Social Media Marketing for Photographers // Photography + Community

This Saturday (July 18th) marks the second annual Worldwide Photo Walk, with photowalks taking place in hundreds of cities around the globe. While there are contests and prizes associated with the photowalk, the real value can be in the networking and interaction with other photographers from a variety of backgrounds in your area. Most of the photowalks last a couple hours and are followed by a meal or happy hour opportunity to chat about photography.

Find a photowalk near you and join in the fun.

Photo by t4m, used under Creative Commons licensing

Tagged as:
events,
networking,
photowalking,
worldwide photo walk

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One of the first articles on Social Photo Talk was a look at What Should a Photographer Blog About. In that article, I mentioned that it’s important to identify the audience for your blog. Another important aspect of blogging as a photographer is to decide how your blog fits into your business. Is it just another page on your website, or is your blog a core marketing medium? Are you merely providing more information on your existing services, or are you using the blog to reach others in the industry or as a revenue-generating service?

If you’re serious about your blog for your photography services, it should be treated as any other marketing/advertising activity, meaning that you’ll want to spend some time and money to become as proficient as possible. Reading Social Photo Talk falls into this category. It also might mean purchasing some books (either paper or E-books), listening to some photography podcasts, or attending blogging or social media related events.

Last weekend, I was in Seattle to present at WordCamp Seattle, a conference about blogging and the WordPress blogging platform. While some of the attendees definitely fit into the geek/techie crowd, a large portion of the audience were people with businesses unrelated to tech that are using blogging as part of their business strategy. While I was there, I recorded a few brief videos with these people; I’ll be posting the videos in the coming weeks as testimonials of the benefit of attending social media events even when social media isn’t your core business.

How do you learn about blogging and social media?

Photo by Randy Stewart, used under Creative Commons licensing

These other posts might be of interest to you:

1. Social Media Events for Non-Techies: Meet Laurie
2. Social Media Events for Non-Techies: Meet Andy
3. Social Photo Podcast #21: Google’s Photo Business, Social Media Lost and Found, Outsourcing Your Blogging

Tagged as:
blogging,
conferences,
events,
photographers,
social media,
wcsea,
wordcamp,
wordcamp seattle

When it comes to talented photographers who “get it” with social media, Kris Krüg‘s name is often near the top of that list. Kris will be speaking at WebVisions in Portland on May 19th and presenting a three hour workshop titled “Photography Tips from the New School.” In addition to the morning workshop, there will be an afternoon photowalk around Portland. What will he be speaking about?

Kris will discuss creating your own style through photo manipulation, publishing on multiple online channels, the changing faces of photography equipment and software, in addition to setting up the composition of a shoot and lighting techniques. In a few hours, photographers of all levels will have the knowledge to navigate the online world with confidence!

The event’s organizers have extended a special offer to Social Photo Talk readers: attend the photo workshop (and the rest of the conference) for only $350, which is a $75 savings off of the usual price.

Register for the workshop on the WebVisions site using this link to receive the special discount.

Tagged as:
conferences,
events,
kris krug,
photography,
webvisions,
workshops

You’re probably a photographer. You may or may not consider yourself a techie. What’s the value in attending social media related events if social media isn’t your core competency? It’s a great opportunity to brush up on some supplementary marketing skills that will help you grow your business.

I recently attended WordCamp Seattle, a one-day and very affordable ($25) conference for bloggers in the Seattle area. While there, I recorded a few interviews with attendees who were from non-tech industries. I wanted to get their thoughts on the value of attending a blogging conference when their business didn’t revolve around tech.

Here’s a quick message from Laurie Lamoureux, the Chief Box Opener for Out of the Box, a company which assists folks in unpacking after a move:

It’s 2009, and social media isn’t only for geeks anymore… or is it? What do you think?

These other posts might be of interest to you:

1. Social Media Events for Non-Techies: Meet Andy
2. What Part of Your Photo Business is Social Media?
3. Trey Ratcliff Speaking as Part of the Authors@Google Series

Tagged as:
conferences,
events,
laurie lamoureux,
out of the box,
videos,
wcsea,
wordcamp seattle