Yes, as a photographer, I share my work, talk about the shoots that I’m on, post regular updates about my business and it may tick some people off. However, I try to completely avoid the CALL ME TODAY! type of posts. Ideally, I’d like to attract people with my content and through relationship building.

I think relationships are built through liking, sharing, commenting in a positive way and interacting positively with others on social media. I don’t think relationships are built by whining about politics, what side of the gun debate you are on or how bad your life is.

Social media is about relationships. You don’t build relationships by being a sour puss and constantly selling.

If you have been successful at outright selling on social media, please email me at David [at] dwppc [dot] com. I’d love to hear more about it.

The post Social Media Is About Relationships And Not About Sell, Sell, Sell first appeared on .

The tweet above from Canon USA Imaging is just one of several times that I have been able to get in front of brands like Canon. Even if I cannot pinpoint a single sale to Twitter, I firmly believe that tweets from big brands along with likes and retweets cannot be harming my social media presence.

Twitter can be a little frustrating if you are not familiar with the platform. However, I’ve personally found it far better to reach big brands than Facebook.

Whether you have 50, 500, 5,000 or 50,000+ followers on Twitter, it’s about the quality of connections and interactions that matter not the fact that you have a big following and nothing else is happening. It’s true that numbers may solve some problems because you’ll have a broader audience. However, is the audience that follows you an active, captive audience or a bunch of fake or dormant accounts?

Although I do like Twitter, if I were knew to Twitter, I wouldn’t make it my top priority when it comes to social media. But if you have the time to stay active on Twitter, I think it should be in your social media mix provided that you are already solid in other areas like a complete LinkedIn profile, regular updates on LinkedIn and regularly active on Facebook because I believe both of those to be better than Twitter for the average user.

Follow Me On Twitter

Here’s a long read on LinkedIn about Twitter from a friend of mine who is also an Award Winning Author: Check Out What Jay Izso Has To Say!

The post Is Twitter Part Of Your Social Media Mix? first appeared on .

The iPhone photo on the left represents a few items that Southwest Airlines sent to me thanks to a Tweet. Yes, that’s a Polaroid camera that I got for FREE because of a Tweet. As a photographer, I simply Tweeted that I was headed to cover a conference. I was flying on Southwest to get to my destination and simply pinged Southwest on my Tweet. Within minutes, Southwest replied and asked me to DM (direct message) them because they had something to send me.

I have managed to get in front of numerous brands thanks to Twitter. In the photography world, Canon, Manfrotto, ThinkTank and a few others have either liked, re-Tweeted or replied to my Tweets. Outside of Photography, I have gotten in front of other brands for both compliments and complaints. I had a bad experience at a National Brand restaurant for a party of 12 or so people and they sent me a $75 gift certificate. I was surprised at the amount because I was expecting may $25 and no more than $50 but received $75 which left a very good impression with me about the brand trying to make things right.

In addition to brands, there are numerous individuals that are often easier to connect with on Twitter than most other platforms. For example, I was up one morning reading a book that I purchased off Amazon and managed to connect with the author at 4:30 a.m. Like me, he is often up early and it was interesting to have some back an forth on Twitter. I have also connected with other individuals that would likely not respond on other platforms.

I use Twitter to share updates about my business, to share blog post and for other things. I have found it to be a useful platform when used properly. You cannot just Tweet randomly (as a general rule) and just expect things to magically happen.

If you are not using Twitter, you should try it out, but be very strategic about your approach. Don’t let Twitter or any social media platform drain you of every second of your time.

The post Do You Think Twitter Is A Waste Of Time? Think Again first appeared on .

Yes, I do run ads on Facebook, but they are more about sharing an example of my work than “Here’s a discount” – “Call me now” – “Schedule your headshot today.” I have found that low key sharing and interacting with people seem to work better. Most people that I am connected with know that I am a photographer. They don’t need to see a sales pitch.

Yes, you will have people get annoyed for simply sharing your latest project. However, my face-to-face feedback from people that I run into that I’m connected to on Facebook is far more positive than negative. Although I have ZERO intentions of direct promotion on various Social Media platforms moving forward, I do plan to continue sharing what I’m up to, samples of my latest work and other non-direct sales pitch photography related updates. It’s more of a SHARE approach than a DIRECT approach.

Your Choice: If you want to say “Call Me” – “Check Out My Offer” – “Blah, Blah, Blah,” that is completely your choice because it’s your photography business not mine. However, IMHO, the best way for maximum impact is to share, build relationships and to not outright SELL, SELL, SELL on social media. It’s the 21st century. People do not want to be sold. If people like your work, you can get business by just sharing regular non-sales type updates.

Closing Thought: Look at your promotional type posts and see how many likes and comments you’ve been getting. My guess is that you will see a very low response rate including just a simple like. Also go back and look at a simple update like check out my latest project that had no promotional message in it. You will likely see that you got better interaction than when you posted a more promotional type update.

Final Question To Ponder: On Social Media, how much closed business have you received off of an actual DIRECT SALES TACTIC approach? … Like “Call Me – I’m desperate for your business.”

The post How Should Photographers Use Social Media For Maximum Impact? first appeared on .

Most of you reading this probably have a Facebook account and likely even have a Facebook business page. However, you may not have an Instagram account or if you do, you may not be active on it.

Instagram is visual. Photography is visual. Therefore as a photographer, you should probably be on Instagram, but only if you can post on a fairly regular basis. Can you post at least one image per week? If not, then why bother trying another social media channel.

True, there is no magic number to posting once per day, once per week or once per month. However, if you want to in front of followers and gain new followers on Instagram, you should post more than once per month.

The thing that I don’t like about Instagram is that you have to post the image or graphic from your mobile device (as of this post). That can be frustrating. However, I accept it and move on.

The area that is critical to remember on Instagram is #hashtagging. That’s when you put # in front of a word or phrase like #teamcanon when you post an image. For those that don’t have thousands of followers, #hashtagging is a great way to get people to see your images. If you don’t #hashtag, you will likely get a lot less likes.

Instagram has given me the opportunity to get in front of BIG BRANDS in the photography industry like @CanonUSA. Canon has liked my work, commented on it and even PINGED me to approve a link (multiple times) for one of my images to get on the Canon Bring It website. FYI, that’s not happening on Facebook for me. If Instagram can help you get in front of brands like Canon, Nikon, Sony and others, why wouldn’t you want to post on a fairly regular basis? Don’t worry about the perfect image. Just post something that will not make you look bad.

Rather than me try to tell you everything that I can think about related to Instagram in a blog post, I suggest that you visit YouTube and try some of the following searches to find some videos that will guide you along the way:

setting up Instagram
how to get started with Instagram
how to setup Instagram
how to use Instagram
Oh and how about this one? Instagram for photographers

The post Are You On Instagram? As A Photographer, You Probably Should Be! first appeared on .

Consistency on one or two platforms, in my opinion, is better than doing a poor job on 6 or more platforms. Consistency is key. Don’t start 6 platforms that you do well for a week and then skip posting on for months. But my guess is that at least one of them (FACEBOOK) will likely get posted on consistently.

Facebook – I have had more success with my personal Facebook page than my business Facebook page. With all the changes Facebook continues to make, it’s hard for a Facebook business page to get any traction without either paying for the exposure or having enough likes (thousands) that your posts actually get seen. On my personal page, I just toss in samples of my work with my regular posts. It’s not about saying look at my latest special… CALL NOW. That’s not the way social media should work on your personal page.

Twitter – I have been able to get BIG BRANDS to comment, re-tweet and favorite my tweets on Twitter which seems to be the easiest social platform to get in front of that audience. Twitter can be a little more challenging if you are not familiar with using it. But it definitely serves a purpose especially in getting in front of BIG BRANDS.

LinkedIn – You should have a profile on LinkedIn and as a professional photographer, you should be using a professional headshot or at least one that is very creative that doesn’t dilute your brand. LinkedIn makes it easy to share updates quickly. You can take LinkedIn to another level by publishing content similar to a blog post. This takes more commitment than just a quick update, so you may want to start out with regular short updates, but you should try writing at least one piece of content as soon as you can.

Instagram – The downside is that Instagram is primarily a mobile app. There are some things that you can do on a desktop, but all of your posts will have to be done on a mobile device. That means that you may have to find a more creative way to post your professional work to Instagram like emailing yourself an image and downloading it to your phone. Instagram is very much image driven and a great social platform.

Pinterest – One key thing to remember about Pinterest is that most of the users on Pinterest are WOMEN. I made that in ALL CAPS because you’ll really want to remember that. Pinterest, like Instagram, is very much photo driven, but Pinterest is not all about your personal images. Brenda, my wife, typically uses Pinterest for recipes, gardening, craft ideas and things around the home. Our two daughters, in their 20’s, look at a lot of clothing options in addition to other things that interest them. Pinterest is about pinning your interest. In the case of Pinterest, you may want to pin more of what is interesting to women.

Google Plus – OK, it might be the red headed step child of social media, but communities on Google Plus are a great place to post your images. For example, I’m a member of an animal community and I get a lot of plus ones of images that I have taken of our Golden Retriever “Tucker.” So find a community or two that you can post some of your images both personal and professional. Also, while you are at it, you might as well post to the personal side of Google Plus. It may not have the traction of some social platforms, but if you are posting in a community, you might as well post something on your personal feed.

Find Me On The Platforms Above By Clicking The Links Below:

https://www.facebook.com/DavidWilliamsPhotographer

https://twitter.com/David_Williams_

https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidwilliamsphotographer

http://instagram.com/raleighphotographer

http://www.pinterest.com/dwppc/

https://plus.google.com/+Dwppc/posts

If you enjoyed this post, please use the social icons below to SHARE IT.

The post 6 Social Platforms Photographers Should Be Active On: But Be Consistent first appeared on .

Left Image – Canon 5D Mark III On Manfrotto Tripod – HDR Image On Right

I never really paid much attention to Instagram until a few weeks ago. As a photographer, that was a mistake on my part, but I’m active on Instagram now. Please feel free to follow me on Instagram.

I have around 300 followers as of this post. But I’ve done it the right way and have NOT bought followers which I think is a dumb idea to begin with. It’s not about the quantity but the quality.

I stated the number of followers above to put the number of likes in perspective. I’ve found that most of my posts get between 20 and 30 likes on a consistent basis; however, the iPhone image on the left above of my camera on a tripod currently has 98 likes and the professional image (taken with my gear on the left) currently has 34 likes. Interestingly enough, I have found that my PHOTO GEAR posts, often taken with my iPhone, tend to get more likes than my professional work. I guess people just love seeing photo gear that makes their senses say, “I want that.”

With Instagram being very much a mobile focused platform, phone images look great when viewed on a phone. The larger images above do not look bad even on a desktop; however, if both images were enlarged to poster size, there would be a notable quality difference. However, on Instagram, I am not convinced that it’s about the quality of the image as much as it is about what appeals to the viewer and/or the creativity of the shot.

If you are a photographer, keeping all of the above in mind, just remember that you don’t always have to post your greatest work. It is OK to post phone images. However, that’s up to you as a photographer. I have noticed that some photographers seem to only post their pro work while others (like me) mix it up. In my case, I even post a few images taken on film ( yes, film).

You may be surprised at the images that get the most likes. Try it out for yourself and see what happens.

If you enjoyed this post, please SHARE IT using the social icons below.

The post Instagram Likes – You Never Know What Will Get The Most Likes Or Do You? 98 vs. 34 first appeared on .

I finally got active on Instagram in the last 30 days. As a photographer, that was not a good move on my part to just let Instagram sit on the back burner.

There are so many social media choices these days and most of you reading this are probably very active on Facebook but may not have (or make) time for other social platforms. If you enjoy images and/or do a lot of phone photography or regular digital photography, you may want to give Instagram a second thought.

Here’s the short version:

1) Post images and use # hashtags – If you are just starting out with virtually no followers, you should use relevant # hashtags about what you are posting including the name brand. For example, I might post: Image taken with a #Canon #5DMarkIII of my #GoldenRetriever “Tucker.” By just using those 3 # hashtags, my image is more likely to be seen. However, those with 1,000+ followers will likely be seen a lot more in general, but even those with lots of followers use # hashtags.

2) Use the @ sign to ping those that you want to give notification to – For example, in the image above @FamousSmokeShop did @raleighphotographer in the post giving me credit on the image (more on the image later) and I got notified. That made it easy for me to know they posted and to be able to thank them for giving me photo credit.

There are two core ways for me to get in front of  @canonusa on Instagram. (FYI, they have commented on my images numerous times.) That is by # hashtagging like #Canon #TeamCanon #Bringit to name a few and by using @canonusa in my post.

I shot the image above in my drive way on a sunny winter day. I first posted it on my feed which @FamousSmokeShop liked. (They follow me and have liked several of my images.) Then, yesterday, they posted the image on their feed and gave me photo credit. 15 hours later, it has 416 likes as of this post ( 1 of the 416 is me).

If you have not tried Instagram, you may want to give it a shot. I know that I have really enjoyed it over the last 30 days or so.

You can find me on Instagram @raleighphotographer or by clicking this link.

The post Making Brand & Even Big Brand Connections On Instagram Is Not Rocket Science first appeared on .

This post is not going to cover all the ins and outs of what if someone steals your images. The core purpose is to get your wheels spinning to make sure you have a presence on more than one social media platform.

1) Blogging – If you are reading this, you are experiencing blogging first hand. Blogging is a form of social media. With the social plugins attached to each post, it makes it easy for the blog author to push out his or her post on social platforms and more importantly for blog readers to share the post on social media.

2) Facebook – Although Facebook continues to change, it is still one of the top social platforms. Having an individual account allows you to build relationships online that can lead to good friendships and/or business connections offline. Facebook business pages are considered a waste of time by many today, but if you are on Facebook, you should have a business page for your business. The sad part is that your post on the business page may only reach a maximum of 10% of your total audience if you are lucky. So having 500 LIKES (Followers) on your Facebook page, may yield a maximum of 50 people being reached by your post. Even with all its quirks, Facebook is still a powerful social media resource. Who knows how much longer that will last?

3) Google Plus – One of the nicest things about Google Plus is communities. As a photographer, there are many photo related communities to get involved in. Google Plus can be a little challenging to grasp at first, but being able to do things like writing a paragraph or two, posting an image then being able to easily click in the upper right to grab the link of what you just wrote to share on other social platforms is nice. Likely the most important part of all is the tie in to a Google Local Listing which is important for your business ( MAPS ).

4) LinkedIn – Linkedin is a professional network that does allow social opportunities. You can connect with business people on Linkedin which is likely the first thing that comes to mind when you think about Linkedin other than it being an online professional resume of sorts. However, there are three other core areas of Linkedin that make it more social: 1) Groups – You should join groups and be active in the ones that you like best. 2) Share Updates – This is a nice quick feature to post your own updates or to post news from around the web. This post will be shared via Linkedin once it goes live. 3) Writing An Article – Instead of sharing a short update, you can choose the PEN on update section and write an actual article like this one.

By no means are the 4 resources above necessarily the best 4 for photographers. However, if you are only going to focus on 3 or 4 platforms, you should seriously consider how the 4 above fit into your social presence. Whether you blog or not is up to you because it is a time consuming commitment, but Facebook, Google Plus and Linkedin are 3 solid social platforms to be a part of.

Other platforms to consider as a photographer ( but not all inclusive ) are …

5) Twitter

6) Tumblr

7) Pinterest

8) 500PX

9) YouTube

The post Photographers Should Have A Social Presence – 9 Social Media Platforms first appeared on .

1. Marketing Monday: “The Closer” – 9 Tips To Help You Close More Photography Business https://www.rtpphotoandvideo.com/marketing-monday-the-closer-9-tips-to-help-you-close-more-photography-business/
2. It’s Official: The First Instagram From Space Has Been Posted http://petapixel.com/2014/04/08/its-official-the-first-instagram-from-space-has-been-posted-and-its-a-selfie/
3. LOCAL Spotlight: Wendy Gates Corbett with Refresher Training https://www.rtpphotoandvideo.com/local-spotlight-wendy-gates-corbett-with-refresher-training/
4. Researchers Find a Way to Show 80 Years of Aging by Morphing a Single Photo http://petapixel.com/2014/04/10/researchers-find-way-show-80-years-aging-morphing-single-photo/
5. CorporateEventPhotography in Raleigh NC – Choosing The Right Photographer https://www.rtpphotoandvideo.com/corporate-event-photography-in-raleigh-nc-choosing-the-right-photographer/
6. Striking Hyperlapse Captures Construction of the 100ft ‘Kelpies’ Sculptures in Scotland http://petapixel.com/2014/04/12/striking-hyperlapse-captures-construction-100ft-kelpies-sculptures-scotland/
7. Aerial Photography Shows Pilot’s Perspective http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/photos/aerial-photography-shows-pilots-perspective-23259736/image-23260253

The post Photography Social Round Up From Last Week: The Week of April 7th first appeared on .