The Photographer’s Marketing Guide to Flickr

This guide to Flickr is a part of my Photographer’s Guide to Social Media and Marketing.

Unlike Instagram, Flickr is a place made for photographers only.

In 6 months time, I manage to grow my Flickr profile from 0 to 1.700 followers and 500.000 views of my photos.

And in this Flickr Marketing Guide, I will break down what I did to grow my followers and views.

I’ve posted 160 photos, which means I get an average of 3000 views per photos and my followers to photo view ratio on Flickr is around 2.5 – which is a lot higher than my Instagram.

The cool thing about Flickr is that you can get a lot of exposure, without having a crazy amount of followers – compared to Instagram, which heavily relies on the number of followers you have.

Tips & Tricks to get more followers on Flickr

Let’s start with how you can get more followers on Flickr.

Step 1) Find photographers on Flickr who posts similar photos as you
This step is really important you get this right because it will impact everything else.

I do street photography. And I want people who like street photography, to follow me on Flickr.

So I start by finding other photographers on Flickr that posts street photography.

I picked Alan Schaller, who is a famous and talented photographer.

Step 2: Open his latest photo and see how likes them.

Step 3: Follow people who recently liked his photos

Why does this work?

When someone follows you on your favorite social media platform, you will often get:

1. 1. A notification saying “You have a new follower”

1. And sometimes even an email telling you the same, with a photo of the person who just followed you.

Following people in hope that they will follow you in return, is not the most glamorous marketing strategy, but if you do this right, you should expect 10–30 % to follow you back.

The percentage of your followback-ratio depends on the relevance of the people you follow and the quality of your own profile.

By following 1000 active, relevant people on your favorite social network should result in 100–300 new followers. (I did the math).

And if you do that 10 times, you will have enough followers to make you photos popular in the tags you use and categories you pick.

If you, of course, you post really good photos.

Otherwise, forgot about it.

Share your photos on Reddit

Yeah, that’s right. Reddit can drive a lot of views and followers to your Flickr. Read this guide on how I use Reddit as a photographer to grow my Flickr.

1. 1. Tips & Tricks: How to get more followers on Flickr

1. 1. Intro: How Flickr works

1. 1. How to upload your photos to Flickr: Tagging and geotagging.

1. 1. How to use Flickr groups to get more views

1. 1. Is Flickr PRO worth it?

1. Free Terabyte and auto Uploadr

Basics: How Flickr Works

Flickr works like every other online community.

It’s a follower based photo sharing website or social network, which means your new content will be seen by the followers you have.

But that’s not all. On Flickr, you also have Flickr Groups and tags which I will get into. Just keep reading.

Uploading and tagging your photos

Uploading your photos to Flickr is pretty straightforward, yet I see professional photographers messing the basics up every day.

And that’s good news for you because that means that if you tag your photos correctly and use geotagging too, your photos will get more exposure because the other photographers aren’t utilizing these features.

Example of how I tag my photos on Flickr

Using Flickr Tags & geotagging

Tagging your photos on Flickr the right way makes the difference. As a photographer, you should by now be very familiar with tagging your photos.

But your Flickr Tags aren’t the same as the hashtags you are using on Instagram or the tags you use on Tumblr.
On Flickr, you should think a lot more like a stock photo site. A big part of getting views and followers on any social network for photographers is doing that little extra that no one else is willing to do. 

When you add your tags on Flickr think about

• What camera are you shooting with? #fuji #fujifilm #iphone
• Where are you? #Mexico #mexicocity
• What kind of photography are you doing? #streetphotography #streets #blackandwhite
• What’s in the frame? #woman #sunglasses #smiling
• Hows the weather and the season? #sunny #summer #cloudy #winter

Geotagging on Flickr
When you upload your photos to Flickr, whether it’s a direct upload, an upload from your SD card or from Adobe LightRoom. Some people like to use Flickr’s Auto Uploadr too.

What do write in the description and title

The headline on Flickr has to be something descriptive and interesting. But you already know that. The description Flickr, however, gives you the opportunity to insert a link.

Some photographers chose to use the description to link to their website, portfolio, Instagram and some choose to leave it blank. I wouldn’t recommend the last option.

When you do your description or caption on Instagram it has to be relatable and catch your eye. On Flickr, Tumblr or 500 px it’s also really important to actually describe the photo you are uploading. just in a couple of sentences. And when you describe your photo, remember to repeat the keywords from the title.

An example of how to use relevant keywords in your title and description

How to find and use Flickr groups and communities

Flickr Groups are an important part of the site. Groups are made by the community and you can find groups for every genre of photography by using this search. Just replace “dog” with the type of photography you do and press “join” on the groups that are relevant to you.

If you don’t have a Flickr PRO account, you can only share your photo in 30 different Flickr Groups. If you have a Flickr PRO accounts that double to 60 per photo.

Should you invest in Flickr PRO?

I personally did. But it was not on purpose. I signed up for their free trial to test it out and I forgot to cancel it. That said, I don’t regret that much.

With Flickr Pro you get:

• Desktop Auto Uploadr.
• Ad-free browsing and sharing on Flickr.
• Better Flickr statistics on your profile and photos.

But if it’s worth 5 dollars a month, I’m not sure.

This post is from my Photographer’s Guide to Social Media & Marketing.