5. Product shots: Some B2B products have faces that only their engineer mothers could love.  That said, show off your expensive, complex, innovative products that your customers can use to understand them better.  Include text and links to more information about them…even phone numbers to sales people.

6. Charts: USA Today is the champion of explaining data in visual ways.  Use their infographic technique to explain what your complex company does.

7. Covers of thought leadership reports, books, white papers: It’s an interesting way to let people browse your intellectual capital.  You could even call the Flickr set a “Company X Library.”  Include links to download the reports, to videos where people are discussing the content, or to where people can buy the materials on Amazon.

8. Map showing corporate offices: You’re global.  So show people.  Not every picture has to compel a reader to contemplate their role in the universe.  Sometimes you just want to communicate “we’re everywhere you need us.”

9. Pics from your virtual worlds, animated simulations on other mediums. Link them to where visitors can dive deeper, whether it’s Second Life or a Vimeo, and so forth.

10. Awards and trophies: Include information on what the criterion for the award was.  And you remember that huge application you filled out to be considered for the prize?  Re-purpose it for the text box.

11. Customer recognition ceremonies: Tag the photos with both yours and customer’s name.  That way people searching for the customer will see that you were a part of their success.  Again, include the case study in the text box or link to it so people can find more.  Remember, in B2B land we’re going for micro-targeting.  If just one customer is interested in a specific award, it’s worth it. And it stays online forever, so the cost of doing it goes down by the day.

12. Events that show off company’s culture: If it’s a charitable cause, put in an explanation for why the company chose the charity and invite others to help out.

13. Laboratories: Show ‘em off.  List the great products that came out of them.  Link to the bios of the researchers that work there.

14. Your company and product logos: People will use them anyway.  They might as well get it right. (see Creative Commons below)

15. Green credibility: Have you made your company more energy efficient?  Replaced the corporate fleet with natural gas vehicles?  Put pictures up there.  Link them to media coverage and documents that explain your green efforts.

16. “Movie poster” promoting your podcasts. Link to the series on iTunes.

17. “Movie poster” for your YouTube channel. Link to the channel.

18. “Movie posters” for your other social channels: Blogs, Twitter feeds, LinkedIn Groups with links.

19. Handshake photos of executives with key stakeholders: Helps explain who is important to your company, it flatters the people you photographed, and people searching for the people you’re pictured with to see that you matter to them.

20. Executives giving speeches: With links to transcripts, resulting articles below.

How should I approach Flickr strategically?

21. Don’t think of them as photos.  Consider each image as a place that a micro community can congregate. If there are 40 people in the world who would buy a certain product, and three of them run across a picture of it, encourage them to ask questions of the company and each other.

22. Create public or private groups focused on niche topics to create communities. Many b2B services are very visual.  Engineering, architecture, even business process outsourcing to name a few.  If a picture’s worth a thousand words, a picture on Flickr is worth 10,000 conversations.

23. Find pics of your products that other people have taken: They’re out there.  But maybe your company’s name hasn’t been applied to them in the tags.  I doubt detailed information about them hasn’t been posted in the comments section…yet! Update: Keep it focused on intellectual capital, not salesey.

24. Hold a brainstorm: Ask fans to submit their own ideas via Flickr.

25. Tell your company’s history through photos: Let other people, like employees, and even historians if your company has been around a long time, contribute their piece of the puzzle.

26. Don’t use Flickr for link juice: Flickr applies “nofollow” to its comments to reduce spam.  But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use links.  Your audiences want them even if search engines will overlook their presence. Update: Don’t link to sales-focused information.  It would violate their terms of service.

27. Celebrate great pics taken by employees: They’re taking pics anyway.  Recognize them.  Makes your place a better one.

28. Search for prospects and stakeholders using Flickr: Are there a lot out there for B2Bs?  Probably not.  Are there a few and they’re really passionate about your field and it’s really cheap in time and resources to find?  Yes.  Do it and then strike up a conversation.

29. Do “Flickr interviews:” Holding an event?  Take a picture of an attendee and ask them a question that give them an opportunity to look smart and spread an interesting idea.  Post that mini interview in the comments section.  Include a link to their LinkedIn profile or blog (all with their permission, of course.)

30. Um. Monitor: This is sort of a no-duh, but you’d be surprised how many companies don’t regularly scan Flickr for the names of their companies, products, or executives.  I once found a pic of a nasty note written on a white board to a company I was dealing with.  The company had moved out of the building and the new tenants took a picture of the board and put it on Flickr.  Ouch!

31. Use RSS feeds to stay in touch with communities: Flickr has RSS feeds.  Some of your customers, journalists, analysts and investors will be interested in them.

32. Create groups for events: People will be taking photos at your events anyway.  Might as well offer a centralized place for them, build goodwill and offer some recognition

33. Geotag your photos: It’s another way for people to find your company, its products/services or executives.

34. Update your social media policy: Include in your policy that you want employees to upload photos that show off life at the company.  They’re doing it anyway.  Might as well give them some guidelines on what’s appropriate and take advantage of all the free work they’re doing to show off the business.

35. Use the “People in Photos” feature: Proactively tag your executives/key sales people. Look for photos that don’t comply with your policy and ask to have them taken down.

36. Use Flickr’s Profile Tool: Put in your executive’s bios, blogs links, contact information into the profile. Link them it all together.

37. Use the stats: Flickr can tell you which of your pics are most popular, how searchers found you, and where they come from. Incorporate them into your metrics and use the lessons learned to give the community more of what they want.

38. Join groups related to your sector and share photos with them. That’s it. :)

39. Use the API: Twitter has an open API so you can create apps.  Create, experiment, learn from the experiment. Offer your own API so people can integrate the two data feeds.

40.  Use Creative Commons: The biggest mistake companies make with photos is to lock them up under copyright.  Sure, certain pictures should be protected (like your logo, to a degree).  But when it comes to using photos Update: that help spread intellectual capital, explicitly for marketing purposes, proactively tell people it’s ok to use the photos by placing them in the Creative Commons.

41. Watch the competition: Look at how your competitors are using Flickr.  If there’s a lesson to be learned, learn it.

42. Update the style guide: Especially in global organizations, with far-flung people uploading photos, include simple instructions on how best to label — and especially to tag — photos.

43. Press release photos: Most wire services keep your releases online for just two weeks.  Make sure any photos you’ve used within them get archived on Flickr.  Yes, they’re also on your site, but really, there are probably more people using Flickr to find images than your site.

44. Ask: Ask your audiences, via Twitter, blogs, even old fashioned phone conversations, what photos they’d like to have from you that will make their lives easier.  Even just asking will take you to new levels of trust and goodwill.

45: Updated: Read, embrace and follow updates to Flickr’s best practices for businesses.

Any ideas for how B2B companies can use Flickr?