8 Things That May Be Keeping Your Social Media Profiles From Looking Professional

As an entrepreneur, you’ve probably run into many times where you start something with great intentions, only to find you end up ignoring it throughout the year simply due to lack of time. If you have portrait sittings, files to edit, and clients to meet, do you really have the time to stop and edit your Facebook profile?

Since social media networks change their structure every couple of months, its easy for your profiles to lose their professional look and feel – leaving your business to look like a true “mom and pop” place. If you haven’t made your social profiles a priority lately, use this list to do a little profile cleaning and bring your online persona back to a modern day look and feel.

Facebook

Pages cover images should attract attention, not monetize your business
Facebook has made a number of layout changes since the beginning of 2012, most notably the introduction of timelines. Instead of being able to choose which “page” your Page opens up to, Facebook now has one standard look and feel. Your cover image is what introduces visitors to your business, and it should be representative of your business without selling them. The cover image should be 851 pixels wide by 315 pixels tall, and to make it load quickly, make sure your JPG file is less than 100 kilobytes. According to Facebook guidelines, covers may not include calls to action, price or purchase information, and they may not ask for “Likes”. Comply to make sure you aren’t shut down after you work hard to grow your followers. [Read more…]

Google has done it again. They’ve added a new “service” that looks like it might take the Internet by storm. While they tried it before with Google Buzz, Google+ has new features that bring them closer to success.

Google+ made its debut less than a month ago, and already are up to over 20 million users. And while that is the fastest on record within the social media industry, it remains to be seen if Google+ has what it takes to outdo the other social sites we’re used to, like Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr.

We’ve been playing around with Google+ for a couple of weeks now, and like what we see. While Google+ isn’t available yet to everyone, with the growth in place, I’m sure you’ll have access here in a few short weeks it you don’t already. Let’s take a look at what makes Google+ so powerful, and can help you build your photography business.

Start At The Beginning – What Is It?

Google+ is a social networking site taken to a whole new level. Like every other product, Google+ is integrated into the Google network. If you have a Google account, and use things like Gmail or Google Reader, you login once and have access to everything through the toolbar. Once you have access to Google+, it will appear in your toolbar when you’re in your Google account.

While Google+ appears overwhelming at first glance, that is also a part of its power. Instead of “lurking around” like is common in other social media sites, Google+ makes you jump headfirst into the system. Connect with a few friends, and you are instantly a part of an ever-growing network that’s easy to join and connect with. And because Google+ is under the Google umbrella, you can also combine with other functions, and bring it all together. [Read more…]