1. SOCIAL
STUDIES
How photographers can leverage
social media to maintain and grow
their business
1
Friday, May 28, 2010

2. Social Media: Overview
From Wikipedia:
“Social media is media designed to be
disseminated through social interaction,
created using highly accessible and scalable
publishing techniques. Social media uses Internet
and web-based technologies to transform
broadcast media monologues (one to many) into
social media dialogues (many to many).”
Friday, May 28, 2010

3. Social Media: Overview
Questions Everybody Asks:
“Should I be using social media for my business?”
“Should I be on Facebook, or Twitter, or both?”
“How do I really make these things productive?”
“Hardly anyone reads my blog? Should I bother?”
“Is there a right and wrong way to do this?”
“Is this worth my time?”
Friday, May 28, 2010

4. Measurement
With any marketing initiative, you need to give yourself a
goal and a metric to help objectively assess if you
performed well.
‣ Know your goal
What are you ultimately trying to achieve?
• Book more assignments from existing clients
• Brand yourself as the most respected wedding photographer
in your region.
• Sell more stock photography from your archive.
• Develop a following of Yellowstone Park enthusiasts who buy
your fine art prints
• Obtain critique or professional guidance from a wider
network of your peers.
Friday, May 28, 2010

5. Your Marketing Efforts
There are 2 primary types of marketing:
Outbound Inbound
“You find them” “They find you”
E-mail Campaigns Social Media
Promo Card Mailings Search Engines
Cold Calling Blogs
Paid Advertising Word of Mouth
Interruption Permission
Friday, May 28, 2010

6. Your Marketing Efforts
There are 2 primary types of marketing:
Outbound + Inbound
=
Your marketing plan.
Friday, May 28, 2010

7. Your Marketing Efforts
There is no perfect
recipe for mixing
inbound and
outbound tactics.
Your marketing plan.
Friday, May 28, 2010

8. It’s a bunch of tubes!
Social Media for business is NOT for mindless interaction
It’s a conduit to your website
to your points of conversion
Friday, May 28, 2010

9. Conversion is key
In other words
Having lots of “friends” is useless
if you cannot get them to do
what you want them to do
Friday, May 28, 2010

10. Why use social media?
There are several very obvious approaches and benefits
to using social media for marketing and business growth.
‣ Brand building
‣ Managing relationships
‣ Direct sales generation
‣ Search engine rankings
‣ Inspiration & feedback
Friday, May 28, 2010

11. Twitter
Twitter is a “micro-blogging” platform. It lets you
express yourself in short, 140-character “tweets.”
‣ Twitter accounts in 2009: 18 million
‣ Twitter accounts in 2010: 26 million (projected)
‣ The average Twitter account has 300 followers.
‣ The average account follows 173 accounts.
‣ The average account has posted 420 updates.
‣ 82% of users have less than 100 followers, 81% are
following less than 100 people.
Friday, May 28, 2010

12. 3 12 26 50
Friday, May 28, 2010

13. Twitter & photogs
We’ve seen dozens of ways that photographers are
using Twitter productively, including:
‣ Driving new, quality traffic to your website or blog
‣ Driving signups for your newsletter
‣ Building relationships with potential clients
‣ Announcing news, achievements, special promotions,
and events.
‣ Generating awareness and interest in your services
‣ Discussing professional issues with your peers
‣ Connecting with local vendors for business referrals
and partnerships
‣ Obtaining feedback on images
‣ Performing trend research
Friday, May 28, 2010

14. Twitter & photogs
Some tips for growing your followers on Twitter:
‣ Provide useful information.
‣ Tweet regularly
‣ Retweet regularly
‣ Suggest that people follow you.
‣ Start and contribute to conversations.
‣ Attribute everything.
‣ Engage with the big guys.
‣ Watch your timing and consistency.
‣ Use strategic keywords
‣ Practice reciprocity.
Friday, May 28, 2010

15. Twitter & PhotoShelter
You can link Twitter and your PhotoShelter website
in two ways:
‣ Let your website visitors post your
work on Twitter.
Friday, May 28, 2010

16. Twitter & PhotoShelter
You can link Twitter and your PhotoShelter website
in two ways:
‣ Post image galleries to Twitter.
Friday, May 28, 2010

17. Twitter Bottom Line
It’s really hard to succeed on Twitter unless
‣ You can build a following of > 1000
people
‣ You have regular tweets with good
informational value
‣ You’re producing tweetable content
‣ You have a conversion goal
Friday, May 28, 2010

18. Facebook
Today, 400 million people are currently
registered with Facebook to connect with friends
and professional contacts.
‣ More than 3.5 billion pieces of content shared
weekly
‣ More than 2.5 billion photos uploaded to the
site each month. The largest photo sharing site
in the world
‣ Average user has 130 friends on the site
‣ Average user spends 55 minutes per day on
Facebook
‣ Average user writes 25 comments on Facebook
content each month
Friday, May 28, 2010

19. Facebook
One important point to consider:
Facebook has become the
communication
method of choice for
millions of people.
Friday, May 28, 2010

20. Facebook & photogs
Why you might use it for a photography business:
‣ Build a community around your
business.
‣ Promote your content.
‣ Deepen relationships.
‣ Referral business
‣ Get yourself found online.
Friday, May 28, 2010

21. Facebook & photogs
Tips to maximize a business fan page:
‣ Engage with your fans. Post
updates frequently.
‣ Feed your blog directly into your
Page via RSS.
‣ Customize your Page with rich
HTML tabs.
‣ Use the page avatar to showcase
your photography.
Friday, May 28, 2010

22. Facebook & photogs
Tips to maximize a business fan page:
‣ Optimize your page for SEO
‣ Work hard to grow your fans.
‣ Consider creating a resource page
to attract new fans.
‣ Use Facebook’s stats and Google
Analytics to optimize your Page.
‣ Use “Updates” sparingly.
Friday, May 28, 2010

23. Fan page stats
Friday, May 28, 2010

24. Beyond Facebook
Friday, May 28, 2010

25. Don’t Fan Me
Don’t send me unsolicited fan page invitations
because there is no apparent value.
Friday, May 28, 2010

26. Blogging
There are several primary reasons to explore blogging:
‣ To promote your photography
‣ SEO - Helping search engines find you.
‣ Demonstrate you are a thought leader.
‣ Demonstrate how you work.
‣ Create and maintain a dialogue with
your audience.
Friday, May 28, 2010

27. Blogging Success Tips
‣ Have a plan.
‣ Know your theme.
‣ Let people access your content on
their terms.
‣ Make your personality clear.
‣ Make it a two-way, engaging
experience.
‣ Optimize every post for SEO.
Friday, May 28, 2010

28. Blogging
Using your blog to build links, some tips:
‣ Think “linkbait”
• Top 10 lists – (e.g.. top 10 inspiring nature photographers, 10
most powerful brands in photography, 10 ways to piss off a photo
editor.)
• Dispute the popular opinion about anything – use facts or
data for support.
• Intelligent tips, based on your experiences or gathered from
an industry icon.
• Divulge the secrets of your success, or ask your
followers to do the same, and link to it.
• Post reviews of popular products and ask for debate.
• Publish a resource list aggregating the best online articles
on a given subject.
Friday, May 28, 2010

29. Blogging & PhotoShelter
Using your blog to build links, some tips:
‣ Embeddable slideshows & single
images
‣ PhotoShelter seamless customization
to integrate your blog
‣ Graph Paper Press Wordpress
Customization & Plugins
Friday, May 28, 2010

30. The Bottom Line
Social Media is real
People are succeeding in promoting their biz
It’s worth testing, but you need measurements
Define goals, don’t waste time
Be constructive, less controversial
Friday, May 28, 2010