Olympus Europe Flickr group - closed

[AMc]

Discovered this yesterday trying to post an image to their group. Olympus's participation in their own Flickr group has been less than stellar for a long time now but now they've abandoned it completely - and locked their users out from posting more images, responding to this post or starting their own.

https://www.flickr.com/groups/olympus-europe-photography/discuss/72157685449779773/

248,593 photos from 5304 members visible to the Flickr community and the wider internet promoting Olympus cameras and lenses.
Now they want you to join a "community" which requires registration before you can see a single image

Baffling - free advertising from their loyal customers abandoned .
I already have an account with their service (as part of registering cameras) but never thought much to the photo sharing after it refused to accept an image edited in GIMP or Lightroom for a competition.

[shotokan101]

Re: Olympus Europe Flickr group - closed

Idiot Decision - 'Nuff Said IMO...

[Phill D]

Re: Olympus Europe Flickr group - closed

I wasn't aware of that particular group to be honest but it does seem to be a pretty strange decision. Surely pissing off over 5000 potential customers isn't a great marketing decision?

[AMc]

Re: Olympus Europe Flickr group - closed

Adding your pictures was advertised as a way to get Olympus to consider them for their social media channels.
I never really cared but I did enjoy posting some and looking at others to see what people can do with the same gear.
There was always to ridiculous long shot that they might offer me a loan of something I couldn't afford to play with

The last "official" post from them was back in January 2013!

https://www.flickr.com/groups/olympus-europe-photography/discuss/72157632458797107/

There are plenty of other unofficial Olympus groups, it just seems like a stupid move. It wasn't a hot bed of dissent and was running along without their interference.

I work around corporate comms and I understand that marketing have to do more with fewer people these days. Olympus seem to be determined to reinvent the wheel with the exception of their Instagram account which is fairly active - though no more than retailers like Jessops.

The irony for me is some of my major multinational clients are moving away from their own hosted image libraries onto Flickr because it's essentially free to use. You get the platform for nothing at all - no development, hosting or security costs - so you focus your marketing budget interacting with your audience.

A pity.

[David M]

Re: Olympus Europe Flickr group - closed

It wouldn't surprise me if Flickr don't eventually adopt the same marketing strategy as Photobucket have recently done and charge members for the right to post photos on external sites. The revenue potential of such a decision must be astronomical.

John

But think of all the shots of Fluffy, Tiddles and Delilah people will miss.

Olympus America are far more active on Instagram than Olympus. Given the marketing opportunities on Instagram you'd think that they would be making a bit of an effort.

[AMc]

Re: Olympus Europe Flickr group - closed

Well as Verizon now own Yahoo! and in turn Oath now own Flickr after years of limbo.
I wouldn't be surprised to see some changes. They will certainly look at monetising us users as we contribute no revenue.
I wouldn't expect to see anything as clumsy as the Photobucket change but I could be wrong!