3 Updates on Social Media Tools for Wedding Photographers

We’ve written about social media tools for photographers before, but here are some fresh updates for you, for summer 2014. The wedding season is upon us and we bet you’ll come out at the other end with some great new material to showcase all over the Internet. Check out our three tips, which will hopefully help you make the most of your work, in terms of branding and exposure.

Wow them with pictures

social-media-tools-for-photographers

These social media tools for wedding photographers have been hyped endlessly already, but this is one tip that bears repeating: you need to put your content out there on Pinterest and its wedding-focused ‘little sister’, Lover.ly. You can target your audience very accurately through these websites and bring traffic back to your website and blog. However, you will need to optimize your pictures, add credits to each image, and make sure your name is included in the file title. This tiny personal branding effort will go a long way in the long run. Pro tip: you will need to be relatively active, especially in the beginning, since these sites are already teeming with great content from your direct competition. Find a way to create content that stands out, such as color-themed boards, wedding guides in pictures, etc.

Follow the right crowd

Since we’re on the topic of social media tools for wedding photographers, we have to acknowledge that there can’t be any talk of social media without connecting, following, and accruing followers. Connecting with the right crowd can be a daunting prospect, especially for an up-and-coming photographer who doesn’t have much exposure. However, if you keep a blog, a website, or at least maintain a social media presence, you might want to get bold about it and reach out to some of the big names out there in the online wedding business. There are a few blogs and websites that we would recommend anytime, like Green Wedding Shoes, Bridal Musings, and Style Me Pretty.

What makes these blogs and websites great? For one thing, they are among the most important sources of images shared via Pinterest, Tumblr, and Facebook. For another, their numbers of followers are impressive to say the least. But, most importantly, they consistently feature great quality content – which is exactly what made them massive to begin with. If you can get them to showcase some of your wedding photography work, you can count on being credited and in seeing a traffic spike on your own website. And if your outreach efforts turn out to be less successful than you’d hoped, you can always promote your work on these websites via paid advertising. It tends to run cheaper than the standard promotional fees on Facebook and Google.

Pay for promotion

The debate on the efficiency of Facebook advertising continues to rage on. Some believe that the decrease in organic reach that the social network has imposed on its users will spell the site’s demise. They argue that Twitter and YouTube are still keeping social media promotion free – and they don’t seem to be losing market share; quite the contrary! On the other hand, another faction believes that Facebook is entirely right to capitalize on its paid advertising potential. After all, they say, “if you’re not paying for a product, you are the product”.

Debates aside, investing in Facebook ads might be one of the social media tools for wedding photographers to consider, if you want to increase your reach and score new sales leads. Yes, it can be expensive, but it’s also easy to refine, in order to reach very specific targets in the audience. You’ll probably need some expertise with CPC and CPM ad campaigns, as well as with SEO and keyword research. Experiment with the keywords that connect with your particular photographic niche, target people in your area, and also target audiences connected with some of the major wedding-focused websites we mentioned above. Throw in a sweet deal or discount for your first clients and you’re all set!

5 Ways To Tell If Twitter Is Working For Your Photography Business

Social media sites come and go. And if you are like most photographers, you probably have your social favorites. Do you favor YouTube or Facebook? Pinterest or Twitter?

While Twitter is now one of the “old timers”, it can still be an effective tool to get the word out about your business. Here is how you can tell.

Crowdbooster

Crowdbooster is a social media analytics tool that offers suggestions and resources to help you improve your online presence. It provides you with a plan of action to show you how you can reach out to the influencers in your sphere, create content that resonates with your audience, and when to send content to be most effective. It can help you track long term engagement and how best to interact with your audience. And if you have multiple accounts, that’s okay. Crowdbooster can bring all of your Twitter accounts together with your Facebook Pages accounts, and give you one stop views of how your marketing is working.

TweetCharts

TweetCharts allow you to generate a customized report for anything you can search for on Twitter. Use words, phrases, usernames, URLs, or hashtags to check out everything related to your niche. This is a great tool to use as you are tracking your campaigns and marketing programs. Track to see how many times your Tweet is mentioned, or how many times it was retweeted. You can also track if your followers and retweeters are more male or more female – perfect for understanding who your audience is and who you should be promoting your business too.

[Read more…]

Can You Make Money With Your Photography and Chime.In

What are your favorite pieces of each of the social networks you use? If you could build another social network to use for your photography, what would it look like?

Back in October 2011, a new site debuted … Chime.In. Think of Chime.In as a way to share short thoughts like Twitter, a way to get more in depth with each thought like you would with a blog, and voting capabilities like you get on Reddit.

Instead of focusing on information, Chime.In describes itself as an “interest network.” It has a newsfeed, profile pages and a system for following others – all like you are used to with other social sites. Instead of updating your status, you “chime”, which is a cross between an update and a post.

A Chime displays a headline, the first few sentences of the Chime, graphics (photo, video), your profile photo, interest tags, and options for liking, commenting or sharing. Your Chime can be up to 4,000 characters in length, giving you a lot more freedom to write exactly what you want to say. And once your Chime is up, people use a voting system to surface the best comments to the top of Chime.

While Chime may seem like just another player in the already busy social media field, it does have one unique difference. When you design your profile, you have full control over it, including the advertising and sponsors that run on your page. You can include your own ads on the page and keep 100 percent of the revenue. Or allow UberMedia to control the ads and split the revenue 50/50.

Chime.In is built with mobile in mind. You can access it via a similar look and feel as the web edition from one of its mobile apps, including iPhone, BlackBerry or Android.

Once you have your profile built, you can stay active in several ways. Type in your interest – photography – and you’ll be able to search through Chime by interests, communities or people. Then build up your followers list and start communicating.

Chime is simply another social site. Will it be popular enough to bring in a following that will help grow your business? It depends on your business and how you approach it. Yet it may be worth setting up a Chime to cover your basis and have one just in case. Remember, the key isn’t having one or two sites you rely on all the time. Its about spreading yourself out and being where potential followers may be. It doesn’t mean you have to be active all the time – just make sure you have a presence and watch it. If it becomes a big hit in your business world, by all means keep using it.

What Do Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter All Have In Common?

The statistics are always out of this world.

  • Total unique visitors increased – 2702.2% since May 2011
  • Gender breakdown – 68.2% female, 31.8% male
  • Over 1.36 million visitors a day

Yep, that’s the latest statistics put out by Modea and comScore on the social networking site Pinterest.

If you are trying to grow your photography business, it’s THE place to be.

Dig Deeper: The Code For Blocking Pinterest … And 12 Reasons You Shouldn’t Use It

So by all means, jump over, start up your own Pin boards and Pin away. [Read more…]

How To Boost Your Photography Business With Pinterest

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Facebook and Twitter have been the social phenomena for many months now, so eventually some other site had to come along and see what they could do to gain traction.

It may be with a site called Pinterest. Pinterest is a social site that calls themselves a virtual pinboard. It allows you to organize and share all of the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, organize their wardrobe/closet, and find favorite recipes. Yep, if that sounds like a place the female population would love, you’re right. Its heavily weighted towards female users who love sharing and commenting on everything fun.

While Pinterest is simply a pinboard, meaning there is no true way of selling or getting people to buy your products, it is a popular way to showcase images with links back to the original source.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out Pinterest yet, now is the time. Use these ideas to set up and draw attention to your photography.

Spend the time

Pinterest is just like the other social sites in use today – you get out of it what you put into it. Find the movers and shakers of Pinterest and build relationships with those who are known for quality “pins”. Once they recognize you, they are more likely to post about your photography. [Read more…]

An Advanced Guide To Using LinkedIn

Like all of the other social media tools out there, LinkedIn is a way of creating and nurturing relationships. It’s a way of allowing you to be approachable, visible and helpful to those in your circle of influence.

With more than 135 million people and over 7 million companies, there is definitely potential. But like any other social site, you have to use it to gain potential.

As a photographer, its easy to write off LinkedIn as a business site – how can it help you reach consumers? Yet that’s the wrong approach.

Think of LinkedIn as your base or foundation, and build from there.

It’s a great way of having content about you and your business, make it findable in Google, and then build from there.

To start, you have to have a great profile and a great company page. Don’t just build them like you would a resume or a business summary. Instead focus in on keywords and how you will be findable in the search engines.

Dig Deeper: 3 Ways To Make Your LinkedIn Profile More Powerful

LinkedIn isn’t about “chit chat” and conversations. Instead it’s a place for research, learning, and finding out who your viable prospects are. It’s a place to do research and learn more about the people you would like to do business with. [Read more…]

3 Ways To Make Your LinkedIn Profile More Powerful

When was the last time you opened up your LinkedIn profile? When was the last time you thought of using it to market your business?

LinkedIn is the “afterthought” social media site. It’s a site you use to put together your profile – your resume – then you head off into the sunset for more promising sites.

Yet LinkedIn has a lot of benefits that can not only help bring in clients through LinkedIn, but can also help you gain traction in other ways. For instance, did you know:

LinkedIn is a search engine that has a ton of authority within Google.

If you Google your name, and you have a LinkedIn profile, chances are you will find your LinkedIn profile in the first page of results.

Yep, LinkedIn is powerful. So why not use it?

Boost Your Search Engine Optimization On Your Profile

When you first set up your profile, your profile will provide up to three links to your sites. They will be listed as “My Website” and “My Blog”. Instead of leaving the links with these titles, click on the edit and change those to a keyword phrase that describes your business.

For example, I use Photography Business Tips for my VirtualPhotographyStudio blog.

While you can have up to three different links, keep in mind that you can change these as frequently as you desire. If you don’t have three sites, why not use your Facebook Page? The more ways to connect with you the better.

Keep The Content Fresh With Your Blog

With just a few clicks, you can connect your blog up with your LinkedIn profile. Then every time you add a new blog post, your LinkedIn account will be updated with fresh, new content.

While WordPress is one of the main applications I would recommend using, LinkedIn has a variety of applications you can use to populate your profile.

Try SlideShare, and incorporate a slide presentation using your images and graphics.

Or try Portfolio Display, and create a unique way of showcasing what you can do for your clients and customers.

Create A LinkedIn Ad Campaign

Facebook Ads aren’t the only way to advertise your business on social media sites. Why not give LinkedIn Ads a try?

Because LinkedIn is a professional site used by business people, they are less likely to click around on things that are of no interest to them. When they are in need of a product or service, they move straight to the source and find exactly what they are looking for.

LinkedIn has 100 million members worldwide, 40 million in the United States. You can reach out to 1.3 million small business owners, 4.2 million corporate executives, and 7.9 million business decision makers. And with an average household income of $108,000 US, it’s definitely the right place to find a few customers.

It’s possible to start your campaign in minutes with as little as $50. Be sure to use your branding any time you start something new so people will start recognize you from platform to platform.

Are you using LinkedIn? How is it working for you?

How wedding photographers can maximize on Twitter

A Guest Article By Andrew Funderburg

 

1. Your Target Audience The main people a wedding photographer will want to target on Twitter is other wedding industry vendors. Since it’s damn-near impossible to know which Twitter users are brides-to-be, target vendors. Use Twitter to know who is doing what. Offer help if you see someone starting a project. Some suggestions:

  • Magazine Editors
  • Wedding Planners
  • Gown Shops
  • Florists
  • Venues

You get the picture. Twitter is an AWESOME way to break the ice with new vendors and other industry professionals you have yet to meet. Then when you do finally get some face time, you’ll have some familiarity to start with.

2. Look for people who talk back OK, so now you’ve found vendors with Twitter accounts. How do you know if they’re worth pursuing? Look at their stream. If they send out plenty of @replies, then this is who you want to talk to. If on the other hand, their stream is just one-way announcements and links to their Web site, chances are you won’t get much out of them. (They haven’t figured out how to use Twitter yet!)

3. Reach Out Twitter is not an “if you build it, they will come” type medium. In fact, it’s the opposite. You have to REACH OUT to people. You do this on Twitter by first following the people you’re targeting and then replying to their tweets. They’ll follow back after awhile. You have to jump-start it.

4. Be Interesting This should be a no-brainer, but have something to say. If you’re not witty yourself, provide resources, tips and info. You also can have good taste in retweets. @PicSeshu is someone who does this very well and has become a great photography resource on Twitter. Keep in mind your target audience and provide relevant info.

5. Have Fun The simplest law of the social universe, if you’re having fun people will be attracted to you. People want to do business with and be around other positive, upbeat people.

There you have it. That’s how a wedding photographer can use Twitter for business.

 

Get 5 Thousand Friends And Make Millions Today … Really?

Every morning I have a routine. I run through my email, head over to my Google Reader to see what’s new, and spend some time on my social sites. And every day I see headlines like this:

  • Get 5 Thousand Friends On Facebook Today
  • Make A Million Dollars In 24 Hours By Doing This
  • Go From $0 to $1 Million In 30 Days

Really?

I don’t know about you, but I hit the delete button without thinking twice.

I know in today’s economy its easy to get sucked in by those headlines. Especially if you’re familiar with a person, have been following them for a while, and they are promising something that almost seems too good to be true.

But is all of that really possible? After being in business for myself for 20 years now, I have to say the answer is no. [Read more…]

3 Ways To Market Your Photography On LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the social media site that’s geared a little more towards business and careers, and can help you make connections on a business level as opposed to a general consumer level.

If your photography is centered around attracting a more professional level of clientele, than you may have luck with LinkedIn.

Just like other social sites, LinkedIn has its own nuances. If you’ve tried LinkedIn and haven’t had any luck, take a look at these 3 tips.

1. Creating a complete profile

LinkedIn has a variety of items you can use to complete your profile, and make it rich and full of information. Never discount content; the more the better. When people search out your profile, they want to be able to get a feel for who you are and what you do.

Also remember that a profile isn’t necessarily synonymous with a resume. If you were applying for a job with a resume, the reader would care that you are President of ABC Photography. But on LinkedIn, your title doesn’t matter. Instead, think from a keyword perspective, and list yourself by things people would search for. Then fill your summary and experience areas with relevant terms people will most commonly be searching for.

Also focus on utilizing as much space as possible. Hook up your RSS feed from your blog to your profile to generate content on a regular basis. Get your clients to offer recommendations. The more you have, the more you will attract people to want to connect.

2. Joining the right groups


When you start searching groups, it’s easy to jump in and find your own industry groups, and start joining as many as possible. I just did a quick search and came up with 1,385 results for the word photography.  Yet are photography groups your best choice?

Maybe. Maybe not. If you target photographers, it’s a great choice. But if you target property management companies hoping to hang your artwork in their buildings, you’ll never meet one property manager in a photography group.

Instead, take a minute and think like your potential customer. Who are they and what are they interested in? What types of groups would they hang out in? Do a search for that type of group, and start posting and getting involved.

Remember, being in a group doesn’t equate to talking about you and your services. Instead, it’s about building relationships. Don’t sell. Answer questions, and find ways to connect with the members without deliberate selling. They will seek you out when they are ready – it’s only a click away to your profile.

3. Advertising your business page

LinkedIn also has a company section that allows you to create a company page in addition to your personal profile. It’s free and it’s a great way to add everything you can about your company and the services you offer.

People can follow your company page to keep up with your latest information, and you can even advertise your company page throughout the LinkedIn community, driving more people to your information – and hopefully to connecting up with you.

The key to LinkedIn is involvement – just like all of the other social media sites. The more you use it, the better chance you have of connecting up with the right people who can do business with you.

Choose your social site, and start connecting.