owlScott Bourne

I firmly believe that every photographer who either has a large amount
of desire to share his/her work or who wants to go pro, should have a
blog, a podcast and a social media account like Twitter. You may
prefer to use UStream or BOO as your podcast. You may like micro
rather than macro blogging. You may prefer Facebook or FriendFeed to
Twitter. It’s all good. Do something.

In keeping with Skip’s post from August 26 (You Snooze You Lose) I am assuming
you are going to do SOMETHING. Here are some tips I’ve found useful as
I use these communications technologies to spread the word about my
work.

These tips have all worked for me. I don’t offer them as a set of
rules or even guidelines. I offer them as pure information that you
can use or ignore. Just remember, they worked for me.

1. Remember that blogs, podcasts and social media sites WHEN COMBINED
are 10 times more effective than when used alone. When I JUST blogged,
I had a good audience. When I started podcasting and blogging, my
audience grew much larger. When I added social networking (Twitter) my
audience grew tremendously. If you do just one of these things, you’ll
see benefit. Do all three and you’ll see that benefit multiplied by
more than three.

2. Blogging, podcasting and Tweeting are all about communicating. As
photographers, we all feel the need to communicate. Otherwise we
wouldn’t make and share photos. Remember that you need to be
accessible to communicate. I put my telephone number, email address
and snail mail address out there on almost everything I do. I want to
be reachable. What’s the point of sharing a photo that moves someone
if they don’t have a way to respond?

3. Respond to your audience when they ask for help or ask a sincere question.

4. Ignore your audience when they are complaining due to their false
belief that they are ENTITLED to something from you other than the
free gift you give them of your time. Also ignore trolls. No good can
ever, ever, ever come of responding to them.

5. Try to use your blog, podcast and Twitter sites to solve problems.
Everyone likes a problem solver.

6. Be consistent. Blog or podcast once every hour, or every day or
every other day or every other week, but be consistent. This applies
less to Twitter but you should try to Tweet at least once per day to
keep your followers interested.

7. Don’t spend too much time worrying about SEO and search marketing.
If you offer targeted, niche content of high quality on a regular
basis, you’ll outscore the best SEO-driven site every time.

8. When you first start out in blogs, podcasting and social media,
listen first, talk second. Listen more than you talk. Only talk when
you REALLY have something to say.

9. When you launch, you’ll have few in your audience. Be patient.
Don’t start counting followers on Twitter until you hit 1000. Then you
have real traction. Until then, you’re just ramping up and still
learning. Don’t be discouraged. Keep at it. It took me one year to get
my first 4000 Twitter followers. It’s taken me 10 months to add 31,000
more.

10. Be generous. Be generous with your time, your knowledge and your
gifts. Yes, prizes and giveaways are a form of generosity. It’s a form
I use well and often. But you need to also be generous in human ways
in order to gain real traction.