Copyright Scott Bourne 2008 - All Rights Reserved

More Tips on how Professional Photographers can use Twitter to Improve Their Business

I have already written about how photographers can use Twitter as a marketing tool. Here are some additional business uses of Twitter that professional photographers might find helpful.

1. Hiring – if you need an assistant, a receptionist, a retoucher, Twitter is a great place to get the word out. It’s fast, free and viral. Particularly in the current economy where jobs are scarce, people will RT (retweet) job postings. I posted a simple Tweet about needing a part time assistant and within five minutes had more than a dozen inquiries. Over a few days that turned to hundreds and I had to delete the Tweet because I had such great response.

2. Research – skimming for photo-related links, news and reviews is easy now that Twitter has a search tool. Since Twitter is real time, you can bet that if you’re following the right people, you’ll probably find out about the next new Nikon or Canon camera body on Twitter before you hear about it anywhere else.

3. Research Part II – poll other photographers for advice. See what they are working on. Ask what tools and techniques they are using.

4. Education – There are lots of photographers who use Twitter to share tips. Whether it’s how to get the most out of a Lensbaby, or how to book models in return for prints or how to select a lens, I’ve seen a great deal of free educational material on Twitter. I try to provide some of that myself as a way of giving back to the Twitter community that enriches me too.

5. Networking – by paying close attention to Twitter, you can discern the relationships amongst certain photographers, vendors, photo associations and their audiences. By listening, you can find out who knows who and hope for a connection to someone you know. I’ve found that Twitter proves the old six-degrees of separation theory pretty well. If I look at someone’s stream on Twitter, it won’t be long before I know someone who knows them.

I hope you found this helpful. If you have an idea for a Twitter story that will resonate with photographers, send me email to photofocus@me.com. You can also follow me on Twitter.

Copyright Scott Bourne 2008 - All Rights Reserved

I have already written about how photographers can use Twitter as a marketing tool. Here are some additional tips on Twitter’s value to emerging and professional photographers…

1. I wrote last time about Twitter as a replacement for RSS – what I didn’t have time to go into was why it’s a good idea to use it instead of or in addition to RSS – it’s a persistent link. This is more valuable for a number of reasons including SEO.

2. Twitter is mobile. A large number of Twitter users experience Twitter on their cell phones. This means you don’t have to wait for people to be tied down to their computers to communicate with them. Sending, receiving and reading Tweets is easy on a smart phone. That additional lifeline in the communication chain can mean the difference between making a photo sale and not.

3. Share – search out Tweets from photographers you admire and RT (re-tweet) them to your network. This re-tweeting is a great way to share information and provides the possible link between you and the new content. It shows you care about the community and may lead to alliances that you never had an opportunity to create using other mediums.

4. Talk about your assignments. If you’re a wedding photographer, talk about the bride you’re currently working with. If you’re a workshop leader, talk about the location you’re visiting. Whatever you shoot, talk about your current assignments, post links to pics, and be generous with newbies – answer their questions via Twitter so that they too can benefit from your experience. This will leverage your skill in ways that you might find interesting, such as offers to do books, workshops, symposiums, seminars, etc.

5. Separate your identities. As I’ve moved more of my marketing to Twitter, I’ve moved most of my personal opinions about controversial subjects elsewhere. People who follow me for photography advice don’t really care about my politics. I occasionally get riled up sometimes and express myself. When that happens I lose followers. In certain circumstances I am okay with that but you might not be. My New Year’s resolution was to keep my political opinions away from Twitter and I use it to talk about things like photography and Macs. I’m still not 100% good at this but I am improving and photographers who want to use Twitter as a marketing tool should consider whether or not their audience cares about their religious, political or personal views on a host of non-photo subjects.

If you want to follow me on Twitter, here’s the link.

This post sponsored by Lensbaby

There are those among us who believe that all things Internet are reserved for their private enjoyment, and that nobody, no company, no institution and no individual should be allowed to use anything Internet related for marketing purposes. Clearly, I am not one of those people.

Since I actually live in the real world, where commerce is the engine that makes things move, I believe in the Internet as a marketing medium. I believe it has other value, but I also believe photographers would be remiss if they don’t take advantage of the online tools that exist to market their work.

Here are just a few ways you can use Twitter as a marketing tool…

a. Use Twitter to replace e-mail. Think about it. If you run a Twitter client in the background like I do (Tweetie) then you’re in effect, always available via Twitter. If someone who follows you wants to send you a message they can do it at least as quickly (if not quicker) than they can via e-mail.

This week, I released my new Master Gallery Print Three Moose. The first person to buy it sent me a Tweet expressing interest, rather than an e-mail. I responded via Twitter and eventually we did move the conversation to e-mail. But the fact that it started on Twitter was not lost on me. None other than well-known computer columnist John C. Dvorak was just last week talking about Twitter as a tool to replace e-mail. He may be onto something.

b. Use Twitter to replace RSS. No offense to Dave Winer, but RSS isn’t the most efficient of Internet break-throughs. While I have (and will continue to have) RSS feeds on my blogs and podcasts, I have noticed a significant change in the number of people relying on the RSS feed to notify them of new Photofocus.com posts compared with the number of people who typically ask me to just let them know what I am doing via Twitter.

When we post something new to the RSS feed, and to Twitter at the same time, depending on the time of day and day of the week, we can see that the Twitter audience is hitting the site harder than the RSS audience. It’s something to take note of if you use blogs or podcasts to promote or market your photography.

c. Showing the work is the most basic marketing activity a photographer can do. And while Twitter is still not the most photo-friendly place, you can use it to link directly to photos. Some photographers are building nice, organic followings by simply linking to a photo every day. Twitter marketing doesn’t have to be fancy, just effective.

d. Contests/giveaways are effective when done well. This is an area that I know something about :) I believe I’ve probably given away more stuff on Twitter than almost anyone else. And yes, I get followers because of that. (By the way if you’re new to the whole Twitter thing followers = audience.) But I don’t believe I KEEP followers because of that. I KEEP them by sharing real, free, valuable information like photography tips, news about new gear or firmware updates, contests or shows and free tutorials, podcasts, blog posts, etc.

I try to keep my ratio of contest/purely promotional stuff to between eight and 10 to one. On weekends when it’s slower on Twitter I’ve learned that too many posts will be interpreted as noise so my ratio is more like 12 to one on weekends.

These are just a few ideas. I don’t believe anyone is a true “social media” expert. And while I am being paid to consult with some large firms on how to use Twitter, I always make sure to preface any such engagement with the disclaimer that I, like everyone else on Twitter, am still learning. It’s a fast-paced, fast-moving environment. What worked a year ago on Twitter might not work now. What works now might not work in the future. But as with all marketing, doing SOMETHING right now is better than doing nothing. This is a chance to establish a real “tribe” as Seth Godin would say. You don’t need to get an Oprah-sized following on Twitter to be effective.

There are certainly benefits to having a large Twitter audience as there are in any media. But everyone (even Oprah) starts their journey with that first step. There was a time when I had one follower, then 100, then 1000, then 10,000 and now around 15,000. Whether it grows from here or not, I am able to accomplish some important goals with my audience and moreover, I am able to provide them with real value in exchange for following me. And THAT is the most important lesson of all for photographers. Provide something of value and the audience will follow. To paraphrase and slightly modify a line from the popular baseball movie “Field of Dreams,”

If you build it well and provide something your audience cares about – they will come.

You will face some blowback if you start using Twitter as a marketing tool. As I said in the beginning of this piece, some people believe they have a RIGHT to use the Internet free and clear of marketing. You’ll never please these people and there’s absolutely no reason to try. Ignore them. Do what you think is fair, and just and proper, and do it with a clear conscious and an open mind and with honest transparency and you’ll be fine.

If you’d like to follow me on Twitter, you can do so by clicking the word FOLLOW under my name at http://www.twitter.com/scottbourne.

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This post sponsored by the Digital SLR Store

I’ve written about Twitter before. But since then, I have decided that Twitter is quickly becoming one of the most important tools the working photographer can have. It’s important for three reasons…

1. It’s a great place to quickly share your work and your projects
2. It’s a great place to keep tabs on people in the photo industry
3. It’s a great place to do research and ask questions of photography industry thought leaders

So, now that you know you should be using Twitter, who should you follow? Every Friday, there’s a Twitter phenominum called #FollowFriday. This means you suggest some of your favorite people on Twitter for others to follow. I’ll be doing that today by linking to this post.

My list isn’t based on people simply being well-known. There are plenty of photographers you may decide to follow because they are famous. But if they’re not active on Twitter, you might consider these folks who are active and who provide valuable content on Twitter.

Also note that like any such list, my list is biased toward my interests, specifically business of photography, podcasters, stock shooters, teachers, photo industry, etc. If I were more of an artsy type, this list may simply contain 10 inspirational photographers who’s work moved me, whether or not they did much on Twitter. In other words, your mileage may vary.

To follow any of these people, simply click their name below and then click on the word “Follow” under their icon. Or, you can type in the URL: http://www.twitter.com/XXXXX

where XXXXX is the name (minus the @ sign) on the list. Example,
http://www.twitter.com/scottbourne

then click on the word “Follow” underneath the person’s icon. If you don’t have a Twitter account, go to http://www.twitter.com and sign up for free.

In no particular order, here’s my suggested list of photographers to follow on Twitter – and yes, my name is on the list :)

1. @pixelatedimage / David duChemin
Great photographic writer and author of a new book I am really looking forward to called Within the Frame

2. @Microsoft_Photo
If you know me, you know I am an Apple Aperture guy and I use Macs. That said, the Microsoft Pro Photo community team is promoting contests, sharing mentor talks and then there’s Photosynth. You can’t ignore that. (HINT! I wish Apple had an Aperture account on Twitter, full of useful info on Aperture :))

3. @photopreneur
A collective (according to their blog) of photographers who know that the business and marketing side of photography is very important.

4. @aphotoeditor / Rob Haggart
Rob is the former Director of Photography for Men’s Journal and Outside Magazine. If you want editorial photography work, who better to follow than a guy who used to be a photo editor?

5. @thomashawk / Thomas Hawk
Thomas Hawk is a well-known photowalker and one of the most passionate photographers I’ve ever met. He’s on the front wave of photography and social media. He’s CEO at Zooomer and generally involved in lots of photo stuff that happens online.

6. @nicolesy / Nicole Young
Nicole Young is what we call a “natural.” In my 37 years of serious photography, I can’t name many people with more “natural” photo talent than Nicole. She’s got great passion, a great work ethic, huge passion and is a great, teacher. She’s a superstar over at iStockPhoto and with that growing praise you may not be surprised to know I’ve tapped her as a contributor to Photofocus.

7.@pdnonline / Photo District News
If you’re interested in the New York photo scene, professional photography in general, issues of photo Copyright, photography legal issues, stock photo markets or pretty much anything else related to the business of photography, these are some good folks to keep tabs on.

8. @MartinBailey / Martin Bailey
Martin is the host of the popular Martin Bailey Photography Podcast. He’s a guy from the UK living in Japan and spends plenty of time talking about how he sees photography on his blog, his podcast and on Twitter. He’s a source for inspiration and photographic philosophy.

9. @scottbourne / Scott Bourne
Yes I am on the list because well, I think I can offer some photographic help from time-to-time. I answer photo questions in Twitter. I post links to the stuff we publish related to photography on various sites like Photofocus.com and MYDL.ME. I’m a frequent guest on several podcasts and oh yeah, I often (and I do mean often) give stuff away like Lensbaby Composers, Drobos, ThinkTank Photo bags, photo books and more. (I have to admit, I also put myself on my own list because it will drive my haters crazy!)

OK – so you’re saying – “But hey, how come this guy’s not on the list?” I almost didn’t write this post because I know some people might feel slighted because I didn’t put them (or their favorites) on my list. Remember, I am not saying these are the top 10 photographers online. I am saying that these are 10 people I think worth following on Twitter – mostly because of the volume and type of content they publish ON TWITTER.

There are other photographers who I follow. They may not make my top 10 list, (that would be impossible since there are many more of them than 10!) but that doesn’t mean they’re not worth a look. They are on my personal Twitter Following list because I think they have something important to offer. Some of the people on that list are there because they are great photographers, they’re people I respect or they are connected with important photography resources. You can see that list by clicking on my profile on Twitter and clicking on the word “Following.”

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