…
“Starting Today, You’re a Brand: Building Your Brand & Your Business” is the last of the PhotoPlus seminars I’ll be writing about here. (I hope the previous posts have been of some use to you.) The panel was led by Lynn Martin and featured Ken Carbone of the branding and design agency Carbone Smolan, Shama Hyder of ClicktoClient, Brandweek editor-in-chief Todd Wasserman, and action and lifestyle photographer Corey Rich, whose story will be my focus.
…
Corey Googled himself and reviewed the results with us. His website came up first. Then his blog. Here he talked a bit about his “matter-of-fact” approach to blogging and to Twitter. He uses Twitter to announce work-related news, such as what he’s shooting, where he’s going, where he is (since location is central to his work). The third result is his MySpace account, which he said he hadn’t touched since 2008. (It’s useful to keep tabs on those old accounts. Bio text you wrote even just last year, for example, may no longer be relevant.)
He also looked himself up on Google Images. One of his photos was there, linked to an interview he did with a blogger. Corey said he “always” says yes when he’s asked for an interview. “Every opportunity to share opens a set of doors,” he said.
Corey has a Facebook account, but it’s “really targeted.” His focus is clients and other industry pros, so he’s not writing status updates about stuff like a hangover he has from some party he went to. For him, this professional approach has paid off professionally. A status update he wrote about having just photographed Dean Potter do a wingsuit jump (sorry, I don’t speak extreme sports) in the Eiger elicited an admiring comment from an editor at Sports Illustrated, who called the event “radical.”
Corey also said that Facebook is a great way to simply be in front of the audience he wants to reach. People have FB open on their computer while they work, and even if they don’t respond to his status updates, they see those updates. “Do you get work from Facebook? Absolutely.”
His example was a friend of his at the Discovery Channel who noticed a question Corey had posted in his status update. She didn’t respond to the question, but she did write him to say that Discovery was looking for someone to shoot an ad for the show Man Vs. Wild and she thought he’d be perfect for it. “Facebook allowed me to be in front of her that day,” Corey said. (That Discovery job, by the way, led to further work with Bear Grylls, the host of Man Vs. Wild. Bear’s clothing sponsor later called Corey to ask about licensing some of his photos for a catalogue. And that turned into a whole new lifestyle shoot for the catalogue.)
…
Other notable bits from the seminar:
Shama gave stats indicating that people are far more likely to watch a full video clip than to read a full text entry. (It was something like they’re 64% more likely to finish a video, while only 24% read to the end of the text.) She described an experiment she did with video where she started her own online TV show. It was personal stuff—not about her business. She figured no one would watch it, but when she checked the analytics, it turns out a Shama TV video clip of her with her dog, Snoopy, had been embedded 8,500 times. Woof.
Ken Carbone offered mantra-like directives, like “Unify, Simplify, Amplify.” Basically, figure out who you are and what you have to offer, distill that identity into something that people can easily understand, and say it loud. “Make it so every time you’re communicating with your audience, it’s reinforced in every touch point,” he said.
Ken said he gets five to six e-blasts from photographers every day. “There’s more photographers now than there were three seconds ago,” he said. (I know it hurts, but you have to admit it’s a funny line.)
He also made interesting point about publicizing a new development in your business. I’ve heard photographers and business owners say that they have a new service but are going to slowly roll it out. From what I gathered, Ken was against that, and I agree with him. Wait till you have the service ready to go and you’re prepared to deal with demand (which will hopefully come), and then roll it out loud and with purpose. “If you have something new to say, don’t whisper it,” Ken advised. “Find the right moment to do it, and do it.”
…
….
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PhotoPlus: Today you are a brand
…
“Starting Today, You’re a Brand: Building Your Brand & Your Business” is the last of the PhotoPlus seminars I’ll be writing about here. (I hope the previous posts have been of some use to you.) The panel was led by Lynn Martin and featured Ken Carbone of the branding and design agency Carbone Smolan, Shama Hyder of ClicktoClient, Brandweek editor-in-chief Todd Wasserman, and action and lifestyle photographer Corey Rich, whose story will be my focus.
…
Corey Googled himself and reviewed the results with us. His website came up first. Then his blog. Here he talked a bit about his “matter-of-fact” approach to blogging and to Twitter. He uses Twitter to announce work-related news, such as what he’s shooting, where he’s going, where he is (since location is central to his work). The third result is his MySpace account, which he said he hadn’t touched since 2008. (It’s useful to keep tabs on those old accounts. Bio text you wrote even just last year, for example, may no longer be relevant.)
He also looked himself up on Google Images. One of his photos was there, linked to an interview he did with a blogger. Corey said he “always” says yes when he’s asked for an interview. “Every opportunity to share opens a set of doors,” he said.
Corey has a Facebook account, but it’s “really targeted.” His focus is clients and other industry pros, so he’s not writing status updates about stuff like a hangover he has from some party he went to. For him, this professional approach has paid off professionally. A status update he wrote about having just photographed Dean Potter do a wingsuit jump (sorry, I don’t speak extreme sports) in the Eiger elicited an admiring comment from an editor at Sports Illustrated, who called the event “radical.”
Corey also said that Facebook is a great way to simply be in front of the audience he wants to reach. People have FB open on their computer while they work, and even if they don’t respond to his status updates, they see those updates. “Do you get work from Facebook? Absolutely.”
His example was a friend of his at the Discovery Channel who noticed a question Corey had posted in his status update. She didn’t respond to the question, but she did write him to say that Discovery was looking for someone to shoot an ad for the show Man Vs. Wild and she thought he’d be perfect for it. “Facebook allowed me to be in front of her that day,” Corey said. (That Discovery job, by the way, led to further work with Bear Grylls, the host of Man Vs. Wild. Bear’s clothing sponsor later called Corey to ask about licensing some of his photos for a catalogue. And that turned into a whole new lifestyle shoot for the catalogue.)
…
Other notable bits from the seminar:
Shama gave stats indicating that people are far more likely to watch a full video clip than to read a full text entry. (It was something like they’re 64% more likely to finish a video, while only 24% read to the end of the text.) She described an experiment she did with video where she started her own online TV show. It was personal stuff—not about her business. She figured no one would watch it, but when she checked the analytics, it turns out a Shama TV video clip of her with her dog, Snoopy, had been embedded 8,500 times. Woof.
Ken Carbone offered mantra-like directives, like “Unify, Simplify, Amplify.” Basically, figure out who you are and what you have to offer, distill that identity into something that people can easily understand, and say it loud. “Make it so every time you’re communicating with your audience, it’s reinforced in every touch point,” he said.
Ken said he gets five to six e-blasts from photographers every day. “There’s more photographers now than there were three seconds ago,” he said. (I know it hurts, but you have to admit it’s a funny line.)
He also made interesting point about publicizing a new development in your business. I’ve heard photographers and business owners say that they have a new service but are going to slowly roll it out. From what I gathered, Ken was against that, and I agree with him. Wait till you have the service ready to go and you’re prepared to deal with demand (which will hopefully come), and then roll it out loud and with purpose. “If you have something new to say, don’t whisper it,” Ken advised. “Find the right moment to do it, and do it.”
…
….
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