Putting your best photos on the Web at social sharing sites like Flickr, Picasa, Facebook and Panoramio can lead to increased sales if done correctly. Here are my top tips for using these sites.
- Decide on the keyword combinations that you want your images to show up in search results for. I keep a printed list of keyword combinations near the computer. Image libraries are a great way to drop little kernels into the long tail of search. For each photo set focus on one three-four keyword combination. Here are a few keyword tools to try: Google Sets, MSN clustering tool, Searchradar, Keyword Map.
- Only upload your Best photos! and make all your photos public. Remember, your photos are being delivered as a result to a search…. so deliver great photos that inspire folks about your offer. (See tip #10 to meet photographers who can help you get more great photos.)
- Name each folder or set for one keyword combination and upload images that fit with the keyword set. Make your title of each set of photos a bold promise with a compelling headline.
- Use the bulk tools to tag your photos with the chosen keyword phrase.
- In the description text (called captions in picasa) for each photo, put some well-written text that describes your tourism offering, putting your selected keyword phrases within this text in a natural sounding sort of way. Be sure your business name and most importantly your web site URL find their way into your descriptions. Type your Web site url like this within each photo description: “http://www.yourwebsite.com”. Both Flickr and Picasa will make them a hyperlink to your site automatically.
- Be creative with the title for each photo, but again, use keywords if relevant. If your photo shows up in search results, this will be the title of the listing. Take the time to write compelling photo titles.
- Put yourself on the map and as accurately as possible pinpoint the locations your photos are taken. Take the time to Geotag your photos as part of the upload process. Photos that are tagged in Panoramio are now being shown on Google’s Map search results.
- If you are concerned about people stealing your photos, get over it. Your photos retain their copyright when sharing on these sites, unless you give the rights away by choosing a Creative Commons license. If you are still obsessing about the possible theft of your photos, consider watermarking your image with your Web site domain with the free tool at http://www.picmarkr.com
- Invite your ideal guests to visit the photo libraries you create and ask them to comment or write testimonials there. Make it a point of asking guests where they share their vacation photos online and write testimonials and comments on their photo libraries. This can become part of your Customer Relationship Management practice. Flickr also provides a form email and space for adding email invites people to join you on Flickr. Remember, these tools are how many people share their vacation experiences with family and friends. Your authentic appreciative comments on their photos will be appreciated by others who see them.
- Get social with photos. Look for others who are sharing photos on your chosen service. (Oh, and there’s nothing wrong with uploading the same photos in multiple photo sharing services.) On Flickr, join groups that are sharing photos by subject (ie: yoga), location (ie: Algonquin Park), and photo themes (bliss). Like anything social, it takes time to get in with the crowd. If you really enjoy photos and want to improve as a photographer, browse others photos, leave comments, and learn from others. Search for photographers which include your business or region name and become friends. And, invite your guests to share their photos on your Facebook Fan page.
Here are some helpful pdf documents from Tourism Keys with step by step instructions for uploading your photos correctly.
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