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Today’s new technology and social media are bringing a change to the business and marketing of photographic services. The question is—how can it work for you? It is a very different means—one that you join and participate in rather than direct and control, as you often can with your traditional marketing media. New technology and the changing and developing expectations of your clients are driving this change. As with every major technological change, it is up to you to figure out how to adapt and leverage these tools into new marketing resources.
To get a sense of how this might work for you I interviewed several photographers who are at the beginning of this process and several who are well advanced in this new technology. At the end of this column we will include all their communication links. The bottom line is that today there is more to marketing your photography than just having a website.
The trends concept of using these tools for “marketing” is the real discussion. It changes the marketing concept from selling to having a conversation. It is fun when you’re at a cocktail party to tell stories about what it is you are doing. In some cases it’s more fun to really listen to what other people are doing and to ask them questions. Social media is an umbrella we can put all these tools under.
I added a blog shortly after because it was a strategy way to add something more personal and where I could let people know what was currently happening with my business. I specifically used Blogger.com software because of the way that it is identified by search engines and the traffic that it was more likely to get.
The business of photography is as much about whom you are as a person as it is about what you can do with a camera or how you perform on a photo shoot. If people can see that you’re a cool person and are going to be fun and easy to work with, then you’re more likely to develop a following of people who want to work with you.
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