Stockland Martel

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Photographers are always trying to work out how they’re going to find time to be marketing pros—because that’s what the job involves now—in addition to shooting, maintaining their portfolio and a good website, keeping up with technology like CGI and HD video, etc. So you can’t blame them for wondering if everything option out there is worth their time. Like Twitter. It’s generally assumed that every photographer should be tweeting. But is that assumption correct?

In “Should Photographers Use Twitter?” Photo Shelter breaks the question down in logical, smart-business terms, and they know their audience well. “A lot of photographers will tweet with no business goal in mind. If you’re trying to sell photos or photographic services, what is the value in regurgitating links to other websites? Or trying to be the wittiest person online?”

The article makes the case for evaluating your Twitter return on investment through analytics. Want to know how many people clicked on a link in your tweet, for example? They explain how to obtain those statistics. The piece goes on to talk about quality of traffic versus quantity, something that people rarely talk or even think about. We’re all so dazzled by numbers that sometimes we can think of nothing other than achieving larger ones. Web analytics are like videogames with ugly graphics and no end in sight.

You may ultimately decide that statistics don’t matter to you and that your goal is just to have your name in front of your target audience. (If you’re using Twitter for your photo business, I assume your “followers” are primarily your current and potential clients and press.) And that’s fine. The point, I think, is to tweet with a sense of purpose and not just because all the other kids are doing it.

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