Questions about social media and building a business

andydri

Hey everyone - This post is more for the business side of photography... What are the problems that you struggle with? The most common problem I tend to hear about is marketing... Does anyone else struggle with that?


Has anyone started using Twitter/Facebook/Social media? How has that worked for you?


Thanks in advance for all of your help!


-Andy

ChatKat

Today's business climate requires that you use Social Media: Linkedin, FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter or others. Blogging is helpful as well.

They give people a glimpse of who you are. your work and more.

No two people use it exactly the same but you need to use it regularly.

I have been booked because I met other photographers on Facebook that referred work to me and I have been asked to speak to two business groups regarding how to use it and it's benefits.

ssimmonsphoto

To feed off of your question, how do you guys feel about posting your images on those networking sites? I've been trying to get around posting them on Facebook (because of their user policy) by posting links, but I don't think it's nearly as effective as just posting the image. What do you guys do?

keepright

andydri wrote:

The most common problem I tend to hear about is marketing... Does anyone else struggle with that?

Well Andy, since you're an "internet marketer", it makes sense that that would be what you hear. ("In his spare time, he does internet marketing and teaches others how to turn their email lists into revenue streams." - andydrish.com) Thanks for sharing; however, from the other forums where you've asked the exact same question - I'm including where you skewed it specifically to wedding photographers - it seems like your experience isn't typical.

Have a nice day.

Cygnus Studios

ChatKat wrote:

Today's business climate requires that you use Social Media: Linkedin, FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter or others. Blogging is helpful as well.

Have to partially disagree with you this time. It depends on your goals and your type of photography. I do not Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and have never heard of Linkedin. I did begin to blog very recently, but that is more of an outlet than a business building tool.

As with any marketing tool you have to know who and where your clients are. The above places probably work, but many claim the yellow pages work for them also. Some have enough clients based on word of mouth. You need to determine what works best for you, not everyone else.

emeraldrose

I'm facing these problems. I'm just really starting out and am using all of the above social networking sites (especially since I really want to target high school seniors), but haven't seen anything come of it yet and I even do facebook advertising. I do like linkedin, but not for building client base, but instead the groups that are on there that i get idea and info from. The one think i'm finding with all these social networking sites it that there are too many and it's hard to keep up with not only your site and blog, but all of those sites as well, it takes up a lot of time. As for posting pics I make sure my watermark is on them, thats the best i can do. (yes this means making separate files just for these sites). As I'm trying to build my initial client base it's hard. I get rave reviews from the people that do see my work, but only 2 paid sessions so far and those were close friends that see my work all the time.

ChatKat

Marketing Plans

Cygnus Studios wrote:

As with any marketing tool you have to know who and where your clients are. The above places probably work, but many claim the yellow pages work for them also. Some have enough clients based on word of mouth. You need to determine what works best for you, not everyone else.

.
Yes, I agree completely - it depends on who your market is. Many of my contacts on Social Media are people with whom I know from running another business or people that I have grown up with. For me, these people are my market. It's been an incredible way to keep my face and work in front of them without sending marketing materials and to re-introduce myself in a whole different meithod to them.

All that said, before you launch a venture, you should have a marketing plan so that it works for you and your business model.