Who doesn’t love photography? Whether enjoying stunning photographs or taking a few personal snapshots, everyone has a connection to the art of using a camera.

For some, it is more than a hobby, however; It is a passion, a love, a lifestyle.

Let’s take a look at the four first steps you’ll want to take after opening your own Flickr account.

1. Trick Out Your Flickr Profile

This is always the fun part, for me, when opening up a new account anywhere – getting set up. I know lots of people do tend to skip this part, usually because of lack of time or because they don’t think it matters, but it does.

While logged in to your Flickr account, click on the “You” tab and then “Your Profile.” In the right column there is a box entitled “Manage your profile.” Under “Edit your profile,” there are multiple fields that you may choose to fill, and may I recommend that you do so. Especially important will be your current location, website, and a description of yourself. For your bio, you may choose to mention your credentials, interests, and any other photography or artistic related information. Most other information will be irrelevant and, keep in mind, this will be viewable to everyone – including potential employers or clients.

Edit your profile privacy to your needs. A buddy icon is a necessity in branding yourself as a photographer. Choose either a photo of yourself, obscure or clear, or another image to act as your avatar. Be sure to set the name for your url, as it will assist in navigating to your photostream and in memorizing your url; this is unchangeable, once set. The screenname is what will actually show up next to your photos, and can be either the same name used in your url or any other that you chose. This is something you will be able to change later on.

2. Organize and Optimize Your Photostream

In the top row of tabs in Flickr there is a tab called “Organize;” click this. If you didn’t do it while uploading your images, now is the time to sort them into sets and collections. Additionally, you’ll be able to label your photos with titles, descriptions, and tags (be sure to put multiple word tags into quotation marks). You can do this with either a single photograph at a time or a bunch of them, depending on which you select.

There are so many great things you can do in the optimization section, so let’s run over them briefly:

• Rotate
• Delete
• Viewing and licensing permissions
• Safety filters (mature or not) and content types (photographs, videos, screenshots, digitally rendered, etc)
• Date/Time settings
• Tag Flickr friends
• Send to a Group (See more about Groups in number 4)
• Geographical location that photograph or video was taken in
• Order prints

3. Build a Community of Your Own

It can never be stressed enough that when dealing with social networks you actually build a network. This means adding friends and contacts. Whether its your dad, a colleague, or a photographer that you really respect, it is important to add contacts of all sorts on Flickr. Simply put, this way you can keep track of their new uploads, and they of yours.

Don’t worry – you can set a contact under one of three different associations. Depending upon the viewing permissions you set (see the step above), you can control who sees what.

• Contact – The basic level of contact. This is best used for folks you don’t know well.
• Friend – I recommend using this for your true friends… and if you want to keep your work life separate from your personal life, don’t add your coworkers – and especially not your boss.
• Family – This is best for your family members. Many non-tech savvy clan members will not want their reunion photos public, so here you can limit it to a specific network.

4. Become a Groupie

Flickr Groups are more than just pools of photos, they’re another way to connect and promote your own work. While you should join groups with concepts that interest you, be sure to add your own photographs to group pools that are applicable. Search for a group by heading to the “Groups” tab on Flickr.

If you can’t find a Flickr group that fits your needs, or if you want to create a more specific niche group, you can also create your own.

There are many more features and functions to Flickr, but this should get you started. Stay tuned for more Flickr guides, coming soon.