• Detroit Creative Labs Podcast – Photographer Edition – You don’t need to be from Detroit to be a part of this digital marketing and social media experiment.
• Time: 30:00
• Podcast host: Rosh Sillars
• This weeks show notes: Question from photographer Stephanie Graham, your social reach, Google SEO, thoughts on photography pricing, join us in Spain.

• Rosh Sillars Google+
• Like us on Facebook (video updates)
• Twitter @roshsillars
• Itunes Detroit Creative Labs: Photographer edition -  subscription
• Comment line: 64-newrosh-1 (646 397 6741)
• Email Rosh Sillars
• Rosh Sillars Speaking sample video 2:06 minutes
• http://about.me/roshsillars
• Rosh Sillars Pinterest
• My Plaxo
• Rosh 500px
• Rosh Sillars Photography Portfolios
• Detroit Photographer People Portfolio
• The Driven Business Blog and Podcast
• e-mail

When we post on Facebook or any social media platform, we don’t really realize how many people we are reaching. If you have 500 people following you on Facebook and more than 50 percent of people on Facebook check in every day, you have a lot of eyeballs looking at you.  You are potentially sharing your information with 250 people.  If your friends and family start to like and share you status update that number goes up dramatically.

Imagine a room with 250 people all focused on you.  Would you say the same things you are sharing now?

Don’t panic; this is an opportunity.

Your social reach is important if you are in business.  I’m not suggesting that you should give a sales pitch each day. But, if you are working on an interesting project or have a fun story to share, social media will help keep you top of mind with the people who care about you.

If you send your crazy Instagram photographs from last Saturday night’s party  to your Twitter community, you are making an impression.  It is important to manage your social brand.

You many not like the fact that you have a social brand (reputation), if you have active social media accounts it comes with the territory.  If you don’t have social media accounts, trust me, people are looking and your social media brand is automatically negative.

When people can’t find you they assume there is something wrong or you really are not a professional.  This will continue to be the business standard.   People what to know if you are active, what your social reach is, and develop a deep understanding of your personality.

Most people don’t comment on or share your information.  They are watching and listening.  You most likely have influenced a life you hardly know.

How?

Business advice, a great recipe, or an article you shared on Facebook was read by other people and some did take action.  I may have been influenced by you and you don’t even know it.

If you have one person following you, you have the opportunity to influence.  This is why everyone should consider  and take responsibility for their social reach. Everyone in social media must decide how they wish to develop their social brand and take part in the new society.

Everyone seems to be looking for the social marketing magic bullet.  How can they find success with search engine optimization (SEO)?  What is the secret to social media success?

Over time active members of the Internet community have noticed that SEO and social media are interconnected.  I believe this is absolutely true.  I also believe that the secret to success for both is exactly the same for the average person.

It is true there are different strategies and tricks to both social media and SEO, but one will satisfy and benefit both.  What is it? Activity.

Activity will give the search engines food and opportunity to list you. Activity in the social media makes it easier for people to find you and decide if they wish to follow you.  It is also true you get back what you give to the social media world.  If your feeds are generic and automated you will find you will earn generic automated followers.  This is especially true on Twitter.  Engaging activity will result in new relationships.

Fresh, original thoughts and content will earn real followers who appreciate the topics you share.

Please don’t get on my case about quality over quantity.  Got it.  I agree.  But, one incredible post a year will not have the same benefit as 100 good posts.   One great tweet a week will not earn the same following as locking yourself into a room and engaging with your community for a month straight, ask Scott Stratten about that.

How does this affect your SEO?

When you develop a community around your social media activity, your community begins to link to your stuff as a resource or a point of interest.  These links help Google and other search engines determine how high to rank your website and blog posts in search results.

As your work ranks higher in the search results, more people will find you using Google, Yahoo and Bing.  If people like your work, they will subscribe to your RSS and social media feeds.  If they become fans of your work, they will interact with your social media and share your work. This will leading to more followers and people linking to your blog or website.

It’s a circle. In the middle of the circle is activity.

• Detroit Creative Labs Podcast – Photographer Edition – You don’t need to be from Detroit to be a part of this digital marketing and social media experiment.
• Time: 25:00
• Podcast host: Rosh Sillars
• This weeks show notes: Google updates for April , Facebook coupons, doubling my traffic, Sandvox websites, Publishing.

• Rosh Sillars Google+
• Like us on Facebook (video updates)
• Twitter @roshsillars
• Itunes Detroit Creative Labs: Photographer edition -  subscription
• Comment line: 64-newrosh-1 (646 397 6741)
• Email Rosh Sillars
• Rosh Sillars Speaking sample video 2:06 minutes
• http://about.me/roshsillars
• Rosh Sillars Pinterest
• My Plaxo
• Rosh 500px
• Rosh Sillars Photography Portfolios
• Detroit Photographer People Portfolio
• The Driven Business Blog and Podcast
• e-mail

• Detroit Creative Labs Podcast – Photographer Edition – You don’t need to be from Detroit to be a part of this digital marketing and social media experiment.
• Time: 15:40
• Podcast host: Rosh Sillars
• This weeks show notes: My new kitchen, marketing to multiple countries, Google Webmaster tools, Linkedin

• Rosh Sillars Google+
• Like us on Facebook (video updates)
• Twitter @roshsillars
• Itunes Detroit Creative Labs: Photographer edition -  subscription
• Comment line: 64-newrosh-1 (646 397 6741)
• Email Rosh Sillars
• Rosh Sillars Speaking sample video 2:06 minutes
• http://about.me/roshsillars
• Rosh Sillars Pinterest
• My Plaxo
• Rosh 500px
• Rosh Sillars Photography Portfolios
• Detroit Photographer People Portfolio
• The Driven Business Blog and Podcast
• e-mail

• Detroit Creative Labs Podcast – Photographer Edition – You don’t need to be from Detroit to be a part of this digital marketing and social media experiment.
• Time: 20:00
• Podcast host: Rosh Sillars
• This weeks show notes:

• Rosh Sillars Google+
• Like us on Facebook (video updates)
• Twitter @roshsillars
• Itunes Detroit Creative Labs: Photographer edition -  subscription
• Comment line: 64-newrosh-1 (646 397 6741)
• Email Rosh Sillars
• Rosh Sillars Speaking sample video 2:06 minutes
• http://about.me/roshsillars
• Rosh Sillars Pinterest
• My Plaxo
• Rosh 500px
• Rosh Sillars Photography Portfolios
• Detroit Photographer People Portfolio
• The Driven Business Blog and Podcast
• e-mail

Many people have Twitter accounts so people can find them.  While I understand that thinking, you need to make it clear your home base is on another platform.

If you automate all your tweets from RSS feeds just to have something in your stream, let people know they will not find any of your insights in this social media feed, and let them know where your core social media resides.

Below is a basic social media marketing plan.  I created this graphic based on my solar system method of marketing plan development.  This plan is geared toward photographers. You can make your plan more complex if you wish, but this one is a good starting point.

Your social media plan begins with your website (green).  You can drive all the traffic you wish, but if you don’t have a quality website that converts your prospects, you are wasting time and money. Your website is your online portfolio or brochure.

Nearby is your blog (dark green).  Your blog is your personality. This is where you share ideas, personal projects, industry insights, outtakes and answer commonly asked questions.  A blog is excellent for search engine optimization, making it easier for people to find you.  Many photography buyers look to blogs to help them make decisions on whether the photographer will be a good fit for their project.

How often should you post? No matter what you do, be consistent.  My recommendation is once a week or more.  Remember the more you post the more effective you blog will be, but don’t over commit yourself.

In this plan I only recommend one inner planet (orange).  In this case YouTube is my recommendation.   Use YouTube to create behind-the-scenes videos and demonstrations of you what you do best.

Your outer planets (purple) in this marketing plan are Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.  I would start with one, Facebook being the best option, and build from there.  Use your Facebook account to connect with friends, family and associates. Occasionally share some of you latest work or outtakes.  Some photographers offer an image of the day.

Retail photographers can consider sharing a free low resolution image on Facebook with their clients to develop a following and share your good work with their friends and family.

LinkedIn is the standard social media address for business.  Connect with clients or find new opportunities using its powerful research functions.  For example, you can use the search box to find the people who you want to know in specific companies.

Twitter is a media stream.  It’s an excellent resource for the latest industry news.  I find it amazing who you can connect with and develop relationships with at a high level.  You can also easily drive traffic to your blog, YouTube or website using Twitter.

Your goal is to engage people and develop a community using your outer planets (purple).   Then you gradually drive followers, prospects and referrals through your solar system.   For example, you could tweet your behind-the-scenes video from YouTube that may encourage people to visit your website and hire you.

Generally people in your community don’t want to be sold to, they already like you. You are generally best served educating the people in your community on how to refer you for best results.

Social media is a long-term relationship marketing plan.  Developing good relationships doesn’t happen overnight.  It takes time.  The minimum time you should consider running your plan before making a full evaluation of its effectiveness is six-months.  My recommendation is a year.

This is the first in a series of plans I will be sharing.

• Detroit Creative Labs Podcast – Photographer Edition – You don’t need to be from Detroit to be a part of this digital marketing and social media experiment.
• Time: 31:05
• Podcast host: Rosh Sillars
• This weeks show notes:  Sarah Petty  , The Joy of Marketing,  One Hour Photographer, Photofocus Podcast, Focus your Facebook, Promote your strengths, Interview with Sarah Petty.

• Rosh Sillars Google+
• Like us on Facebook (video updates)
• Twitter @roshsillars
• Itunes Detroit Creative Labs: Photographer edition -  subscription
• Comment line: 64-newrosh-1 (646 397 6741)
• Email Rosh Sillars
• Rosh Sillars Speaking sample video 2:06 minutes
• http://about.me/roshsillars
• Rosh Sillars Pinterest
• My Plaxo
• Rosh 500px
• Rosh Sillars Photography Portfolios
• Detroit Photographer People Portfolio
• The Driven Business Blog and Podcast
• e-mail

Do you have a theme or do you just post stuff there?  First, let’s get this rant out of the way.  Social media is not the place where you post stuff each day and leave.  Social media is meant to be social.

Your business depends on developing relationships. Social media is the world at your fingertips. Use it to connect with other people. A great way to develop a community is to champion other people.

The theme of my personal Facebook page is friends and family. I invite everyone to my personal Facebook world.  I don’t think that is best for everyone.

My Facebook business page – New Media Photographer — focuses on business and marketing for photographers. I have a professional photography page that  features my professional images. It is OK to mix it up a little, but don’t veer away from your theme more than 20 percent of the time.

I don’t recommend having more than one personal Facebook page, but multiple business or personality pages are OK.  The only caution is that you need to be able to commit time to post and interact with your communities on a consistent basis.   At this point in time, although I’ve reserved the photography Facebook location, I don’t promote it due to lack of engagement on my part.  I’m simply not ready.

Make sure you state your theme in your about page.  When people look at your page they need to know what it’s all about.  Your banner is an important part of conveying your message. Use the pin feature to promote content that relates to your theme.  Use the highlight feature often when it comes to theme related topics.

Facebook is a powerful platform for photographers.   The more focused you are the more rewards you will find.

Rosh