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Lesson Info

Blog Management and Automation Don'ts

Ok, so another very inefficient area is blogged management gets so overwhelming that it doesn't get done even if you do break it down like we did with victorian the hot seat yesterday on the board even if you do break it down it can get very home again it's I have so many to block and they become inefficient but you could easily automate it for you you still have to be hands on a little bit it's not as simple as the email filters but it can be done three, two one benefit pretty much already harped on the benefits of blogging and he gives the client the virtual business card to talk about you gives them a value because they're receiving a feature a cz well to share, he said to what for marking organic searches, it's relatively low cost and it's easy to dio there's no real drawbacks to it on the thing is they need to be is this is possible if you're going to provide one client eh client feature and you're telling them that they're receiving that is part of the value you need to be doing ...

it for everybody else you're going to end up with that one person who's like, why don't I get one? You know? And I my feeling is going to hurt on that you didn't block me, so I blogged everybody very much and that if I had a disastrous session for what a reason that's when I reserve the right toe ray issue because I gotta remember in my mind I'm also putting it out there to the public on my pages while is going into their home have your ceo checklist nearby this is obviously not a ceo course there's great resource is listed I've got some good ceo experts on the block that have done videos and link things for me s ceo is super important while I really harp on the whole uh maximizing what you can out of each client you still need to be mindful of this because where did like a situation? Where do people go when they're looking for something? They either go to social media and they ask for a photographer or they start googling one of the two they don't really drive around look for photography studio and more so you need to have your ceo checklist nearby I have to plug ins on that I utilize the one is called a joost ceo plug in for wordpress because it is a checklist for me fantastic is that it's automated checklist yeah look at that I'm the only one excited about that really okay good all right good yeah so it I he was blogging how creative life is the best here obviously I was able to put a key word what I wanted to focus in on so I'm in northern virginia photographer I may put manassas family photographer manassas, virginia family photographer that's give me the key word the ceo title this is the preview what will come up with a google or search engines, eh? So that's what I wanted to show and then the meta description puts limited, but I'm able to give a little snippet here what it's about and so even if you are blogging and you're not able to put a lot of text, you just want to get the images up for the feature. You can still take thirty seconds to fill this out to get your s ceo, but when you search it's gonna have some here said godly goop because you wanted to be attractive to any searches that come up and so that's the first plug in on they have other page analysis and stuff that you can do, and I'll run through and kind of give you a red light green light yellow light, whether or not you're optimized for search engine optimization and that way, and it will tell me what to do. So on this guesswork completely gone same thing for all of one s ceo plug in their cut, same set up pretty much here, um, and this is the free version so have many other functions as the yost, but it same thing and they're linked on the resource page that you guys can check out. So that's the ceo checklist we also want include blogging to the standard workflow. So I do. I had the session, I schedule, you know, I get the client, they've done the checklist do all the scheduling of the e mails, we have the session, I process it, I upload it right then I have always benefits in that online gallery presentation stuff going on that's all automated and done for me. And then when I have the cell session, I also I'm going to go ahead and blog's on ly blotted the images they have purchased because I want to reserve that potential up sell to use like a christmas time or mother's day to get them to buy those extra pictures that they didn't get the time. And I put the blogging into my standard work cloe and I do it then, and I also scheduling email of the blogger feature for when it's going to be published actually think that's the last point I'm gonna say it so that at the same time I go in, I uploaded, I schedule it, and then I also scheduled email. Before I get to that, in order to blogged, I want to have my re sizing and water marking done as quickly as possible. It can't be done in light room and photo shop, I utilize something called blawg stop, which is like gold when I did stumbled across that, I'm like, oh yeah, this is amazing, because then I can automatically have in one area all these different profiles we see I have it down here could have different profiles like our bp is rachel, ranking photography. I know that's, my blogged one and I have another profile for facebook as they may be different sizes to be optimized for what they are, and I don't have to each time guests which profile menus simply import the pictures I want go to the profile or style create the template that I went over there puts my water mark, I drive the watermark ice stop it and it saved into a folder exported from the settings labeled in my key words that I'm also going to be using my asio plug in, and I'm done so then it's easy for upload. They also have that publishing the blogger. You can connect it right the text here upload all the pictures, put it into a category and its uploaded for you. Right there and then and it could also published a social media in the exact same way facebook twitter have all of this on dyken due to a personal facebook or a business page and all the images that already stopped and re size for me and automated done so I'll have to open up multiple windows even though I already have facebook opened one likely but it's done for me in one fell swoop I stopped puts it into here I uploaded and it's taken care of and you can also if you need to go back in store it can show you e mails that you created this week or stay you're doing your weekly army your quarterly wrap up for your clients and you must show them and make sure images you'll have to dig their agents every single file off the client's images to pharrell what you're going to showcase you can have them all here click khumbu upload done your featured for the first quarter of of two thousand fourteen is done right there and that's an extra block idea to get more search engine optimization and more content on the web site the reason they threw that out there not just in photo proper light rooms I think light room does have some that functionality but I don't get to have all that other stage profiles and all that kind of stuff for me to keep all the images for later on um and then I also schedule everything so scheduling an automation I mean, come on, I feel like I'm a broken record by a schedule on auto publish and block post again this is going to be after they've already purchased to pay they don't receive the blogger feature until they've already paying its on lee in the images that they bought was I absolutely like them and I absolutely love the images and I may add a little bit more but I would hope that they bought those images if I love them that much but it never comes out that way does it? The clients don't really seem to buy the ones that are favorites that's ok, I can still utilize them a marketing if I have them all released and everything and I'm good to go but I want to automatically schedule it on the editorial calendar plug in heaven word press you could just do a regular scheduling but the reason I have it like this is that I can drag and drop it so say that a bride calls me and says, you know where's my you know where's my feature we've already bought blah, blah, blah I can quickly switch her and another bride if I need tio or if I just need to move it up for something that's coming up I can move things around and that's exactly what it looks like and I can also see if I ended up blogging twice on one day so having to go in each one and check the date of it because I actually logged here twice an hour apart well I could have look I could have used this over here or another week a swell so that's the plug in on dh then you can also auto publish all your stuff to social media so once you have gone through you done your gallery you've watermark to their block stop being uploaded it I mean created the block the post that's scheduled to go out you have all that you saved the link you can then go into buffer or to hoot suite and can I'm if they published all your social media's at once instead of having to go into each of them because so generous you still kind of have to go in and pin the stuff andi until recently actually found this on the way here you had to do it for google plus whose sweet now allows you also to published a google plus which is a really good search engine optimization set up but these were the two dashboards of different just auto publishing functions that you can use the first one is buffer it is limited it's free but it has some limited functions dealing in a certain amount of accounts automatically publishes it can share now or you can I asked them to set up a certain schedule or ask them when they think by based on analytics, the best share time is so if you're not really sure what the best year time maybe is going to read the analects of the pages and stuff and publish it for you when it's going to get the most eyeballs? Hence we has all that stuff you can also just you status updates on both of these two publishing one as well doesn't connect instagram and pinterest which thinks because for photographers, I mean this picture based really important so my blog's ready to go, it's scheduled to go I have already said it on the editorial calendar I know what day it is hop over, I scheduled email to the client to go hey, you're blogged features up also said it oughta publisher social media, so I don't have to add those to my local to do list to figure out what I'm going to d'oh and then yet the auto schedule descended to the block feature, encouraging them to share the feature it's extending that client relationship. You're having them talk about you and get more information out to the public about you blonde management and that shell I think we're pretty much done yes, yes ok, what was the name of the editorial? It's just editorial calendar plug in and so when you're is that connected to block, stomp it all or you've exported from blawg stomp and scheduled you process photoshopped, whatever it's all saved you open up in blawg stomp, you picked the profile, probably gonna blawg so you pick the profile, you stop it all, then you can push it on to the block when then you have to go in editorial calendar if you're going to change it up, if you need to just have the drag and drop it. If not, you can set up in the block stopped for the date of publication and everything but that's basically it if I have to go into double check to make sure I don't block twice in one day, because if I had it all this into my regular schedule calendar, my counter would be not some colors, you know, I'm still trying to parse it out, and I don't need this on a regular basis. I just want to go in aiken looking just drag really quickly, and I'm done, yeah, no, those don't integrate. Unfortunately, can I just say that stomping sounds like so much more fun than posting? Yeah, it's all about framing right on rachel, how, from a copy standpoint, how much text and photos what's your percentage there in your it really depends on your personal some people are writers, and they just love to really write about their session. It's good precision optimization. Some people simply want to do images, and if I'm gonna really busy season, I have just done images and that's better than nothing. I think you need to probably have at least a paragraph, but things you want to be saying the same things over and over to clients, because then it's not genuine, you want to try to be a specific it's possible with your key words in the back of your mind for seo um, so really depend, I know that's such a vague answer, I'm sorry, no that's, ok? And you for you personally about a paragraph about a paragraph or two, and just so I can get the key words out there gives a little context to kind of wrap moment, a little hug their images, and but again, if I don't really feel is a really tough session, I don't have much to say. Probably not going to say anything at all cold, cold heart, and can you reiterate which email claim you're using its gmail? It is, you know, it's, a business app which is no longer free it's five dollars a month, I think, used to be free, but it pulls the emails in from your host into gmail so you get the benefits of the gmail, storage and the platform, and then it works online droid and I phone and all that kind of stuff thinking welcome, but it's still identified as rachel rachel brand because I I'm not really big fan, and I think full unprofessional when you have, like rachel jeantel, that calm rachel, frankie photography, gmail, dot com sort of thing, and the great thing is, too, because of the forwarding and the filters and stuff I had a rachel breaking retire for your gmail way back in the day that is still active, but I haven't set to force of anybody old client ever happened to email it it's forwarded to my new one, and that can start and all my filters and even in your set up, so I can just keep the call, the company indications in one place great, I think you're welcome. All right, so wrapping up, I think we're almost done with automation, okay, this is another big one online out of office message unless you're actually all of the office for an extended amount of time, you shouldn't be doing it, and a lot of people may disagree with me on this, but I think that you're wishing your client's time that you're going to send me an auto reply, tell him you got my message, you're going to reply? Well, I would hope so if I e mailed you that you're going to reply to me on and I think you waste your client's time. Eso unless you're out of the office, don't do it on, and I'm talking like they're actually on vacation or kids, you know, sick in hospital or whatever don't do it defeats the purpose of individualized portraiture, emotional connections if you're gonna have this auto, this is something I really don't think what I've read them, they come in my inbox, andi, I read them and somewhere, like, I'm so busy, and I'm only gonna answer your emails between section such and such and such, and I'm like, so I feel like a number I don't feel like a one on one client with you at that time, I really lose the potential customer service and emotional opportunities, it's, the wrong kind of exclusivity that you want to provide to the client because that really native connotation, it stands that lack of availability, but not in a good way. So why I just told you guys, loses the personal touch a waste their time, sam, get ahead of myself since the message that you're too busy not that your exclusive and really highly sought after on dh website pricing can give them that information I put the star because we're not going to put all the pricing we already talked about that we're going to keep that for guide but the information that they're after to kind of filter that automated filter them were able to put a standard on this site of how much it's going to be it could be lost a sales and customer service opportunities really how many people actually read that anyways the auto office messages you can tell andi I actually I start I just feel through those out at this point point I don't read them anymore because this is your first authentic interaction with a client or if it is you don't want to make it like everyone else so if everyone else is doing office messes, you shouldn't be using one either we want to try to do a little different to set ourselves apart and since you set up all the other automation inefficiencies you there's no reason you can't get back to them in a timely manner. So if you feel the ifyou've feel you need one because you are so inundated with email, you need to realign and listen to all the email tips that we just talked about a second ago get more efficient for a quicker turnaround the template emails we're going talk about an office hours, all source email responses to be done for you um, I did put that in here, jim asked about that if you absolutely need to outsource it because it is something absolutely to do, you're not good at it. You may need to get someone to do it doesn't really have to come from somebody else. He could still be presented from your business. Um, but you still need to keep up on the communications and have oversight on that person or consider not taking any more people. If you can't handle the leads in the client management you have now, you need to not take anybody else simple is that one hundred percent automated photo processing people are going to cigarette with me, probably, but not every shooting situation, automated actions going to result in the same results, and this is downfall, they're like, well, I bought the action and work great in one session, not another wolf you need to evaluate and look at it and make sure that is actually going to fit to the session you have. I am a proponent of expediting your workflow on dh, having your key things down and putting that into actions. But you have to the evaluation you got your human you may have messed up during the portion of that in your session, you know, you made the things that you need to hand d'oh lighting and settings me changed during the session and you can batch at it after you determine the needs so sit down and do one then create about yet it right there and you can't automate it but not one hundred percent of the same bulletin automate and publish it out because then it's we've already turkey that flow of automation and if then it's done to her it is really a lot to dio alright so questions it's on automation students quiet so let's start with us up here all right so I'm gonna start with this one from cat tankersley who's been with us both days so like big thanks to her for joining us today so when you respond to clients via email how quote unquote professional are you or is it more of a casual chat when you're reading the e mails are how do you draw that line it's what you're going to get all the baseline message that you need to get across but I'm gonna wrap it in a personal like the way I talk to guys prematurely talked to my clients you know hey, I'm excited to talk to you you know but the book and you do x and x and next is not gonna be a completely sterile email because that pulls out all that emotion on and then it sounds like an auto responder and I want to talk to a person not to an auto responder cool and I was curious about your blogging when you when you block and you post a facebook to usually post a gallery as well on facebook er is usually an image with a link what's overkill unique ok, we've gotten but hold much of social media platforms going on and you can't necessarily manage them all at one time you gotta look where your audience is and facebook's always changing what's actually seen my goal is really to get people off facebook and or and twitter and pulled them into my little corner of the west that's where I have the newsletter sign up stuff and whenever I post a blogger feature doing image with the blawg link feature feature link in the comment because the optimization stuff for facebook right now images are being seen better than just links and you want to have more potential of it being seen and also were photographers. I think that picture should be prominent in order to catch the eye, but you do have to adjust and change it up depending on platform because it's going to depend what what you're what they're penalizing people for if it's just a straight text status update or that and I also do strongly recommend it just like you have a website portfolio set up of your different images you need to have on facebook to she may have people but someone asked their friends hey, who do you recommend they tag you? They go to your page, they may never get out of that page. Dear website. So pretty much the same information that you're going to have on your website needs to also be within, like your facebook business pages within reason from what we've talked about, not everything, but you want to give them just enough to be able to make that confident decision to reach out to you. Great on dh, you talked earlier about the email client that uses gmail calendar as well. Yes, yes, because then we can use that app like we talked about yesterday callin mob that can integrate them all to have it all in one place perfect or they were they could google plus also has their own app, great it's funny how often we these were all using jean a lot. A lot of people are using juno and all of these things every day, but really kind of learning how to use them more efficiently is really, really helpful. Well, in one of the downfalls is that gmail has tried to take the whole filtering process for a I don't know if you've seen the new tabs that they've given us and got the promotion social and something else we'll buy me set up my own filters, I can override that. Because I may never get past the first tab because it's tagged as promotional or whatever, and a client email mainland in there, and it may not see it because I didn't click over. Where is that? I have said, if the filters to demand what happens, I have more control and able to utilize the tools that are given me there. Interesting, helpful. A couple. I know that. Were there a lot of head nods going on in the in studio audience and being taken? And I know jim and I have a laundry list of our own personal things adding up, so thank you.