Old photos – horrific experiences or great fun? Whatever you think when you recognize yourself on an old photo I’m sure it evokes certain emotions. I think it’s a great fun to rummage in old photo albums with friends – sometimes wondering how different we looked when we where younger or just remembering good times we spent together. That is why I try to have my digital camera with me whenever possible to catch all the versatile chapters in life. Over the years my computer became my digital photo album which I can organize easily thanks to the technical development.

Welcome to the online photography world

If you not only want to share your photos with your family and friends at home Flickr gives you the easy opportunity to share them with the whole internet (klick here to read wikipedia’s description). To say it with Amy Shuen’s words: “Flickr essentially gives away the services that amateur photographers need and want most: Photo sharing; online storage; and indexing, tagging and photo inventory.”

But Flickr is not only to the amateur photographer’s advantage who can organize his photos, drops into a creative photo database or may even be discovered if talented – it is an interesting communication platform from the corporate perspective, too.

Flickr stream: “Michel Comte Retrospektive”

I’m sure you have heard of Michel Comte, one of the most sought-after fashion and magazine photographers in the world (he portrays numerous celebrities from the world of art, music and entertainment. In addition to portrait photography and fashion he moved towards photo-reportage and documentary). Currently, the exhibition “Michel Comte Retrospektive” can be visited in the ‚NRW-Forum Kultur und Wirtschaft’ in Duesseldorf, Germany.

Michel Comte – 360° from nrwforumduesseldorf on Vimeo.

To promote the exhibition a number of Web. 2.0 tools were used like communication via the website of the ‘NRW Forum’ and a blog which reflects the course of the exhibition. But the most noteworthy idea was to create a Flickr stream. Especially in this case it was a very good idea to put a photo show on Flickr – a platform where all the passionate photographer’s come together to share and exchange their experiences about photography. Doubtlessly, these people are the prospective visitors of the exhibition. To my mind a promising step in the communication concept of the exhibition.

Benefit from Flickr as a professional

To end up for today I’d like to point out two tips of Seth Godin how you can benefit from Flickr as a professional. You will find a full description of them in his blog post ‘Where to find great ideas and arresting images (for free)’:

1. If you need photos for a presentation or website or brochure, try Flickr.

2. When you are trying to brainstorm, Flickr is a great place to find connections between ideas that hadn’t occurred to you.

Why not try them out on the job floor?

(later comment of the author: please note my epilog comment before cursing my post for its length, please – I’m just a novice in the blogging filed and I’ve already learned my lesson for the next  post)

I am addicted to mobile phones! Besides their indispensability in today’s world of constant communications – for professional as well as for private use – (just image you lost your mobile with all your contacts as my fellow student Vanessa did. Read more about that topic in her blog.) – I’m enthusiastic about the constant technological progress and the over and over changing designs. It might sound a bit crazy, but for me my mobile is more than just a communication tool – it’s some kind of lifestyle, too. While it is important to remain true to your partner you fell in love with in human life it’s the opposite with the mobiles I ‘fall in love’ with: It’s a frequent change of brands and designs. Consequently, I follow the development in the mobile phone industry with keen eyes. (By the way, as I don’t want to waste my money I only buy a new mobile if I could lucratively sell my old one e.g. on ebay – again: all over Web 2.0 activities).

The last mobile I ‘fell in love’ with was a Sony Ericsson (SE). And it has not been my first ‘liaison’ with this brand. How is this possible? Definitely because of the mobiles of SE in general – they are technological up to date, reliable and stylish. But there has to be something else… any idea? Right! The communication of the company with me as a potential customer – in my case their communication via the corporate website: Because if I want to buy a new mobile the internet is always my first stop on my shopping trip and almost ever the final stop, too. Let’s take a closer look at the website of SE together. Why? The answer is easy: I’m convinced that an informative and interesting corporate website is indispensable for winning new customers and selling products in the Web 2.0 environment.

Will the SE Website stand the test?

Has the company realized the potential of its website? Did it catch me directly? Did it enrich my time with content?  I’m sure you’ve already got an idea how the test will end, haven’t you (as I’ve just betrayed that I’ve bought the phone)? But keep it to yourself Here we go!*

*My reflections are based on the findings on content-rich websites by David
Meerman Scott in ‘The New Rules of Marketing & PR – How to use news releases, blogs, podcasting, viral marketing & online media to reach buyers directly’.

First ‘brownie-point’: design

Let’s go to the UK SE website. Quickly the side opens, right? My first visual impression: Lively colors, well-arranged space, easy navigation. ‘Brownie-point’! But, I’m sure you share the following opinion with me: An appealing design does not make a good website at all! Never overlook the content aspect, please!

Second ‘brownie-point’: site organization

Let’s click a bit on the different icons – the content of the entire page is very well organized, isn’t it? From the front page which is broken into several main sections including products, fun & downloads up to useful categories within the several topic based subpages. ‘Brownie-point’!

Third and ‘fourth brownie-point’: content-richness and entertainment

Fifth ‘brownie-point’: cultivating relationships

The last brownie-point I’d like to give today is for the following: It seems as if SE especially makes an effort to keep its customers (e.g. me!) after they bought  a mobile as the website offers a lot of support and entertainment for SE mobile users. To my mind, not only winning new customers makes profit but also cultivating the reached relationship is an important step to company success.

What would be interesting but seems to be missing so far is a forum or wiki where customers can share their experiences and help each other. That’s why I fell back on the following useful websites as an alternative:

xonio.com: A reliable German website testing mobiles and computers. Offers a blog and a forum, too.

blog.se-nse.net: Unofficial SE blog.

se-world.info: Because of 240 000 members the provider calls this website the biggest German community discussing SE mobiles.

cellphonesail.net: By chance I found this wordpress blog. I like it because it discusses unusual or new variants of existing SE mobiles. In fact, I found the first picture of my current SE in this blog even before the German SE website published it.

Anyway, in conclusion the SE website provided all the information I needed and took me through my consideration process as a customer very well.

Epilogue: No ‘brownie-’ but minus point for the length of my post

In the end, I’m afraid I have to give a minus point to myself as my ‘never ending SE story’ is much too long for a blog post! Learning by doing!