This marketing post is moving on from Google adwords to discuss my social media marketing. I try to have a presence on as many social networks as possible, but, because of time constraints, I participate regularly and focus on four social media tools. They are: this blog, twitter, facebook and e-mail newsletter. Each tool requires a different amount of time, serves different audiences, and has its own purpose.
Blog:
I keep this blog updated for several reasons:
- SEO, there are many more words here than on my portfolio, and Google is very good at indexing words, not so good at indexing photos
- This is much easier to to update than my portfolio site, so I post all updates on photo-shoots, pricing and availibility here
- This blog has more personality than my portfolio, giving potential clients more information about my personality and style.
Twitter:
Easy to use and very effective at spreading good ideas fast. I follow mostly photography-related people and businesses, businesses I want to work for, and several random accounts that interest me. I make sure the majority of my tweets are relevant to the people I follow and that follow me. So most of my tweets are related to photography. I maintain a separate twitter account for my current documentary project, VASADP, where I follow groups/magazines/people related to sustainable agriculture (the subject of the project).
Facebook:
I have just started to use Facebook again–I created a business page and I am slowly gaining fans. I feel that facebook will work best for showing off my wedding work because I can post wedding photos and tag who is in the photograph, and then all that persons friends can see that photo, including friends who are looking for a photographer. I am less certain how to gain commercial clients through facebook without purchasing ads (which I am doing, but that is a topic for another post).
E-Newsletter:
My e-mail newsletter is an opt-in (meaning the recipient has to sign up) and updates recipients on recent photo shoots and upcoming events, such as art shows that they may want to attend. For those who care, I use Mailchimp.
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Social media is good, mostly free marketing, but I just have to make sure I do not spend to much time on these tools so I can keep producing photographs–larger companies literally hire people to do social media all day, every day.
Other social media services I have accounts with, but do not use regularly due to time or other concerns are: LinkedIn, Model Mayhem, Agency Scoop, Flickr, Youtube, Squidoo, and several others that I can’t even remember.
