If you’re looking into the creation of social media outposts, you shouldn’t forget about Flickr.
People have been pointing out the use of Flickr by major companies since at least 2006. I haven’t found anything earlier than that, though if you know of something, please do let me know (Flickr was launched in 2004).
However, there still aren’t very many of the companies we look at on a regular basis that have a link from their corporate site to their Flickr stream. Even GM, who were using Flickr back in 2006, and which still maintains a Flickr stream, doesn’t seem to link the Flickr outpost to the corporate site, though the Fastlane blog does link to Flickr.
TNT are one of those that do – with a link from the Media Centre, which is perhaps the most appropriate place, though I can imagine that the Graduate Careers section might also be a possibility. Images of happy new recruits, anyone?
The Media Centre is the obvious place on the corporate site to look for corporate images, and Flickr is not a replacement for an image gallery. However, it is another place where people may come across your branding, and as such shouldn’t be ignored. Why not put good quality photos that support your brand out there?
I notice, though, that the TNT images have copyright restrictions. This means that – unlike the images explicitly made available for download in the image gallery on the corporate website – people would not be able to reuse these images without permission. Perhaps these images are actually copyrighted to the photographer, rather than TNT.
Nevertheless, this is an interesting strategy, and I’m particularly impressed that TNT link to their photostream from the corporate site. I like to see these paths between the outposts and the core …
Lucy is Editor at Corporate Eye
