Citizen Image Launches ciSyndicate. Sell photos from your social network!
Citizen Image, a company we interviewed a while back, is an online tool for the distribution of user-generated photos to existing publications such as USA Today. They are announcing ciSyndicate, which includes their partnership with two image-sharing sites, "giving users the option to seamlessly sell images on Citizen Image," said their CEO Feargall Kenny. The two image sharing sites are third party social networks Pixpulse and Photagious. With these affiliations, Citizen Image has added 10,000 photos to their repository.
ciSyndicate utilizes RSS functionality and links to grant easy selling options for Pixpulse and Photagious users. You can choose to automatically stream your images for availability on Citizen Image or click on a "sell" link that will submit a particular photo to be sold through Citizen Image.
It's a new level of participation not only with the established media industry, but with social networking and citizen journalism as well. As more user-generated content becomes available, particularly online, it is necessary to find easy ways for that content to be monetized by its owner. Incorporating that feature into existing social networks that thrive on content-sharing activities is an excellent way for Citizen Image to tap into the power of the people, extending the reaches of both media and the mass.
"there's a fundamental shift from
sharing [content] to monetization."
To frame this in the larger picture, Kenny notes that "there's a fundamental shift from sharing [content] to monetization." Citizen Image's partnership with Pixpulse and Photagious is beneficial for the networks because they're now creating value to pass along to their users, giving then the ability to make money from their photos. It's dually beneficial for Citizen Image as it increases the amount of content available for publishing and extends their brand even further through the Internet. In terms of the relationship between Citizen Image and social networks, they have created an indirect way of interacting with the networks' users.
This service can obviously be extended to a great number of other content-sharing sites; even those that do not focus on image-sharing. When asked if they would be looking to work with more networks, Kenny said "right now we're targeting image-sharing sites, but we're very much interested in not only providing white label services to social networks that will be involved in a wide variety of services; for example, travel. We could create a process allowing photographic input from users to real customers looking at travel-oriented content or a travel company."
This way of approaching the niche markets further empowers the citizen journalist and provides an invaluable resource to established media. It will also create a great resource for newcomers looking to start a new wave of publications, whether they're printed or online. Removing previous barriers to entry levels the playing field to a certain extent, bringing new and exciting challenges for everyone involved.
