- [Colby] So again, I use Chris Burkard as our superhero of this class, because he works on planet Krypton, where most people want 60,000 interactions per post when they push stuff out and that's just not feasible. For most of us, myself included. So, post quality content that you want to be known for. Again, this is the idea that if you want to be known for something specific, make sure that you're posting to reach that type of audience. The idea that you can be a landscape photographer and I'm going to sit here that says 52,000 impressions and 1,200 plus one on Google+, and that's great. That's what I'm known for, this type of content. And then I do a project, a marketing project for Chile travel, their Tourism Board for the country of Chile. I do adventure photography project in Point du Mont, just in north of northern Patagonia, and my interactions are going to be lower. Because my people aren't used, my followers aren't used to seeing that. Be consistent. So as a photographer, you...

want to have consistency. This is consistency and content and consistency in timing, which again, we'll talk a little bit more. So if you're used to posting how many times you're posting a week, how many times, what times a day are you posting and what type of content are you posting? Consistency is rewarded when it comes to social platforms. Build up your fan base. So then again, the idea that it's that first hour or so that matters for most social platforms, that's where you can get the bulk of your interaction. And so your fan base is different than your followers. Your fan base are people that you're typically going to find that's going to engage with most stuff you push out there. The larger your fan base, the more momentum you can build, the longer the lifespan, the more engagement and the more viral your content can go. If you don't have a large fan base that you've built up that takes time, it's going to be exponentially more difficult to get large numbers in terms of your stuff being seen because you're not getting that initial engagement. You're pushing out to Facebook and Facebook's not saying, "Oh, this stuff's pretty hot. A lot of people are really engaging with this. Let's show it to some more people and see what happens." You don't get that opportunity, then obviously you're going to miss out on your content being seen by more people. Encourage engagement, again, we talked a little bit about CTAs. The idea that engagement spurs more engagement. Your engagement is telling the different social platforms that your content you're producing has value to Facebook, so Facebook should show that to someone else, or Instagram or Twitter. The more engagement and the different types of engagement that you get are going to be going to dramatically affect how your content is seen. So, a plus or a like is going to have probably less value than a share which might have more or less value than a comment. So, spurring engagement, sometimes when I post, I'll sit there and say, "Hey, enjoy this post and please share it." More people share it, more people see it. More people see it, more people engage with it. More people engage with it, things start to build, you get momentum. Oh, I'm going to post something out. Let me ask a question. Comment, comment spurs engagement, engagements spurs communication, communication spurs more communication. All helpful, all that's positive for you. Controlling how that happens and trying to spur your followers to engage with you will only help you. The entry restaurant effect. This is essentially the idea that you're walking down here, downtown here in Seattle and you're walking down a street and you look to the left and there's this wonderful restaurant. It looks nice, looks pretty inside. Might have good food but no one's there. And on the other side of the street, you have a place, maybe it looks a little bit more dodgy but there's a lot of people in there. Where do most people go? Where everyone else is. Maybe the food's bad in this place. That's why no one's there. Maybe there's something wrong with the staff. Maybe it's too expensive. I don't know, doesn't matter. Most people are going to go where other people are. So creating content that gets engagement that you're asking and you're spurring that engagement is sociologically, is going to have, is going to get more people to engage. That's how content goes viral. You sit there and you create something and starts getting momentum, it's not just the algorithms, is the fact that, Oh, millions of people have now watched Benjamin von Wong's Mermaid video. Some of you guys when I was talking about, maybe you guys want to see it now. It's like how many people have seen this? It's a cool concept. Has 20 million views. There's got to be something to that. So it's important. It's important to understand that element. And putting in the hard work, coming back to Ben's stuff which is good timing because this is the end of it. Is essentially the idea that not everything that you create will just be done. Not everything will stop once you post. What I mean by this, is this video that Ben put out, he put in a lot of hours of work, not only to create it but to market it. So we sat there and once he pushed it out there because of the type of content he was going after, he was releasing PR, he had PR releases. He was calling up news stations. He was trying to look at, talk to publications to use his contacts with podcasts. He was trying to get this stuff to be as viral as possible by getting other larger hubs or publications or places that have different viewership, get eyes on his content. So, he has a large following as it is which helps him, but at the end of the day, depending on the projects, I mean, you guys were talking about projects or advocacy showing this other stuff. Create awesome content and then put in the legwork in order to have it reach the most amount of people. It's not just you post and then it's like, "Oh, well, Facebook decided that this wasn't good enough so I give up." I think that's crap. Put forth the effort in order to create the stuff that you want to get, whether it's building the right following, building your large user base, finding value in social media, whatever it is. You have to put forth the work and the effort to make things happen. You can't just expect the algorithms to do it for you. We have to find ways to work around them. You can't expect companies to come with you and lay projects in your lap. Sometimes you have to go find them or you have to show that you have value to them. Questions? Anything? - [Man] Yeah, one question about, Ray asked, "Does posting your photos on social media diminish its value to publications or maybe potential value to publications?" How do you handle that? - It's a good question. I don't believe so. Now, what I believe is that the value for our content is again subjective and it's a two-way street. So it's up to us and obviously it's up to whoever may be purchasing or using it. Now, the only time that that might actually be true is in terms if you're trying to create exclusive content. So by that exclusive license that I license to a company for the $20,000 or $25,000, whatever it was that I did two years ago, that value of that content to me is now zero because it was exclusive. That's why I was able to charge so much. For everything else, I don't think there's no publication that would be willing to pay me the money that I think it would be worthwhile to not spread my stuff as wide and far as I possibly can, because I want more clients I want more valuations. So posting stuff online to me, extends and drastically grows the value of our images.

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Colby Brown

Colby Brown is a photographer, photo educator and author based out of Eastern Pennsylvania. Specializing in landscape, travel and humanitarian photography, his photographic portfolio spans the four corners of the globe. Throughout his work, one can see that he combines his love of the

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Ratings and Reviews

Giles Rocholl

This course is designed to help you develop a Social Media strategy if you are Photographer. I am a professional photographer with over 37 years of experience and although I know how to use Facebook and Instagram I didn't really understand how to use them to achieve business and personal goals. I started watching this course about 2 months ago and have just finished it due to work commitments. However I have put into practice his advice as I learnt new understanding and my following has grown rapidly. Also my work load and quality of assignment has increased dramatically too. It takes some brain rewiring to understand how social media has taken the place of many traditional media streams but Colby does an excellent job of painting a picture that helps hugely. The best thing about Colby's strategy is that it is real life, honest and something I feel I can personally and ethically live with happily. I happily endorse this course and recommend it.

Beatriz Stollnitz

I was very lucky to be in the audience for this class. Colby is an incredible instructor - he has the rare combination of being successful, knowledgeable and talented, but at the same time down to earth, approachable and genuinely willing to help others succeed. The content presented is actionable - I have so many ideas of things that I can do right now that can help my online presence! I can't wait to get started!

Rob Lettieri

I learned a few things I never knew...especially the whole inside scoop on LinkedIn....who knew??? Easy to listen to....a lot of deflection to later answers to questions...which would have made a director allow for less...why ask if you cant answer just then....and he says every question is a "great question" but it clearly isn't in a few cases....so credibility goes down...I understand positive enforcement for the millennials...but every question is not great. otherwise easy to follow and straightforward....

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Tips for Creating Successful Posts

Tips for Creating Successful Posts

Lesson Info

11. Tips for Creating Successful Posts

Lessons

Class Introduction

Ages of the Internet

What is Social Media?

Social Media by the Numbers

How Social Media Changed the Photo Industry

Social Media Myths

Finding Value in Social Media

How does Noise Effect Social Media?

The Rise of the Curated Feed

The Longevity of a Social Media Post