I am a flickr user – not an enthusiast, but I do like the service and I use it to share photos with my friends and family. I like to browse and search for images too – some of the shots published on flickr are many times better than anything you’d find on PPA or any site where professional photographers showcase their work.
Browsing flickr is a fun and rewarding experience, but not when you find a Photostream like Bulldog Reporter’s. At least not in my view.
Almost ten pages of nothing but author thumbnails – this is how Bulldog Reporter understands to contribute at fickr’s image database and to “enrich” the experience of the users. Each of these thumbnails comes with a short biography of the person depicted in the thumbnail and with a marketing announcement like:
Bulldog Reporter’s PR University presents a new audio conference: “Doing Well in the Media by Doing Good: How Top Corporations Leverage CSR and Green PR Initiatives,” Thursday, February 12, 2009
This is, of course, followed by the link to the Bulldog’s site where readers can find more information.
The approach is pretty strange for a company with a slogan like: “Media News and Intelligence for PR Pros” – should we understand that spamming flickr is “intelligence for PR pros?”
If it’s not spam, then what is it? I really don’t understand… Doesn’t Bulldog have enough space on its servers to save some lousy author thumbnails? Or did someone tell them that hosting images on flickr followed by content with links is a good marketing/SEO move? I doubt this is a server issue: I browsed Bulldog’s network and I didn’t find any use of the thumbnails they so proudly post at flickr.
So what is the point? Would anyone please clarify for me this strange occurrence?
I’m not sure if you can call it spam but i would certainly call it misuse of Flickr. Just like you, i like to browse Flickr and enjoy the images people put up there. That’s the whole idea behind Flickr after all; the sharing of images. Personally I can’t see the benefit of any business to use Flickr as some kind of marketingtool – unless you’re a professional photographer.
I wonder how Flickr thinks about this use?
I don’t know – the question is good though.
I know a lot of folks who use Flickr to manage images for their blogs and websites for a variety of reasons. Based on what I see comparing their website to their Flickr stream it is possible that BullDog has a script that pulls the info from Flickr into their website.
As a PR firm their job is to increase the profile and awareness of their clients. Posting their client profiles on Flickr is a small step to further that goal. Seems like a smart idea to me.
And I don’t really agree that the reason Flickr exists is so that I can “enrich the experience of other users.” From my perspective, Flickr is a service for me to use however suits me, as long as I stay within their TOS. That a PR firm like BullDog is gaining a little SEO back to their site while cross promoting their clients seems like a smart move to me.
I guess what it comes down to is BullDog is not pushing their content onto the community. They don’t have any contacts on Flickr. Since they are quietly using the service in compliance with the TOS I don’t see how that can be considered spam.
Thank you for your input, Chris. I was not sure it was spam either, just very strange behavior. I’ve never seen such a display of thumbnails before.
If they do have a script that pulls the info from Flickr, that is against the TOS.
Also this condition appears to be violated:
It does seem like a misuse . . . I`d think that if they were using it for the website, you`d see other photos on the photostream, as well. And if the thumbnails aren`t even on the site . . . then yeah, I`d consider it to be spam.
hmm I don’t know if it can be considered spam either but it sure looks like a smart marketing technique along with some SEO benefits they might be gaining… I think as more companies might start using flickr like this in future.. this looks similar to how how facebook evolved over time
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It seems rather sketchy to me. Why would you upload images such as these if you’re not using them on your website?
Flickr is often used as a publicity tool although not as blatantly. If Bulldog reporter were to add more photos relating to the individuals (images of them at events, conferences etc) then it would not be such an obvious marketing ploy.
As it stands the images would be best kept on their own site. Not that they would be easily found there as their site is not at all easy to navigate.
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I would like to set the record straight. Bulldog Reporter is not spamming Flickr. Pearl has got it right. We are simply using this for SEO purposes and it has worked wonders for our web traffic. I am also an active member of Flickr and use the group features all the time. At Bulldog Reporter we are simply putting the information out there for Google to find. I am not spamming PR and/or Media Relations groups with these photos nor is it my intention to do so. Viewing our photos is obviously your option. Also, the photos show the wide range of speakers that we attract for our events, our most recent being Dan Rather and Dan Abrams. We really don’t have any other photos to post or else I would post them with all the appropriate keywords and tags for the search engines to find. This is not a strange marketing practice as you have stated but it is fairly new. All you have to do is attend a conference on social media marketing and/or search engine marketing—you could attend one of ours— to realize that this is one of many techniques companies are using to build inbound links to their sites, as well as a steady flow of web traffic. Our search-generated traffic has increased over 40% since we started marketing through alternative channels. By the way, we appreciate the free publicity you provided by mentioning us in your blog—we found it on Google.
Sincerely,
Jacques Gautreaux
Vice President Marketing
Bulldog Reporter
Jacques, I think I got that straight too – if you read my article one more time you’ll see that I already noted that you are using Flickr as a marketing/SEO tool. The way you do though is really strange. Personally I find your behavior unethical and I think it is against Flickr’s TOS – I might be wrong though. Why don’t you read Sueblimely’s advice – this would at least “save the appearances.”
Also, just FYI, I am an SEO and a PR therefore I do not need to attend a conference to teach me how to use a public service unethically. Thank you for the offer.
I am aware of the “free publicity” – and you are welcome.
I don’t believe this has anything to do with ethics.
Then I should probably organize a conference explaining why this has a lot to do with ethics.
Mig says, “I should probably organize a conference explaining why this has a lot to do with ethics.”Git ‘er done! </br
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Honestly, Mig. I heard about Bulldog Reporter, but I’m not so sure about using it…
I have not experimented much with flickr yet, but it looks like something I should check out.
I guess they just think it’s a misuse of what their site is about and decide to enforce the rules at the base of things.
To me it absolutely seems like unnecessary spam.
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It was spam – Bulldog Reporter removed all links from their account.