Social Media and Photography

You may have guessed I’m addicted to photography and social media. People often ask me why they should use facebook, twitter or even google plus…..hopefully this post will offer some insite.

Firstly social media platforms are a tool to distribute your content. I rely heavily on all my social media platforms to broadcast my content.

The social media platforms I use are:

Facebook, Facebook Page, Twitter, Google plus, Linkedin, Flickr, Tumblr, Instragram, Friendfeed, Myspace, Blogger, Wordpress, Youtube, Vimeo, Spreecast and various photography forums.

This list of social media platforms will continue to grow. I predict in the near future I will be on 100+ social media platforms.

Each platform is linked directly to my blog on wordpress (where you can subscribe – shameless plug!)

All of the platforms mentioned offer different styles of subscribing to increase your audience. For example Twitter people follow you and Facebook people like you. It is a matter of engaging with users by developing content that drives you. Photography is the driving force for me.

It is very important for me to make this next step clear. If you are going to go down the road of social media to increase your audience then you better have lots of time on your hands. Social media borders on a full time job (same cases it is). Constantly checking every platform you post to as well as commenting and engaging with your audience is no walk in the park. When you post a photo be prepared to spend hours on the computer talking to people about the photo and offer advice where it is needed…at this point you may think this is not for me….if you think that then yes you are probably right – it isn’t for you! It takes a focused individual to engage with the online social world. The reason I do it is I get so much joy out of sharing my photographic knowledge with others. I mean what is the point of keeping it all to yourself??

So now that you have your content out on all your social media platforms how do you measure how you are going?  One word – KLOUT. Klout is a fantastic tool to measure your influence. According to Klout everyone has influence. So connect with Klout and give me a +K if this post has influenced you. (another shameless plug!)

Almost every social media platform out there has some sort of stat program attached. Although you have to be careful about stat watching…..simple answer don’t look at your stats for the first 6 months! Numbers don’t matter. You should be doing this purely for the joy that you get out of it. I mean… I love photography. I live for anything photographic. So stats don’t matter to me. It’s the joy I get out of sharing that counts.

I don’t want to go into too much more on this subject…I could be here all day. I encourage everyone reading this to get out there any share their great content armed with this new knowledge.

…I’m off to the movies now (did I mention that it is important to have a life as well?)

If you would like to know more about increasing your photography or business exposure through social media I can be contacted as a consultant by email – leighdiprosephotography@yahoo.com.au