Getting Started with Flickr

Table of Contents

What Flickr Offers

Flickr Terms of Service and Guidelines

Create an Account

Uploading Photos

Your Photostream

Sets and Collections

Photo Licenses

Other Features

Pro Account

Tips

Creative Ways We are Using Flickr

What Flickr Offers

• Flickr is a photo management and sharing application.

• It allows you to organize your photos and create groups where members can upload their own photos.

• You can collect metrics on your photos (available to pro account holders only)

• Flickr also supports video (90 seconds limit). We won’t go into much detail on videos in this guide. For more information on videos go here.

Flickr Terms of Service and Guidelines

• Make sure to read the official policy on Social Media Sites here.

• Register your account with the Social Media registry by going to Defense.gov page and following the instructions.

• Flickr provides a useful page outlining their community guidelines and terms of use. Be sure to read it at: http://www.flickr.com/guidelines.gne

Creating your Account

Creating an AccountIn order to use Flickr, you need to create a generic Yahoo!

email account at mail.yahoo.com. Create a username and password that you will share with your Flickr administrators (unless you already have a generic Yahoo! account that is used for the your other official social network sites). Do not use a personal Yahoo! account.

Once you have created a Yahoo! account, go to Flickr.com and click on the “Create Your Account” button.

Next you will be asked to log in using your Yahoo! username and password.

Choosing a Screen Name

•After you login to your account, you will be asked to create a new screen name. This would be your branch, unit, base, etc. Example: “US NAVY”

•After you fill in the screen name, click “Create a New Account” to continue.

•On the page that opens, click on “Let’s Do It” to continue with your customizations.

Add a Logo or “Buddy Icon”

•The first thing you need to do is to upload an icon that represents your Flickr site. This could include your service seal or the DoD seal or a photo of your base or activities your unit is involved in.

•Click on “Find an image on my computer” to get started.

•Then click on “Browse” to select your image and then click “Upload” to upload it.

•Once your icon is uploaded, click Next.

Choose a Flickr URL

• Flickr allows you to create a URL that makes sense to you and your audience. But you only get one chance, so choose carefully!

• For example, CJCS Adm. Mullen uses “thejointstaff” as his custom URL.

• Once you type in your URL, click “Preview.” You will then be given one more chance to look at your URL before you “Lock it in and Continue”

Customizing a Profile

•You will next be asked to personalize your profile. For public diplomacy purposes, you need only fill in the “Describe Yourself” box.

•This should include the purpose of your Flickr site, your unit website, and other information you would like your users to know.

Modifying Your Account/Profile Information

You can always modify your account and profile information later by going to the “You” link at the top of the page and selecting “Your Account” or “Your Profile.”

Uploading Photos

Uploading Your Photos

• The next thing you want to do is upload photos.

• Be sure you own the photos that you are uploading. For example, you cannot upload AP photos to your Flickr site.

• Click on “Upload your first photos” OR you can click on “You” at the top of the page, then on “Upload Photos and Videos.”

Uploading Photos – Flickr Limits

When you have a free Flickr account, you can upload 2 videos and 100MB worth of photos each calendar month.

While the 100MB bandwidth limit for photos is firm, we do allow a little leeway for video in case you encounter transcoding errors, sound sync weirdness, etc. You will be able to delete and upload a new video. Please note, that if we determine you’re abusing your free video upload privileges, we may block your ability to share video.

Your upload limits are reset to zero at midnight in Pacific Time Zone (Flickr headquarters time) on the first of each calendar month. You can't recover any of your monthly allowance by deleting photos. If you have a free account, you'll see your limit on the upload page.

If you find yourself hitting your limit, try a pro account. Or, you can shoot your photos at a lower resolution or resize them to be more "web-friendly" (like 300KB instead of 5MB). We’ll talk more about the pro account later.

Flickr provides the following information on uploading photos:

How to Upload Photos on OpenNet

•If you are using OpenNet, you may not be able to use Flickr’s Flash upload system.

•If you do not have Flash on your computer, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click “basic Uploader.”

Using the Basic Uploader•From here you can upload multiple photos by browsing for each one.

•If your photos are part of the same group or event, make sure to tag your photos with appropriate keywords.

•A tag is used like a keyword in searches. Use tags that would be a common search term for your photo.

•Make sure to keep the privacy setting at “Public” so your audiences can find your photos.

•Click the “Upload” button once you have selected up to 6 photos.

Using the Flickr Flash Uploader

• Click on the “Choose photos and videos” link. A box will pop up where you can search for your photos.

• You can select multiple photos for upload at one time.

• Once you’ve selected your photos to add to Flickr, they will appear in the white box at the top of the page.

• You can add more photos by clicking on “Add More”

• Make sure to keep the privacy setting set to “Public”

Editing Photo Details

•You will now be given the opportunity to add a Title and Description to each photo. You can also modify the Tags that you entered.

•Be sure to click “Save.” This will take you to “Your Photostream”, created now that you have uploaded some pictures.

Your Photostream

• Flickr gives the title “Your photostream” to all the photos that you upload. This includes showing the Sets you’ve created, which we’ll discuss next.

Managing Your Photos

Sets, Collections, Galleries and Groups Defined Set: A set is like a photo album, it contains photos. You can see the Department of

Defense sets here. Check out Air Combat Command’s sets here.

Collection: A collection contains multiple sets that have something in common or cover the same theme. For more information on collections, go here.

NOTE: Collections are only available for pro account holders.

Gallery: A gallery is a place for you to put up to 18 of your favorite public photos that have been uploaded by others, not you. This may come in handy if you promote a photo contest and you select a small group of winners or something to that effect.

Groups: A place where you and others can share photos. A group can be public, public (invitation only), or private.

Flickr guidance on Collections, Galleries and Groups.

Creating Sets• Now we want to create a “Set.” A set is a collection of photos, like a photo album.

• Click on “Sets” below “Your Photostream” or click on “You” then “Your Sets.”

• As you have no sets, you need to click on “go to Organizr.”

Organizr

• The Organizr allows you to do many things with your photos.

• Here we will be creating a set with the photos that we uploaded.

• Click on “Create Your First Set”

Create a Set•Add a title to your new Set and a description.

•Drag the photos you want in this Set from the bottom of the screen to the box above.

•Click Save.

Create a Set (Continued)

•You now have a Set.

•Click on “Your Photostream” in the upper right hand corner.

•Your Set now appears on the right hand side of “Your Photostream” page.

Groups

A group is a place where you and others can share photos. A group can be public, public (invitation only), or private.

Join Flickr groups in your region and on topics that are relevant to your service. Share your photos with appropriate groups and ask members of the groups to share photos with you.

Photo Licenses

Photo License Labels•As U.S. Government photos shouldn’t be copyrighted, you’ll need to apply the correct licensing to all your photos.

•To do this go to “Your Account.” Then select the “Privacy and Permissions” tab.

•Scroll down the page to the “Defaults for new uploads section” and click the “edit” link next to “What license will your content have.”

Photo License Continued• The license should be changed from “None (All rights reserved)” to “Attribution-NoDerivs Creative Commons”

• Click “Set Default License”.

• This license will now be applied to all new photos you upload.

Photo License Continued•Next you'll need to apply the license to all the photos you already have uploaded to Flickr.

•Click on “Organize and Create” then select “All your content”

•Click the “Select all” link at the bottom of the screen.

•Drag your photos from the bottom of the screen to the center box.

Photo License Continued

•Finally, click on the “Permissions” tab and the “Change licensing” link.

•Here you will select the “Attribution-NoDerivs Creative Commons” button and click “Change License”

•You’re done!

Other Features

Contacts

•Be sure to add other DoD/Service Flickr accounts to your contacts. Ask others to add you too.

•To do this, click on “People Search” under the “Contacts” tab at the top of your page.

•Search for a Flickr account of a specific unit, or in this case America.gov. Notice you are searching under “People” and not Groups or Photos.

•Once you find what you’re looking for, click on “add as contact.” You may need to view their profile first to make sure it is the correct account.

Contacts Continued

• Once you have added a contact, click on “Contact list” under the Contacts tab.

• Here you will see the contact you added.

Uploading Photos Via Email/Mobile

• You can upload photos to your Flickr account through email, making it easy to do from a camera phone (this was the original intent).

• The way it works is you get a special email address that you can send your photos to. It is unique to your account.

• Email address uploads can be a great way for officers “on-the-road” to quickly get their content onto your photostream (the Flickr administrator can always tweak them later).

• To get your unique email address, sign into Flickr and then go to http://www.flickr.com/account/uploadbyemail/

Upload by Email Continued•Your unique email address will be presented as it is on the right.

•You can add a Title to your photo by placing it in the Subject line, and a description by putting it in the body of the email. The example here was done from an online email account, not from a mobile phone, but the idea is the same.

•Once you click Send, your photo will show up in your photostream (it may take a few minutes to appear).

•For more examples, go here.

Statistics (“Stats”)•Without a pro account, the most you’ll be able to see are the number of Views or Comments on each of your photos (right).

•With a pro account you’ll be able to receive more robust statistics from Flickr. For more about this, click on the “You” tab at the top of your page and then on “Your Stats”.

•More information on Stats can be found here.

Pro Account

To be able to have the Collections and “Stats” feature, you need to subscribe to a Flickr pro account. At the moment it costs $24.95 per year. Some posts have already made this investment.

The benefits to having a pro account are: Unlimited uploads and storage

Unlimited sets and collections

Access to your original files

Statistics on your account

Ad-free browsing and sharing

HD playback for high-definition video uploads

Keep in mind that 100MB of photos does not go too far, so if your post wants to upload photos from multiple events a month, a pro account may be for you. Also, the ability to collect metrics for your Flickr account will be beneficial in the long term, especially when you want to evaluate the effectiveness of this outreach method.

You can upgrade to a pro account here: http://www.flickr.com/upgrade/

Tips

General Tips

• Flickr’s Frequently Asked Questions page is very useful. Find it here: http://www.flickr.com/help/faq/

• Here is another page with Flickr tips: http://www.labnol.org/internet/pictures/flickr-guide-do-everything-with-flickr-pictures/4973/

Tips on the Photographing of People

Be aware of taking pictures of children. 

Where possible, ask permission of people you have photos of to take the photo, use the photo and identify them in the photo.  Verbal permission is sufficient for adults, but if there may be any questions, we recommend you get this release in writing.

Please be sensitive to local cultural issues surrounding the photographing of people and various locations.

Photographing People (Continued)

If your photos are User Generated and posted to your social media site, please ensure you have instructions in your Rules of the Community stating how you will handle pictures (i.e. will people submitting pictures be giving up certain rights. We recommend you state they will be submitted under a Creative Commons license).

You can control tagging of photos in Facebook (privacy settings/photos & videos) if people want to tag pictures on your site.

Our Use of Flickr

Creative Ways We Use Flickr

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: Contact

Connections

U.S. Army: Descriptive Profile

The Chairman’s Flickr site links to other

service pages and advertises them on his site.

The Army’s site has a short but informative descriptive profile that links to the Army’s other social media sites.

Creative Ways Posts Use Flickr

Department of Defense: Sets U.S. Navy: Linking to Flickr

The DoD page organizes its photos into sets: SecDef, CENTCOM, CJCS, etc.

The U.S. Navy page advertises its Flickr site with a My Flickr badge on Facebook.