Chapter 9

The first great thing about photo sharing is that is provides high quality, low-cost exposure.

Photo sharing dates back to the very first web page, but the real rise of photo sharing web sites grew with the popularization of the digital camera in the late 1990’s. Digital cameras allow you to go directly from your camera to the Web without any additional hardware or software. The emergence of email continued photo sharing’s popularity which was soon followed by photo management applications such as iPhoto proving that sharing photographs has grown beyond the digital camera and Internet.

To gain an understanding about photo sharing, it is important to understand the process of a digital camera. The standard digital camera has options to auto-focus, auto-aperture, and to provide digital display. Quality of the picture is measured in megapixels or the total number of picture elements, the higher number of megapixels, the better the quality of image. A lower quality picture will appear grainy or fuzzy if not taken at a high enough picture quality.

To be successful at photo sharing is first to take the picture. The most common to do this is with an point-and-click camera. The second step is to transfer your photographs from your camera to your computer and edit them if needed, followed by uploading them to your photo sharing website. Businesses have acquired these steps and are using technique to share images of their products, tech support, employees, assembly lines, etc. You can help this process along by uploading as many photographs as you can, using the product names, application, and the company name.

If there is something I have learned so far in The Social Media Bible, it is that every new social media that is introduced, it is all about two way communication. Without this communication social media has no chance to be successful. For photo sharing, sharing your photos with global communities, friends, family coworkers, prospects, and customers and encouraging them to comment on your photos is what makes social media so effective. With photo sharing, you have the potential to become a photographer, an creative artist. Websites allow you to efficiently show your work to others that would usually not see it. Photo sharing can create a career for some or just enhance the positive publicity of the job you already have. I have recently seen this with business websites, attaching pictures of their employees and positive customer experiences. Photo sharing is a great way to utilize free advertising!