What is Flickr?

A one page guide explaining what Flickr is to people who are completely new to it.

1. What is flickr?
Flickr is a photo sharing site. That means you
upload photos to it, so that other people can
look at them. Sounds simple, doesn’t it?
You have to open an account first, but once
you have done that you can get cracking
uploading your photos. Once you have them
on the site, you can give them titles,
descriptions and add keywords, known as
‘tags’.
Tags are pretty important, because once you
have used a few on your own photos, you can
click them to find photos that other people
have used those tags to describe. It’s a great
way of discovering new pictures of the things
you are interested in!
Comments
Photos can also be commented on, so people
can drop by and leave remarks about the
excellence of your photography, or perhaps
their memories and experiences of whatever it
is that is in your photograph.
Like most social sites, you can connect with
friends and family on the site, and can make
certain photos only available to one or both of
those groups, as well as publishing them
publicly. This gives you the chance to ensure
some privacy.
What’s more, Flickr lets you join groups, based
on local areas or along topic lines, so you can
share relevant photos with others, and chat to
them in the discussion forums. These groups
can be a great source of photos for your
website - though it’s always polite to ask
people first.
Some Flickr groups are incredibly creative,
with people spending a lot of time setting up
and taking their shots. Some nice informal
examples of these include ‘Stormtroopers:
Their Secret Lives and Adventures’ and ‘Lego
vignettes’.
Sometimes Flickr groups organise meetups -
often called ‘Flickr walks’ - where everyone
gets together and goes for a tramp around with
their cameras. These walks are well worth
attending, not least because they often end in
the pub.
Editing
Other cool things Flickr lets you do includes
editing the photos that you have uploaded,
whilst still online. Just click on one of your
photos, then under the ‘Actions’ menu, choose
‘Edit photo in Piknik’. This lets you make a
wide range of edits, without the need of
software on your computer.
Flickr is important because photographs are
among the most engaging social objects on
the web. People love to look at them, and they
like contributing them too!
This quick guide was put together by Kind of Digital.
We provide strategic advice, training and technical development to help organisations open up and
make the most of the web - including social media tools like Flickr!
Find out more at kindofdigital.com or follow us on Twitter - @kindofdigital
Published under creative commons - feel free to redistribute and edit, but not for commercial gain.