Category Archives: Socially Me

Social media for Photographers

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Should you be a part of every social network?  - No.

Should you be a part of any social network at all? – Yes.

Social Media Marketing For PhotographersI have a good friend, he’s not very ‘social media’ friendly, I mean, he’s always busy and he’s always working and doing quite well with his photography. He has a blog that he posts on once in a blue moon (however often that actually is, in this case it’s not very often) and he tweets, but not really in a ‘selling himself’ kind of way – just a ‘this is what I’m doing today’ kind of way. He shares his work via Twitter and Instagram form time to time. He doesn’t like Facebook and we’ve not even touched on the topic of Google+ yet…

Is he doing it all wrong? Could he be getting more work? – No & Maybe

He’s currently doing what he can handle doing without bringing someone else in to assist, he’s not having to gouge out chunks of time that he doesn’t have – he’s getting his name out there. But, is he doing it wrong? Well, I personally don’t think there’s a wrong way to do social media – as different ways work for different people / companies / industries.

There are certainly ways that don’t work very well with the majority of people, but they still work with a select few. For example, the pushy, sales only type of social media approach. It’s not my thing. Consider this for a minute, you’ve finished work on a Friday afternoon and you’ve gone to the bar with your workmates, you’re there having a nice cold beverage and someone walks in, pulls up next to you and starts offering for you to buy his photographs, you don’t say anything so he says it again… “Buy my photographs, Hire me!” …this keeps happening until you leave the bar and go to another.  You didn’t go to that bar to be sold at, and Facebook / Twitter etc, they’re pretty much the same – they started out as a way for friends to communicate – you have to remember that first. Social media marketing needs to be a lot more give than take by businesses.

I personally think that you have a great opportunity to reach an audience that you could generate a sale from, raise awareness in or become a valuable part of by using multiple social media channels.

Feed your audience ice cream, they may just come back for more.

Next Week : Don’t Make Your Audience Jump Through hoops for you….

a photo of a childrens playground for social media

Social media is not about making your audience jump through hoops..

Sime

 

The McDonald’s HashTagGate Affair

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…And, I don’t mean that I fell in love with a cheese burger, though it is easy to do.

Hell, it may be *evil* but it's TASTY!

Recently, Maccas inserted a BigMac sized wad of paid for tweets into the Twitosphere, using a hashtag for tracking – the aim was to raise awareness about their use of fresh produce. They used two #browns.. oh, wait… HashTags… One was #MeetTheFarmers the other was #McDStories

Rather than making you read loads of my painful rhetoric, the short story is that people started using #McDStories for evil, in place of good… (on the internet, really?!) The shorter story is that their chief social media person, Rick Wion*, pulled the hashtag in question, and rolled with the one that wasn’t collecting tweets like… [These examples from Social media Today in the article by David Amerland ]

“Fingernail in my BigMac once #McDStories, McDonald’s Twitter Hashtag Promtion, Goes Horrible Wrong,” said user @capnmarrrk.

“Ordered a McDouble, something in the damn thing chipped my molar. #McDStories,” @PuppyPuncher said.

“Hospitalized for food poisoning after eating McDonalds in 1989. Never ate there again and became a Vegetarian. Should have sued #MCDStories,” @Alice_2112 said.

“Watching a classmate projectile vomit his food all over the restaurant during a 6th grade trip #McDStories,” @jfsmith23 said.

My question is this – despite pulling the tag and not responding to any of the evil tweets (which would have made sense, turn that frown around!) did this harm the brand? It had extra people talking about it for a couple of days, it’s dredged up some issues that Maccas need to fix (nobody likes a fingernail burger!) and it’s painted an important picture for others… “Watch out, some idiot could turn your well intentioned social brainchild into the devil”

In your opinion, is this a massive fail on Rick’s part? Or is it always going to be this way – the internet being evil and all. I’d say “How could he have possibly known” and “better luck next time!” ….Now, I’m off out for a BigMac…. nails and all!

Thoughts?

–Sime

*or someone that a. looks like him, b. sounds like him, c. works for him or d. all of the above.

Amazing Marketing Myth – Busted!

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Yeah, I get tired of those tweets too…

“Take over the world by following these six amazing, never been seen before marketing steps!”

What? What a load of rubbish…. “Be a robot and take over nothing…”

Want a tip?….

TREAT PEOPLE LIKE PEOPLE.

  • Mum used to say, treat people how you want to be treated.
  • Don’t talk at me, talk with me.
  • Don’t slap a hard sell on the table, have a chat, work out WHAT to sell first.
  • Give back, don’t just take take take…
LumiQuest Soft Box Lights up strange man

I hope one of you finds this a little enlightening... #RandomImage

ROI and Social Media… Part Two

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So, my little ‘fact finding’ blog post had some interesting result.. everything from “You should be fired” to “yes, it can be hard, but here’s an idea!”

[read part one here...]

some good ideas though, and thanks to those of you with input – I may just give a couple of the suggestions a little thought.

I’ve taken some time out to call a few resellers today to ask them generally what they’d say if I asked them to keep data on people buying products (to help me with the online / offline thing) each of them said the same – if I was in a position to set up a training session for their staff and to put a system in place that made it very easy for stff to facilitate my little request – they’d maybe think about it. That’s great, and achievable… But let’s have a think about this for a minute…

I put in a system to test a theory, only to find out that putting that system meant that there was a negative return on investment, where there was a positive, albeit small, return on investment previously – does that make it all worthwhile?

I’d like to break your concentration now with a “From the archives” band photo of mine.

Mark King, bass player, photographed by Simon PollockMark King | Level 42 – Taken at iNdigo2 in London on 07 March, 2009 © Simon Pollock

So, should I be taking into account what it costs to measure these result, knowing full well that the measurement structure that I put in place could well fail? Do I simply measure what I can and make a guess based on global analytics numbers? An average, if you will?

Or do I spend my time doing what I do best – making our community feel like part of a massive, fun family of like minded people… (Which once you own a thinkTank Photo camera bag, you are!)

Serious stuff over for the minute. Have you enteres the thinkTank Photo “IN A BAG” give-away? It’s free, it’s growing daily and it’s awesome. http://blog.thinktankphoto.com