Apr
4
How to market your real estate website on Flickr – and get away with it
Filed Under Online Marketing
Flickr, the popular photo sharing website can be a very useful social networking tool for your real estate business. Not only is it a place to store your photos for publication on your blog, but it is also a great way for you to participate in a community of like-minded people and share photos not only of your properties for sale, but also of company events and functions as well as of the general area your estate agency operates in.
What’s more, we have found from experience that Google indexes new images posted to Flickr very quickly indeed and because these tend to get high rankings on the search engines, your Flickr account could very well be another great way for people to discover your estate agent website.
But can you market on Flickr?
Strictly speaking, Flickr’s Terms of Service Agreement says that you cannot use Flickr for any commercial purpose. And while many people go by the Devil’s Dictionary definition of Terms of Service, which is, ‘a long contract in legalese specifically designed to make you scroll down and agree to it without reading a single word’, Flickr does enforce this rule to some extent, as we found out when one of our client accounts was deleted recently.
But in practise the use of Flickr for commercial purposes is a very big grey area - for example, Flickr seems ready to close an eye to the many professional photographers, artists and web designers who display their images and works on the website. So, the million dollar question about marketing your real estate website on Flickr…
How do you get away with it?
The distinction lies in the approach you take to marketing your properties for sale on Flickr. The trick as we see it is to embrace the Flickr community, become part of it, and contribute in a positive way, and there are many ways you can do this:
- For a start, make sure you are not only posting pictures of your properties and company activities. As you move around your area imagine you’re a tourist and take general photos of the places you visit: landscapes, famous landmarks, interesting details, random streets, even just people going about their daily lives - things that have nothing directly to do with your business- and upload them to your Flickr account. Giving back to the Flickr community in this way won’t cost you anything but will earn you kudos and add value to your account.
- Join one or more groups on Flickr, or start a group of your own, teaming up with other estate agents in your area. We have just started a group of Tenerife Estate Agents, so any of you reading this, you’re more than welcome to join.
- What’s more, encourage your clients to start their own personal Flickr accounts and join your group. This way they can share photos of themselves enjoying their new property and the surrounding area and also get to know other people who have bought near them.
- Comment on other people’s photos - not only real estate photos, but even general photos of your area that would be of interest to your target audience. The idea is to become a part of the general Flickr community and get your name out there by actively participating.
Going for a hard sell on Flickr is likely to get you the boot very quickly - if it is obvious that the pictures you put up are for the sole purpose of marketing your properties or your estate agency, or if you’re just spamming links all over the place, your account won’t last long. Besides, Flickr has recently stopped making search engines follow some of their outbound links so the value of linking on Flickr is somewhat diminished (although people can still click through to your website).
Still, there is still a lot your estate agency can gain from having its own Flickr account. Read this excellent article for more tips and ideas on the right way to market on Flickr.
Online Marketing
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One Response to “How to market your real estate website on Flickr – and get away with it”
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View John Beckley's profile
Can you give me hints on how not to get banned in Flickr. I just created one account and put my real estate site to advertise it, unluckily my site holds only a day and my account got banned.
I have tried what you mentioned above but I’m just curious if you have personal recommendation for me.
Regards
-Jan