Why Photographers Should Care About Twitter

Posted by scottbourne on January 12, 2009
Posted in: Technique & Tutorials. Tagged: .

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I’ve been on Twitter for about a year now. Twitter.com is a micro-blogging site. Think of it as a blogging platform that allows you to post 140 character (or less) notes about what you’re up to. It is one of the “social media” platforms that has gained great interest lately. There are other sites that you should also investigate in the social media space like Friend Feed and Facebook. But for this post, I’m going to concentrate on Twitter.

You can sign up for a free Twitter account at Twitter.com. I suggest you either use your real name or the name of your photo business. Cute names like “StarwarsGuy#123″ won’t really help you in the future if you decide to make use of Twitter as a marketing tool. The next step is to follow people.

Photographers who want to get the most out of Twitter should initially use it to follow people who they find interesting. You might want to follow the Twitter account of PDN Magazine. It’s a photo magazine that covers the New York photo scene. Their Twitter account name is “@pdnonline” minus the quotes. Simply type in the URL http://twitter.com/pdnonline and click the “Follow” button that appears under their name or icon. That’s all there is to it.

If you want to follow me, do the same thing only use the URL http://www.twitter.com/scottbourne and click FOLLOW. Then you’ll see the stuff I write about my photo career that doesn’t make the blog. I also occasionally just talk about what’s going on around me.

If you don’t like RSS and want to keep up with what comes out on this blog, just follow http://www.twitter.com/twipphoto.

You might want to find and follow photo editors, photo buyers, photo book publishers, etc.

By now you should get the hang of it. But how do you get someone to follow you? Have something interesting to say. Jump into conversations you find interesting and reply. Or mention someone of note who’s on Twitter and say something like:

“@scottbourne did you know Canon just updated the firmware for the Canon 5DMKII? #photog” The #photog is what’s called a “hashtag,” and this allows your Tweets to be searched. People looking for photography-related content on Twitter can search for #photog and may find your post. The downside is that you eliminate seven valuable characters out of your allotted 140 – so in some cases, you may have to drop the hashtag if you have lots to say.

Back to the posts. If I find that you are continuously talking about things I need to know about, I’ll follow you. Other people interested in your posts will also follow.

Over time, you’ll build a group of followers. It might only be 100 people or 80,000. It doesn’t matter at this point how many people follow you. It only matters that you’re out there, both listening and talking and sharing.

Another good reason to monitor Twitter is to find out what people are saying about you. Depending on your online status, you might not find much. But some people or brands often find people saying things that need monitoring. If someone really likes one of my photos and starts Twittering about it, I’ll take that into account as I am deciding which images to publish that month. If someone who’s jealous of me starts lying about me, I can also deal with that.

Perhaps you have a great photo you just posted on Flickr? You can use Twitter to announce that to the world. Self-promotion is vastly important to photographers and Twitter offers a fun, fast, easy and free way to accomplish that goal. Just remember to add some real value along with your promotional posts. Too much self-promotion on Twitter can lead to people UN-following you. This (as you probably guessed) means that your audience size decreases.

The point of this is simple. Your photography will eventually be seen by more people and that is always a good thing.

If you want to learn more about Twitter, I can suggest two valuable resources.

First, visit this blog http://www.twitip.com/. It’s full of great tips. Then get a copy of Twitter Means Business. Written by a tech journalist whom I really admire named Julio Ojeda-Zapata, this book will act as a guide to things you should think about if you’re planning to use Twitter for your photo business.

I’ll post future tips on how to use Twitter to promote your photography. In one short blog post, it’s impossible to say everything I want to about the value of this tool. In the meantime, feel free to leave your twitter tips. Feel free to leave your Twitter name in the comments. Who knows if anyone will follow, but it’s worth a try.

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This post sponsored by the Digital SLR Store

0 comments on “Why Photographers Should Care About Twitter”

  1. Great post. Twitter is a valuable tool for creating a following and a social web presence. Thank for the link to PDN Magazine. I am now following them.

  4. I’ve been on since the beginning and recently quit. Too many spam accounts adding me and people I want to follow reducing their tweets down to what they had for breakfast etc. If it goes back to more interesting content I’ll start using again but lately it just seems like most use it as a link dump for their blog posts. I don’t need to get the same info I already get elsewhere i.e. Google Reader. It is a useful tool when used right but it’s caught a case of popularity-itis just like most social networks do. If you’re an internet personality it’s awesome but for me it’s more work and sifting through junk than it’s worth.

  7. This is one of the reasons the hashtag is valuable. If you are just interested in photography, then you can search on the #photog hashtag. I agree that some info is better delivered via RSS. But all the surveys say most people don’t use RSS so it’s another way to get out there.

  10. I am having fun with Twitter, because it is a real time resource of information that takes the place of reviews in products and services. If I were looking to see a movie, I look for “movie was really good” on http://search.Twitter.com/ and find posts within minutes of people saying one movie was good, and if I want I can check out their timeline to see what the person is into for context. It’s pretty easy to size someone up quickly on Twitter, to see if their opinion is valueable to you. On a photography note, I can find great links to time-sensitive deals on hardware or software for digital photography.

  13. I know this is published to the wrong article but I love the idea of the shirts. I’m a photojournalist in Washington DC and can’t where the shirts while on assignments. I would love to see a button, badge, patch or even a lanyard stating photography is not a crime. Just a thought.

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  16. I love Twitter and have been on it since the beginning. It’s become much more useful in the past year as more people have started to use it.

    In it’s own weird way Twitter is a way to feel like you are at least acquaintances with people like Scott Bourne and web celebs like Kevin Rose, etc. as following their tweets lets you into their lives in a way just following their respective blogs do not.

    I started using hash tags in almost every tweet now as well.

    People have already said e-mail is dead, and I have to agree. I keep in touch much more with friends abroad that are on Twitter than those just on e-mail.

    I twitter about life in Tokyo and photographs I make here:

    http://twitter.com/jasoncollin

  21. Great post. I was following you but so far I had not read this. I like photography and own a photoblog so thanks for your tips. I am @barcelonaphotos on Twitter.

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