Graduate students in University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications online master’s specializations in Social Media and Global Strategic Communication are teaming up with Winterfell Tours, one of the only “screen tourism” locales in the world for the award-winning HBO show Game of Thrones.

For their Capstone project, students will be developing a communication marketing plan to promote tourism to the already popular Game of Thrones filming locations including Winterfell Castle, Walder Frey’s Twins, Robb Stark’s camp, and more than a dozen other locations at Old Castle Ward and estate in Northern Ireland.

Winterfell Tours provides an immersive opportunity for Game of Thrones fans to experience medieval banquets, archery lessons on the Winterfell Castle set where the actual actors were trained, bicycle tours and boat tours of additional show locations, glamorous camping, and photo opportunities in costume and with Summer and Grey Wind, two of the Direwolfs on the show.

“The College is excited to offer this ‘real-world’ communication opportunity to our students,” said Michael Weigold, associate dean for Undergraduate Affairs and director of Distance Education for the College.

“Game of Thrones is the most popular show on television, and being able to work with our students and Winterfell Tours creating a marketing plan to increase tourism is a tremendous opportunity for collaboration,” said Andrew Selepak, director of the Social Media program.

The Capstone is taught by Bob Hughes, manager of Specialty Products at Georgia Power in Atlanta, Ga.  The Capstone is the culmination course of the College’s online graduate degrees and challenges students to utilize and apply skills learned throughout their graduate coursework.

Originally published in College News for the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida on August 2 2017.

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By now it should be clear for all businesses that linking social media efforts to concrete business objectives is absolutely crucial in aligning and developing a successful social media business approach. A business cannot build a successful social media strategy without first having tangible business objectives in place.

Starbucks, for example, has several clear business objectives beyond making a profit. The brand is also well-known for being green and making large efforts in sustainability. It is a brand that supports global social change and acknowledges the responsibilities that come with it. Here are their goals:

• Making coffee the world’s first sustainable product by doing our part to improve the lives of at least One Million people in coffee communities around the world
• building and operating the world’s largest green retail business
• creating pathways to employment for 1 million people
• strengthening communities by welcoming all and creating impact on issues that matter

Starbucks main target audience is obviously coffee drinkers and enthusiasts, but also other sustainability/social change supporters as well.  Starbucks uses social media to attract new customers and cultivate relationships with existing, loyal customers.

Instagram is perhaps their most effective channel, in that the pictures they post are aimed at being inspiring, vibrant, and artistic. Each post also reflects their goals.

Consider this post thanking customers for helping create jobs for veterans:

You helped open the door of opportunity for 8,000 well-deserving veterans—creating jobs for them and the spouses of those who serve. One of the many good things happening—#ThanksToYou #

A post shared by Starbucks Coffee (@starbucks) on Jan 7, 2017 at 9:32am PST

Or this vibrant photo in support of Pride Month:

Thankful. Inspired. Proud. #LoveisLove #PrideMonth #Pride2017

A post shared by Starbucks Coffee (@starbucks) on Jun 19, 2017 at 2:30pm PDT

Starbucks also makes sure to acknowledge and support nature (sustainability theme) on their Instagram:

Nature has spoken. #CaffeVerona Regram: @thistle.harvest

A post shared by Starbucks Coffee (@starbucks) on May 26, 2017 at 10:47am PDT

But, a brand cannot simply make a Facebook or Instagram account and think their job on social media to be over. It is something that has to be worked on and customized on a daily basis to stay relevant to the consumer base.

Starbucks understands this and does a great job of carrying it out across all of its social media accounts.

For example, Starbucks engages with customers through offering specials:

#FrappuccinoHappyHour ends today – May 14! Get half off any @Frappuccino from 3-6pm before it floats away. (Participating US & Canada stores)

A post shared by Starbucks Coffee (@starbucks) on May 14, 2017 at 8:35am PDT

Or by encouraging customers to draw a new Starbucks “spring” cup and posting it (and tagging the artist) on Instagram:

Feeling humbled by your creativity and passion. Our #SpringCups bloom with your inspiring and endless talent. Doodles by @kelsletters, @jennyjemy, and @letteringbyrenee.

A post shared by Starbucks Coffee (@starbucks) on Mar 20, 2017 at 4:00pm PDT

Creating continuity between business and social media objectives is vital when building a marketing strategy. Starbucks does an excellent job of linking social media posts to their business objectives.  Not only does the coffee company have a clear set of business goals, but they also make sure their social media accounts are a clear reflection of such goals.

The post How Starbucks Supports Social Change on Instagram appeared first on UFSocial.

As part of their Introduction to Multimedia Communication course, students were challenged to create a one-minute marketing video. To make it even more challenging, students had to create the marketing video without the use of sound and to instead sell the project with visuals alone.

In the video below by Dan Pomeroy, he showcases the capabilities of a GoPro. Check out the video and then read about his inspiration in creating the video.

From Dan: “When we were given an assignment to create a one-minute video advertisement for a product my mind immediately jumped to the best video footage I had taken in the last year: underwater dive shots in Thailand. To turn this footage into an ad, I quickly recorded a video of me fake packing a bag for vacation making sure to give the GoPro extra screen time. And, to make sure the ad told a story, I then carefully pieced together footage of me and the two friends in Thailand: first on the boat, then jumping in the water, followed by the money shots of underwater pans of the beautiful scenery and of the divers underwater, ending with us coming back to the boat and an attempt to create a zoom shot of the GoPro itself to remind the audience what the ad was about. Overall it was a really fun assignment and taught me a lot about video editing.”

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Social media platforms are the way we communicate with one another. This is where we get our information, see what is new, what is on sale at our favorite company, what events are happening, even find out which one of our friends is having a baby.

Nearly 65% of the population are visual learners and Instagram knows how to communicate through images by being the platform that focuses on capturing moments and grabbing attention with visual content.

Companies and individuals are using social media to build successful brands and make money.

I bet you have asked yourself, “how?”

Guess what? It’s not a secret

Everything you need to build a successful business or brand is inside of you. Here are a few pointers to building a brand and increasing engagement on Instagram:

Be You

Sharing on Instagram is all about capturing natural moments as they happen, most Instagram posts are not staged, they are on- the- go photos snapped and shared during events in time.

Angie Bellemare, Top 10 Coach with Team Beachbody, a multi-level marketing business or MLM, has nearly built a six-figure business off of Instagram.  During an interview, she expressed the importance of creating a relationship with people based on similar interests.

“No other platform allows you to share a visual representation of your life as well as Instagram… and before somebody says “Pinterest”; that is not a visual representation of your life, but in my view, rather a visual representation of what you’d like your life to be.”

Instagram is more about sharing your original content and less about sharing others content.        

A Photo is worth 1,000 Words

Instagram is an opportunity to grab attention through creative and unique eye catching images. The context of the post is in the image not the text. You are essentially creating a visual story.

Aside from your brand or company, take photos of things that your ideal customer would be interested in such as dogs, sunsets, or boats to make a connection and trigger an emotional response.

Employees go bananas for Halloween at HQ. (Photo: @badmikeyt)

A post shared by Facebook (@facebook) on Oct 31, 2014 at 2:48pm PDT

Showcase yourself and the fresh faces of your team. This gives your brand a face and depicts the joy and excitement others are having surrounding your brand or company.

Use the 3 Touch- Points

The great thing about Instagram is that you do not get flooded with invites or requests to join or follow someone; you simply choose to follow people and brands that you relate to.

Utilizing the 3 touch-points is how Bellemare grows her following:

“Every time you comment, like & follow somebody, your profile photo shows up on that individual’s smartphone, thus making you more visible. You’re able to make 3 touch points through simply interacting with people on Instagram (like, comment, follow) … and if they decide to follow you back, you can make as many additional touch points every single day as you please.”

You cannot force or invite others to follow you. Instead, you are ultimately being followed because they like your content, meaning you have already established a connection.

#Hashtags #Hashtags #Hashtags

Hashtags are important on most social media platform, but especially on Instagram. Utilizing hashtags the correct way increases visibility and awareness of your brand.

Bellemare utilizes hashtags in a way that helps her create connections with others on a daily basis.

“I search hashtags of things that bring me joy and follow people that empathize. I follow pages & follow the followers of pages on topics that I am passionate about. I start dialogues with dozens of people daily this way.”

Hashtags can also be used for specific events. If your brand or company is hosting a special event, drawing or giveaway, creating a hashtag for others to utilize, search, and follow will give people a way to look up the event before during and after the fact.

Hashtags can also be used as a way to direct people to your content. Use hashtags that are unique and niche specific to you, your brand and/or your events.

You can also create a brand hashtag (#companyname). This create a win-win situation for you and your brand awareness. Brands receive the benefit of increased exposure to new potential customers through an Instagrammers photo, and Instagrammers love to be featured on a brand’s profile for both the prestige and the increase in followers.

Create a Community

The goal is to drive engagement from people with similar interests. The best way to grow your following on Instagram is by building a living, breathing community of users that are actually interested in your content. Have a call to action or asking questions to create interaction and conversation.

Bellemare believes in sharing valuable content; something educational, inspiring, or simply something people can relate to:

“My exclusive purpose on Instagram is to create a meaningful connection with my audience by sharing authentic me.  If I ever have a desire to share a product or service I am offering, my call to action is to connect with me personally so that I can talk to everyone 1 on 1.”

Connecting with people through personal messaging is an underutilized way to build a personal relationship with a follower.

Community is built by each post you curate because it’s a chance to connect with others through their comments and questions. Never leave questions unanswered and always thank and acknowledge people who leave comments.

Very Cool Things Instagrammers Are Not Using Enough

1. Video Instagram increased the 15 second limit of its videos to a whopping 60 seconds in length.
2. Instagram Live Video Unlike Facebook, however, Instagram livestreams don’t stick around. Broadcasts disappear once a user ends a broadcast.
3. Hyperlapse An app that allows you to create time-lapse videos and share them on Instagram.
4. Boomerang Create captivating mini videos that loop back and forth, then share them with your friends.
5. My Story Instagram users will be able to send expiring content to individual friends as well as groups through a direct message.
6. It Encourage users to click the link in the business’s profile which sends users to a virtual storefront. Users can purchase directly from that storefront, increasing your sales and revenue.

Hyperlaps and Boomerang are fun apps that can be used to grab the viewer’s attention. A lot of fitness accounts utilize Hyperlaps to show an entire workout in 20 seconds. Brands such as Plated are using Boomerang to show a moment in time forward and backward, like sautéing veggies. Several cosmetic brands use this as well to show makeup going on and coming off, almost like a continuous before and after shot.

Ready to create a business profile on Instagram?

The post Secrets to Building an Empire on Instagram appeared first on UFSocial.

Transparency is key to modern advertising. Some companies have embraced truth and openness, both of which are essential to gaining the trust of the millennial generation. We are no longer directed to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, but invited to share companies’ triumphs, failures, vision, and mission. Brands from McDonalds to Southwest Airlines are presenting their customers with a value proposition they can’t refuse: transparency.

This promise from brands across the globe makes the unethical social media activities of some companies even more egregious.

Take for example Wal-Mart. When the retail giant was busted in 2006 for posting a fake blog post, supposedly written by an average American couple traveling from state to state in an RV, the backlash was strong and fast. The blog was called “Wal-Marting Across America,” and what the bloggers didn’t reveal was that the trip was paid for by Working Families for Walmart, an initiative that had been created by the company’s PR firm, Edelman. The deception was widely covered by the media, and in the wake of the negative press, neither the PR firm nor Wal-Mart responded.

If I had been in charge, I would have immediately explained how the blog came about. Evidently, the traveling couple was, indeed, planning to stay in Wal-Mart parking lots (where RVs are permitted for free) as they made their way to their children who lived in different states. But the fact that this information was not disclosed makes it an unethical practice.

In this world of transparency, sometimes taking your licks is the only way make things right. But, I don’t think I would take the blog down. Instead, I would just own up to the fact that the trip was sponsored by Working Families for Wal-Mart and try to turn the blog into something else. I would fess up and then promote the fact that the couple was still on the road and tell people that if they run into them, they can post a photo to social media in exchange for a store gift card.

Sort of like a Where’s Waldo deal.

Is that worse? I really don’t know!

In any case, the shady practice by Wal-Mart and Edelman was completely unethical, which is no surprise given that Working Families for Wal-Mart has been the object of scrutiny by those who claim the organization is nothing but a case of astroturfing. Through this fake blog, the company took the unethical practice to the next level.

Considering the impact social media has on our society, companies such as Wal-Mart can no longer play fast and loose with this influential marketing and communication tool. Integrity is a core value the public has come to demand in this era of transparency. Rules now exist in what was once the Wild West. Social media doesn’t stand on its own, separate from the brand, but rather, it is an integrated, essential element that reflects and amplifies the brand’s reputation.

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President Donald Trump’s fondness for criticizing news organizations, “heckling journalists” and spouting points of public policy via his Twitter account is clear.

News of his nomination of Christopher Wray to be the next FBI director, for example, came by tweet. His tweets carry the stamp of government authority: White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer recently declared “the president is the president of the United States, so they are considered official statements by the president of the United States.”

But just as seemingly everything Trump does and says sparks controversy, so too is the president’s “prolific and unpredictable use of Twitter,” as one reporter called it, raising a novel question of constitutional law: Is there a First Amendment right to access Trump’s Twitter account?

Enter the First Amendment

The issue arises because when Trump objects to what people say about him on Twitter, he sometimes blocks their access to his account. What is blocking? As Twitter describes it:

“When you block an account on Twitter, you restrict that account’s ability to interact with your account. It can be an effective way to handle unwanted interactions from accounts you do not want to engage with. Accounts you have blocked will not be able to view your Tweets, following or followers lists, likes, or lists when logged in on Twitter, and you will not receive notifications of mentions directly from those accounts. You’ll also stop seeing their Tweets in your timeline.”

Now Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute, which is dedicated to protecting free speech and free press, is threatening to sue Trump unless he unblocks “the Twitter accounts of individuals denied access to his account after they criticized or disagreed with him.”

In a letter to Trump dated June 6, officials from Knight argue that

“Blocking users from your Twitter account violates the First Amendment. When the government makes a space available to the public at large for the purpose of expressive activity, it creates a public forum from which it may not constitutionally exclude individuals on the basis of viewpoint.”

Unpacking the argument

Does this argument hold water? As director of the Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project at the University of Florida, I study just this kind of question. Here’s how the case against Trump’s blocking unfolds.

Initially, the First Amendment protects free speech and the press from government censorship, as well as the right of citizens to petition the government for a redress of grievances. When people complain to Trump on his Twitter account about his policies, they not only are engaging in free speech, but also are petitioning the government.

The First Amendment, however, doesn’t address or prevent censorship imposed by private individuals and private businesses. Twitter is a private entity, but because Trump is a government official, the First Amendment applies. In essence, according to this argument, when Trump blocks people from interacting with him on Twitter, he plays the role of government censor preventing people from speaking and petitioning the government.

In addition, the First Amendment prohibits viewpoint-based censorship of speech. This means that the government cannot favor or suppress sides on any given issue or topic. It cannot allow one viewpoint to be expressed but not another. For example, a law permitting only pro-life speech on the topic of abortion and banning pro-choice expression is viewpoint-based and thus unconstitutional.

When Trump blocks access to his Twitter account for those who disagree with him but permits access for those who agree with him, he is engaging in viewpoint-based censorship.

Third, the rule against viewpoint-based censorship applies when the government (in this case, Trump) creates what is called a public forum for speech. There are two main kinds of public forum. The first – called a traditional public forum – is easy to understand. These venues include physical spaces such as public sidewalks and public parks where speech, such as rallies, protests and concerts, have occurred for many decades. Twitter clearly is not such a traditional public forum.

The Knight Institute, however, argues in its letter to the president that Trump’s Twitter account constitutes a designated public forum, a space created by the government specifically for speech. Imagine, for instance, a bulletin board inside city hall or a courthouse where people can post flyers about upcoming events. Essentially, Trump’s Twitter account is akin to a virtual bulletin board. People who are blocked cannot respond directly to him. They cannot, by analogy, use the bulletin board.

Jameel Jaffer, executive director of Knight First Amendment Institute, asserts that while the framers of the First Amendment in 1791

“surely didn’t contemplate presidential Twitter accounts, they understood that the President must not be allowed to banish views from public discourse simply because he finds them objectionable. Having opened this forum to all comers, the President can’t exclude people from it merely because he dislikes what they’re saying.”

Public forums in the modern age

But is his Twitter account a designated public forum? This is the tricky part of Knight’s case against Trump, were it to file a lawsuit. Twitter has more than 300 million active users each month. It is a vibrant, virtual space where people – Trump included – engage in often robust discussion about political issues. Trump’s first address to Congress, for example, spawned more than three million tweets. By these measures, it’s a modern-day public forum, yet it’s not run by the government.

Trump’s own account, however, is run by the government – namely, himself. That’s the argument that the designated public forum label applies and, in turn, that Trump’s blockage of users based on their viewpoints is unconstitutional.

Any claim that @realDonaldTrump is his personal account (not his official one, @POTUS) and does not represent the government has been conceded by the White House already: Remember Spicer’s statement that Trump’s tweets are “official statements by the president of the United States.”

If Trump does not comply with Knight’s request to unblock users, Knight may sue. That would give both Knight and Trump the opportunity to break new First Amendment ground on public forums in the digital era. And if Knight prevails and expands free speech rights to clarify that government officials on Twitter can’t block interactions with other users, it would be a most ironic outcome for a president who often takes aim at the First Amendment.

Clay Calvert is the Brechner Eminent Scholar in Mass Communication in the Department of Journalism.

This post originally appeared on The Conversation.

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It is safe to say that I thought I knew what gamification is, but I truly did not have a clue. I also had no idea how deep the concept runs through our everyday lives.

Last summer, like many others I jumped on the Pokemon Go freemium bandwagon. The truth is, it got me out and about exploring my city. I initially thought that this was a great example of gamification as it was a video game platform being used to make money, because in the words of South Park – Freemium Isn’t Free. However, since gamification is defined in “Bunchball – Gamefication 101,” as the application of game mechanics into non-game activities and processes, I am not so sure that Pokemon Go qualifies, even if it does employ levels, challenges, and leaderboards.

The best example of gamification in my life that does follow the definition is my Fitbit. Right now, I am in third place of a weekly challenge with 30,000+ steps, and I just received my Skydiver badge for climbing 1,000 lifetime floors.

At first the idea of earning virtual badges and trophies seemed incredibly silly, but after reading “Bunchball – Winning with Gamification” it now makes more sense. The fact is my mother, my girlfriend, and I jokingly share our Fitbit accomplishments with each other which in turn this deepens our engagement with the product.

As a professional example, we use an assortment of simulation systems in the military to assist in training. For example, we have tank crew trainers that are exact replicas of the inside of our tank turret that are employed to practice crew drills.  This allows us to hone our skills in a safe and relatively inexpensive environment before we take the tanks to the field.  We can engage targets just like we would on the gunnery range or on operations, and the system assesses the crew’s reaction times and engagement precision.  Each crew is scored, and of course we compare results to see who is the best.

The use of these simulators as a competition is a great example of the application of the three key elements of the Expectancy Theory as described in “Gamification: The Science and Software to Make You More Productive”.  When the three elements of the theory: Expectancy, Instrumentality, and Valence are present in an activity people are motivated to work harder. In this way, the fundamentals of the competitive spirit and mastering our profession drives people to be their best.

Now that I have a better understanding of gamification, it seems appropriate to discuss my earliest memory of a related activity.

It was called the MANTA! That stands for Marine Assault Nautical Transport Air-driven – cool right? It was 1984 and you could not just go out to the store and purchase the MANTA.  It was limited edition and you needed to mail away two Flag Points and $1.75.

How did you get those Flag Points?

Well, you got them when you purchased GI Joe action figures. My friends and I loved to play with GI Joe’s. So, with the help of my mom I sent off my two Flag points and $1.75 of allowance and waited.

I should say that most of my friends had many more action figures, vehicles and weapon systems than I did, but none of them had the MANTA.  I am not sure why not, the picture made it look so cool. I was going to be the King of the sandbox when this thing arrived!! But when it did, I was so disappointed, it was a piece of junk.

The worst part is that to this day I have never seen a soldier go into combat on a windsurfer.

Editorial credit: Matthew Corley / Shutterstock.com

The post From G.I. Joe to Pokemon GO: A Look at Gamification appeared first on UFSocial.

Recently, I have found myself trying to hold on to the incorrect assumption that I’ve been immune to gamification my whole life. But it turns out that I was wrong.

It reminds me of an episode of How I Met Your Mother in which the characters each realize they have “gaps” in their knowledge of the everyday world: not being able to pronounce the word “chameleon”, not knowing how to use a screwdriver, etc. I’m now painfully aware of a “gap” I have; not only am I positive that gamification is everywhere, but my entire life has been pervaded by gamification although not with the negative connotation that I initially (and ignorantly) assigned to it.

As I think back to my childhood, the most glaring example of gamification has to be Christmas. If I were to critique the gamification of the Christmas holiday as Walz did with his selected productivity apps, it would check off all of the 4 gamification theory boxes.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, iPad, Computer Games, gamers, political cartoon

First, anyone who has had a wonderful Christmas season can attest to the Neurobiological Theory at work.  The rush I felt on Christmas Eve as I attempted to sleep aside, each task that I had to complete prior to that night (sitting on Santa’s lap, writing down my Christmas list, etc.) just built up the anticipation to the impending explosion of bliss on Christmas morning.

After opening my presents, the first thing I would do every Christmas was call my cousins to brag about what I got and how it was better than what they got (clearly checking the box of the Social Status Theory).

As Walz mentioned in relation to the Expectancy Theory, “If we believe that a raise is a distinct possibility—and that good work (the behavior) will result in a raise (the outcome)—we will be driven to work harder to achieve a raise.”

All I have to do is plug in my coveted Christmas list in place of “a raise” and striving to find myself on the Nice List in place of “good work” and the math checks out.

Lastly, put all of those things together and you can see the Goal Theory at work. All year long, I found myself holding my tongue when a fight would break out between my sister and I or immediately leaving my favorite T.V show to attend to a random chore my father would throw my way. All of these moments came with real-time feedback as well in the form of that constant parental reminder, “Santa is watching…have you been a good boy?”Now, Christmas is delving into gamification exponentially coming at us via all platforms (Mobile/Social/Geo-Location) to get us excited about discounts, trending gifts, and even Santa’s current location and expected arrival.

As I mentioned, I was previously unaware of the affect gamification had on my life mostly due to the fact that I am not very brand loyal. Rewards, Frequent Flyer Miles, and the like, never enticed me due to my impatience and propensity to go with the cheapest option available. However, I have realized that I frequently use my wife’s phone number each time I check out at Duane Reade/Walgreens to take advantage of discounts. This made me wonder if I chose those items based on their unit price or if I was merely intrigued by the sale sticker. =

More recently, I have found myself immersed in an iPhone game, Minion Rush, due to my affinity for the movie, Despicable Me. The game, similar to Temple Run, quickly lost my interest, but the ease of playing the game, as well as the familiarity of the characters, must have made it a successful endeavor for the franchise much in the same way The Curse of Oak Island game helped the show gain wide-ranging popularity.

In terms of the evolution of gamification, I’m particularly curious of the way it’s affecting the fitness/wellness industry.

The positive change in our society as a result of the accountability offered up by Fitness apps (from MyFitnessPal to ClassPass) is astounding. With these apps the connectivity is instantaneous, the community seems to be infinite, and people are having fun becoming the healthiest version of themselves.

I never thought I’d enjoy my FitBit Charge 2 as much as I do, but the interface has grown to be so intuitive and the connection to the community is immediate, which I find extremely motivational.

The studio where I work as a Fitness Instructor has even rolled out a Challenge that is wrought with the building blocks of gamification including: small rewards along the way culminating in a grand prize, chances to be entered in a raffle if you follow our social media, rewards if you choose to bring a friend, and even a leaderboard that is visible at the studios to show who has attended the most classes during the challenge parameters.

I may still have some “gaps” in my knowledge, but I am working on them. At least I am able to pronounce chameleon.

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by UFSocial contributor Sydney Vandroff 

Let’s pretend you are back in high school and tonight is the big night of your first date with your high school crush. A nervous sixteen-year-old boy walks up the steps and rings the doorbell with a shaky hand. Your dad answers the door with his chest puffed out and your mom immediately runs in to “save” your date from the all so intimidating father figure. As you finish getting ready, your mom invites him to have a seat and then it happens.

She pulls out the photo album with those classic embarrassing baby pictures of you running around naked with a bucket on your head and pudding all over your face.

Cue panic mode.

Now, whether this has happened to you or not, we can all agree that this seems more like a scene out of a 90’s rom-com than something would happen in the modern world of 2017. This is where Flickr can help.

Flickr, founded in 2004, is a photo hosting site that combines the art of picture taking with social media. The company has two main goals for its consumers; “to help people make their photos available to the people who matter to them” and “to enable new ways of organizing photos and video.”

Among the two million groups, over thirteen billion photos have been amassed. The typical user is usually female, has a college or graduate education, and visits the site while at work, with a slightly smaller percentage at home. But overall, Flickr wants to make the process of switching your memories to a digital format easier and more accessible to all types of users.

Once signing up for a free account through flickr.com, which is synced with Yahoo! accounts since being purchased by the company in 2005, users can upload their photos and videos to albums to their page, with added tags or geotags if desired. With a simplistic interface, not only uploading, but sharing images is done in just a matter of clicks:

In addition to sharing albums on other social media platforms, such as Facebook, Tumblr, or Twitter, account owners can also give permission to friends and family to organize the photos, add comments and tags.

Providing your own content is only one aspect of the site, the other being the “Explore” feature. Flickr users can search through genres, topics, and trending images to look through a plethora of content offered by other users, including famous names and brands.

While Flickr certainly is a great place for amateur photogs and family picture obsessed moms, businesses can also take advantage of the site for marketing and advertising purposes.

Advertising executive, Emily Vandroff, out of Atlanta, Georgia, recognizes the platform’s advantages in terms of an increased social media presence. She admits that currently, “I believe it is dismissed as a viable social sharing and engagement method”, but sees use in her company for “stock photography for internal presentations.”

Vandroff suggests companies should use the site, adding, “a brand could post and share pictures from promotional events using Flickr or share customer pictures with their community.” Finally, her overall view of the channel is that, “it is extremely useful in business for cost-effective stock photography.”

The cornerstone of social media is the ability for platforms to be webbed together to provide a comprehensive experience for consumers. Flickr allows for this intermingling to happen as it easily integrates with content management systems (CMS) such as Word Press or Drupal or shared on popular sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.

In terms of monitoring performance on Flickr, free accounts can simply look at the bottom of a particular photo to see the total number of views, comments, or favorites. But, in order to truly gage how effective your brand is being on the site, the upgrade to Flickr Pro would need to be purchased, at a price of $49.99 per year.

With the upgrade comes the “Stats” feature that is a built-in analytics tool that can track the source of page views, daily and all time data, and an accumulative look at your lifetime activity. This data can be crucial in not only monitoring how much reach your content has, but is essential when trying to improve.

If you know which sites and what platforms are generating the most activity, you can better target your marketing efforts. In addition to the insightful “Stats” tool, the pro account comes with multiple other add-ons including ad free browsing and sharing, the “Auto-Uploadr” tool, a discount on products bought through Flickr, and a 20% discount on Adobe Photoshop programs.

For any business, the $50 a month price tag is a small amount to pay when considering the benefits to be attained from the pro service.

Graco, a baby product brand, is an example of a company that has utilized Flickr to their advantage when marketing their merchandise. Product reviews and real customer testimonials can be crucial to profitability, so Graco used the Flickr to facilitate buzz.

A real community was cultivated through real moms sharing their experiences and tips through uploads of images and corresponding commentary. Along with their blog, the brand was successful in using a combination of media platforms that other brands should use as a reference.

There are not nearly as many companies on Flickr than on other prominent sites, which is a shame as it provides a real opportunity for growth. Not only can they use it for their own content, there is also the possibility of being able to market through advertisements that are shown for non-premium account users.

Our world has entered an age of social media and technology and businesses will continue to be faced with options of how they can use various platforms for their benefit. While Flickr may not be the first to come to people’s minds when they think of social media, and especially photo sharing, marketing on the site should not be overlooked. Remember, don’t click past Flickr!

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