Social Media Marketing for Photographers // Photography + Community

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Last week photographer Rick Sammon released an iPhone app called “Rick Sammon’s Social Media Marketing for Photographers” (iTunes link) and I was able to work through and review the app this last weekend. The application is essentially a five part movie, with Rick narrating and presenting with a slide deck showing onscreen.

The application features five segments, with each ranging from eleven to eighteen minutes of instruction. The first segment is an introduction to social media along with a few general thoughts on the role of social media in the business of photography. Part two dives into a lot of strategy and planning, including how to decide where to spend one’s time. The third video is mostly about Twitter, with specific tips on using Twitter to drive photo product and service sales. Part four is a mixture of topics including affiliate programs, SEO, iPhone/iPad apps, and web/video/tweet analytics. The final segment consists of business and motivational advice.

Overall I feel that it’s a great introduction to social media for photographers. The information would be useful for someone just starting out with social media and trying to figure out where to spend their time and energy. If you’ve already dove headfirst into social media you might find the information to be a bit too basic. That said, one big thing that I loved about the app is that Rick spends a lot of time sharing his little motivational and business nuggets of wisdom. I’d say that close to half of the screen time is devoted to the business aspects of social media instead of simply focusing on the “how to” aspect.

The only faults I could find in the app were a couple minor bits of misinformation with regards to specific software/tools, and I’ve let Rick now about those. I can assume they’ll be resolved with an update to the app.

At $5.99, the app is reasonably priced for a beginner who wants to get started with social media, and even for someone with more experience I think it’s worth it to get Rick’s insights into social media. Buy the app via iTunes.

These other posts might be of interest to you:

1. Social Media Tips Roundup for Photographers
2. The iPad for Photographers: First Thoughts
3. How Much Time Should a Photographer Spend on Social Media?

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Today Apple unveiled the iPad. A quick recap of my thoughts…. what does it mean for photographers? Not much.

From an operating system perspective, it’s essentially a really big iPhone. It will show photos with a gallery application (that can be synchronized with a computer, including iPhoto data like “events” collections). While this might be neat for some hobbyists, pro photographers aren’t using iPhoto. Perhaps we’ll see applications developed that integrated with Lightroom or Aperture.

It’ll be a really neat way if you want to display some sort of “wow” digital portfolio.

The device doesn’t contain a camera, so you won’t be creating any new photos on it. Based on the various media website, gaming, and eBook demonstrations, the device has obviously been designed for consuming content (rather than creating it). In the last year or so, tech-savvy photographers have started offering iPod slideshows for their clients, and these types of products will still be relevant with the iPad. Whether or not spending time with an iPad-only solution makes any sense depends on whether one thinks the iPad will gain significant market penetration.

I kept waiting for some sort of innovation or exciting new thing… I didn’t see it. It’s a supersized iPhone. This is an evolution, not a revolution.

In short: take everything you knew about how a photographer might use an iPod touch, and that applies to the iPad.

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