Guest Post written by Ilan Peer

I never get deeply upset or let emotions get the better of me when it comes to dealing with web services.

I mean I do expect them to deliver and  fulfill their added value but if the service doesn’t deliver, i don’t take it personally nor get angry (..at least I don’t get angry for longer than 2 minutes).  I remind you we are talking about web services and most of them do not cost us money.

So what about a web service where i am a paying customer? Should i take it to heart when the web service “hurts me” personally? Do I feel bad after I terminate our relationship?

Flickr is a web service where I am a paying costumer and I was a happy customer until a few months ago. I used Flickr for a few years and right from the start I knew I want to ‘store’ my photos there (rather than just share them). In a sense it was a storage room for my pics.

Flickr has a great community, lots of social and sharing features and they had a great team leading their services .. they were on the golden path to becoming the nicest brand on the web. So what happened?

I can only tell you my personal opinion, but lately I’ve read some blog posts from mighty users such as Thomas Hawk, Yaniv Golan.  Thomas Hawk and Yaniv Golan are known figures in both the tech/internet world and the photography one. Thomas Hawk, who writes almost daily about Flickr and other photography related issues attempted to overthrow the flickr empire with zooomr (’nuff respect for him) I appreciate the way he uses the site – see what i mean?

Whether it’s Flickr’s censorship policy or technical hiccups, the service is not running smoothly. The site is not respecting the users feelings nor how they are behaving on the site.  Seeing new features is quite rare these days on Flickr. I remember when Flickr add the flic.kr service which allowed you to post photos directly to your twitter stream (check the short url service that came along – http://flic.kr) it was great news but apparently the hype faded real quick.

I knew Caterina Fake was one of the founders of Flickr. I used to follow her photo stream. I enjoyed seeing some Flickr HQ pics and all, but ever since she left for her new start-up called Hunch , I personally feel a little abandoned

I don’t consider myself a photographer. Most of the pictures I take and upload come from my cell phone camera (I use the Nokia N95) and in essence show my life stream.  I love to share my photos with outsiders and not only with the photography freaks on flickr (hence the flic.kr service).  I really can’t put the finger on what’s bothering me right now, yet coming across other blog posts and status updates of  how others feel exactly the same way I do about Flickr only solidifies the feeling. Perhaps Flickr will wake up soon and change things?

This is not a threat post, ‘Satisfy-me-before-I-am-leaving’ kinda post. I still have a pro account till October 21st, 2010 which I intend to use fully.  If you own a Flickr pro account – i’d love to hear your thoughts.

The lovely picture comes from: Peter Renshaw a.k.a. bootload

Guest Post written by Ahuvah Berger

Everywhere you turn you hear the words social media, user generated content, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, etc but the real question remains – what is the purpose of social media? How can companies leverage these tools to engage and monitor their brands online?

We have watched an evolution occur on the internet- from a period of time when there was a distinctive line between the content creators and the content consumers. Now almost everyone who uses the internet is considered a content creator and can harness the power of user generated content.

Content creators wield significant influence over their individual communities i.e. blog readers, Facebook friends, Twitter followers, etc. Each platform enables a community or sub community to emerge from the interaction between the publisher and the readers and readers can republish the relevant information on their own communities. Both positive and negative viral marketing takes place when individuals within communities add their personal perspective on a message and republish it within their communities.

Companies no longer have the luxury of publishing their content on the internet and ignoring the reaction and feedback from the content consumers. Internet users wield incredible viral power when sharing their opinion with their respective online communities. It is no longer sharing one message to the collective mass but the mass sharing individual messages to their masses.

Engaging the Masses

There is a huge shift now from the company deciding on its brand and the consumer market re-defining the brand message within their communities. Corporations need to expand their marketing and branding teams to include someone who is responsible for listening and engaging the masses using the tools of social media. Not all tools are applicable for every company but at the same time the company cannot stand on its soapbox screaming its message without letting the market respond.

Start with listening to what others are saying about your company. Listen and hear what your customers say about you – for if you do not listen, you cannot change the customer’s opinion. There are many different internet platforms enabling corporations to keep a finger on the pulse of their brand.

Gather feedback from the market – from the large web influencers to the smaller influencers, as both groups are part of the collective viral force. Once armed with market feedback corporations can then engage online with its fans and detractors.

Bottom line, corporations must pay attention to the power of the masses in order to tap into the viral aspect of the web and maintain better control over the brand’s online image.