Letting People Know You Are There

maddadkeith

I am trying to figure the best ways to let people know (locally) that:
(a.) I will be at an event.
(b.) I am at an event.
(c.) I was there.
:dunno
Please send me your suggestions!!!

lukaitis photo

Facebook fan page, twitter page and perhaps if the event has a website put it on there. I have been very lucky that people expect to see me at certain events throughout the year. I have a banner that I put up near the sign up stand and so far it has worked pretty well.

SamirD

I have a stand-alone web site that has a calendar on it listing all the events in the area. Each event has an rsvp system that I and any registered site users can use to indicate that they are coming to an event. Here's an example:
http://www.huntsvillecarscene.com/showthread.php?t=2559

People know I'm at an event because I have a photo vest on and look like a photographer. I also have made a T-shirt with my site url on it and the word "STAFF" in big letters across the back.

Any vehicle that I photograph, I leave a small piece of paper, aka passout slip, with my web site url on it. People go to the web site and find their pictures.

If you do this regularly, word of mouth travels very fast. I've tried other forms of advertising including a local billboard, and nothing gets the results like old-fashioned pounding the pavement and meeting people.

fredjclaus

Can I ask you a couple questions about this? Do you get paid by the event organizers to be at the event and supply them a CD of all the images or do you just show up and take pictures on spec? I was at the New Years Eve party for a local Hotel last year and took a few pictures on spec. This unscheduled activity allowed me to get a few sales, but not many I'm looking for a better way to do it this year. If I should contact the event coordinators ahead of time and set something up, or if I should just go.

SamirD

fredjclaus wrote:

Can I ask you a couple questions about this? Do you get paid by the event organizers to be at the event and supply them a CD of all the images or do you just show up and take pictures on spec? I was at the New Years Eve party for a local Hotel last year and took a few pictures on spec. This unscheduled activity allowed me to get a few sales, but not many I'm looking for a better way to do it this year. If I should contact the event coordinators ahead of time and set something up, or if I should just go.

It depends. Most events do not pay. But when someone absolutely wants me at their event, that's what I tell them will guarantee event coverage. I never give our originals due to past copyright infringements by newspapers and magazines. It's just so hard to track where these images end up. If someone wants an original, they have to contact me personally and sign a very specific license agreement.

My photos are part of event coverage, event coverage is one of the forms of content for my main site, which drives up traffic, which advertisers pay to be on. That's what pays the bills. The income from photo sales is just a bonus. And because I shoot in more of a journalistic style, images sales are a small percentage of the number of images viewed each month. As of today, 142461 photos have been viewed this month, and there's only been 40 items bought. That's typical for this area for some reason.

For your particular event, I would definitely get in touch with the event coordinators. Let them know you will be there, let them know they can link to your images from their website (if they have one), or facebook or whatever. People respond really well to this concept of "free" and the gallery link will get spread all over. Depending on the images and if the person viewing the photos is in the photos, sales may be decent or non-existent. Just be sure to lock the gallery down--no right clicks, nothing above medium, and watermark with a way to get in touch with you--a url, a phone number, something.

I shoot regularly for a buddy of mine who is flown in from Chicago to DJ at a local club. The last gallery I shot for him has over 10000 views, but not one sale. And that's probably because the people in the pictures didn't see the gallery quick enough. I've found that if someone doesn't see their image in 72 hours, their enthusiasm to see it is almost gone.

These are just tidbits that I've learned over the years, and this may be specific to my area so your mileage will vary. But definitely keep us posted on how it goes!

justus

Event Coverage
I also request that an event include me on their website and/or event program since I book in advance.

I have announcements made during the event that I am there taking photos and have a table set up with an assistant and a banner to hand out contact information and show samples of my work.

The type of event has a lot to do with it also. I like to discuss this very issue with every event coordinator I work with ahead of time. They sometimes have distribution (email) lists of everyone who has pre-entered or who they believe will attend and share that list with me to send out email reminders after the event and a link to my photos.

SamirD

justus wrote:

I have announcements made during the event that I am there taking photos...

I forgot, but I do this too.