If a picture is worth a thousand words, then popular image hosting website Flickr may as well be the library of Congress. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, Flickr is yet another of the social media behemoths, up there with Facebook and Twitter; only Flickr relies on the power of images, rather than words, to build networks, spread messages and foster conversation among members of the online community. Flickr allows you to tell your story; whether it is to a friend, to a group or to the entire world (the online world that is), and with well over 3 billion images currently on its servers, there is no scarcity of stories to be told.
At first glance, Flickr appears to be another place to post your pictures, similar to Snapfish. It allows you to archive and organize your photos online using an advanced, hierarchical structure. It lets you share your photos with friends (known as contacts), and even to create prints, photo books or business cards from your pictures. But what truly separates Flickr from other platforms is its ability to foster the growth of online communities. Unlike Facebook, in which communities are based around individuals, Flickr grows communities centered on the pictures themselves. This unique characteristic can be particularly useful for non-profits, especially ones promoting an issue or building up a network to support a cause.
One reason Flickr works so well for networking is a feature called “tagging”. A “tag” is a keyword or a term assigned to a picture which allows for greater visibility in a search engine. I recently used the Case Foundation’s Flickr account to tag a bunch of photos of the Race for Hope DC, a 5K race put on to fund brain cancer research, organized by ABC2 and NBTS. Using the tags, “raceforhope”, “abc2” “nbts” “washington, dc” “braincancer” “davidcook”(the American Idol winner present at the race) and of course “americanidol”, I was able to make the images visible to anyone interested in any of those topics. Once you are viewing any of these photos, it is then very easy to link up to other photos from the Case Foundation, add us to your contacts, and even get linked to our website or ABC2’s website, where you can learn how to support brain cancer research.
As you can see, this is an excellent way to connect people, as someone surfing the net for American Idol pictures may find themselves with an opportunity to support a cause they may have been unaware of. They can then become contacts with a non-profit so that they can stay involved with current events and issues.
As a non-profit organization, you can also set up or join a “group” on Flickr in order to take your photo-networking opportunities a step further. Creating or participating in a group allows others to join you in posting photos on your issue. Groups can be public or private (by invitation only), and come equipped with discussion boards for members to debate a common topic or a photo. The National Wildlife Magazine Photo Group, created by the National Wildlife Federation, has successfully connected nearly 2,000 conservation supporters through various Flickr photo contests (the current contest being “Plants and Pollinators”) which have bought in 6,546 pictures of wildlife to date. The Federation was able to increase its publicity and exposure while creating a viable and fun way for supporters discuss important conservation issues.
Of course the simplest, yet most important uses of Flickr come from gargantuan public photo archive. While many of Flickr’s photos are set as private or licensed as All Rights Reserved, Flickr users have the option to license their images with a Creative Commons license, meaning that images can be viewed and utilized by anyone who wishes, for free. This can be extremely helpful for a non-profit who needs free pictures in order to launch a new website, create fliers for an event or to use in their blog (coincidentally, the picture attached to this post is a Creative Commons licensed image from Flickr). As you can see, here at the Case Foundation we make use of this feature all the time.
Flickr is an amazing tool to be used in the non-profit world thanks to its multiple functionalities and networking opportunities. Amazingly enough, the creators of the site have come to realize and embrace this fact. As part of their “Flickr for Good” campaign last year, Flickr gave away 10,000 pro-accounts to non-profit organizations, allowing them unlimited image storage, among other things. As Flickr continues to grow its utility to the non-profit community will grow along side of it. So whether you’re trying to change the world, tell your story or simply just share an amazing experience, Flickr can help you on your mission, one picture at a time.
Here are a couple more resources on Flickr:
- Check out the “Nonprofit Groups” group on Flickr.
- Techsoup has a more in depth explanation of Flick uses for non-profits.
- Beth Kanter listed ten ways in which non-profits have made use of Flickr
- Wild Apricot lists 5 ways your non-profit organization can use Flickr
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