Last month our Social Media article focused on how to get the most out of YouTube.com. This month we will focus on how to get the most out of using your own photo galleries and floor plans to drive traffic using Online Photo Management and Sharing Community, such as Yahoo's Flickr and Google's Picasa.

Why do you use these online communities to share photos?
It's all about building interest to drive traffic. You never know where your next lead will come from, so these online communities are a great way to show off your interior designs, architecture, community features, community events, and more - all in an effort to build a rapport with the next future home buyer. Think of online communities as a networking tool, and you will understand why these sites are important in driving traffic and delivering eLeads.

Using these online tools process an extra bonus too - they can help boost your overall SEO, because these sites count as part of your "free" links. And if people actually click on your images (and Flickr now offers video to compete with Google's YouTube), and go to your site, then your site's popularity increases increasing your search engine positioning.

Are Photo Sharing Websites hard to use?
Once you set up your free accounts, you just upload your photos through your photo account manager. You can even crop and edit your photos online - no special software needed! Categorize your photos by community or photo type (interior, exterior, community events, etc) and add keyword tags to these photos so your images can come up when someone searches.

5 Specific tips for Photos:

1. Have good-quality pictures.

2. Title the image appropriately using a one to two keywords.

3. Add a description for the photo or write an article to go with the image.

4. Always tag your images with keywords. Be specific, and add as many tags as appropriate, using optimal terms as phrases. Don't overdo the number of same keywords.

5. Make photos publicly viewable - sharing pictures with news organizations, for example, can help bring valuable "free" inbound links to your site.

How much does this cost?
Here's the best part - it's free! It does take time to do this though...and it can be addictive! But adding something new each week is a better strategy instead of uploading everything you have all at once.

What are these free photo sharing web addresses?
Flickr.com. Picasa.com, snapfish.com, webshots.com, shutterfly.com, and photobucket.com are among the most popular.

Want more tips & tricks for maximizing your online photo sharing communities? Chat LIVE now or call us at 321-285-1660 for more help or to hire Meredith Communications to produce these videos or uploads for you.