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Will Generation C Love Your Photography?

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What if you could find a group of people that loved what you do? And they had the perfect group of friends who were just like them, loved hearing recommendations, and valued their opinions enough to use the same companies they talked about?

Sounds like a perfect group of people to target with your marketing, right?

Welcome to Generation C. Generation C is a group of Americans who are between 18 and 34, consume media, socialize and share experiences through technology devices more than any other age group. Oh, and they are leaning heavily towards being more female.

The C stands for connection. They love new devices and new experiences like no other group before them. And because they are highly connected to their devices, it offers you both a challenge and an opportunity to market to them.

Want a simple way to combine photography with technology? Head over to Google and do a search for iPad wedding albums. I’m already finding many photographers who are combining the two together and delivering their clients a dynamic presentation.

Not only can you put your wedding album onto the iPad, you can customize the iPad too. Try a skin – I love what Nordica Photography has done.

Or look for a iPad album. Here is a great option from Allister Freeman Photography.

If you haven’t thought about putting technology into your business plan, sit down today and do it. There is a lot of potential, especially if you are one of the first to put something into place within your area.

Let me know if you have any more ideas – I’d love to see what you are doing.

Filed Under: Future Trending Tagged With: , , , , ,

Your Photography As We Know It Is Dying

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10 years ago the term “social media” had a completely different meaning then it does today.

Facebook? Twitter? What?

10 years ago things were changing – and they were changing rapidly. That much we knew.

But we had no idea how fast things would continue to change as we moved into a new era.

AOL had a huge market share. No more.

So did Microsoft. And General Motors. And Kodak.

But in every case we look at, something changed. Or in many cases, it didn’t change.

If we look at Google today, the reason it has become a huge player in the industry is because it never stops changing. It stays with its most successful product – a search engine – and continues to morph in all directions.

Facebook of six months ago is completely different than it is today. I know. I teach a Facebook class here at a local community college three to four times per year. Every time I begin the class I have to update it, and in some cases I have to completely rework my recommendations. It’s a never-ending evolution of growth and change – just like it should be.

The people at Google and at Facebook know the world is changing rapidly. And if they sit still too long, someone else will jump in and take their places. They are constantly moving, changing and morphing into the next phase of business.

And while its easy to see with companies in the technical sector, people tend to ignore the same changes in other industries and expect things to remain the same. Like photography for instance.

When digital first jumped into the scene, many photographers swore they would never make the change – they would retire long before they were ever required to pick up a digital camera or use a computer to manipulate an image.

And they were right. If you didn’t make the change and jump into it, life passed you by. They were forced to “retire” because they simply couldn’t keep up with what was happening – and expected – within the industry.

So the question for all of us now is

Who do you want to be? Do you want to be the AOL? Or do you want to be Facebook?

Are you ready to jump in and give things a try? Are you willing to test to find out what works and what doesn’t?

Not everything you do will win. Facebook tries many things, tests them for a while, and redesigns based on their findings. You may buy equipment, software, or online programs, only to find out they were a complete waste of time.

That’s okay. Because you learned something along the way. It made you focus in on your photography in a different way, learn something new, and apply it to the future of your business. Whether you continue using it or not, it will always be there guiding your future decisions.

Every step you take may not bring in a profit. But it will guide you towards success. The “wrong” moves teach you just as much as the right ones. But only if you apply it in the right way and use it to move you forward.

Filed Under: Facebook Tagged With: , , , , ,

Top Apps For A Wedding Photographer

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Want to know the best thing about today’s technology? You can take it wherever you go.

Let’s say you’re a wedding photographer, and you’re fairly new to the industry. You still have those moments of panic the day of the wedding, standing there wondering what to do next. Now you don’t have to wonder. Just pull out your iPhone or iPad and in minutes you’ll have a slew of ideas right at your fingertips.

If you’re a wedding photographer, check out these wedding apps – perfect for taking in the field, or even using to grow your business throughout your hectic week.

Wedding Photographer Trainer

$3.99
Wedding Photographer Trainer is filled with tips, facts and images to spark your imagination. It offers images to help you with posing, and gives you tips on what to do – and on what not to do.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Apps Tagged With: , , , , , ,

What You Can Learn About Marketing From Steve Jobs

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Last night I ate a quick dinner and ran out the door. It was my first night of a new meditation class, and I was excited to get there. In our house, dinner means “no technology”, so we hadn’t yet heard the news. But that all changed two minutes after I jumped in the car. It was everywhere. The world was now missing a visionary and a genius.

Whether you love Apple or not, there is no denying Steve Jobs was a true genius. He saw way into the future, and had the ability to create great products that people didn’t just want, they obsessed over. They were passionate about. It was almost at a cult like status.

Yep, in many ways we were passionate from afar. We bought computers way before they were cool. We were one of the first photographers to design a website. And we progressed into PC because, well, that’s what we did. Then we bought another computer. And another. And software. And more software. And somewhere along the way, we really wanted to switch to Apple. But with multiple computers at any given time – 7 was our highest of working computers that we actually used, and the amount of software it took to run them, it would have been more than an expensive venture for us to switch. So we jumped into Apple products with everything else, starting with iPods. Today I absolutely love my iPad, and you’d never get it away from me. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Get Inspired Photography Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Moving Forward – Where Do We Go From Here?

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This post is Day 30 of 30 Ways In 30 Days To Redesign Your Life With Photography. This series seeks to provide you with practical steps to get you from wherever you are today, to exactly where you want to be – this year! If your goal has always been to take your photography to a whole new level, hang on and start enjoying a new lifestyle you’ve always dreamed of.

The questions raised by today’s photographers make you wonder what’s happening to the photographic industry. And rightfully so. Is there a future for photography? Can you still make a decent living as a photographer?

Huge amounts of photographers are coming on board because of digital cameras. It’s easy to buy one, easy to understand and process an image, so it’s easy to announce you are becoming a “professional”.

With so many newbies on board, they take the easiest way possible to make a few bucks. They shoot, give the images on a CD, and then wonder why sales are diminished.

Over the past few years, clients have come to expect the files because of the trend to supply a CD. “Whose photos are they anyway? Why should I pay more than the going price at the big box development center?” Clients ask; photographers give in; sales are lowered; and the possibility of surviving as a full time photographer shrink to nothing.

What’s a photographer to do? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Online Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

How Technology Has Changed The Photography Industry

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If you have ever had a 15-year-old child before, you know your weekends are spent running errands just to give your child practice behind the wheel of the car. We have to log 60 hours of driving time before our daughter receives her license, so we are letting her play “chauffer” whenever we have the time. She is considerably better at it then she was a couple of months ago, so it’s easier now to look around at the scenery rather than concentrate on her skills.

This weekend we drove by an old Blockbuster store, and I started thinking about the change in the video industry. I remember a time when the big thing was to run up to the video store to get a movie for the weekend. That slowly morphed into Netflix, which gave you more convenience of getting your movies and dropping them off, but still didn’t solve the problem of getting the movie you wanted, when you wanted it. Change that today, and you can stream any video you want, anywhere you want. From mobile devices, Smart technology, and even your Google tv, you can have instant access whenever you want it. Which of course has caused old relics like Blockbuster to file for bankruptcy.

And of course industry change doesn’t end there. Look at landline telephones. More and more people are abandoning their traditional landline phones in favor of cell phone only. You used to pick your phone company based on how much they charged for long distance; now you use cell phones with one payment plan for all of your long distance needs. And if you talk continuously with people from around the world, use VoIP or Skype, and connect via the Internet. You can talk anywhere, anytime for one low price.

Every single industry that has had major change over the last 20 years is due to technological advancements. And photography is right in there with them.

Go back 20 years, and you purchased a camera based on the lenses you chose to use. If you wanted to change your output, you invested in different types of film. Film is where the magic happened, and together with a great lens gave you a dynamic photograph. You had to rely on your expertise to create the perfect image within the camera, because you wouldn’t see the results until the final processing took place. But the magic occurred at inception – at the moment you pressed the trigger and captured the image.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Online Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,