Small Business owners can use cool new visual technology tools to showcase their business.

My first camera was an AGFA 35 which at that time was a leading edge “film camera”. As a kid I remember the thrill of going to a camera store to buy the camera with my dad and my brother. How times have changed!

Little did I know that my phone would now be my camera of choice. I have a Samsung Galaxy S 2 and it takes 8MP pictures and uploads them in real-time to various social networks.

We are so lucky that the process of taking a visual picture of the business from “click to share” has become a very easy process. Your customers are doing it. See all the pictures on Flickr for the search term Whole Foods .

Also look at the results for a Google Image search for Whole Foods Now think about all the times you had a great happy moment in your business -an arrival of a new product, a happy customer, a colorful holiday display, anything that conjures up a image in your mind.

Folks like to see pictures. I visited Dubai last summer and watched a lot of videos and saw a lot of pictures as we were planning our visit. We chose the hotel after seeing the pictures and also the activities we wanted to do while we were there.

Everyday billions of videos are uploaded and watched on YouTube. The same with photos – Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, twitpic are some of the popular sites for photo social networking. A newcomer Pinterest is getting a lot of buzz and traction. You should check it out.

Advantages of sharing photos from your business

• Ability to increase the “findability” of your business in search results. Along with text results, search engines show image andvideo results as well
• Showcase your products through images
• Humanize your business by showing pictures of the personalities behind the business
• If there is a special occasion make sure you have pictures to show future customers

Things to do with your pictures

• Group them and tag your visual content. A tag is an important piece of information you are giving a photo or a video to enable people searching to find your picture easily
• Add a link to your website for people to get more information about your business
• If you would like other people to use the pictures and link back to your website , licence your pictures as Creative Commons. This is a good strategy to get nbound links and to spread your content further (not a good strategy if you are in the professional photography business)

Work flow to upload pictures

• If you are uploading pictures from your phone you can use several apps to share them with your friends. A word of caution here is that you should make sure the pictures are appropirate and have been tagged properly.
• Share your pictures or videos in networks where you have more followers.
• Use tools like Google’s Picasa to import from your camera and organize them.

If you are taking pictures of people within your business it may be a good idea to get their consent. Docstoc has some sample Photography release forms. I am not a lawyer so I would recommend that you to get some advice on this.

Another use of uploading pictures/videos to social networks is that you can use these picures or videos on your website by embedding them into your website and save space.

Have fun showing the world the visual side of your business. Let us know how you use visual tools to create awareness of your business.

Author: Shashi Bellamkonda     Shashi Bellamkonda on the Web Shashi Bellamkonda on Twitter Shashi Bellamkonda on LinkedIn Shashi Bellamkonda on Google Plus Shashi Bellamkonda RSS Feed

Shashi Bellamkonda currently oversee all social media and public relations activities at Network Solutions, a firm that helps small businesses start and market their businesses on the Web. In this role, he has compiled an impressive record of achievements that includes transforming the company’s Web presence,… View full profile

This article originally appeared on Wood Street News & Blog and has been republished with permission.

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