As event planners, there are a number of times when it is necessary to either share or access photos. For example, it may be necessary to share event photos with event organizers or attendees. Event planners who blog need access to a library of photos that have been cleared for legal use.
Flickr and Instagram are the 2 main social media channels that are available for posting and accessing photos. By contrast, Instagram is an Android app-based platform on which users tend to capture photos on their smartphones and post them "as is" directly on Instagram.
Flickr
Launched in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo in 2005, Flickr is the larger platform with almost 90 million users. Almost 4 million photos are uploaded daily. New users can log in with Yahoo and either create a profile and post their own photos or download the photos of others Flickr has been around longer and it has many photos that have been edited to professional quality. Users tend to download the photos to their desktop from their cameras or smartphones and then upload them to Flickr via its website. This will change as Flickr has introduced a 3.0 version of its apps. for iOS and Android.
To access the photos of others on Flickr, do an advanced search and select:
- Photos Only
- Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content
and, if required:
- Find content to use commercially
- Find content to modify, adapt, or build upon
Once downloaded to the desktop, photos can be edited and manipulated using any photo manipulation software. When posting photos, it is important to note terms of use. Click on upload and after uploading the photo, select:
- Under License: All rights reserved,License
- Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Creative Commons
- Attribution-NonCommercial Creative Commons
- Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons
- Attribution Creative Commons
- Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons
- Attribution-NoDerivs Creative Commons
You can tag photos for a particular event to make it easier for attendees to find the photos.
Instagram was launched in 2010. According to Expanded Ramblings, the average daily users are 7.3 million. On averages, 60 million photos are posted daily. Its main advantage is the ability to snap photos, post them directly on Instagram and immediately share them on Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms. Instagram has the capability to edit and manipulate photos directly with a number of filters within the app. The disadvantage of Instagram is that it must be used by downloading the app. thorough the iTunes store. It can't be accessed directly from a computer desktop. (There are some apps. that make this possible.) To add photos to Instagram, click on the camera share button on a smart phone, tablet or other device. Either transfer a photo from the device photo gallery or snap a photo and post it.
There are some apps (for example pokki) that make it possible to do download photos from Instagram quickly and easily.
In summary, Instagram is the best choice if event planners want to encourage attendees to immediately capture and share photos. Flickr is the platform of choice for event planners looking for professional quality images that have already been re-sized for use in blogs, promotion and articles. Over time Flickr has been evolving and integrating some of the "capture, post and share" features that have made Instagram so appealing.
Photo Credits: Alexander Kaiser, Jonathan Chen
Written by Anne Thornley-Brown.