Social Studies: Understanding Social Media for Business

SOCIALSTUDIES

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How photographers can leverage social media to maintain and grow their business

Friday, May 28, 2010

Social Media: OverviewFrom Wikipedia:

“Social media is media designed to be

disseminated through social interaction,

created using highly accessible and scalable

publishing techniques. Social media uses Internet

and web-based technologies to transform

broadcast media monologues (one to many) into

social media dialogues (many to many).”


Social Media: OverviewQuestions Everybody Asks:

“Should I be using social media for my business?”

“Should I be on Facebook, or Twitter, or both?”

“How do I really make these things productive?”

“Hardly anyone reads my blog? Should I bother?”

“Is this worth my time?”

“Is there a right and wrong way to do this?”


MeasurementWith any marketing initiative, you need to give yourself a

goal and a metric to help objectively assess if you performed well.

‣ Know your goalWhat are you ultimately trying to achieve?

• Book more assignments from existing clients

• Brand yourself as the most respected wedding photographer in your region.

• Sell more stock photography from your archive.

• Develop a following of Yellowstone Park enthusiasts who buy your fine art prints

• Obtain critique or professional guidance from a wider network of your peers.


Your Marketing EffortsThere are 2 primary types of marketing:

InboundOutbound“You find them”

E-mail Campaigns

Promo Card Mailings

Cold Calling

Paid Advertising

“They find you”

Social Media

Search Engines

Blogs

Word of Mouth

Interruption Permission


Your Marketing EffortsThere are 2 primary types of marketing:

InboundOutbound +

=

Your marketing plan.


Your Marketing Efforts

Your marketing plan.

There is no perfect recipe for mixing

inbound and outbound tactics.


It’s a bunch of tubes!

Social Media for business is NOT for mindless interaction

It’s a conduit to your websiteto your points of conversion


Conversion is key

In other words

Having lots of “friends” is uselessif you cannot get them to dowhat you want them to do


Why use social media?There are several very obvious approaches and benefits to using social media for marketing and business growth.

‣ Brand building

‣ Managing relationships

‣ Direct sales generation

‣ Search engine rankings

‣ Inspiration & feedback


TwitterTwitter is a “micro-blogging” platform. It lets you express yourself in short, 140-character “tweets.”

‣ Twitter accounts in 2009: 18 million

‣ Twitter accounts in 2010: 26 million (projected)

‣ The average Twitter account has 300 followers.

‣ The average account follows 173 accounts.

‣ The average account has posted 420 updates.

‣ 82% of users have less than 100 followers, 81% are

following less than 100 people.


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Twitter & photogsWe’ve seen dozens of ways that photographers are using Twitter productively, including:

‣ Driving new, quality traffic to your website or blog‣ Driving signups for your newsletter‣ Building relationships with potential clients‣ Announcing news, achievements, special promotions,

and events.‣ Generating awareness and interest in your services‣ Discussing professional issues with your peers‣ Connecting with local vendors for business referrals

and partnerships‣ Obtaining feedback on images‣ Performing trend research


Twitter & photogsSome tips for growing your followers on Twitter:

‣ Provide useful information.‣ Tweet regularly‣ Retweet regularly‣ Suggest that people follow you.‣ Start and contribute to conversations.‣ Attribute everything.‣ Engage with the big guys.‣ Watch your timing and consistency.‣ Use strategic keywords‣ Practice reciprocity.


Twitter & PhotoShelterYou can link Twitter and your PhotoShelter website in two ways:

‣ Let your website visitors post your work on Twitter.


Twitter & PhotoShelterYou can link Twitter and your PhotoShelter website in two ways:

‣ Post image galleries to Twitter.


Twitter Bottom LineIt’s really hard to succeed on Twitter unless

‣ You can build a following of > 1000 people

‣ You have regular tweets with good informational value

‣ You’re producing tweetable content‣ You have a conversion goal


FacebookToday, 400 million people are currently registered with Facebook to connect with friends and professional contacts.‣ More than 3.5 billion pieces of content shared

weekly

‣ More than 2.5 billion photos uploaded to the site each month. The largest photo sharing site in the world

‣ Average user has 130 friends on the site

‣ Average user spends 55 minutes per day on Facebook

‣ Average user writes 25 comments on Facebook content each month


Facebook

One important point to consider:

Facebook has become the communication method of choice for millions of people.


Facebook & photogsWhy you might use it for a photography business:

‣ Build a community around your business.

‣ Promote your content.

‣ Deepen relationships.

‣ Referral business

‣ Get yourself found online.


Facebook & photogsTips to maximize a business fan page:

‣ Engage with your fans. Post updates frequently.

‣ Feed your blog directly into your Page via RSS.

‣ Customize your Page with rich HTML tabs.

‣ Use the page avatar to showcase your photography.


Facebook & photogsTips to maximize a business fan page:

‣ Optimize your page for SEO

‣ Work hard to grow your fans.

‣ Consider creating a resource page to attract new fans.

‣ Use Facebook’s stats and Google Analytics to optimize your Page.

‣ Use “Updates” sparingly.


Fan page stats


Beyond Facebook


Don’t Fan MeDon’t send me unsolicited fan page invitations because there is no apparent value.


BloggingThere are several primary reasons to explore blogging:

‣ To promote your photography

‣ SEO - Helping search engines find you.

‣ Demonstrate you are a thought leader.

‣ Demonstrate how you work.

‣ Create and maintain a dialogue with your audience.


Blogging Success Tips‣ Have a plan.

‣ Know your theme.

‣ Let people access your content on their terms.

‣ Make your personality clear.

‣ Make it a two-way, engaging experience.

‣ Optimize every post for SEO.


BloggingUsing your blog to build links, some tips:‣ Think “linkbait”

• Top 10 lists – (e.g.. top 10 inspiring nature photographers, 10 most powerful brands in photography, 10 ways to piss off a photo editor.)

• Dispute the popular opinion about anything – use facts or data for support.

• Intelligent tips, based on your experiences or gathered from an industry icon.

• Divulge the secrets of your success, or ask your followers to do the same, and link to it.

• Post reviews of popular products and ask for debate.

• Publish a resource list aggregating the best online articles on a given subject.


Blogging & PhotoShelterUsing your blog to build links, some tips:

‣ Embeddable slideshows & single images

‣ PhotoShelter seamless customization to integrate your blog

‣ Graph Paper Press Wordpress Customization & Plugins


The Bottom LineSocial Media is real

People are succeeding in promoting their biz

It’s worth testing, but you need measurements

Define goals, don’t waste time

Be constructive, less controversial


Social Studies: Understanding Social Media for Business

Business

Transcript of Social Studies: Understanding Social Media for Business