You’ve got to Tweet several times a day for people to know who you are. You need to post at least three times a week or more. Old posts serve absolutely no purpose and you won’t build brand recognition putting up a post here and there. Building traffic is about consistency and you’ve got to be out there all the time.  In the last few weeks I’ve been really surprised at the number of blogs I’ve run into that just aren’t kept up to date and many of them by some of the best photographers in our industry.

Facebook is the same. You’ve got to be involved to build traffic. You’ve got to be making a contribution for people to remember you’re out there.

Make it a point to at least “hit” the social media button in your day, first thing every morning. Try and develop a routine for both contributing to your own pages and reading other posts from people you enjoy. Pretty soon it’ll be second nature.

That’s it – end of point. Post and tweet regularly or forget about social media becoming an effective marketing tool for your business.

What prompted me to give Scott an encore performance was something I ran into just a few days ago. I was searching for new blog posts from some very good friends and accomplished photographers. Sadly they haven’t kept up with their posts and it was one piece after another of old posts, blogs that are no longer active and old material.  So, that took me on the search to find Scott’s past post and all ten points are still valid today. In fact, with all the noise in our lives, they’re even more valid than when he originally wrote them!

At the time Scott wrote this he had 25,000 followers on Twitter. Today, he’s the most followed photographer on Twitter and is approaching 120,000 followers!  He practices what he preaches and has proven over and over again how these tips can help you expand your presence.

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.

Scott Bourne

Think about it for just a second. Every morning you wake up and there’s at least one paradigm that’s shifted. There’s a new trend, a new app, an announcement of a change in technology that’s going to change our lives.  Think about all the tools at your fingertips. As Georgia put it:

The tools you have, literally at your fingertips are extensive. Just to name a few, you’ve got Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, blogs, websites, You Tube, Google+, Groupon, FourSquare, Living Social, mobile marketing and QR Codes. They’re all different, but each represents an important tool for marketing and growing your business. 

I was excited to talk to her about the challenges in social media, but I found her comments not only helpful in developing the right mindset, but a foundation before attending her program as well.

Being successful in social media is no different than in any other aspect of business. You have to have the skill set first, especially in business and marketing. Without that understanding and respect you’re going to flounder. 

You need to have a plan and understand clearly what your goals are. For example, are you after more clients, more transactions, building brand awareness or new revenue streams?  Each component of your plan has a different path of success under the social media umbrella.

As she talked about the challenges of keeping up with the changes I began thinking about my own frustrations with social media. Twitter, Facebook, my blog all take an incredible amount of time every day, and I’m barely scratching the surface.  

New applications appear literally every day and in order to take advantage of them and follow through with the right application you have to understand every aspect.

This is only a fraction of what we talked about, but it got me thinking about the time all of us spend on the computer and engaged in some aspect of social media.  Every day there are new apps announced, new vehicles to help expand our reach. How do we stay cutting edge?

The Internet changed everything we do and social media has completely changed the way we communicate. Without a thorough understanding of social media and the respect for the growth it can bring to your business you can never reach your full potential.

Over the years I’ve sat through a lot of presentations in my career, some incredible and many disappointing. This is one program I’m absolutely not going to miss.  See you in Vegas at DIMA!  Finding out more about Georgia and her program is just a click away.

The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow. Rupert Murdoch

 I got a call from an old buddy yesterday, Mike LeBlanc.  We spent a lot of time together when we were both at Polaroid in the early 80’s.   Some of you might be old enough to remember when Polaroid was a Fortune 500 company!   He stayed at Polaroid for a long time after I left to join Hasselblad.  Over the years we’d catch up with a phone call, but we pretty much lost track of each other.

Yesterday, thanks to Linkedin, which I’m rarely on, Mike found me and sent me a one liner – “Where are you?” and then he left his phone number.  That launched a phone call and half an hour later we’d caught up with a promise to keep in touch.

I’ve spent so much time talking about social media as a marketing tool over the last year, that I honestly forgot about the word “social” in its name!   If you want to have some fun today, track down an old friend – there are few activities that could make your day richer!

PS If you’re in the Oakland Area check out Pican Restaurant.  Mike is the founder and principal!

Last week I talked about jump-starting a business that’s stalled, but it’s a completely different challenge if you’re just starting out.   Many of the components are the same, but it’s a little different approach, since your goal is going to be twofold – getting your business started, while at the same time building brand-awareness for you and your company. 

Keep in mind, just like jump-starting an established business I’m assuming you understand the skill set!  I’m taking it for granted you understand exposure, composition and already work with a great lab!  Seriously, don’t underestimate the importance of the skills to create great images – no amount of publicity, networking and marketing will help you get established if people don’t love the images they see!

The Community:

Personally, I absolutely believe this where it all starts.  You need to be involved and I’ve written a lot about it.  People like buying products and services from companies they perceive as giving something back.  You’re looking for the community to be good to you, so you’d better be sure you’re good to your community. 

There are lots of ways to get involved and most involve volunteer work – PTA, Chamber of Commerce, Lions Club, Rotary, Exchange Club, community events, local charities, even helping out at a specific event that might be a fund-raiser, Little League dinners, soccer events etc.   The key is just getting people to know who you are and while you might be the new kid in town, you want everybody to understand it’s your town too and you’re there to help.

Networking:

New business new community means building a new network.  You need to get to know every business in town, especially those that might be targeting the same consumers you are.  For example, a wedding photographer needs to get to know the florist, the limo company, bridal salon, wedding planners, venues etc.  A children’s photographer should get to know the local children’s shops, pediatricians, barbers and salons etc.  A commercial shooter should invest some time in getting to know any business that might be producing catalogs, brochures, annual reports etc.

I still love the Dawn Shields model.  Dawn is in Missouri and established a monthly networking luncheon of everybody associated with the wedding business.  Everyone pays ten dollars for lunch and they get together once a month to just network, talk about business etc.  In the process they all get to know each other.

When networking, this isn’t just about building awareness with non-competing companies – get to know your competitors.  The strongest photographers in our industry have a network of counterparts they refer business to as well.  They work together and often cross-promote each other.  Let’s face it, at some point you’ll have a conflict and won’t be able to take on a new assignment.  Or, maybe you won’t have the skill-set, but you’ll have a friend who does. 

An effective network isn’t just about the number of people you know, but how well they compliment each other as well as fill in the gaps for what you might personally be missing.  It’s all about having friends who cover your short suits, while you in turn can help them. 

Advertising and Publicity:

You need to advertise and get your name out there.  If you’re just starting out in the senior market, I still love the idea of photographing a half dozen seniors for free and letting them spread the word.  If you’re just starting out in weddings you need to let people know you’re there.   There are tons of publications, both in print and online that offer wedding photographers advertising opportunities.

It might be time to design a postcard and do a mailing, either by yourself or with a couple of those non-competing companies in your network.    Share the cost of the mailing and hit your target audience with some high impact promotional packages.  And when doing that postcard, don’t forget your own holiday cards.  I’ve written a ton about the importance of using your own images in your holiday cards and now is the time to plan for that early November mailing!

On the publicity side, there’s too much information to include here, so refer back to a blog I wrote previously.  There’s even a template for you to use, all ready to go and there’s information on GhostRighters.com as well.  Publicity in the local paper doesn’t happen by accident and nobody can do it as good as you can yourself!  The key to great publicity is to simply become a machine, sending out releases on a regular basis to the local paper, Chamber of Commerce, even some of the local associations you might belong to.

Social Media:

From your website to your blog to utilizing Twitter as a marketing tool, you need to have a presence.  No, you need more than a presence, you need a solid non-stop plan with consistent participation.  There’s so much to talk about in just this one area, that all I can do here is refer you to some great blogs for more detail.  My good buddy Scott Bourne has been cutting edge on social media since the two words got put in front of us.  Take the time to read his blogs on Twitter and using social media effectively.

Promotions:

I touched on it briefly in the section on advertising, but in any business today you need that “hook”, something that gets your target audience excited and brings them through your door.  Think about your own buying trends as a consumer and it can be anything you’ve ever bought.  How many times have you bought something after being stimulated by a special limited time offer?

Your business is no different and getting started in a new community as a professional photographer demands the same excitement.   As a new photographer though, at least from my perspective, it’s easier.  A promotion can be as simple as a an open house, inviting the community in to see what you’re doing.   If you don’t have a studio or a formal storefront, a gallery opening might just do the trick and you can tie it in with a local venue.  Even a coffee shop like Starbucks needs their walls decorated and might just give you the venue to present some great images.

Then there are formal promotions around holidays, purchases offers and buy-one-get-one campaigns.  Joining forces with another company, for example, teaming up with a limo company at Homecoming for a portrait tied together with the limo company’s services.  The list goes on and on.  Check out this blog on ideas for the Spring.  It’s also not too late for a pet promotion similar to Vicki Taufer’s or the one Kay Eskridge did.

And speaking of Vicki Taufer, when she first started as a children’s photographer she went to the local children’s store and photographed the owner’s kids and all the clerk’s kids.  Imagine the power she had with her images all over the store.  A customer would be at the register checking out and notice the pictures the clerk had of her kids on display.  You couldn’t ask for a stronger word-of-mouth promotion!

The list of things you can do to get your business literally goes on and on, but remember…

“If you wait until all the lights are green before you leave home, you’ll never get started on your trip to the top!”Zig Ziglar

If nothing else I want to share the background of what happened yesterday.   Sheila and I had been dating for a year and a half, when we decided to move in together at the end of last April.  We’ve known each other since second grade, but were never friends through high school.  The friendship started up when I attended a high school reunion three years ago.

We had decided to get married in late August and even had invitations printed up for a backyard wedding.  We wanted very badly to have my folks here with us, but knew with their health problems that was unlikely.  So, we really started thinking about what most important to us.  We’ve both been married before, so it wasn’t our first rodeo!  The more we thought about it, the more we wanted to find a way for my folks to be a part of the day.

Yesterday was my parent’s 63rd wedding anniversary and it just made sense to take advantage of the great karma and get married on their anniversary date.  So at 7:00 am yesterday morning, Sheila’s friend Karen, the Chaplain at Akron Children’s Hospital where they both work, married us on our back patio with Molly the Wonder Dog as our witness.   The “wedding” could not have been more wonderful or had more meaning for the two of us.

So, thank you for your good wishes.  Thank you for continuing to show that social media is faster than the “grapevine” ever was.  And thank you for being such an important part of an industry I love so much.

Oh, and the answer to who was the photographer – oops, we didn’t have one.  But I did have a Flip set up on a tripod that captured the moment and the rest of the event was all shot on “neuro-chromes”!

Happy Wednesday everybody – make it a great one!

I’m going to profile one photographer a day in alphabetical order for the next few mornings.  All the links to their blogs, Twitter, etc. will be right here , so expanding your horizons will be just one click away.  

Scott Bourne:  Scott’s become a great buddy and we’re involved in the GoingPro project  together, but that’s not why he’s teaching at Summer School.  I love working with people who I truly learn from and Scott is at the top of the list.  Professional Photographer Magazine wrote a story about him as the “King of Social Media” and he deserves the title – just his blog alone gets close to two million page views a month, greater reach than most of the photographic magazines.  

Scott’s message is so strong and his willingness to help people utilize social media is unmatched.  People used to say you can’t be in business without a yellow pages ad…well today, you can’t be in business without a website and in turn, social media is a critical component.  How are you going to make your blog more effective?  How are you going to use Twitter to expand your reach? 

He’s done a few guest blogs here on how to get the most out of Twitter.  Plus his background includes virtually every specialty in professional photography and he’s got a great marketing head as well.  Technically,  he’s pure geek through and through – on a constant quest to stay on top of technology.   And it’s the same for staying current with the latest challenges in our industry.

In his controversial January 25 blog regarding too-low pricing he wrote:

“It’s impossible to run a sustainable business over the long haul, deliver good quality and care for the client at lowball prices. I’ve been around a long time. I’ve seen dozens of businesses fail using this model and more importantly (and more to the point) have seen dozens of brides’ wedding memories ruined by photographers who had no business being there in the first place. There’s no do-over on a wedding. It takes a decent budget to get a decent result. Good reliable gear with backups cost money. Training cost money. Quality wedding prints, albums, books and gallery wraps cost money. If you sell a bride a cheapo wedding album that falls apart because you couldn’t make enough profit doing the cheapo wedding shoot, how does that serve the client? These are people’s lives you’re messing with. What could have more value than the wedding album – the first family heirloom of a brand new family? Think about it.”

Scott’s program on Visualization will kick off the first full day of Summer School on August 9 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas!  Then he’ll be helping me with some fun networking ideas at the end of that day.  One of the best parts of Summer School is just the ability to hang out with everybody and Scott will be there throughout the program to answer questions and help you with ideas to build a stronger business.

Want to learn more about Scott?  Follow his blogs, Photofocus and GoingPro.  Follow him on Twitter @scottbourne and @GoingPro2010.

Tomorrow we’ll take a look at Joe Buissink, repeatedly referred to as one of the top ten best wedding photographers in America!

As business slowly starts to improve, you’ve got to stay focused on more than just your subjects.  Just because the government is quoting statistics showing the improvement and Ford and GM have record sales doesn’t mean the challenges are over.    It’s great news, but, at least to me, what it really says is that we’ve all got an even better chance of making 2010 a great year.

Last year I promoted a recurring theme, “Just because the media says it’s going to be a bad year, doesn’t mean it has to be!”  That theme still holds – everyone has the power to rebuild providing they stay focused on the challenge.  You’ve got to keep building your brand.  You’ve got to keep fine-tuning your skill set.  Most important of all, you need to deliver the very best product and exceed your client’s expectations every time.

All the major shows are over and the wedding/portrait season is about to kick off.  Now is the time for you to take out that shoebox of new ideas you collected at every program/workshop and start to blend them in with your business.  Do it gradually, with just one new idea at a time.  This could be an amazing year for everyone, but only if you think through your goals and work to develop your business and reputation one image at a time!

At the risk of being overly anecdotal, there was a great story put in circulation by the advertising community in the early ’90s.  I’ll save you from the long, original version and summarize:

A very successful hot dog vendor is hitting record sales. He’s advertising,   cross-promoting, staying open longer each day and business is fantastic. His son comes home from college for the summer and says, “Dad, don’t you know we’re in a recession? You need to watch your spending and be ready for business to slow down.”

The father, concerned, stays awake all that night worrying about what his son has said. The following day he pulls down a lot of his signs and puts the money he would have spent on advertising and promoting in the bank. By the end of the month, business is terrible and all he can say to himself is, “Wow, it’s a good thing I listened to my son. There really is a recession.”

I’m not minimizing the challenges of today’s economy, but I’m frustrated with hearing photographers cry the blues when they haven’t made an effort to evaluate and restructure their current business model.  Those photographers whose businesses are pretty solid this year are doing new things to reach their audience. Nobody is working any less, just smarter.   Every photographer who has told me they’re doing okay this year always follows with, “But I’ve NEVER worked so hard in my life!”

There is no secret to surviving as a professional photographer today—survival is all about marketing, promotion, hard work and utilizing every aspect of new technology. But there are some aspects of running a photography business that one should keep in mind during the next few years of slow economic growth:

Diversification: Are you hitting the same old target or developing new markets? If you’re a wedding photographer, how many of your brides in the last few years now have children? If they loved the wedding album you created, how about photographing their young family?

Years ago—sorry I don’t remember where—there were statistics suggesting that 95% of brides under 30 have a baby within three years of their wedding date. Every bride you’ve ever photographed is a potential customer for family portraiture.

The demand for professional portraiture still runs in this order: brides, babies and then pets. So if business is down, take a look at your client database and find the opportunities that will create new clients or new applications.

Market and Promote: Our hot dog man, in an effort to stave off the recession, stopped reminding people he was there. What are you doing to promote yourself? Are you involved in the community? Are you advertising in local papers? Do people recognize your presence?

Years ago, leading senior photographer Larry Peters told me one of his best marketing tools. At the time, he was photographing a half dozen seniors each year at no charge. They, in turn, became his ambassadors and helped spread the word among the various high schools in his area.

Well known pro David Ziser tracks anniversary dates and does a first anniversary sitting at no charge. The younger the bride, the more friends she has who will soon be getting married—it’s a publicity manager’s dream!

The Internet: You can’t be in business without a website, but how about the message you’re presenting? Look at blogs, for example. Everybody wants to have a blog, but only a handful of photographers are doing it the right way.

The key to a successful blog is in two parts: First, you need good content—topics that people really want to read about and comment on. Not everybody has the humor or the skill set to create a following like Jim Garner with his video spoofs. However, Jim’s getting leads from these videos mainly because they’ve made brides laugh. The videos are a testimonial to Jim and how much fun he and his staff are to work with. Jim is, of course, one of the best photographers in the country, but this extra exposure he gets just adds to the excitement he creates for his clients.

Second, if you’re not updating your blog at least once or twice a week, don’t bother to have one. Blogs feed the search engines. Constantly updating your material is the only way to ensure that the search engines recognize your blog and drive traffic to your site.

And when it comes to social media, you’ve heard me mention Scott Bourne’s name a half dozen times.  Check out his guest posts here and learn to Twitter – (here’s where I sound like my Dad – do as I say, not as I do – I’m still Twitter dysfunctional!)

Attitude: When was the last time you did an attitude check on yourself?    I am reminded of the unspoken oath we all took when we fell in love with photography!   That oath, we all share, is about quality, service and responsibility.   It’s everything I’ve been writing about since this blog went live in early July.    Your clients trust you to be their eyes at a wedding.  At a portrait sitting they’re trusting you to see them the way they see themselves.  They’re trusting you to deliver a product far better than Uncle Harry could ever dream of! 

Think about how much you love the craft and all the excitement that is in our industry today.   I’ll go anecdotal one last time—we’re living in our own version of Who Moved My Cheese? It’s a business parable that was on The New York Times Best Seller List in the late 1990s and well worth a two to three hour investment of time to read. If you’ve read it, you’ll understand that the only thing that’s changed in our industry is that the “cheese has been moved,” and we simply have to work harder to find it!

First, check out a new program from Nik, The Nik Summit.  Put together by my good buddy Tony Corbell and the team at Nik Software, here’s an opportunity for some great programming and an excuse to spend some time in San Diego – as if anybody needed an excuse for that one!  It’s an all-star cast leading off with Joe McNally and Robert Beck.  Great programming, hands-on shooting and the opportunity to help build your portfolio and your network!

Then comes Skip’s Summer School - Okay, so it’s shameless self-promotion, but what a great program!  Check out Skip’s Summer School, especially with the early bird special of just $199 and 15 different speakers, but it’s not just about the quality of the programs and the diversity of the topics – it’s about the learning potential.

Scott Bourne talked about it yesterday in his blog - how great is it to not have to worry about getting seat?  We’ve locked in the entire third floor of MGM’s Conference Center and we will NOT over sell this program.   That means, no long lines every time a speaker starts a program.  And the programs are set up, one right after another – no decisions to make in terms of the balancing act between topic.

It means classroom seating, so that everybody not only has a seat, but a “desk” to work at.  And virtually unheard of at any program today, the room will be set up for WiFi – I know you need to get away from the office, but how many times have you wanted to do a quick check on email just to stay in touch?   Into Las Vegas on Sunday afternoon and headed home by mid-day Wednesday.  Short, high-impact and very sweet!

It’s a program jam packed with information from some of the finest instructors in photography today and we’re covering weddings, children’s portraiture, social media, high school seniors, creativity, lighting, photojournalism, business, marketing and even boudoir.   And the sponsor list is amazing with all of the following companies planning on being there, not just to pitch you on their products, but to meet and get to know you and your business.  It’s an all star lineup with:

Albums Inc www.albumsinc.com Asukabook www.asukabook.com Azura Albums www.azuraalbums.com B&H Photo Video www.bhphotovideo.com Big Folio www.bigfolio.com DWF http://www.digitalweddingforum.com
Fujifilm www.fujifilmusa.com GhostRighters www.GhostRighters.com GoingPro www.GoingPro2010.com GraphiStudio http://www.graphistudio.com/usa/index.html H&H Color Lab www.hhcolorlab.com Jill-e Designs www.Jill-E.com Kubota Image Tools www.kubotaimagetolls.com Marathon Press www.marathonpress.com Marketing Essentials International www.mei500.com The MAC Group www.macgroupus.com Midwest Photo Exchange www.mpex.com Nik Software www.niksoftware.com OnOne Software www.OnOneSoftware.com Photodex www.photodex.com PhotoOne Software www.photoonesoftware.com PhotoFocus www.photofocus.com Pictage www.pictage.com PWDlabs www.pwdlabs.com Simply Canvas www.simplycanvas.com SmugMug www.smugmug.com Tamron www.tamron.com TripleScoop www.triplescoopmusic.com WHCC www.whcc.com

Still undecided?  Check it out this week at www.mei500.com and we hope to see you in Las Vegas!

It was the headline of a story by David Dudley in the AARP Magazine this month and yes, I admit to reading AARP and damn proud of being old enough to have earned the subscription!   But the best part of the story is that for once I feel I’m actually ahead of the curve.

One of my new year’s resolutions was to talk more and email less.  Just this afternoon I caught up to a new friend, Joey Carman, and had a conversation about WPPI.  Every day I talk to my co-author and good buddy, Scott Bourne.  Jim Davis Hicks, founder of Thirst Relief is coming over to the house for lunch in the next week or so and I know, like last time he was here, we’ll spend the day coming up with new ways to create more awareness for the challenge of more fresh water around the world.

The issue is let’s find a way to talk more and email less!   We don’t talk to each other enough, but instead we Tweet and email.  There’s nothing wrong with that, but we all need to do a better job of doing both!  It’s especially important since we’re all part of an industry that thrives on human contact – we’re in the business of capturing those special moments – moments of people interacting, not communicating through their computer!

So, here’s the challenge – see if you can match one phone call to anybody you know for every email you send and texting doesn’t count.  This is about using your voice and really talking to friends, no matter where they are.   If we don’t talk more we’re all going to lose our ability to communicate.   I’ve already noticed that I’m spelling things phonetically as I struggle to capture a thought in just 140 characters.   While it might B gr8 2 B able 2 do, we’re even frgetting how 2 writ!   Photographers became photogs and then just togs…grammar is out the window, words like “at” has been replaced with @, two, to and too is just 2 and the list goes on & on & on!

David Dudley said it best in his close: 

“We’re in danger of becoming a nation of hyperconnected hermits, thumbs furiously working our BlackBerrys!”

PS. After posting this a few minutes ago, I can’t stop laughing over the link for Scott Bourne.  You’ll go directly to his lead story at www.photofocus.com on using Twitter for business.   So, let’s clarify my point…it’s a balancing act.  Social Media is as necessary to building your business as a website is today or a yellow pages ad was twenty years ago.  But, it’s a balancing act with personal contact and you’ve got to have both.  Keep the connections “live” with close friends and good customers and let’s not let having a live conversation with somebody become an obscure art form!