The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success, Second Edition

Chapter 25. Photo

Napoleon Bonaparte has been credited with the idea that "a picture is worth a thousand words" and if that's true, then Flickr's photographs are worth, well 4,000,000,000 × 1,000. . . . Way too many zeros for me! Flickr now houses more than four billion photographs, which doesn't count Picasa, SmugMug, PhotoSwarm, or the many other photo sharing sites.

Ever since there were photos, people were sharing them with one another. Taking pictures is a way of capturing moments in time, which captures the emotions that we can share with others. Simply by looking at a photograph we get a rush of emotions, memories, and a recollection of that very moment that we can share.

Photos really are worth a thousand words, and some even more. One photograph of a happy customer using your product with a big successful smile on her face will sell your product a thousand times faster than a salesperson droning on for 15 minutes about its features and benefits. There's another old adage, "Seeing is believing!" Let your customers and prospects see with their own eyes that buying from you will create a successful experience. All those people in your photos can't be wrong.

I show in this chapter some of the many larger photo sharing web sites available to you. Most of these sites use the fermium business model as described in an earlier chapter. Nearly all are completely free for the basic service with small incremental charges for upgraded services. While every photo sharing site might not ...