Sharing Photos and Images

Chapter 9

WHAT IS A PHOTO SHARING SITE?

•Photo sharing sites let users upload photos and other images for public or private consumption, allowing them to comment, rate and tag the pictures.

History or Photo SharingPhoto

Sharing Site

Alexa GlobalTraffic Rank*

GooglePage

Rank**

Date Started

Description

Webshots 3,065 6 September 1995

Free (pro account available for $19.95/year)

PBase 3,889 6 August 1999 $23 yearly for 1,000MG of photo storage, $43 for 2,000MB, $60 for 3,000MB

Shutterfly 1,106 6 December 1999

Picture storage is free and unlimited.

SnapFish 2,792 7 April 2000 Free photo storage is unlimited, but to maintain your account, you must make one purchase per year.

Kodak Gallery

5,822 6 December 2001

You must spend $4.99 per year for 2GB. For accountsover 2GB, the fee is $19.99 per year to maintain your account.

SmugMug 1,834 7 November 2002

Free trial, then packages from $5/month to $150/year.

Photobucket 143 7 June 2003 Free, Unlimited Photo Storage (pro account available for $2.99/month or $24.95/year)

Flickr 37 9 February 2004

Free upload 300MB of photos per month (Pro account available at $24.94 per year)

*Popular Photo Sharing sites, as of Dec 2011

Benefits of Marketing with Online Photos and Other Images

1. Showcase a product

2. Document offers

3. Influence buyer mood

Showcasing a product is most effective when the presentation is highly detailed.

Documenting Offers

Influence Buyer Mood

Additional Benefits

• Images can demonstrate a company’s values and beliefs which can persuade potential buyers without showcasing a product.

• Drive web traffic towards a product website.

• Photo market campaigns are low cost and low effort.

Disadvantage(s) of Marketing with Online Photos and Other Images?

Some companies shy away from distributing product images and specifications, fearing that their trade secrets will be

uncovered.

ExampleBeauty of Nyn one of a kind custom earrings and accessories.

Marketing with Photo Sharing Sites• Determine the target market for images; Different photo sharing

sites cater to different clientele.

Demographic examples could include:

• College-age viewers

• Women

• Professional photographers and artists

Additionally…

• Nature of images should be appropriate for the platform used.

• Use of multiple photo sharing sites is a good idea to expand reach to different audiences

Stock Photos• Stock photos are professional and staged

photographs produced by picture agencies or photo libraries. These photos are less likely to be shared on photo sharing sites than more unplanned and spontaneous images.

Photos can also be used to demonstrate knowledge about a business or industry. Direct advertising is banned on many image sharing sites. Therefore, indirect promotion is normally

an effective way to avoid overt “sales talk”.

Tags are a great tool to help distribute online images.

Tags help to organize images and group them by subject. They also help more people find photos in a search. Format of tags may be different across platforms.

Instagram Tags

Flickr Tags

Legal Permissions• Not every photo must be original content. However, when sharing

unoriginal images, it’s important to keep legal issues in mind regarding permissions and attributions.

• Permission is not just limited to commercial image sharing, but to personal image sharing as well. Personal permission is especially needed if the picture could cause harm, embarrassment or hurt feelings later on.

Not the boyfriend…

Commercial Permission Personal Permission

Future of Photo Sharing• Facebook has increased

convenience of sharing photos with friends.

• Offers free unlimited storage.

• Boosts photographic services by letting users share larger high-res images, tags, and keywords.

Future of Photo Sharing (cont.)Instagram is an online mobile photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking service that enables its users to take pictures and videos, and share them on a variety of social networking platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Flickr.

• Instagram was launched in October 2010. 

• The service rapidly gained popularity, with over 150 million active users as of August 2014.

• The service was acquired by Facebook in April 2012 for approximately US$1 billion in cash and stock.

•  In 2013, Instagram grew by 23%, while Facebook, as the parent company, only grew by 3%.