Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing, The Sites I Use just for that.

I think first there was Classmate, that was a good way to find all your friends in one place however it wasn’t free you had to pay to find your old friends and people you might have had a crush on. I’m sure we’re all guilty of that one. Then came Friendster the first actual social media site. You can collect friends, upload pictures and friends could write testimonies about you. Then came MySpace and the term social media was born. MySpace was one of the pioneers of connecting people not much longer came Facebook started by a kid in a dorm room and later change the way we used the Internet. Now you can’t really do anything without hearing someone say Facebook me follow me on Twitter or/and Instagram.

Social Media and Social Media Marketing can play a huge part in what photographers do. Jim Goldstein made a good point when he wrote “It could be said that the battle for photographers, beyond taking a great photo, is finding a way for people to see that great photo.” well true that!!

So many sites, so little time…..
Nowadays there are so many places to show your work and market yourself like photo-sharing site,  apps for phones, sites for sharing videos and slideshows for your work it’s like no wonder companies are always hiring people just to handle their social media.

Tips and tricks on Social Media Marketing.
To maximize your exposure when you upload to a site your post has a life expectancy of maybe 10mins to 2 hours before its lost in a see of look what I’m eating or pic of someone’s kid.
1. Upload during peak hours. Facebook, for example, has statistics and it will tell you where most of your followers are. So if you upload/ post at 8 am it could be 11 am there and people could already be at work or something uploading at 9 is always my best time cause people are already settled into work in Los Angeles and people on the east coast are just about going to lunch.
2. Tags and descriptions. Sites like Instagram work off hashtags ( # ). Use both generic and revenant hashtags that make it easy for people to see a set of images. my trick is to add some and delete them after an hr or so and add new ones.
3. Add Photos with words on them. Facebook algorithms love that and your post or photo gets seen more.
4. Watermarking. To avoid copyright infringements this is like a no-brainer but some people just overdue it with their watermarks putting their watermark in plain text right across the whole image. It doesn’t make people want to steal it or book you for a shoot,  probably cause they fear they are going have “Happy Daisy Baby Photography” or something is written across their face.  I wouldn’t book you if you watermarked like that.
5. Self-Promotion. Provide a link to your webpage in your description. like Pinterest and Instagram so viewers can find more of your work and on your website, it should be so easy for someone to contact you a five-year-old or a 95-year-old could do it.
6. Image Size. For me, 900px is the perfect size for all uploading on to the interwebs.  Anything bigger you’re just asking for trouble. Smaller is nothing that a photographer has to worry about. We love to see our work as BIG as we can.
7. Be consistent. Across all your social media platforms it should have a similar look. for example, dontetidwell.net, dontetidwell.com, and Tumblr. That’s a few of many, but they all have a similar look and feel to it so you know it’s me. Even my username is the same across everything I use.

For more info check out;
Social Media for Photographers.
Social Media Marketing for Digital Photographers

So what are some of the regular social media sites that I frequent for social media marketing?

Facebook

The biggest one out there and probably my least favorite of all social media sites of them all. Since it’s so big if you’re not on there it’s hard to stay revenant. the one big thing that I don’t like about Facebook is their business pages. Unless you want to shell out $5- $100, your post is only going to be seen by roughly 60-100 people.

 

Twitter

Its 140 charters or less company are the ones that changed the # pound sign into #hashtag. I feel it is mostly for celebrities but I still use it for posting links and photos. I like how companies post daily deals or info about upcoming events. Hey, follow me on Twitter, #hashtag 🙂

 

Google+

Yeah it’s just another one, only without all the restrictions as Facebook

 

Instagram

Probably one of my favorite social media places. If you’re not using hashtags on some of your photos it’s only seen by a few, but if you put them on then it’s reaching a very large amount of people. The sucky thing about this other than it being bought by Facebook is that is getting overrun and popularized by celebrities. I’m always hearing, so and so uploaded this to their Instagram. Lame!
My Instagram.

 

Pheed

Pretty much another Instagram but didn’t get to take off as much as it wanted. My Pheed

 

Pinterest

My favorite sites for inspiration. other twitter and myspace I’ve been using this site since the beginning. Its an excellent source of inspiration. I’ve actually booked more clients because they saw my work on Pinterest than Facebook. Also because it links to my website and drives traffic to it, it’s number 4 on All Traffic from Google Analytics. and I love it. Since they added video capabilities it’s right up there with YouTube video searches.  My Pinterest

YouTube

If you don’t know youtube by now, leave the planet. My YouTube channel.

Vimeo

Just like YouTube but with a cleaner video player. My Vimeo

 

Tumblr

You can find a lot of stuff on Tumblr 😉 you can also post things on there that you can’t on other sites. I mostly use it for posting things like old black and white photos like Photojournalism or Street Photography. My Tumblr

Other Places, Photo Sharing

 

Flickr

My Flickr

 

DeviantArt

My Deviant Art

500PX

There is a ton of amazing work on here. My 500px

Other

dontetidwell.net

My client file sharing site with the beautiful Kelley Baker of Kelley Baker Brows on the front.

Model Mayhem

Great for model searching. its fun to use your friends but it’s much easier to use someone with actual experience. My Model Mayhem.

 

dontetidwell.com

For everything, you wanted to know and didn’t want to know. is all on here and updated one or two times a week.

 

Donte Tidwell Photography is a Los Angeles Photographer.

Donte Tidwell Photography specializes in boudoir, portrait, fashion and fine art pictures.  To see more work from Photographer Donte Tidwell, check out his website at  http://www.dontetidwell.com or visit the facebook http://www.facebook.com/dontetidwellphoto or instagram http://www.instagram.com/dontetidwell. Contact Photographer Donte Tidwell by email at info@dontetidwell.com

Los Angeles Boudoir Photography | Los Angeles Portrait Photography | Los Angeles Fashion Photographer

California | Los Angeles | Hollywood | Valencia | Burbank | Pasadena | Santa Barbra | Palmdale

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