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Skip’S Summer School ’09 Presentation
- 2. THE NEW RENAISSANCE Surviving and Thriving Online
- 6. WHO IS THIS GUY??
- 15. @MACgroup
- 23. WHAT WILL YOU LEARN? How people find you How to improve your chances of being found How to measure it
- 62. Use great copy with your links!
- 117. YOUTUBE: HOT SPOTS
- 118. YOUTUBE: HOT SPOTS
- 121. YOUTUBE DISCOVERY: SOURCES #2
- 123. YOUTUBE DISCOVERY: SEARCHES ON YT
- 125. COMMENTS ARE GOOD: DON’T FEED THE TROLLS, LEARN FROM THEM
- 126. YOUTUBE DISCOVERY: EMBEDDED #2
- 130. CHOCOLATE RAIN – MEME TO MONEY
- 140. BE YOURSELF
Notas do Editor
- Thank you all for coming to Skip’s Summer School and for taking time out to spend some with us, learning and improving. I’m Matt Hill How many of you have your own blog? Twitter? Facebook? How many of you carry around your photos on your phone to show other people?
- I believe we live in an incredible time. At no other point in the written history of Man have we had this much access to other people, information and ideas. Similar to the Italian Renaissance where artists were also men of science, statesmen and anything else they chose to be, now – today – we can be photographers, leaders, instructors, peers and participate in as many pursuits as we find interesting. The important distinction is that where some people like Da Vinci were noted for one particular thing, you should also focus on playing to your strengths… but leave room for the rest. It’s valuable.
- You might ask why I am showing all these out of season photos.. It’s damn hot here in Vegas. I need to remind myself that cooler climes do exist. Anyway, I suggest you follow your desires and passions. Why? It will lead to good things. One of those things you should follow is how to communicate effectively using the Web.
- If you don’t, you risk being… And by the way, I saw this last week in Stop and Shop. I couldn’t resist.
- Speak about Walter Murch – modern Ranaissance Man – inspiration, beauty, creative spillover
- But wait! Who the heck is this guy? And why do my opinions matter? Truthfully, I’m just a guy. But I do follow all my passions. Let me tell you a bit more about me so you can understand where I am coming from.
- My day job is Marketing Communications Manager at MAC Group. You may know us by our brands. I’ve been at MAC for nearly 14 years now, and my passion for photography brought me here. It’s a wonderful place with wonderful people with wonderful products. I love it. As fo rmy job, if it touches the Web, it pretty much goes through me. And that a whole lotta communication over 13 brands! Email, updates, banner advertising, social media, all of it. No opportunity to get bored, or make mistakes
- I started all of our blogs. I wrote all of them until I got more people on board and now I am glad to say that despite the challenges,
- I am proud we can give back by featuring interesting photographers and great information
- We have professional photographer writers working with us now, like Rachel Hulin. She’s a fantastic gal who is a great writer, photographer. lover of photography, curator, and photo editor previously for greta publications like Rolling Stone. We’re glad to have her on board.
- And lately I am focused on getting more guest bloggers. DC Chavez is a cool cat – we met him in LA at our Profoto Assistants Party. He wanted to talk more about light shaping and we wanted more meaty, delicious content for the blog. It’s a match made in heaven. And my eyes are wide open for more opportunities! (wink)
- I started and run our Twitter account. If I didn’t wear so many hats, our account would be more personal. But for now it’s strictly informational – every time we post or update something new online, it’s Tweeted.
- Photographer since I was sixteen. I especially enjoy night and travel photography.
- Here is my photoblog.
- Artist. I go full analog in my downtime by grabbing an X-Acto knife and some paper and papercutting freeform. Great way to live in the moment.
- I’ve done a lot of commercial video work, like this piece for Profoto with Annie Leibovitz
- And now am engaged in some indie film work
- I blog for fun and insight. I find that the act of writing out your thoughts for other people is a catalyst for thinking, both creative and analytical.
- And despite appearances, I’m a bit of a geek, too. Can you tell I haven’t figured out what I want to do when I grow up yet?
- You already know how to communicate as a photographer. Your work speaks for itself, or you wouldn’t be here. Learning how to communicate with written language and video is essential to thriving.
- Relate story about Pushcart and how it landed the job editing The Hunting Insight: If you like doing it, other people that like it will find you.
- What was a night of fun-seeking turned good turned into a film a year later, which got me into an indie feature five years later.
- EVERYthiing you embark on should begin with this simple exercise. As yourself three questions: What is my Goal? How do you measure success of this particular action? i.e. I want to get five more people to gin up for my workshop, I want to sell 10% more albums in the next three months, etc. Who is my Audience? Do not cheap out on this one. Make 2 or three character sketches. Describe who the likely person is who would perform this goal. How old are thye? What is thei rjob? How much do they make? What do they watch on television? What websites do they visit? Use your imagination and pretend you are defining a character in a screenplay or novel. Payoff. What is the benefit for the person you are attracting? Without this, they will NOT do what you are asking. Be sure to clearly define what their benefit will be so you can then, in turn clearly explain it to them. Fill in the GAP!
- Let’s talk nuts and bolts now.
- What do we use when we use the Web? (Hands) Language. Words. We describe what we want by typing in a domain name, searching for something with words and reading words on websites. It’s a verb – we search for what we want. People will share things that they like with their peers, family and associates. It’s as easy as clicking on a link or copying and pasting. Good content gets passed on! Information is mostly unregulated on the internet. Consider newspapers and magazines – how you must navigate your way up through editorship to reach the pages and the audience that comes with the excellence cultivated by those editors. On the internet, anyone can publish their thoughts, work and advertisements. And that is why you must focus on being the best you that you can be when you embark on promoting yourself on the Web. That includes being good at describing what you do with good language.
- Story about attending Federated Media Summit and phrase “tradigital” It’s the standard now. It’s possible to get by without doing it, depending on your business model. If you aren’t doing something virtual to promote yourself, start now.
- Google rules all, but their want everyone to trust them, so they try their best to always improve results. The net effect is that hopefully you get what you search for. Other services are working on trying to compete with Google, but for now, they remain far behind.
- You can do it if you want, it’s optional It does have benefits, though
- Anatomy of Google. Talk it out. Laser Pointer or MousePose
- I’m about to show some search results I used back in February at WPPI, and then compare them to the same search done today to prove the point that this is a moving target. Some reasons may include: Location (I’m in the same place I Googled both..) Different advertisers Different websites came and went Someone engaged in SEO!
- Old search for “portrait photographer Las vegas” no quotes
- Ummm, get listed if you shoot in Vegas
- Ummm, get listed if you shoot in Vegas
- Ummm, get listed if you shoot in Vegas
- Ummm, get listed if you shoot in Vegas
- Ummm, get listed if you shoot in Vegas
- These good habits of communicating with your keyphrases in mind also helps when engaging in the social Web.
- Social search = NOW Google search = everything else. Need both – try TwoQuick.com
- Social search = NOW Google search = everything else. Need both – try TwoQuick.com
- Get your vanity URL now. Not your name? Try your business?
- The good habits you are learning elsewhere should apply everywhere, folks.
- In a world full of information overload, Twitter is both an escape and a black hole – but it’s all voluntary. That’s a key distinction. You get 144 characters to say something, and then it gets pushed down the page. So you better say it well. Think Newspaper headlines, only with a soul. Relate Federated Media hashtag – history deleted now, or Twitter search not working
- You may have heard about it. It’s not black magic – it’s just a collection of good habits regarding your website.
- Clients – think about how you speak to them and what conversations were most persuasive. Cross- linking –use a phrase like “Call us for for an appointment” instead of “contact us” because it’s more specific and action-oriented.
- I’m #8 on a search for “matt hill”. With all the Matt Hills out there in the world, why is that? SEO.
- How did I do it? My art website uses my name often, plus is gaining inbound links slowly but steadily. Homepage is text-rich, but written for humans.
- Each webpage is visually about the art, but the title, tags, alt tags – all are filled out meticulously. At first I did this to understand whys and hows two years ago. And back then I didn’t even make page 7 for this (NEXT SLIDE)
- And now I am #3. Showing among other well-regarded artists such as Peter Calleson and Jen Stark, and my friend Patrick Gannon. Granted, it’s a niche of a niche – but it was a great place to learn what works. And now that I look at my own short description, I see that podPress has taken over a field I wrote differently. Ah, Wordpress…. The lesson here is that it’s a long-term plan you make adjustments to and then continue tweaking for best and more results.
- Without measurement, you are flying blind. There are lots of free tools that help you focus on finding actionable information in your Web efforts. Use them, study them, learn from them. I’ll cover Google and YouTube more during the Case study coming up, so let’s look at Facebook for a moment.
- When you create a business page on Facebook, you can access “insights” to see the quality of your interaction with them. It’s a simple equation, in my mind. The more quality postings and comment you leave, the higher your value to your fans.
- Knowledge is power, folks. At least know enough to know what it’s worth. If you can put it into your workflow, great. If not, then find somebody who can do what you want and get back to shooting. And I just have to say that after WPPI this year I got lots of inquiries, and I am grateful, but I have a hard time keeping up with all of my pursuits. I don’t do this as a side job, but I am very happy that Skip gave me the opportunity to share my experiences with you!
- Ron Dawson will be covering social media in depth today at 4:30 – 6:30. It’s huge, fun and fascinating. Don’t miss what Ron has to say about this and more. I will put forth that my opinion is that search will have less and less importance as the social networks evolve further. Why? Well, not only does the whole advertising industry see it coming, but also consider this:
- Strategic and fun relationships can boost your visibility online. Consider working with people you admire, or becoming the next best thing with a small group of friends. The power of combined networks is a powerful thing, indeed.
- Check these Brooklynites out. Sportin’ their New York fashion, phones and Dunkin Donuts. Who do you think they listen to? You may be influenced by advertising because of strong messaging or repetition, but don’t you weight the opinions of your friends, family and peers more? Think about it. Amazon reviews. Facebook. Twitter. Why are they so popular? Valuable information in an overloaded world of information. Your peers are your filter. Think about why you are attending Skip’s Summer School. Same reason!
- On that note, I’d like to present a Case Study from another photographer who, good for him!, is shooting today and cannot attend.
- I’ve known Mark Wallace for a couple of years now, and he was gracious enough, even eager, to allow me into the backend of his Web workflow in order to share information with you. Not only is he a swell guy, but he is also very proactive, goal-oriented and someone to watch. Disclaimer: Mark does some video work for MAC Group, but that came about after a long, growing friendship. On a personal basis I admire him and am glad to be able to present these insider revelations from a smart, talented hard-working guy.
- Mark and I were talking a few months ago and I mentioned this seminar and how I was looking for a case study for SEO success. He raved about his switchover to LiveBooks and sent me some screenshots. I was amazed and wanted to dig deeper. Here are the results. First off, we’ll take a look at his observations on using the Web.
- Note that I am providing observations and anecdotes, am am not pitching you on a particular service. But let’s focus for now on what LiveBooks’ offering did for Mark.
- Let’s look at his Google Analytics
- Over a year, all of Mark’s websites are dramatically up. Markwallacephotography.com is the site he switched to LiveBooks. Let’s see what the results were!
- The Average time on Site increased dramatically, too.
- The # of pages/visit increased geometrically.
- As did the # of pageviews for the whole site.
- Speaking in terms of Quality, not quantity, the Bounce Rate went down in an extraordinary manner.
- Let’s dig deeper. 314 sources have sent traffic to his website over a year. Great number! Direct type-in traffic leads, but closely behind that is his partner relationship with StudioLighting.net. NEXT SLIDE
- A win-win relationship where he provides educational material for Bill and Ed (also awesome guys) and they bring Mark a wider audience.
- 3 rd on the list is Google organic visits! Let’s look closer at keywords.
- Whoa! Looking at just keywords coming into his website, you can see exactly when Mark switched over to LiveBooks. I have to tell you, I was astonished when I saw this. And look at how many page/visit they had. Almost all over 10 pages/visit. Now that is quality traffic.
- Good for SEO, also good for mobile browsers. Seo goodness stems from all text beings rendered outside of flash. Mobile goodness from having a on-flash version of your site (which most phones can’t handle right now).
- Good for SEO, also good for mobile browsers. Seo goodness stems from all text beings rendered outside of flash. Mobile goodness from having a on-flash version of your site (which most phones can’t handle right now).
- Good for SEO, also good for mobile browsers. Seo goodness stems from all text beings rendered outside of flash. Mobile goodness from having a on-flash version of your site (which most phones can’t handle right now).
- This is the backend of LiveBooks at the highest level.
- In Lightroom you can assign keywords for the IPTC metadata. Use the HEADER DESCRIPTION and KEYWORDS fields This passes through to LiveBooks.
- Tip from Mark – When you “Save for Web and Devices” in Photoshop, be sure to set the Metadata field to anything but “None” or it will get stripped.
- Mark says to always check this. LiveBooks can utilize the keywords you assign early on in the process.
- Here is an example of how that data passes through into LiveBooks.
- LiveBooks also has an SEO section for you to use.
- Not only can you do it yourself, but they also have suggestions and other learning tools to help you understand how to fill all of this out.
- This is how Mark’s search result looks in Google. Your META Desscription should be written for humans, as Mark’s is – you know exactly what he is offering when you read this.
- Now let’s talk more about traffic sources and eCommerce. First off, the eCommerce portion of Google Analytics is extraordinary. If you sell electronically, hook it p now. You can have a $/visit value that lets you know the average money each visitor makes you. Cool, right? Next off is that since inbound traffic is tracked, you can see which websites send you more paying customers. What do you do with this info? Go strengthen the weak ones, drop them or make the strong ones even stronger. Knowledge is power. Also important to point out is that
- Mark and I were talking a few months ago and I mentioned this seminar and how I was looking for a case study for SEO success. He raved about his switchover to LiveBooks and sent me some screenshots. I was amazed and wanted to dig deeper. Here are the results. First off, we’ll take a look at his observations on using the Web.
- Fir Almost 1.2 Million video views and every video gets about 150~200 views / day. Wow. But don’t be fooled – it’s not quantity, it’s quality. Remember that one of Mark’s revenue generators is teaching photography!
- And the proof is in the pudding! His instructional videos are the most-viewed, but distribution is equal/high. Why is that? Let’s examine some reasons using the Youtube Insights.
- Hot Spots show when people pay most attention to your videos. Average is good. Mark’s videos are usually higher than average.
- He also points out that location work and instructional information are high points of interest. This is true to his revenue model.
- Let’s look at how people discover his video using YouTube’s Insights. 28% come from related videos! These are primarliy Mark’s other videos – a good sign that his content is appreciated well enough that people will watch more than one, hopping from one to the next.
- See the red area here.
- And here the mix of Sources is slightly different.
- Each video can have different sources, depending on who likes what and how they share it or search for it.
- Good keywording is imperative, as we’ve learned. Use generic, and specific terms. YouTube allows you to add many, so load ‘em up and see who finds you!
- And the holy grail – who likes your videos enough to embed them elsewhere? Follow these links. See who is embedding and how. Learn from it. Encourage it by leaving comments and learn from constructive (and sometimes not) criticism.
- You may be tempted to delete comments that are negative. Nearly all of them are opportunities to learn more about what people wan tot see and how to do it better. There are rare cases where something is so wrong that you should delete it. But keep in mind that most of the time, your fans will come to your rescue and either leave their own positive feedback in response or vite it down so it disappears from view. And in other rarer cases, the trolls will realize they were being foolish and delete the comment themselves. It’s happened to me.
- Accept the aggregators out there will index popular content – not always bad. But take some time to understand WHY people embed your video, and what they are doing after they watch it. Follow those links!
- Also keep an eye out for similar videos in the Related category. Maybe it’s not only your own videos that are leading to views, it could be that your video is related to other videos by popularity or keyword. Hey – I made that video! (grin)
- Mark uses this example often, and as soon as he mentioned it, I had to share it with you. 40 million views. But how many people are doing something useful to the creator?
- Drop by his sites
- 10X: a good production usually requires tens times preproduction vs. production vs. final product. And this is conservative.
- There is almost always a snake in the grass. Do your research, test your gear form start to finish. Everything takes time, but you need to understand where.
- So on that note, I have a bit of synthesis to show you. It’s just a slice of a longer-term project. So in effect, this is the equivalent of a lighting test before a big shoot.
- Knowledge is like a flying drop-kick to the head. I Hope I knocked you out!
- One more final thought – ignore the buzzwords