One of the worst things to happen to photography is the Internet and in particular social media.
As photographers, we need to be able to self-curate. It’s hard to do. Very hard. We get attached to the pictures we take and sometimes it’s difficult to let go because we have a connection to the image or with the circumstances in which it was taken. But we must do it. Continue reading →
This may be the last post in the Internetworking series. Why? Because I may be exiting the social media scene. Why? Because I’m just not finding it effective. I’d love for someone, or several someones, to tell me I’m wrong.
I’ve been active on social media for a number of years now and while it hasn’t been effective in helping grow my commercial photography business, it has helped make my photography known to more people and I’ve enjoyed the conversations that have taken place, mostly on Facebook, with people.
Wow! When I first started this series of articles, I never imagined it would get to a Pt IV let along a Pt IX!
How do you track your progress with regard to the success of your online efforts – your own website and social media? There are a few tools that can give you some insights into how well your online presence is optimised. Of course, you can look at the number of people who ‘Like’ your Facebook Page or the number of followers you have on Twitter but those are sort of cursory numbers. Twitter followers are often a ‘me too’ type of activity. We follow those who others follow. Often someone hits the Like button on a Facebook Page because they know the person or they’re a friend of a friend.
I’m not going to get into Facebook stats in this article (maybe in a Pt X) but will suggest a few tools that can help tell you how well your online presence is set up and how it might be improved. Continue reading →
When the Apple iPhone came out with, about, the third iteration it had a reasonably decent camera and sparked a whole sub-genre of photography called iPhoneography. Some big name photographers started taking, displaying and selling iPhone images. A whole host of apps were created to complement iPhoneography. As surprising as it sounds, not everyone has an iPhone nor does everyone want an iPhone. But for those who aren’t ‘Apple people’ you can get in on the game too. Android smartphones have cameras as well (so do Blackberry phones but in my experience, RIM’s implementation of cameras is pretty weak) and some are as good or better than what’s in the iPhone. I’m going to take a look a a new one on the market, the Samsung Galaxy SII. Continue reading →
Edit: An update was added in June 2012.
In the last article posted in this series, I pondered about the legitimacy of some of the so-called experts in ‘new media’. This article is a follow on to that one but focusing specifically on the idea of SEO – Search Engine Optimisation. And in that context we’ll look at whether some, perhaps many, of the ‘SEO experts’ out there are the snake oil salesmen of the internet age and new media landscape. Continue reading →
When I took a look at the numbering of this article series to find out what was next, I was surprised to see I was up to instalment 7 already. Wow!
I should start out by saying that I’m not a salesperson. I’m not a marketer. At least that’s not my background. So this particular article may be way off base to some who do have that background. If so, I’m certainly happy to hear from those folks and be set straight. There’s a comment form at the bottom of the article so feel free to use it. Continue reading →
What? Kings? Queens? We’re playing chess? We’re playing chess on the internet?
Well, no, not really. You’ve heard the saying ‘Content is King’, right? It means that having good quality content in your web presence (website, blog, social media) will keep people interested and those people will spread the word about you and bring more eyeballs to your efforts. And while that is true in this age of the digital message there’s more to it than just content.
[According to this article, content isn’t even king. While I’d agree relationships are important, if you don’t have good content, people still aren’t going to spend the time.] Continue reading →
Pretty much most people who post images on the web have done so knowing there’s a possibility someone could download the image and make use of it. Tools for tracking these kinds of abuses have grown; Tineeye being a popular one but there are others. Word of mouth is an important one as well.
With the growing relevance and influence of new media and social networking, more photos are being shown/shared online than ever before. Unfortunately, many of these sites do little to try to help protect the intellectual property rights of those people sharing the images. Facebook, for example, with its recent changes to the way photos are displayed makes it incredibly easy to download any image on their service. Continue reading →
This blog started just a little less than 2 years ago with a travel article on my experience in Trinidad for Carnival. Two years later it’s still one of the most consistently read articles and is often at the top of the hit count for search strings that bring people to the blog, particularly in the couple months leading up to and the couple months after Carnival. Another article that is consistently at the top of the read and search string list is my Feisol Tripod Review. It too is just about 2 years old. Continue reading →
In my ongoing exploration of social media topics, one that seems to come up fairly often; and it’s one that I’ve had discussions with people about too, is the idea of quantity vs. quality. This comes into play both in the quantity vs. quality of messages posted via various social media outlets and in terms of the number of connections we make in the social media world. Continue reading →
This is the third in my, hopefully, continuing – but perhaps not regular – series on using the internet and social media for business purposes.
I recently, late October 2010, made some changes to my blog and website. I scrapped my old site and combined everything under the WordPress format. The WP format is easier to update, there’s less work in terms of coding/programming and it means I’m managaing one site instead of two. All good. Right? Continue reading →
With any luck, I’ll be able to turn this Internetworking idea into an ongoing series. What’s this have to do with photography? Well, lots. Social media is already a valuable tool in business marketing and its value will continue to grow.
It seems that a ‘trend’, if we can call it that, is developing with users at Facebook. When someone new, who has a business Page of their own (as distinct from a personal profile) comes to ‘Like’ your Page the trend developing seems to be to post a comment on the Wall of the Page they’re liking that includes a large graphic about their own business with a remark something to the extent of ‘Just found your page on [insert place name here]. Great fan page. Head over and Like mine.’
Internetworking. What’s that? Many possibilities. A contraction of internet and networking to signify using the internet, specifically social media, for networking purposes. A combination of ‘inter’ and ‘networking’ signifying a multi-platform approach to networking. For example, face to face and social media. A question: Internet working for ya? Positing the question of whether a networking approach that includes the internet and social media is beneficial. Continue reading →
