Lessons

Lesson Info

Social Media

I want to highlight yet another past creative life student of mine her name is ashley goodwin and she's currently located in oahu, hawaii. Now ashley and I met in two thousand eleven during my creative live course building your wedding photography business and at the time ashley had built her business in the south and she fell in love with an arms force mint and he was relocated to oahu hawaii so in order for him for her to be with him they got married and she picked up her business and she moved it to hawaii and she felt like she really had to restart from the ground up so she's located on the beautiful island of oahu but she had no friends no business context and really for only like the only other person she could talk to you it was her husband which you'll soon find that she talks justus vestas I do and I'm sure he enjoyed every minute of it so she didn't move just a city she moved in and two entirely moved off the continent and she was understandably nervous but I'm excited to sho...

w her video because she's doing not well but smashingly well so we're going to do now we located a business can be super daunting after I moved to hawaii I could come up with a strategy to get this is going to keep my dream alive thankfully within seven months I have been able tio second, shoot twelve wayne's shoot fifteen sessions and buck nineteen weddings so hopefully these tips will help you restart wherever it may be or may be like me we start a couple times but the verses learn your market do online research, sit down with local creative picked their brain by a coffee make some friends attend local meetings and business groups and most importantly to me second shoot it is a great way to establish a relationship with a local photographer while also learning your market because not all markets are the same trust me a whole lying when he was totally different than this other wedding and it's awesome and that relationship with that retired for maybe two referrals down the road so when when seconds is rebranding and that's not just making all the pretty things that you see up interest, it is tailoring pics of you and your new local clientele into different elements such as revamping your online presence showcasing local shoot that's a really big one and possibly restructuring your collections and luring your prices just a little until you get going then waste them back up. Of course most importantly make friends in your new town then people they're going to keep you saying a brainstorm with you give you a cocktail when you need it friends are an invaluable resource especially photography friends or just creative people in general and they're really gonna keep you going in your business going and they will hopefully turn into lifelong friends that is what I am most appreciative for my creative live experience is for and that's the creatives behind it in the community if it was not for the local people here in hawaii and the people that I met online, my business would not be where it is. I am so thankful for them pushing me and helping me grow and and that is where majority of my referrals have come from his other retired for so I opened a lot of dinners probably, but is those people that make it all worthwhile and for them I am forever grateful creating life every starters I'm confident that you have a great year ahead of you. Cheers! I I showed that video of ashley aunt how and what she did to make it work she won get she went through and I told her I was like ashley, you have to keep this under three minutes that girl can talk to anybody, including a door knob. So I said you've got to keep it in three minutes so boiling it down to her top three points about how she restarted in not just a new area but entirely off the continent one she took the time to learn her market too she bring rebranded for the clients that she wanted in three she made friends have we not been talking about this this whole time? She's like a walking testament to the restart process and what she did cost little to no money at all, so if you're at home and you're frustrated, I would heavily suggest you listen to it, ashley said. And I believe this is grassroots marketing one o one and these are all things that we could do for our businesses, so moving forward, we all just got really close did not feel like she's looking over my notes about like, really staying on point way, we're gonna talk about our social media experience, and I don't want to pretend like I'm a social media guru, so I'm not going to say that this is the way that it works or I figured it out. I am not. I wouldn't even say that I know all of the end announce, but I'm just going to share my approach. My approach might be wonderful for you. It might be the worst thing for you at least going to know the ins and outs of how I do it, and I believe that heavy focusses should be figuring out how our clients use social media, so I might not use a mechanism of social media that has played to your strengths and your client streets, so take that with a grain of salt. Today I am going to be focusing on the three main components that I use for my business and that is going to be instagram, twitter and facebook and in the order in which I use them. Now the reason why I chose these three components is because this is what I see my clients interacting with the most not what I want to be interacting with the most and definitely this is how if I see them connecting this way, then that's where I want to be and a point of clarification I use social media as a business mechanism, not as a personal mechanism and I've had to draw the line and know that what I'm putting out is for business and I'm going to get into a little bit more of the minutia as to why I've made this decision it doesn't have to be this way for you, but if you do decide to use it both in a personal and professional capacity, I'd heavily suggest you kind of buy for keeping it for your business and personal or going into that for a second. Now when you combine your name and your business, you have to realize that you're no longer just representing one thing independently you're representing both those things, so in light of this I heavily suggesting use discretion you think twice and ask if your mom would approve of what you are sharing online so what I want you to dio is to remember social media is a mix of personal and professional representation. What we're going to move on to now is instagram. Now I'll start with the simplest component of social media interaction for me and that's going to start with instagram remember how I started and they said I use instagram on the wedding day to share a photo in real time of what's going on. I also use instagram for hey, I'm in seattle and hey, this is what I'm eating for lunch, but I also posed professional photos, too. Now I'd like instagram because it visually uses social media and up until this point everything has been text based and this is kind of revolutionized the way that people photographers who aren't so good with tech space updates, this is a great fit for them, so this is a good way also for people who I want to choose the way that they want to interact with me. So a lot of times we have entrepreneurs and business people, we assume that everybody's going to follow me this way or everyone's going to follow me this way, we have to make sure that our business is structured, that it caters to the way that people want to follow us. I know that people follow me only on instagram or only on facebook or on lee and twitter. Sometimes, there's overlaps, but I want to make sure that I'm giving people a way to still connect with me, and if instagram is the way that they choose, then great, then in light of that, I don't always want to be posting personal photos. I want teo also put in professional photos so occasionally if I'm blogging, say, an engagement session or a wedding, I will upload a professional photo teo instagram and say, I just blogged about john and jane's wedding. You can find it here now, it's hard to showcase my personality with a single photo, right? It's hard to showcase my personality with one hundred forty characters on twitter, however, I'm going to use the social media to point it back to where I showcase my differentiation and my point of differentiation is, I believe my personality, so I'm using social media as a mechanism as a bridge to point them back always toe where I ultimately want them to go that's how I use instagram now moving on, we're going tio go move onto twitter now always too I'm going to use social media that plays to my strengths. Now, if, for instance, there are certain forms of social media that don't play tears, drink like earlier, I had decided that there was a person who links their facebook and twitter and then doesn't really look on what's going on on twitter that's not a strength, I believe it's a liability, and that should be the one of the first things that you started your business. If twitter isn't your thing, that's okay, don't make anybody feel like you have to be forced to do it, so you can simply close it off and it'll be a better representation of your brand now there isn't a right or wrong way tio use twitter now. I also started off by saying, I'm going to explain things in a very simple, simple, simple format. So if this is a very basic for you all who are advanced twitter users, forgive me, but for those people who are still like what the heck is going on twitter, then let's, get into it, okay, I like social media as much as the next person, but I do not want another hobby and very, very, very busy, so I need to use social media as strategically as possible, so I use twitter as strategically as possible because we all have very limited amount of time in our life I'm going to choose social media that's best for my business and I want you to choose social media that's best for your business, so I use twitter as a micro announced I don't use twitter so much for conversation now. That is why some people take issue with why I don't converse so much on twitter and people ask me why and I have a legitimate answer and my religion answer is that it's, not scaleable, and what is scaleable scale will means that it can get bigger naturally well on twitter, that's not possible, I'm going to get into an example because anybody outside of a conversation on twitter cannot see it example, this is one of my past brides who I follow, and she tweeted at me she has roughly two hundred followers, I respond back to her now the on ly people in our twitter conversation that can see is talking are the people who bought who follow both jean and both myself. That's how twitter works anytime you started tweet and he used the at sign on ly people who are following the both of you can see that tweet so if I'm going to invest time in twitter by responding to somebody that only theoretically the overlap between our two markets are maybe five if if that I don't know, I'm not going to spend time investing in responding to heavily on twitter, I'm gonna focus on how I can do that on facebook now, let's, get into why I believe this way do perspective clients even used twitter. I'm going to respond. I tried teo respond the best I can be a twitter what happens is that it's easy to get distracted? I go throughout my day and I'm very structured now not every photographer is as structured, but I have distinct cork times I have distinct playtime's use social media as I've said it before and emaciated carat right like if I can get this done, then I can get on facebook for like fifteen minutes, then I could get on twitter. So what happens is that twitter happens so darn fast that I get on and I'm like, wait, what the heck, where's, everything going and how many people in conversations are actually happening? So my client's, I've also understood are not using twitter the way that the air using facebook with the same frequency they're also using facebook and pinterest more than they're using twitter. So if I have to assess where I'm going to spend my time in regards to marketing and having conversations. The least of them is going to be twitter I read an article from an analytics firm I call b ball and the falling this is what the falling statistics reveal twenty five percent of twitter users I have never tweeted so they get accounts because they either want to get their name you know say their name or they just like to follow people and not talk which for me marketing is about talking so if you're not going to talk then it's good is if it's almost as good as if I didn't have a follower second statistic eighty one percent off of twitter users have less than fifty followers so again, if I'm going to be spending time on twitter I'm going to want to leverage this so for instance, if the average more than the average eighty one percent of the twitter users have less than fifty people, why am I going to spend my time talking to somebody who has ah you know directional conversation between these people who have maybe have fifty followers how many of those fifty followers also follow me small, small, small, small small number and what is the chances that there on torture at the exact same time that we're having this conversation small, small, small, small, small I don't know if that's the best use of my time via twitter although I do use it I'm getting to that why so knowing these statistics I believe that a lot of the conversations aren't really happening with prospective clients via this mechanism. However twitter is an amazing platform and it allows me to connect with those people in the industry so in light of this I want to tweet things that reflects my brand there's a good chance you won't find me tweeting about bad days you won't find tweeting about a bad experience I had with a client and he won't mind me tweeting about angry moments because even if my clients are not falling me, I know for a fact that clients are looking for you and reading what you're about on twitter if you were to go to your twitter feed and your last defeat is I'm stuck in traffic I hate the bachelor I can't believe I gained some way and that's all you're putting out yes you're thinking that twitter is your personal thing but you have to know it's in a public forum so make sure you think about the things that you were tweeting now tweet about four times a day and I have found just by listening and doing research on twitter that that's on social media interaction because here's the thing any time I'm going to do something I'm a total nerd total total research nerd anytime gonna do something I'm like I'm going to figure out how this little thing works I didn't get on twitter till about gosh, maybe to you I got my got my name like three years ago, but I didn't start using twitter until like two years ago, so I was like, I don't I don't see how it works for my business I just think it's a waste time and then I started realizing if I'm going to do it, how can then I leverage it? So I started reading articles, and the best way that I've heard would be three to four times a day to tweet now the tweets I've broken them down to be to work as one business tweet or what I sometimes call a push tweet, and this is where I want to push traffic to so because I bought every day, I'm going to be using one tweet to push my client or push my followers to that particular bog posting on a wedding day. What time am I tweeting? Yes, six am no, I'm walking at six a m I'm tweeting at adm thinking, okay, I'm going to leave it on the lunch coma, okay? I also em throughout the rest of day, tweeting two to three personal pete's. Now the personal tweets have for me no rhyme or reason whatsoever, it's what's going on in my mind and I tweet the way that I like to follow people that way and I like to follow people is by idiosyncrasies so if you are finding that you like to retweet a lot of your compliments online, chances are I'm not following you if you like. If you're tweeting once every three days and it's just I block the wedding here it is I'd like to engage in session here it is a great wedding instagram I'm probably not falling. I want to know the menu. Sha I want to know what's going on in your day I want to know the idiosyncrasies because this is what social media is about. You want to do one of two things attract or repel? Good. Okay, little bit quicker on responses thie case to find commonalities with your followers like I have said maybe in the past maybe I have not. Please forgive me. I will also play my food coma. You want to create commonalities, not commercials with social media. Now we're gonna move on to facebook. Facebook is my preferred mode of social media at the moment. Maybe a year from now, it'll be different. Who knows? Things are changing so fast I actually love speaking of social media I love the vine app it's a video I just think it's adorable I've made one video I don't and again I got it so that I can get my name but I can't waste time with mine. I need to first figure out how can I leverage it for my business? The minute I can find out how you could leverage it for my business. That's what? I'm gonna work it into my work flow. I haven't found that yet, and when I do, I'll block about it, okay? My focus is on facebook because the majority of my clients are on it. People ask if I friend my clients and the answer is yes, my friend, my clients, I don't use facebook as a personal mechanism and embarrassed, not embarrassingly, probably I tell my family, please, you can't tag me in photos but will be considered inappropriate because my clients are on there like if you put up albums and you don't want certain people to see them, just make sure that you change the privacy settings for them. But I absolutely will friend my client because why I want to tag them in photos that's very important again. Social media, for me is a business endeavor, not so much a hobby. Now this is where my clients are engaging this's where they communicate, this is where they participate, and this is where the conversations are happening in and around their wedding and their social life. The average facebook user has three hundred and fifty friends that's very different than the average user on twitter who has less than fifty the average made eighty one percent of twitter users have less than fifty, followers thie average facebook user three hundred fifty big difference so now you can see why I'm airing on the side of facebook but to me why I'm going to again air on the side of facebook is because facebook scaleable in that if I write something on my clients wall and include a photo or even if I write something like I have a client who's getting married on saturday I wrote on the wall and said I'm so excited for your wedding there's a chance that somebody could see that post and wonder who I am or if I decide to posted a photo of the engagement session and I posted on her wall and I say I can't believe I get to hang out with you and jonathan on saturday wedding sounds like so much fun now what is this bride? Lindsay has a friend from fourth grade who wasn't invited to the wedding because you know their lives have gone their own separate ways but her friend from fourth grade who was invited the wedding just recently got engaged if I had done that on twitter her friend from fourth grade would not have seen that because chances are she's not following me but on facebook because of the algorithms there's a possibility that I would fall pop up in a feed that is why I'm going to defer my conversations to facebook better yet unlike twitter twitter remember I said twenty five percent of people have never tweeted a thing of the facebook account the vast majority ninety plus percent have updated their status so it's very common for them to talk about what they're eating on facebook and where they're going on vacation so when it comes to endorsing my work publicly it's a natural progression right so it's just yet another thing they're saying as part of their daily flow and this has the potential to reach their friends so if they if I want I would prefer a client talk about me on facebook two, three hundred fifty people versus twitter to the average of less than fifty are we all on the same page? Okay cool so an example of how this worked to me this is branding and marketing and action this bride went you'll see here jamie has three hundred thirty three friends roughly the average on facebook and she writes I've said it before and I'll say it again jasmine star is amazing love her so much and then she links over to my blood post of her wedding photos now she's not saying I love my wedding photos she doesn't think I love my wedding photographer what she said was jasmine star that is what I aspire for all of you guys because you guys then become the brand that she's endorsing. Secondly, we talk about clients using our brand words. Not only does karin use my name, she hyperlinks to the fan page and his jazz and stars rock star seriously brides to be this is a commercial I couldn't even pay this seriously brides to be if you haven't picked her wedding photographer and want an incredibly talented and super fun one fun she's only sending me fun people. Amen she's your girl perfect, she just told three hundred and fifty people, some who might be single and some who might want a fun wedding photographer to look me up that is how it works and I know it works and that right there was just an investment of time, nothing else taking care of our clients to talkabout you remember we talked about experiences she felt so good about an experience that she wanted to talk about it publicly. These are the stories these air, the memories, the's, the recollections that they have to talk about those people. So how do I leverage facebook? I also with facebook now here's one thing I have a personal facebook page and I have a business page at the time that I had created my facebook account, I didn't know that there's a limit to how many people you khun friend on facebook and I had reached the limit and I was like, okay, well then I'll just start a business page I didn't know what would happen with the business of the time that it had happened facebook for me has been powerful I'm so indebted to it I'm thinking for the people that it has connected me too and it has revolutionized my business if I was in a particular situation I would say I love my business stage more than my personal page I hardly him on my personal page because I'm connecting mohr with the people I want to connect with and leveraging it on my business page, so I update my status three to four times a day now sometimes they are identical updates to what is on twitter and sometimes they're not sometimes I'll share a video on facebook because videos on facebook I like the conversations that happened there and you don't really get those conversations on videos via facebook but twitter is a little bit more avant garde it's a quicker conversation I could talk more on twitter than I could on facebook because if you have a person who's constantly updating their status on facebook again and again and again it just gets annoying it just gets too much now some people might think that three status update on facebook a day is too much they can unsubscribe from paige no offense taken, but to me, I want to connect with people, yes, about my photos, but more of who I am as a person, I'm going to bring out a guest, and his name is lawrence channel he's going to be talking about seo and he's, a really cool story about how a bride connected with him over food, of all things. Now, if I can connect it brides over food, which I have done before, I'm going to be very excited for that two again with facebook I update one business update and two, two three personal updates now these personal updates could be anything, and if you guys are friends, we're friends on the business page, you'll know that these are completely random thoughts that I have that coat with my mind, and I just couldn't care less what people think about me and again, I'm trying to do one of two things attract or good, thank you. Now photos usually create the most interaction on facebook, so if we know that I'm going to always defer teo. Posting a photo on facebook to move traffic now, before on facebook, I would I do one business or push update a day, and at the time I used to say, oh. I would do an update and then a small little icon and small little photo previa photo would show up and and then the link, but what I started noticing is that when I played, I uploaded the full photo, it actually started pushing more traffic. So a small little thing that I learned that I will share on a share with you guys. So here's a personal example of what, how this recently happened not too long ago, I did a personal block post about my mother's birthday and the joy of books and how my parents have passed that love for books. And instead of just saying, now pretend we don't see the photo, what more could one want than healthy family, lots of love and the joy of good books? You may or may not click the weak, but if I include the photo and you see these crazy, dark, bold guy and me laughing and my mom who's battled cancer, there's a slightly more chance, you might quit the week. Listen, when the cia social media, I'm gonna get that slightly more chance and leverage it as much as I can, and it takes not even more time with the same amount of time, so what can we do to leverage those things now? When it comes to up loading a folder of images, what I was doing after a wedding, I would have a single photo of a single folder on facebook and I entitled it starstruck two thousand eleven star struck two thousand twelve star struck engagement's two thousand eleven starstruck engagements two thousand twelve and so I was putting all of the engagement photos that I did that year into that folder, but what was happening was that facebook wasn't indexing it as a newer, refreshed post, so this year I started uploading photos from a post like, say, a wedding post. So remember how I said I do a sneak peek of photos? I'll do maybe like twenty photos of a sneak peek of a wedding all likely upload maybe fourteen on to face because you want to leave a little bit on the block post to incentivize if you want to see more photos from the day could hear and what I started noticing that more people were seeing the post more people were interacting with the post and the bride, I am guessing it felt a little more personalized to her, so she just wasn't getting this big folder of photos to end up on her page. It was just about her and her fiance, so on the holders in facebook. I entitled it the client's name. In this case, it would be britney and jason. I would include this city, and then I would include the venue because what was happening one time I was searching for a venue, could sometimes all look at a menu just to see photos and how other photographers shot it. If I've never shot it before. And one of the first things to come up with was a photographer's folder on facebook, and I was like, wait what? So I clicked on his shoulder and facebook, and I realized he has one of the top searches from a facebook holder. Now I'm going to use this as so every time a client is getting married, let's, say it, I don't know the four season seattle, I'm listening it as the four season seattle, I'm entitled, well, wedding photos, I'm going to use your name to personalize it.