece on the attacks in which they had gathered as much of the independent video and photos from people in the area as possible. During the show it became evident how much the sharing of photos and videos has changed dramatically in just a few short years since that day.

Since then, Google bought YouTube, phones record in HD, and a little site hosting over 4 billion images was founded. The next stop on our tour of ‘The Other Networks’ lands us at that very site. Known as Flickr, it is a socially based photo-sharing site that encourages you to ‘tell a rich story with your photo[s]’.

On the personality side, Flickr tends to be popular among photography buffs and users concerned with the quality of uploaded photos. Flickr offers better image support than other networks and the recently added social plug-ins and integration with Facebook and others has allowed it to remain extremely relevant in social media.

Flickr is known for having a devoted user base and for being very responsive to its users. Your business and overall social media strategy can benefit from the loyal user base who will appreciate a company taking the time to create an account and share images in the highest quality.

As the Mashable piece noted, an event like 9/11 nowadays would have set social media into a frenzy like never before. Collections of pictures, videos, tags, and captions would have quickly made it to the web, aggregating on sites like Flickr and others. It is mesmerizing how well our story is told through social media, make sure you are weaving yours in along the way. A quick search on Flickr will find you albums based on just about anything, including a growing collection of images and video from 9/11. In the future, Flickr will be among the sites that captures history and connects us all with it.