Setting Up Your Account

Respect Flickr's Community Guidelines.

Before you even set up your account, make sure you have read the site's Community Guidelines, which clearly spell out what you can and can't do on the site. "The community really supports us in maintaining the integrity as a place for people to share their photographs," said Champ. "Therefore, don't use your account to host graphics or logos for your Web site, and don't look at Flickr as just a marketing platform to broadcast your organisation's fundraising appeals. Also, don't upload photos that weren't taken by you or that violate copyright laws."

After you read them, a good idea might be to make hard copies of the Community Guidelines and distribute them to staff who will also be working with Flickr. Use these guidelines as you brainstorm about your Flickr presence to ensure that you will be using the site correctly. If you are unsure whether your plans conform to the guidelines, post a question in the User Forums or the Flickr Help/Contact form.

Set up your account as an individual, but use group features as an organisational hub.

In order to join Flickr, you'll need to set up a Yahoo account and agree to the Yahoo Terms of Service, which also encompass the Flickr Community Guidelines. You should sign up for a Flickr account is as an individual per the Terms of Service.

Why can't you create an organisational profile? Champ explains that not only do individual profiles make it easier to resolve technical issues, Flickr offers different settings for privacy, licensing, and sharing — something a group of users might not agree on. Also, keep in mind that every account comes with a "delete" button that allows you to take down the account. "Do you really want everyone who has access to an account to have access to the delete option?" Champ asked. "It is really sad, but it has happened. Things change. We've seen some people sharing an account delete all the photos."

Despite this rule, however, you will see members whose nonprofits profiles on Flickr use the organisations' name and logos; this is fine as long as it is clear that this is an individual account. While Flickr has yet to delete a nonprofit organisational account, Champ said, "if it became an issue and there were other community guideline violations, we'd have to consider it. We don't actively police nonprofits, but we have deleted accounts set up by commercial brands, for example liquor or watches."

Many nonprofits are tempted to ignore the terms of service and set up an organisational account due to concerns about potential staff changes over time or for branding reasons. Yet a better way to address this is to have various team members create individual accounts, then use the group feature as an organisational hub for sharing of photos. The group features offers a shared space where multiple users can contribute photos and participate in discussions; it can also be branded with the organisation’s logo, name, and other information. (For more information on group features, see Tip 9, below.)

Yet the worse thing your organisation can do is open up a Flickr account for the sole purpose of using other members' photos without sharing any and without filling out a profile. An empty accounts can look like spam to other Flickr members and could reflect poorly on your organisation.