Hughes blog post: Is Flickr still relevant in today’s social media mix?

Over a year ago I wrote a blog post called Seven reasons why I use Flickr. The post talked about how Flickr might be under threat, but I still enjoyed using it for a number of reasons (seven being that number).

Funnily enough, it’s actually the most popular post here on the Hughes PR blog! Primarily because of search engine traffic – hundreds of people have found my blog post from typing a simple question into Google: “why use Flickr?”

It seems that question is being asked more and more these days as further doubts are raised about Flickr’s ability to keep up with the new kids on the photo-sharing block.

Recently, Gizmodo featured an article headlined How Yahoo Killed Flickr and Lost the Internet. Gizmodo explains how Yahoo, after acquiring Flickr, didn’t dedicate sufficient resources to the site, instead focussing on its more profitable business units such as Yahoo Mail.

Gizmodo editor Mat Honan writes:

“It missed the boat on local, on real time, on mobile, and even ultimately on social-the field it pioneered. And so, it never became the Flickr of video; YouTube snagged that ring. It never became the Flickr of people, which was of course Facebook. It remained the Flickr of photos. At least, until Instagram came along.”

So should I still use Flickr? Yes, I still think it’s a valuable service for what I need it for.

Should clients still use Flickr? Maybe. The service’s declining participation by users and an increasingly fragmented audience mean that there might be better platforms out there for hosting photos and sharing them with target audiences.

Mat says in the spirited comments that follow the article that the point of his story is “that Flickr had a chance to be a lot more than a mere niche site”. But that’s something that Flickr still has going for it – the site has its niche and does a few things very well.

What are your thoughts? Is Flickr an abandoned social network, with tumbleweeds rolling through it? Or is it still a valuable tool for photographers and those who need access to high quality images?

- Kate Potter