Why Having an Account on Photo Sharing Sites is Good for Your Image

Many companies and organizations use an account on photo sharing sites like Flickr or Picasa effectively as part of their overall communication strategy.  For example, the Greater Manchester Police in England uses their Flickr account both to post pictures of people they are looking for and  community building images from their historical archives.

But some companies decide that they do not need a photo sharing account and either do not bother to open one or simply register a blank account to prevent adversaries taking their brand name. Both policies are unwise. To do nothing at all leaves your brand unprotected yet to register an account is free and takes just a few minutes, so there is no excuse for not doing it. Even if you have registered an account you need to use it. Here's why.

First of all, if you do not upload any images to photo sharing accounts then if anyone searches for your brand name on that site they will see any photo made by any person mentioning your brand, and the results are sometimes negative. Suppose, for example, you make Bumpex fruit juice and do not have an official page with good photos of your product. In this case if I search for "bumpex" I might find either images of strikers picketing the gates of your factory -- I know one case where this actually happened -- or photos of people who have gotten very drunk on a mixture of gin, vodka and bumpex.  Either way, the easiest way to avoid these negative associations is simply to upload a pile of your standard photos so that they come up first in a search.

If you do not do this you will have problems even outside the photo sharing site itself because image search engines like images.google.com will also pick up the pictures on photo sharing sites, so someone doing a google search for your organization or its brands can turn up some very negative associations if you are not managing the image search in the same way you manage normal page searches.

Try an image search for your company, your organization, your brand or your product and see what the result looks like. If you are unhappy with what you see remember that one of the simplest techniques to bring up positive images and push down negative ones is simply to register accounts on all the photo sharing sites, upload positive images and then set the privacy to 100% public.  As a side effect you will also make it easier for media to use your images, which can sometimes be an inexpensive way to gain a greater share of mind.

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Lectures, Workshops & Coaching

For one-to-one coaching, lectures and workshops on this topic see andrewhennigan.com or contact me at conseil@andrewhennigan.com or by phone on 0033 6 79 61 42 81.

Related posts on Branding and Reputation Management:

Choosing Pronounceable Brand Names: Lessons from the Cuil Saga
Five Simple Steps to Improve Your Online Reputation
Branding in the Age of Search Engines
Why Having Accounts on Photo Sharing Sites Is Good for Your Image
Sign Up Now: Joining New Networking Sites Boosts Brand, Reputation



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