What happens when I share a photo?

You might be hoping your BBC Weather Watchers photo appears on a BBC Weather report — but did you know, your potential audience is already far bigger?

Lots of people all over the world could see your photo right now, because it sits on a webpage that's open for everyone to view. (Although just because they can see it doesn't mean they will.)

To see your photo, people have to visit the unique address at the top of the page. This is called a URL, and it looks like this:

You can send your friends and family this URL and they can use it to look at your photo online, from anywhere in the world. By doing this, you're sharing your photo.

Anybody can link to any page on the web — you don't need permission to do it.

You can share other people's photos or posts, and anyone can share yours. The people who see those links might then share it with even more people.

Sometimes a post will be shared onwards by thousands, occasionally millions, of people. This is what happens when something goes viral.

Find out how to share your photo.

If you already know how, learn what happens when someone clicks your shared link.