Yahoo! Photos

When Yahoo! Photos closes shop later this year, it will have stored over 2 billion photos on its servers. Flickr, the photo sharing service acquired by Yahoo! in 2005, will have about a quarter of that. So why is Yahoo! firing and replacing its own photo service? Is it because “Flickr” dangerously omits a vowel, thereby rendering it impossibly hip, young, and fresh? Maybe, but probably not. It’s because Yahoo! Photos is merely a photo repository, a junk drawer where your photos of Granny’s 87th nestle alongside that pic of you flipping off the camera with your tongue stuck out. Plus, Yahoo! Photos is very Web 1.0. Yuck. Can’t have that.

Flickr is quintessential Web 2.0—that’s to say that it’s part of a new generation of Web applications that, among other things, provide online communities with platforms to communicate creatively and quickly.

If you were to put it into marketing speak, you might be compelled to call it “Web Two Point GO!” You know, because “Go” rhymes with “O” and “GO!” vaguely connotes speed, encouragement, and boundless capability. But please, please don’t call it that.

Used alone, Flickr can be a good way to organize and share your photos. But Flickr holds greater potential when it's used to enhance a blog or Web site. And unlike Yahoo! Photos and other Web 1.0 photo sharing applications, Flickr gives the user the ability to "tag" photos--that is, to categorize them, which allows them to be easily found by search engines. Label the albums and photographs with appropriate tags: your name, your book title, “author,” “book tour,” etc. You’re not likely to get a lot of hits from people searching Flickr for “book tour,” (and I’m not sure you’d want hits from them anyway) but a link to a Flickr travelogue of your tour can be a really cool way to supplement your blog or Web site. Your readership will be able to plan to attend an upcoming event, get a chance to see you in action, and see that you have fans across the nation vying for a signed copy of your book.

Say you’re on the road, touring with your book. Surely you have a digital camera and USB cord. Document your trip by taking pictures of yourself and your adoring fans at each stop. Assuming you’re even marginally photogenic, snap scenes of the towering stacks of books and out-the-door lines, of yourself with noteworthy book industry people (maybe you’ll get to be in one of those PW “Picture of the Day” things), or simply giving a thumbs up next to an obnoxious landmark. You can then use Flickr’s oh-so-2.0 map function to visually pinpoint the stops on your journey.

Not sure if photo sharing is right for you? Take the handy Flickr tour and sign up for a membership. You've got nothing to lose since Flickr, like most social media, is free. Now all you have to do is remember to bring your camera and sexy smile with you.

In the next social media guide: Need a new life? Just get a Second Life and learn how to promote your book and interact with the seven million residents living in this virtual world.