Lessons

Lesson Info

Social Media

We talked about the business and marketing section, but I really think that it deserves its own section because this is really how I've built my business and it's really current to today's industry business cannot really exist in progress in the digital age without use of social media where there's a website whether it's online communities it's an excellent way of marc, can you work on a budget and everybody should be doing it? So the main thing I love about social media is that social media enables you to create a conversation with a worldwide audience and this is coming from back when I was fourteen year old photographer back home in the west midlands, I had no audience for me to get out there and get constructive criticism and to get feedback on my work I needed to use websites like deviant art, flicka teo get those first footsteps into the industry and to see where that would take me to find out what I was doing wrong to find out what it was doing right to network with people it al...

l started here, so I just want to talk about some social media websites and how beneficial they can be everyone's career and this speaks for every type of photographer, not just fashion photographers um facebook is the first thing that why eight hundred million uses worldwide and I think that's recently going upto one billion one hundred yeah, one billion users worldwide, which is fantastic knowing that that many people around the world of what's in it facebook I used as page my personal facebook keep just for myself, but the page is great because it enables you it's easy to update its easy to engage with your audience free content you posed for pictures for status updates for events. Anything you can think of on there is just fantastic way to engage with them to have conversations and is also very easy to track your feedback as well through comments for war posts. How many people are attending event picture messages like all those kind of things? It's an instant feedback. So when I posed to picture on there, I know I'm going to get some feedback immediately. Twitter now everyone lived to tweet twitter and facebook has been in my lives for quite a few years now, and these are the definite to places that I work with hand in hand, these are the two places where I'm on my phone and I'm always updating on the go. So twitter, why use it three hundred forty million tweets today? If that doesn't convince you, then here's a few things that mind it's easy to identify trends enough with the hashtag go on this side, the home page what's going on in the world felt like following your favorite people on there, whether it's, fashion designers, people in the industry, people that you admire, people that inspire you. It's, good to keep up with the feed every day giving yourself for inspiration. It's short and easy to update messages. It's just a few characters as a status update and it's great on the go, you have no excuse every day to dedicate one like it ten minutes to come in it with the tweet and posted it online and it's also great to share media easily because people don't want to read through big facebook post some pages, this comes up to their feet, straight away. You can go in and share recent images from the last a couple of days, I've been sharing images for here in between breaks while I've been doing things, though it's really great to interact with the audience in that way as well. So google plus it's part of google's network so if you have t mail or anything like that, it is a fantastic way to go into your google page for you a female and then google plus is a part of that, so I always checked email and then I'll check google plus, so it kind of comes hand in hand what I love about it. The main feature is the google hangouts and actually this is where me and paper cut magazine when I was curating one of their magazines this is where we would hang out and engage with people and we would engage as a set and choose photos hang out, talk about the shoot, talk about the magazine talk about what was going in the content, that kind of thing and it's great if you wanted to connect to your audience more, which is like a facebook on twitter the great thing about this is you can go online and talk to the people that follow you engage with people network with people good thing here again is in depth post and feedback the layout lends itself to more of the the rather than the pictures it's more about the texts it's all about indepth poach you can post links anything that inspires you this is a fantastic way and the good thing about it is it's quickly growing it's still a fairly new website it's always great to get on these networks we can see them kind of you mean and you know they're gonna get somewhere because that's going to start to spread the conversation soon as you get on there there's that there's less people to kind of go around so it's worth getting on these websites if you feel you're gonna utilize them to your business and linked in um I didn't use the ten for the longest time because I get all these requests and I had no idea about get these crescent be like why you adding me on there? What what is this website? And I found recently by just putting my summary on their bit about myself my experience my clients and I went through my email list and added all the people I worked with grabbed a few testimonials from people and I started to see that more and more people wanted toe add me um there was someone from a vogue magazine that added me on there and I later connected so it's just great to go in there see who's at that the companies and see who's working at john's so it's one of the largest professional networks professional public references and this comes back to testimonials people given you references often people want to see that because it's true it's a person giving you feedback on you with someone you've had that personal connection with again the personal side coming for someone looking at you and knowing that you've done great on a job also enable should keep track of your contacts as well what are they doing where they up to in the world? It also has status of dates now and the great thing is if I want to know who's someone at a magazine or a contact somewhere you can go in and look at that you can find out who and editor of a magazine is or fashion editor and you confined certain people on there that maybe you have a mutual friend and you can send them a request and then start the conversation from there began research contacts in the industry um how many of you guys here actually used these websites had loved annoying all right yeah you're them so I don't know if it's still big over here it's like over in the uk it's got a little bit bigger um but here I think it's still going to get caught on but it's tough when you work for killing two and then pinterest well and I was really active on this and get a bit obsessed with it as soon as I got into it and it definitely took up about three or four days of my time posting things searching inspiration and what's great about pinterest is you can organize him share your work on they're not only your inspiration organizing your work so that people are going to repost it there's a chance of it being viral people khun reposted to theirs the great thing about it is that you can link back so if someone reports it there's a link back they can go to your website it's all about spreading that conversation over the social media network organized and share inspiration for sharing what influences you inspiration of photography, inspiration of illustration, inspiration of things what inspires you? Because sometimes clients don't know what they want if you do wedding photography, portrait photography, posting inspirations that maybe your bryce can look for maybe a portrait clients can look for it. Maybe, like your fashion clients can look through one of my most recent clients over random house has actually the the author of the book created pinterest just for the shoot for me. I'd already shot one have a books, and then she got really switched on with social media, and she posted a section on inspiration of a huge mood board. So it's perfect potion, mood boards things again, the link back and credit so people really want to link back on credit you on here, which is where whenever I post inspiration always posted a link back to the artist, you would post him to interest. Well, aaron ryan sight yeah, watermark in for me is a little bit point this only because I've had my work out there for so long that if I put water marks on it now, the rest of it without would still be out there. When I first started work watermark in years ago, I'd find that people would still take my work, it doesn't take a smart person to clone. To clone a logo off, and I've had so many people steal my work and use it that way. I think if you were a little bit scared to put your work out there and you want a watermark joined, put it, sent it over your image, put it at the bottom corner, okay? And that just gives you that extra level if you trust when you upload in something, but to me, as long as you're posting something, that small resolution that no one can blow up, make something from them. They're not gonna want users no brows and collect references as well. So whenever I'm looking for something for a shoot, for a mood board, anything like that, visual references. I just type in a keyword at the top. And if something comes up and, well, I've got my a mood board or set out? So then I collect those references and I'm placing them in my boards here. So it's, an online mood board and visual inspiration board so flicker and this is one that I used in the beginning of my career a lot more than I used now, actually last one appointed with december, so she'd get on with that butt flick here is great because it has a big photographer network. People want to help others. People want to give constructive criticism. This group's on flicker you can get a photo of the day. It enables you to connect with people directly. So this fashion photography groups it could be great to network with fashion photographers get feedback. Get that criticism. Know what they're shooting. Know what trends are so again it's getting your network in and getting the inspiration flowing great for archive and you work and organizing. So when I had my work and flicka, I found that it was great to put all of my work on their own section. It often two groups. So I had my website, but I also had flickers so people could look more in depth into my work, like, okay. So you don't need to troll for everything on my website here's, a flick, a link here's a group have a look at this the same with my book cover clients, and you can do this and you can have private galleries that only the client can see the link forest well allows for critique by peers, and I think this is important because sometimes you really need someone that is is good at what they do to kind of cheek you and not just a photographer, that someone far from what you do. So there is a lot of piers on there that is really looking to help young photographers and keywords as well, because this is a site that most of my book of clients who found me on and this is just fruit uploaded a picture, maybe, for example, if it's this picture down here put light goes walking park, bin black and white anything like that that you know people from our agencies, people from book covers, magazines, they're always looking for content for magazines to support tags for anything, so they're going on places like flicker because it's cheaper for them to outsource than often commissioner photographer. So if you can put a picture of load online, you put some key words. When someone finds you, you'll have a chance of maybe getting in with a client or a magazine or something like that. So my first social media success was get taught about the sunday one. It was me posting this image two I think it was deviant otto, flick it with key once again, keyword and being really important and then harper collins found this image online, and it fitted this book perfectly for what they wanted. So what I find is when you do stuff like this, remember to key word because you never know the outcome of it. Clients are always hungry for content. They're always going to look to our web sites, places like deviant art and flicka in any art community to find things that was support taxed. So blogging and blogging to may give an audience a personal insight into your business, so as well as having a website it's really important to supplement that with a log, because your web site gives them information about your work, a blood gives the client information about you. So the same as personal work is toe advertising work. A block has to exist so people can know more about you. So tips for blogging share behind the scenes show personality, but don't be too personal with it because you don't want to be too personal that people get put off by you say you wanna be positive, you want to post things on there that inspired with people, but you also won an element of yourself, and that has to be a positive thing about yourself that you put across encourage feedback and conversation because this is going to be what people come back to your website for few posts have been interesting on there, like an article people are gonna wanna know more again, people who are new to the industry, always hungry for content like that, they want to see advice it's always good to encourage people that come to your block as well to inspire them to make them want to read for a post it, and then they may go into your website afterwards, post both personal work on inspiration because people want to see what inspires you. What inspires you to do personal work? What is it behind the personal work that inspires you so important to have both of these together, that when clients are looking it, they can relate to it, post inspiring and related content, and when I say relatable, I mean something that client can go on and relate to. So maybe your blogging, um, to your target audience, so the way you put your block is directional to the people you want looking at your block, or maybe you blocked for the masses because you do different types of photography, so I post things, and I'm actually gonna be a bit more activist blogger, because I've been so torta and so many other things, but when I like to log, I like to close things about workshop stories, personal stories, things about the interesting fashion shoots behind the scenes be consistent and update often it's possible, you know, the world would be better if we listen to our own advice, right? I should listen to this a little bit more often, but be consistent and updated, because if you don't post, people are not going to switch on, they're not gonna come back, so it's important to be consistent with the pose and updated to my blood right now, works within my website because I wanted the whole thing to be within one. So my blogged found on the side, I got my archives down below. Again, I'm just posting things about the release, but even when I'm posting things like this it's not a direct advertisement it's me going and telling a story about it as well. So when you posting things like product as well, it's important to have your thought process behind the product, what made you think about doing it? How you made it? Did you have a struggle? Is making it what with positive so it's, always good to engage your viewers with a story. So blogging platforms thiss to that exist and there's so many different reasons for using both. I used wordpress because my websites word person, it makes sense from their log in and used both. The great thing about tumble of though, is is that it's an easy set up. You could have a blogging minutes. You can go on there. You can choose a template it's free. You can customize it to an extent. It has a large community. So that means if someone post something of yours and puts a link back and they post keywords if they start re blogging and re blogging and it's a credit there. People are going to get curious as to who the artist is, things could become viral very quickly on their so I think that's a great part of template has that huge community that people want to look for, inspiration by and even mobile updated and access. So when you're on the go is well it's great just to put something out like twitter, put a link there, post a picture what you're up to a swell so it's just great to access on the go word press is more professional luck in standard block hat form so I think for most professional businesses we go forward press because of the customization because of that professionalism we wanted to link into a website, we want the brandon to be consistent it's also highly customizable by the way you can have templates made. It has so many different templates available in the word price themes, but also like again linking it back to your website like I have with mine. It works within my website and that's how I see my brand. I want people to see my website and I want people in notice I've got a block straight away. And it's also search engine friendly as well. So when you post content on there, this is gonna come up above tumbler because tumbles its own community and own website. So it's important that when you post something safer, like you're talking about wrong color lights or something else is important to post, maybe you typing bronc palace. Then your name comes up so the content you post will also have an effect on how people search for you when they go on a search engine, too. So, so much more personal as well. I feel. That wide pressure can highly customize and make it more of you, it shows your personality more and your online presence, and I think this speaks for the whole spectrum of social media b positive regularly update, give feedback and respond to your audience it's important to respond, even if it's to emails things online that people see. Keep your branding consistent keyword posts for easy searching so clients may find you always consider the professional and personal line. So this is why I have a separate facebook, because I don't want clients speed on my personal face, but were imposed in pictures of maybe in light out or, you know, the personal things I might say on there, so I don't want them to look into that, because to them it could be something negative that they see towards me. You want to keep your online presence in the way clients see you in a positive light that you're passionate about what you do. So with all of that going on, how do you track your success? And neither you've been successful at the social media side, so facebook in the face book overview this is what it gives you it's really easy to access this, and the reason being is that you can go in, and this total likes here comes into comes into play with friends of fun, so these people their outreach, their funds there. Sorry, they're friends of this much so when they like something on your wall, this is potentially going to each one of those people like something on your wall. This is going to each of those persons feeds on their home page as well. So it's good to remember how much facebook pages can have effect on the people that, like your pages audience too easy to access organization of data by demographics allows for critique my peers and key words again so cloud and I think that anyone that goes onto cow will get a little bit obsessed by it. I know I did because I was on a job for gold smiths in the art director in the car where were really into stuff like this and they knew every social media web site before it was out there he said to me, hey, what is your count score? I always like what's cloud and he was like what? You never heard of cloud? And I was like him and his friends were laughing and comparing their carts scores and they cut me in on their phone and they were like, whoa! Like, why is your car score so so high? And it was just kind of funny that that's kind of how I kind of fell upon it that it's just great to see is easy to access it tracks multiple social network so it shows how you outreach is on twitter, facebook all of those pages so it shows how much of an influence you are and people that may be influenced by you as well tracks influential moments in your career and it fuse your overall so short impact to so google analytics and this is what I use on my website and my blood to track what I'm doing what kind of content and everything so my website isn't the kind of place that a million people visit because it's about my social media outreach but it's good for me to track the google integration comprehensive analyst on the lyrics of web pages comprehensive democratic demographic data so what's great on here is that I can go in and view where people are looking from in the world I can view a map that how long do people spend on the website and I can improve posts and gallery things by that like my business if all this in london in new york so I want to see that the people that were looking at my work from those places so it's just good to get that kind of insight and the last thing I want to talk about is time management because photography is really a full time job I think everyone will agree with this that if you love photography then you eat, sleep, breathe it. You have to, because that's, what it's all about, you have to give it your all to get there, and the best photographers may look busy, but they know how to manage their time so that they have focused on the task at hand so they may look busy on social media. They may be doing a lot of things, but they know when to stop and they know where to focus their thymus well, so time management tips set yourself realistic goals. So if you set yourself a goal of all, complete two to three shoots a month for personal work, then do it. If you set yourself a goal that in a year I will get in this magazine or I will work for this client, then try and work towards that, but be realistic about it, too. So if you start in small bandits and online magazine, if you starting working with that advertising clients, maybe it's an emerging designers so it's good to set those and then try and reach them. It's quality, not quantity for the post. The social media posts or anything you put out there on the internet and the time you put into your work, it's all about the quality. You don't want to rush what you post because people will engage more to you if you post less work that is beautiful and shows that you spent time in it than if you post twenty different pictures, the weak that it will very similar always plan and schedule in advance. So it's, always good to plan a shoot, to plan a block post, anything to do with your business in advance and scheduling private, hot, prioritized deadlines and work, and often I get carried away with this with social media that I don't always prioritize because I'm trying to do so many other things, but I forget, um, but it's, always good when you've got advertising, clients are paying clients that their things come first personal work from second and then come social media and make lists. I'm definitely the master of the to do list. I always like to make myself to do it every morning, every night. My boyfriend gets crazy at me, for it is like he just keeps things in his head and he thinks that I can do it, too, but I have to have everything laid out before I go to sleep and I crossed him off. And it just makes me feel like a blossom fulfillment when across those things off as well. So maybe it's something like poster block post or this shoot, you've had a new mind. Make sure you do that within a week. That kind of thing is just good to give yourself over minded sometimes and always stay busy. Don't sit around and say, you know, this isn't working out for me or the people that do that. We'll find that it's very hard for them to get notice, because they're the ones that kind of sit back, and they'll think that things will just happen for them. It's. Good to stay busy, even if the time you don't think it's gonna benefit you, because it's, good to shoot as much as possible. It's. Good to stay on social media, it's, good to network. You've got to do everything to keep busy in order for work to come back to you.