Jan Klier's Blog

Complex Bonds

2013-06-03T14:57:00.001-07:00

Images from an editorial story shot earlier this year with SS13 fashion, and the juxtaposition and complex relationship of two models. A top notch team with models from Q and Fushion, hair, make-up, and styling from ABTP, and creative direction by my good friend Sherif.

See the full story on my website: Complex Bonds

Playing With Popular Trends

2013-06-03T14:51:00.000-07:00

I had the studio booked for an entire day for a project. Then the project fell through, and it was a prime opportunity to use the time to play around with some concepts, experiment.

One of current trend is the popularity of vintage photos, particularly noticeable on Pinterest. Think black and white covers of Vogue from the 50s and 60s. That's cool, but today's fashion is different. So I was wondering how it would look like if we we shot in that style and with that type of lighting, except we would use modern fashion and modern make-up?

As luck (or lack thereof) would have it our shoot feel the week before market week, so all the showrooms were on lock down and we couldn't pull the type of look I was hoping to use on this. But we made due.

Image above is of Dasha sitting in for a light test before she had any hair & make-up done.

Here Briauna in a military jacket and tights, and fast and modern make-up. Playing with the hard shadows of times before softboxes and everything even.

And below a beauty look in the same lighting.

And a variation of the same look shot on Ilford Delta film for authenticity.

The rest of the day we played with other more technical concepts and video. But that is subject to another post.

Credit: Briauna (model), Dasha (model), Nic J (hair & make-up), Sherif (creative direction)

Inspiration, Environment, and Networking

2013-05-04T05:35:00.001-07:00

Tracy Reese speaking at the Player's Club

Yesterday I spent the day at Fashion Group International's Regional Director Conference. A wonderful day of inspiration, discussion, catching up with colleagues. And also a reminder why creating an environment that challenges you yet also supports you is important, and why it's absolutely worth your time investment.

Member from FGI Tokyo

I have been a member of Fashion Group International (FGI) for a few years now. But not nearly as long as some of the people I met there. At yesterday's conference we had a member from our Tokyo region join us, who has been a member for 45 years. And during the awards ceremony a special recognition was handed out to a very long-term member (50+ years) who in her day created the fashion calendar, which still controls the rhythm of Fashion Week.

Being a member of FGI has been a great source of inspiration, networking, and access to industry insiders for me, and more than worth not only the membership fee but also the countless hours I have invested into volunteering for the organization. Back in my Seattle days I first volunteered for a board position, then became the Regional Director for the region. As RD I attended last year's conference and met many of the other regional leaders which I had the pleasure catching up with yesterday.

FGI Regional Leaders @ Conde Nast Auditorium

Moving to NYC last year wouldn't have been as easy for me, if it weren't for the organizations I was a member of - FGI and ASMP, both of which have great presence in NYC and offered me a great starting and immersion point to build my professional network, in what otherwise would have been an overwhelming city. In NYC I volunteered on two FGI committees and recently pioneered the life streaming of some of our programming, most notably the trend panel discussion moderated by DvF at the Time Life Bldg.

Rosanna from Charleston / Vivian & Marj from Seattle

But FGI is also notable for its members, particularly in the NY region. At yesterday's conference we had a great set of inspirational speakers, such as Gwen Morrison talking about trends in Retail, interior designer Thom Filicia, and some of our board members who are a who-is-who of the senior leadership in the fashion industry. Some household names and some fascinating but not as well known outside of the industry, such as Kate Green.

Stephen Burrows @ Museum of City of New York

We wrapped the day with a trip to the Museum of the City of New York to see the Stephen Burrows exhibit. Being FGI, we didn't just get to see the exhibit after hours, but we had Stephen Burrows join the curator in a tour of the exhibit, and he staid on for dinner with the group.

The award dinner was held at the Player's Club, and Tracy Reese was our featured speaker giving an inspiring overview of her career as a fashion designer, and a fun backstory to one of her dresses being worn by the first lady and how she found out and what headaches it produces for a designer.

All this a good reminder that networking and supporting organizations is an important part of being successful as an entrepreneur and a person. As folks that know will tell you, people like doing business with people they know and trust. Even more so in today's social economy where you be connected to a lot of people, but where the distinction between simply being connected, and actually knowing a person, and them actually trusting you be in one of the inner circles is more obvious than ever.

But it takes more than just going to events, it takes getting involved, investing time, being authentic, being interesting, and being respectful. And you will be amazed what doors can open. As Ted Rubin at Collective Bias calls it - the Return on Relationships (RonR) is a lot more important than the RoI of your latest sales pitch.

The Importance of Checking In On Yourself

2013-04-03T03:38:00.003-07:00

As an independent creative I have a business plan. One that I started back when I decided to change careers and start my own business many years ago. But a business plan is an organic plan, it changes as the environment I do business in changes, and also as my own experience, accomplishments, and tastes evolve along the way. Often we make minor adjustments as we go along - pursue a different type of client, come across an unplanned opportunity, reach a milestone and figure out what's next.

But every so often it is a good thing to check-in on the bigger picture. And to look at all the data and validate that your assumptions are right. Find some advise and reflections from people you trust and who have enough context on the business you run.

Running a business takes some gut and some intuition, and an ability to be self-edit and self-criticize and reflect. But in my days at Amazon I also learned another important lesson, best captured by a saying that our finance team wrote on the wall: "In God we trust. Everyone else has to bring data." Intuition and gut is good for speed, is good so we can decide when to take a risk. But don't go too long without validating all of with some solid data. And trust the data, don't be afraid of them proving you wrong.

While I'm fortunate enough to be married to a brilliant business person and can discuss all kinds of business strategy over our morning coffee or a train ride into the city, you also need to get a variety of perspective. Some people pay a consultant to take a look at what they're doing. Some people ask their friends. Some people have mentors they rely on.

A lot of things have changed since I relocated to NYC last summer, and a lot of those changes have been fantastic. My business is doing significantly better than my best years in Seattle, I have a much stronger network already, a lot of new and exciting opportunities have come along. So it was time to check in on the bigger picture.

I'm spending the week in Arizona for a check-in with my long-term friend and mentor Don Giannatti. Don taught me my first lessons in photographic lighting back in 2005 or 2006, and we met many times since. Don has been a major influence in my thinking about the industry and how to run my business. And while we don't share the same genres of photography, he has an extensive and well-rounded experience that I trust and that comes without agenda, which is important. Don also has seen me grow as a photographer over the years and is intimately familiar with my work, which is an important part when you validate your strategy. That validation can only happen if the person actually has a good sense of who I am, not just the portfolio they looked at 30 minutes ago.

We've spent a few hours on Monday at Don's studio catching up on what has happened since we last met. Yesterday we got in the car and just headed out in the wide open space, a perfect place to clear the mind. We drove East the whole day until we ended up in a nice little town in New Mexico. Along the way we chatted photography, talked strategy, talked business, and life. And we stopped many times along the way taking images of the landscape. Conversations continued over dinner with the laptop at hand to look at the body of work I did in the last three years, how it fits in, where there are gaps, how to position it better, how to promote it.

We'll spend another day later today traveling back and refining some of these conversations. And I already have a manageable to-do list. A lot of my thinking has been validated, which I'm happy about, and there are some tweaks I need to make.

I have been fortunate enough that I have many good friends that I can talk to, get opinions from, run something by. I'm also grateful to the mentors I have - my wife and partner in life, and the people who I consider to be my mentors - Don when it comes being a professional creative and photographer, and Melissa when it comes to navigating the world of fashion photography.

Finding mentors takes time, effort, a bit of personality, solid networking skills, and commitment. And it can be hard to find one that has the right background and perspective that puts them in a good position to understand you and your business. But it is also very rewarding and more reliable then paying a consultant that make a living of selling their canned advise to hit a quota in their business plan. Your betting your future and identity on some of the answers. So don't go to the McDonalds of the world to find those answers. Go dine at a restaurant that reflects your values (see yesterday's mussing for context on the McDonalds reference).

And since this post is all about reflecting and looking at the big picture, here a shot I took yesterday during our drive of an abandoned drive-in movie theater at a deserted intersection somewhere in New Mexico.

Interpreting Images

2013-03-08T16:05:00.001-08:00

From time to time you have to validate your approach. Back in my e-commerce days we would typically validate major changes or assumptions via A/B tests rather than just assume we knew the right answer. And every so often the statistically valid answer was counter-intuitive.

I've been doing most of my own retouching, and spent a fair amount of energy on honing my retouching skills. But at the same time, I didn't want to assume that I could match someone specialized in retouching, or miss out creating even stronger final images by not partnering with someone who could take the image I captured to another level yet.

If there is one take away from getting into motion imagery, it's that there are many specialized talents, and it's impossible to wear all hats. You have to surround yourself with a team that is good at what they do, and let them do their job. Just like we get stylists and talent in front of the camera.

So when I recently shot a personal project, I took the opportunity to see how my retouching compared to what someone else might do, and if in fact I could elevate the end result by partnering with a retoucher.

So I took one image and retouched it myself and also paid two retouchers I had gotten to know to retouch the same image. I also specifically asked them to push the image and feel free to interpret it. I didn't want to limit them by my vision for this experiment.

I then also showed these images to a number of people and got feedback on which images worked best for them. There were interesting results and conversations.

Besides the retouching details, it's also interesting to see how important the retouching process is in interpreting an image. Retouching is as much part of the creative process than the original capture - at least when it comes to fashion & beauty imagery.

So below are three version of the same raw capture, retouched by three different people. At the top a small side-by-side comparison, and below some larger for comparison.

What Makes You Tick??

2012-11-30T18:31:00.002-08:00

In recent weeks I attended two portfolio reviews, on at PDN's PhotoPlus Expo and one hosted by the NY chapter of ASMP.

One of the reviewers asked me an interesting question: Why do you take photos? She honestly wanted to understand what made me tick after going through my portfolio and talking for 15 minutes. The funny thing is, that the question caught me off guard. I hadn't thought it through in those exact terms. But I came up with the answer, and I've since discussed this with various friends and fellow photographers.

Yes, one of the obvious possible answers is 'I just enjoy taking photos'. There are those pure photographers who just live and breathe taking pictures. But there are much more diverse answers, which all are equally valid, and also serve different customers. For me it is actually not just about taking pictures. I love solving creative problems people have. A process that often, but not always involves producing a great image. And I purposefully chose the word 'produce' and not 'take', as I enjoy the process as much as the end result.

I have a long background working and managing teams, solving problems, marketing, creating great customer experiences, and creating solutions by building stuff, whether its software, furniture, lego, bathroom tile patterns. But I used to do a lot of this in a corporate environment, where I was only a part of a bigger machine.

So becoming an independent entrepreneur focused on commercial photography is an evolution of what I like doing, but turned into a lifestyle instead of a job. I like understanding the business challenges my clients have, and then work with them to solve them. The reason I enjoy commercial photography rather than landscape photography, is that involves team work, and producing an image that has specific goal, rather than taking a photo that has lots of artistic value, but isn't solving any problem other than enhancing life with its art.

The other day I talked about this with a fellow photographer, and we discussed the difference being an environmental portrait photographer vs. a photo journalist. She is a writer and story teller in addition to being a photographer. She produces photographs to tell a story, rather than document a story that is unfolding in front of her, which would be the role of the photo journalist.

While I hadn't had to answer the question in such direct terms before, I had been slowly pondering the question as the evolution of what I call myself has shown - I no longer use the term photographer. It evolved into Visual Asset Expert, and then Director of Photography (see earlier blog posts on the topic). All of these are steps in crystallizing of what makes me tick, and what value I offer to my clients.

What makes you tick??

Handbag on Black

2012-11-19T17:44:00.001-08:00

I've shot several collections of Tara's Rocco e Dante accessory line. For her 2013 collection she asked me to shoot some more creative images, rather than the product on white catalog imagery. These are some of the images that I came up with. Given the rich texture of the leather, I wanted to use lighting that highlighted the exquisite detail of her designs. Tara also needed some shots that showed how the wallets may be used, and demonstrate the iPhone pocket on the outside.

Photographers, Visual Assets Experts, DP, and the ASMP Symposium

2012-09-28T06:35:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I attended the ASMP Symposium on Sustainable Business Models at The Times Center - a wonderful conversation within the commercial photo industry on how to deal with the rapidly changing market conditions and maintain a sustainable commercial photography business. Speakers ranged from experienced photographers like Andy Batt and Gail Mooney to art directors, vendors, publishers, and outspoken bloggers like Rob Haggart. This was a national event, live streamed on the Internet. But one of the advantages of living in NYC, so many of these major events are local and much easier to attend in person.

For this blog post I want to touch on one specific aspect which I've been pondering for some time - what title to use when I talk about myself? As we talk about the commodization of photography (or more accurately images), there is also a bit of commodization of the term 'photographer' along the way. And so it may be time to stop calling oneself a photographer, and come up with alternate, more accurate terms. But which ones are accurate and meaningful?

BTW - if you haven't read it yet, Rob's post on the commodization of photography (A Photo Editor/) is a good read. The book he references has been around for 10 years. I read it a long time ago, and it has been very influential in my business thinking over the years. His blog post was also referenced multiple times yesterday during the conversation.

Jay Kinghorn - moderator of yesterday's discussion - actually pointed out that none of the first four panelists referred to themselves as 'photographers'. Liz Miller-Gershfeld, Sr. Art Producer at BBDO and panelists on the second discussion referred to photographers as 'conductors' that bring a team to bear to realize the vision that is their contribution to the overall project. She also refered to what the photographers bring to the table as 'assets'.

I think these are all key take aways. It's never about a photographer or a camera. In the commercial photographer world (things are different in direct-to-consumer), it's about visual assets that are ingredients in larger business strategies, branding, marketing and PR activities. And it's not about a photographer being in the right place at the right time with his camera at hand. It's about well trained experts that deliver these visual assets as part of a larger team effort. They themselves may be bringing a team of talent and assitants to the table, as a sub group of ther larger team. Not unlike everything else that happens in large corporate settings or middle sized companies.

In fact I have started using the term 'Visual Assets Expert' in my LinkedIn biography and my About Me page on my website for several months now. This term came from the realization that my clients weren't hiring a photographer - they needed a visual asset for their business, and they are looking for an expert to help them solve this problem. The term has two key components - it removes the notions of photographs and images, and makes it clear that the focus is a visual asset. A specific need, which may not yet be defined, and where my role may be to help the client figure out what may be the right image and then produce it for them.

This thinking came from multiple conversations of clients trying to figure out whether they needed video or still images? A visual asset can be either or both, which helps to get away from the notion of stil photographer or videographer, and focus on our job being to deliver whatever visual asset solves the clients problem. Incidentally, that term also implies 'value', which is quite helpful in setting the notion that our contribution is indeed valuable and warrants appropriate compensation in an age where price pressures and free work is a major concern. The term 'expert' does reinforce the same notion.

Another term that seems quite suitable is 'Director of Photography'. Interestingly yesterday Andy Batt commented on his thoughts of calling himself a Creative Director - as his clients overtime get more senior titles in the advertising world as they move up, he always remained the 'photographer'. Calling himself Creative Director seemed like an appropriate title upgrade and reflection of what he does and his level of experience. However, I prefer 'Director of Photography' a lot more, a title I'm borrowing from the motion industry, which seems appropriate as so many traditional still photographers (myself included) learn and adapt to the world of motion imagery. On a major film crew the Director of Photography reports to the Director, and is in charge of shot blocking, composition, lighting design, and camera choices. But he/she is not the one operating the camera, pulling focus, or moving light stands around.

A few days ago I read the post on fstoppers about Forbe's $126B photograph - a specific aspect caught my attention and is relevant to this discussion. While the actual session was only 15 minutes, they've spent weeks of prep, multiple test shots with standins, prelighting, etc. Something often done on a smaller scale. And something always done on major film sets. Michael Prince's key contribution to this image was in fact his knowledge of lighting, camera choice, composition to make this shot happen. Whether he was actually the one pushing the shutter button during those 15 minutes is really not material - with everything sorted out his assistant could have done that just as much. In fact, it may even be better, because it would leave the photographer (or Director of Photography) more time to engage with subjects, make sure the lighting is spot on, the composition works, etc. Pushing the shutter button is not the value add, in fact it's a distraction better left to the 1st AC.

Now all this is in the frame of defining roles and determining titles. On smaller sets or the odd job that pays a bill, everyone has to wear multiple hats, or do it all him/herself. And that's ok. But it's important to be in the frame of mind, that as a photographer, we're not camera operators - we're Visual Assets Experts and we are the Director of Photography.

This discussion also highlights the challenge of how photographers in the commercial/editorial realm have to evolve their business to be sustainable. Traditionally a lot of introverted 'lone wolves' have been attracted to the industry. They rapidly will have to adapt to being team players, be the expert that helps the client develop the right visual asset, conduct a team, and market to the marketers. As Rob pointed out in the comments to his post, the photographer that gets the business today is not the most skilled (plenty of those), but the one that is easiest to work with (i.e. the best team player).

I would love to hear thoughts and alternate viewpoints on this, so feel free to post comments and we can continue the conversation.

What Your Online Headshot Communicates About You

2012-09-18T06:53:00.001-07:00

This morning I was scrolling through the list of People I May Know on LinkedIn and I was struck by the pattern that exists in the images that people use, and what it communicates about them, without knowing them.

Here are the general categories (images from randomly selected LinkedIn profiles for editorial purposes only).

You might look at that list and your headshot and say "bunk", I'm very good at xyz. But keep in mind, this is all about the perception others have of you based on generalizations. Yes, you may have that headshot of the super geek, and be the most socially connected and adept person. But someone looking at your LinkedIn profile or other online presence who doesn't know you yet, will simply judge you on the photo, not by what you're really good at. These interpretations are overloaded with generalized social norms. Don't make your most favorite personal photo your online avatar, use an image to most accurately reflects who you are and how you want to be perceived. When it comes to personal branding it's always a careful balance between your self-image and the general society's trends and norms. You get 5 seconds at best before someone decides to click on your link or not, and that image says more than hundres of words in your profile.

Also, these are headshots on LinkedIn - a professional networking / social media site. Different social media platforms have different audiences, and a highly tuned personal brand may need to use different images on different sites. What may be great on your FB profile, may not belong on LinkedIn, and may be yet different from what you use on your website, Twitter, etc.

First comes the no image. Obviously a person who takes online and social media not particularly seriously. They are testing the waters, setting up profiles, but never finishing them. Yet, this randomly selected person had 373 connections, and was recommended to me as a person I may know. If they don't take their profile seriously, so won't many people who may be looking at it.

The classic headshot on studio canvas background. It shows that they take business seriously. They went and paid a photographer to take their picture. But it also says traditionalist, the old way of doing things. And they may have been using the same image for the last 10 years, not someone who stays up to date and fresh. They also pick vendors (i.e. photographers) that aren't up to date on trends, which could be a liability in some industries. Great if you look for a lawyer or banker. Probably not someone you would consider as a social media consultant or someone you may hire for your new go-to-market strategy. A great hire in CPG industries, not so much in emerging / high growth industry sectors.

The active outdoors person. It shows they enjoy life, live a healthy lifestyle, have a good work/life balance, and may do great work at their day job. They may be aggressive go-getters, setting high growth goals and achieving them. But they are not your typical corporate type. Don't put them on stage at a conference, they will be your PR team's nightmare. And you may not bet your company's entire future on them - they life a high-risk lifestyle and may need to be replaced on short notice.

There's the social & playful type. Always need to look a little deeper. Could mean they have great social skills, and be a kick-ass recruiter or effective sales person. But could also mean they're a party animal that will forget your next iPhone prototype at the bar, or cause some embarrasing HR situation.

The busy person. Somone who knows he/she needs to network, but really rather wouldn't. So a quick cell phone snapshot should do. Will do lots of good work, and otherwise blend into the background. Sometimes you might forget they're on your team. Geek alert!

The family person. Stable, reliable, personable. But not a power networker. They have a hard time seeing the dividing line between professional and personal life. Not someone for your PR or marketing department.

The person that's uncomfortable being in front of the camera. May or may not be particularly social or good at networking, making sales calls, or dealing with customers. Definitely a I*** on the Meyer Briggs.

The person that puts product before customer. Somewhat backwards. When it comes to online networking and social media, you sell your personal brand, not what you do. It's about relationships not a hit-and-run-sale.

The desperate company who will break rules to make a sale and doesn't understand social media at all. Terms of use specify that profiles are only for natural persons, not companies.

The world traveler. Perfect for the road warrior type of job, globe-spanning teams, products that are trying to go after emerging markets. But also the discerning traveler, better get a business class travel budget.

The creative minds and thinkers.

The contemporary. Up to date on trends. Modern everyday people. You need a lot of those to keep the business going.

The image aware. People willing to speak publicly, lead, be upfront and communicate.

Also notable, that the vast majority of images in this list were personal snapshots. Few people invest into professionally taken images nowadays. Given how much your headshot communicates about you, and may open or close doors, that may be a missed opportunity.

PS: If you see your image in the list above, and would rather not, please let me know and I'd be happy to remove it. I simply picked images for illustration purposes, and not for the person depicted.

A German Shooting NYFW

2012-09-13T04:22:00.001-07:00

Since I recently moved to NYC I had a chance to shoot several shows at NYFW SS13, as the photographer accompanying Rebecca Luke of the Sustainable Style Foundation and SASS Magazine. This post is about some of what I saw and experienced along the way. The show selection was based on Rebecca's schedule and reporting.

First and foremost I have to say, it was very refreshing to be part of a fashion show that is a true by-invitation only industry show that means business, as compared to the many 'runway shows' around the country that can only be more aptly described as entertainment events that capitalize on the romantic TV reality perception of a runway show. High end productions, professional models, terrific designs and garments. But with that also comes the paparazzi draw of the event, which is both amusing and somewhat annoying.

In the course of 8 days there were more than 150 runway shows that I know off, and quite possibly more. The main attractions are Mercedes Benz FW at Linconln Center, produced by IMG, and which covers most of the name brand designers that are household names - Michael Kors, Calvin Klein, Vera Wang, etc. Then there are numerous smaller organized fashion shows such as Nolcha, runway presentations at private venues, and emerging designers in whatever they can afford.

I heard IMG got more than 7,000 media requests for credentials, a number they became overwhelmed with, resulting in a real mixed bag in who got in and who didn't. Understandable, since it's sometimes hard to tell who is legit and who isn't in the age of fashion bloggers, and everyone and their dog being a photographer with a DSLR. I found it both amusing and frustrating to watch countless photographers with limited knowledge on how to shoot a proper runway show - from putting their camera in 'P' or 'Sports' mode because they lacked the skills to professionally control the exposure to the number of prosumer cameras and rented lenses that were around, and the photographers talking about how they didn't care if they got the shot, since they were there only to have fun (NYFW the latest edition of a theme park?).

Then there is the number of photographers literally rolling their shutter continously in the hope that they might get one non-blurry shot they were happy with. A catwalk is a very predicatable action - this is not an NFL football game. The focus is on the clothes, you get a flattering pose by hitting the right stride point, the front, the back, some garment details. It takes 5-6 well planned shots per model. Don't shoot the rehearsal other than a light check. But all that said, there were plenty of professional photographers in the pits that were fun to watch while they work, were in and out with efficency, and got the job done.

The photo risers have an entertaining fight for floor space and inches. In the big tents the floors have tape markings for reserved spots for key media outlets. And everyone shows up with step stools and sometimes 5' ladders, so they can shoot over the top of several rows in front of them. At times it escalates into a war of inches for a clear shot of the runway. The video guys need more room since they pan. And sometimes there are total OSHA violations, with people standing on bar stools on a riser with a monopod balanced on the chair. In the end it's a long game of patience. You have to show up early to stake your spot, only to stand around for at least an hour since the shows are at least 30 minutes 'fashionably late'. If a show starts on time, it risks missing the audience, since no one expects it to start on time, as happened to least one show I heard.

Check in procedures also run the gambit. For the big events Lincoln Center turned out to be quite challenging because of the amount of miscommunication all around. You need to talk to this person, but that person gave you the wrong pass - you need this pass, we don't know what code to give photographers in the system, no I'll walk you back past the security guy, but you're not on that list, who are you shooting for, is that an international magazine, no it's ok - they can come in, you need this badge to stand there, you should have come in backstage, you need to talk to the designer desk, and on and on. Nolcha was refreshingly on top. Recognized my name on check-in, was on the list, had all the right credentials ready. The independent events run the gambit as expected, from nice and helpful, to totally chaotic.

In some more unique moments, I had to tell the guys at one venue to fix the lighting, since they ended up with a mixed color temperature (hence the post title - don't have a German shoot your event if you don't have your setup right, it's all about craftsmanship and accuracy). They had run out of house power, and had to resort to mixing hot lights and LED lights ot make it work. But the lighting in the bigger venues was fabulous, and much better than I've seen in many other cities. Bright, well placed, proper white, good accent lights, and good spill control on the environment.

But in the end it's all about the clothes - not the celebrities or the models. It's a trade show. Capture the clothes so we can talk about the trends and see what might make it to the stores in 6 months. And there were some beautiful clothes to be seen, a great amount of entrprenuerial spirit and energy, and of course some misses, or things that may need another season to properly age just like a good wine.

Some models you see multiple times and they catch your eye. You see models you know and have worked with for a long time...

You see cool designs and inspiring looks...

Beautiful looks and professional clean walks...

Correctly accessorized and matching shoes, innovative make-up that supports the vision...

Moments where you feel bad for the model, and moments of really sad and unfinished business...

And moments where you know you're watching a NY show, and you know it's a male designer for womenswear...

Outside of the venues, there are all the street style photographers hoping to make a great shot. The Satorialist and 21est are pros at that, and they can spot the people that matter, and who is who. But anyone who looks 'dressed up' will attract a few cameras, and sometimes an entire swarm - good for a few quick poses and happy egos on both sides of the action.

And then there are the true unique NY moments in terms of living in the big city and getting from venue to venue in all forms of transportation.

I'm looking forward to see everyone again in 6 months for the Fall shows.

All photographers taken by me.

New York

2012-08-28T15:51:00.001-07:00

After all the time spent on move logistics and rebuilding my marketing materials and lists, it was time to be behind the camera, work with NY talent, and work out the kinks of my production workflow in this market. After two weeks of networking to find a team, and stopping by a few studios to find one that fit the criteria, it all came together yesterday. A pretty straight forward personal projects - two editorial fashion looks in studio.

Working in Manhattan, there is always a density of activity and folks. I posted a status update that I was going to shoot, and Briauna, a friend and model from Seattle who also recently moved to NYC and is having a great run here, stopped by the studio to say hello. While waiting for the hair/make-up on the model I was shooting with, we did some impromptu test shots. Even street cloth in Manhattan are stylish enough to be ready for an impromptu test and not look out of place.

The shots on the seamless were the planned shots. The studio is ont he 11th floor in Chelsea with a South facing wall of windows, some of which have a narrow ledge that can be reached by climbing out the window. That made for some impromptu shots with the city backdrop.

Model: Bethlehem G. (SMG), Styling: Stacey Armand, MUA/Hair: Nicole Jay, MWilds Studio

Contemporary Retouching

2012-08-22T19:50:00.001-07:00

Contemporary retouching for fashion isn't always completely color accurate in order to evoke a certain moods / branding styles.

The image on the left is my original (fully retouched) shot from earlier this year, as it ran in a magazine ad. On the right the same image modified on top of the original retouch to emulate the mood of the recent Rebecca Taylor imagery, which is one of many examples of this type of image.

I'm still on the fence which I like more. As a photographer, one goal is always accurate reproduction. Color casts can be seen as inferior work. But with the digital revolution we have seen accurate taken to a whole other level, and maybe people are tiring of the clean 'digital' look, and thus a tasteful color play is a welcome change in diet. The popularity of Instagram photos may be further evidence of this.

One thing that is possible if accurate color presentation is not required - playing with the colors the model and clothes can be separated through color contrast that otherwise may not exist. It can make a look pop.

As Ralph Rucci put it in a panel discussion yesterday in New York, they key here is 'restraint'.

Changing Markets - Part One

2012-08-07T14:13:00.001-07:00

I thought I would write a bit about the process and challenges of changing markets. As my friends and regular readers will know I recently moved from Seattle to NYC. Along with this comes of course the logistics of moving the household and everyone in the family, setting up all kinds of services, like Internet access; Notifying a million and one people - personal and business contacts - of your new contact information. All of that is expected of course.

But moving markets as a freelancer (or indenpendent, which is a better word) also means a lot of rebuilding of the marketing and professional network. Just on the basic logistics: I need to find studio space to work in; a a new slate of talent - make-up artists, stylists, models; a new library of locations and reserach on location rules; and finally supply resources (where do I get foam core? where can I develop film?).

And I have to start marketing myself to the local target audience. That means updated collateral. Updating the marketing database and splitting my lists between my old Seattle network and the new NYC network. Cleaning out old leads, and setting up new ones. I had the core logistics worked out in the first two weeks on the ground. The last one and half weeks were spent on the collateral - this morning I finally uploaded the new promo card designs to Modern Postcard for printing. I have a few more days of updating my lists before the cards arrive and I'll be busy mailing them out and following up.

In between I have been reaching out to my existing contacts in the area and setup numerous coffee meetings, updated my chapter assignments of my professional memberships and got to meet the local board members and folks in charge. Got myself added to committees to continue my core networking.

Luckily my new playground is NYC - the city where everything is possible, and if something exists you can find or buy it in NYC. I already found one of the best set shops I've ever seen, and of course we have the best camera stores in town, and more creative talent in a few square miles than most places on the map. So it's not a shortage of resources, but just a matter of time, prioritization, and determination to make it happen.

But it's also a matter of practice. I've done this before when I started out in Seattle. Except now I have a better feel for what works and what doesn't, and so I can do it all faster, and skip a few time consuming and costly detours. It's fun to just look back at some of my colateral designs to see how it all has evolved over time.

So far so good. I already had a 3 day assignment in week 3 on the ground, and a fun one lined up in September. Along with some work that I've been doing to keep my business diversified, July has been one of the better months this year so far.

Back Online – Opposite Coast

2012-07-19T08:09:00.001-07:00

After the month long hiatus (i.e. working vacation) due to the move from Seattle to NYC, I’m back online and all set to rebuild my client network in the new market, find new talent to collaborate with, and start shooting on the NYC canvas.

Here a few images from driving across the country via Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey.

And to dive into meeting folks locally, the timing couldn’t have been better, the ASMPNY chapter had their annual summer party together with ASPP at Sun Studios in Manhattan last night. Pictured are some of the ASMPNY and ASPP board members on the photo booth cyc.

Please note that I have a new phone number with a NY area code. Email and web address remains the same. If you are reading this from Seattle, I hope you stay in touch. If you are reading this from New York, I look forward to working with you.

And That’s A Wrap (for now)

2012-06-18T06:22:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I did my last shoot in Seattle – working with one of my long-time MUAs, Maggie, one last time, this time in front of the camera.

I’ll be offline for a few weeks, while I move everything coast to coast and get setup in Metro NYC. See you all later in July and have a great summer.

Food Two Ways

2012-06-14T11:14:00.001-07:00

My frequent readers will remember prior work I have done for Shooby Doo Catering here in Seattle. Before leaving for NY Shubert and I took one more opportunity to work together, this time at his commercial prep kitchen.

First we shot several of his new menu items in more traditional settings to be used on his website. In the second part we moved into the kitchen itself and I played around more with my new food like fashion style which involves more dramatic composition and lighting.

And as always, once done shooting, there was lots of great food to be eaten.

Facebook, Relevance, and Myths

2012-06-11T05:39:00.001-07:00

In the last week on two occasions I've heard references to Facebook on their 'intent to charge to show your content'. I thought it may be a good idea to discuss what the problem is Facebook is trying to solve, and why not everything is evil, as good a yarn as it may spin.

First of all, let's be clear that some day Facebook has to figure out how to make money. Running data centers that can support 7 1/2 hours of monthly online entertainment per user for 900M people, plus the largest image sharing site in the world, is not a cheap undertaking by any means, when it's a service provided for free to its users.

Unless folks are willing to start paying a Facebook tax on their paycheck, all of the users have to pay in some way. And that hasn't changed just because Facebook has gone public. Private companies have to make money too, they just answer to different investors.

The principle two ways they can charge is by either charging everyone using the site (like your cable company, or AOL - remember the days when you had to pay by the minute you were online?), or by selling ad space and sponsored content and making it's users be comfortable with it.

I found it puzzling to hear such disbelief in these basic principles from working photographers, who are all small business people and should understand these principles more than my 15 year old teenager.

Now that we have the making money part out of the way, let's look at the content part. There is a lot of content on Facebook. If you have have an average of 500 friends, and liked another 100 pages, and all of them post an average of 2 images or posts to Facebook you would have to scroll through a lot of stuff (1,200) to find a few engaging posts. You would get very tired of it quickly. You probably would find something else to do with your time.

So Facebook runs a complex and proprietary algorithm to guess what you might find interesting. It will base its data on things like whether you recently 'liked' posts from that person, how strong your social connection to that person is, how recently you added that person, how frequently that person posts, and how high the quality of that post is based on feedback from others. There will likely be a few hundred factors they consider when they decide in real time whether a specific post will appear in your newsfeed or not. The end result is that your newsfeed is highly customized and relevant. Will you miss out on a few things you may have found interesting? Sure, that algorithm isn't perfect.

And by the way this isn't anything new. Google has become famous for organic search results, where the Google search engine decides on very similar principles which results to show you when you search for something. And Amazon is well respected for their recommendations on their home page. All based on algorithms that judge information relevance and interest in huge statistical populations based on facts and behaviors. Not surprising if you consider that Facebook, Amazon, and Google is regularly trading their talent pool. So there is lots of sharing of thought and expertise going on.

An example to the contrary is Twitter. The main Twitter stream is unfiltered and if you follow a few hundred folks, information will scroll by in seconds and will likely be missed if you're not looking at the right moment. In fact if you really care about what certain people tweet, you have to put them in a list and use one of the apps that makes having multiple sub streams open possible. Painful. That's why many folks struggle with finding Twitter relevant and that's exactly what Facebook is trying to avoid.

Some folks quote that only about 15% of y followers will see any given content. I don't find that number surprising. Many folks like a page in a heartbeat, but then don't interact with it, because they don't find it engaging enough; yet they don't unlike it, it just fades into a tertiary connection.

So what is Facebook offering - instead of just selling ads on the right hand side, which they have done for along time (similar to how Google sells ads), they offer to show your posts to a few extra people who otherwise would have been filtered out based on engagement stats and interest. And you pay for those extra eyeballs. Straight forward.

Here a few misconceptions: Even if you pay, Facebook will likely be hesitant to show your post blindly to 100% of your followers. Because if they abuse the trust they've built from their users, they would cut off the branch they sit on. So they have to be very careful. Likely it will be cheap to increase the visibility by a bit, but very expensive to go all out. And the post still has to be relevant and of high quality. If they let any spam through, it would be playing with fire.

On the reverse, if your followers are very engaged and organically grown, rather than acquired in bulk via ill conceived 'help me get to x followers' campaigns, likely way more than 15% of your followers will get to see your content. And the ones who don't are likely ones that wouldn't convert even if they did see it.

The biggest value of promoted content really only comes in acquiring new eyeballs. Making that initial connection to give someone the chance to become engaged with your content. But most of these relevance algorithms have learning components, where they do feature less respected content a chance to see how it may perform.

One open question for Facebook will be how willing people are to react to advertising and promoted content. Some statistics have emerged that show that Facebook users are below average when it comes to adveretising response. Most likely because users are in a social and not commercial mind set when they're on Facebook, as opposed to when people search something on Google, which has a much broader engagement from social to commercial transactions, and Amazon which is 100% commercial.

My recommendation is to closely watch how Facebook evolves as they experiment with ways to monetize their traffic. There will be some old ideas, some new ones, some misfires and some genius strokes. But don't fall for the myths of an evil empire, or that suddenly they want everyone to pay to see your content.

Shooting To Concept

2012-06-05T08:33:00.001-07:00

I shot this image in March for an upcoming ad of Fashion Group International Seattle in Issue 4 of Gray Magazine, which just came out. The image had to visually fit the magazine layout & feel, and it had to represent the brand of this fashion industry organization as well as the Seattle market, and draw up on local talent.

The dress by Madina Vadache, a local designer based in Bellevue, hit many of the right notes in terms of raising the bar on Seattle fashion, but fitting the general trends. For my team, I relied on some trusted and professional creatives I’ve worked with many times before – Tannya Min Jee for styling and Stace Quach for hair & make-up. McKlyn at SMG was helpful in finding the right model for the shoot.

Practice Improves Results

2012-06-03T20:11:00.001-07:00

This is a video which I just finished working on. It’s a promotional video for Seattle based photographer and fellow ASMP board member Francis Zera. The idea of this video, the first in a short series, is to enhance the About Me page of photographers (and potentially other businesses) by using a short video instead of just a portrait and some fairly standard language. A way of creating a more personal connection.

But this video is also part of an exercise to get more practice in producing videos. Several of the ASMP Seattle board members who are interested in video production came together to collaborate on this. We’re in the process of producing one video for each member of the group, taking different roles with each video.

While I typically am behind the camera, for this video I took the role of director and editor, writing the script, putting together the story boards, and making sure it all came together piece by piece. Geoff focused on the camera and lighting work, with Melanie on sound, and a helping hand from Heidi.

Video is a complex medium and requires a significant amount of skill to master. I appreciate our little collaboration that allows us to practice our work and improve the results. Other than still photography, video does require team effort, and one doesn’t have to master each individual component of it.

The Case Against Trade

2012-06-01T18:43:00.001-07:00

Every so often when talking to clients the question comes up “Would you work for trade?”

I find it curious how people who run successful businesses themselves and who rely on vendors to help them run their business, keep asking for trade. It’s a growing trend, to the degree that there are even websites who help people willing to work for trade find business opportunities.

For many people it’s an emotional topic. Intuitively everyone like a good deal. But there are many rational reasons for both sides that just don’t make it a great way of doing business.

Part 1 – The Service Provider Perspective

As a professional business that provides services to other businesses I have a whole number of expenses of doing business – I have to pay taxes, I have to pay insurance, buy equipment, pay for various services that are part of delivering my work to clients. All of this can only be paid in monetary transactions. Not to speak of the money I need to make to pay my mortgage, fill the car up on the way to clients – all transactions requiring cash.

As a result, the only time I can reasonably work for trade is if I already had enough customers that month who paid in cash to cover all those expenses and literally had time to spare to earn myself a nice gift certificate for a treat. But since I have to work with all those cash paying customers first, anyone wanting to trade will automatically go to the end of the line, and be a tentative on the schedule at best.

Also, since the type of jobs I do usually are bigger ticket jobs in the 4 and 5 figure range, I would end up with a boat load of gift cards for the same thing. That would be enough food or music or wine or whatever to come out my ears. Which wouldn’t necessarily make me the best referral. It’s nice to enjoy a treat, but too much of a good thing isn’t always better.

Finally, it really makes book keeping much harder to do, whenever I agree to it. Because I’m a licensed business, I do have collect sales tax and keep track of every transaction I do. So if I work for trade, and account for the transaction on my business records – so that I’m properly covered from insurance to copyright, I actually have to pay for the sales tax out of other funds, and make more complicated entries in my book keeping software to make it all balance out.

Naturally, all that is way too much trouble to go through for a customer who doesn’t really take you serious enough to be willing to pay cash for your services. Moving on.

Of course all these considerations don’t come into play if someone has a regular 9-5 and enjoys making a little money on the side to finance his photographic hobby. That person’s only expense is their gear. They don’t tend to have insurance, they likely just report extra income on their personal tax return, and a nice dinner gift certificate just fits the bill to keep the wife happy about the hobby and cost of that nice camera. You get what you pay for.

Part 2 – The Clients Perspective

As a client hiring a vendor, it’s not totally clear what is gained by doing a trade rather than a cash transaction? In theory the trade is for whatever product/service the client is in business for. Delivering that product or service requires ingredients and labor that disregarding everyone’s narrow margins should amount to close to the same cost as the cash transaction would. So if it’s all done above board and fair, there really isn’t any savings by doing do a trade instead of just writing a check.

Furthermore, it just skews the book keeping for the client as well. As a business owner its important to have a clear picture of all of the expenses of running the business. If trade results in ingredients and labor being diverted to pay for other services, suddenly there’s no proper accounting for all the cost of doing the business (in this case the cost of marketing and advertising), and the cost of goods sold no longer correlates to customer sales either. In the end it just ends up screwing up all kinds of metrics that should be key to running a successful business.

As a successful business, it’s important to have reliable vendors who you can trust, and keep doing business with. Every time a new vendor has to be sourced and on-boarded there is risk and friction involved. The best vendors are those that run their own business well, carry insurance, stay in business, and use proper processes. Working with someone who does this type of work on the side may appear to save some money, but if all the risk and friction were accounted for, it likely wouldn’t come out ahead.

When it comes to vendor selection, ideally one wants to work with the best vendor that fits the budget. The most professional, the one that does the best work. After all the success of the business relies on that vendor to deliver. Especially when it comes to marketing and advertising your business. The quality of that vendor has a direct correlation to the bottom line. Eliminating choice by introducing unreasonable constraints seems counter intuitive. It’s one thing to have a smaller budget, it’s another thing to make less optimal choices within whatever that budget may be.

Part 3 – Working for Trade Makes Sense

All that said, I do work for trade under specific circumstances. Almost never when it involves clients and my core business. But certainly when it involves creative collaborations with people I work with repeatedly over time. I do work with models, stylists, hair & make-up and others in trade when everyone volunteers their time for the benefit of the entire group, and everyone is treated equal, and benefits equally.

At times I can also be convinced to work for free for a specific cause that I care for personally. I give myself a certain budget every month to work on personal projects, whether is for a cause or for creative development.

Part 4 – Historical Perspective & High Tech Trading

Before there was money, there was salt. And before there was salt, there was trade. People used to always trade for everything they did. But eventually that became too complicated and cumbersome, and a simpler common denominator was invented that is easily transferrable, can be subdivided, and is universally accepted by all parties – money. Why not just trade with full transparency and the most modern form commerce ever invented?

The Line

2012-06-01T07:52:00.001-07:00

Over the last two weeks I worked on a job for Bake’s Place Bellevue, a local Jazz and Dinner Club which moved into a new venue in Bellevue from their prior spot in Issaquah. As part of the new venue I documented the venue, the team, the food, and one of their performances.

This blog post has some of the images from the kitchen line in action during dinner service. It was a bit of a slower mid-week evening which gave enough room for me to be in the kitchen too without always being in the way.

An Afternoon

2012-05-31T18:59:00.001-07:00

These are images from a personal project I shot back in April. Some of the images just got published as an editorial in 180Mag and I can now share them on my blog as well.

The old-fashioned motel is a frequent backdrop for fashion editorials and it’s been on my list of things to play with for some time. So when Myrriah, Maggie, and I got together to shoot in April we finally we had everything come together.

We shot this in a few hours on an afternoon in April at the Columbus Motor Inn in Seattle. I found the location by looking up the most grungy motel I could find in Seattle and one that had lots of mixed to unfavorable reviews – which made it perfect as a location. It was quite the place. But that’s part of the creative process.

All the images were shot in available light, some digital and some on film. All the B&W shots in this post were shot on B&W film.

Credits: Myrriah Train (model), Maggie Wendt (HMU)

Lots of change

2012-05-27T21:02:00.001-07:00

The photos of this post are from a shoot I did last week with a few folks who I have worked with many times over the years, and who have been a big part of my growth as a photographer – Fledra, a model and friend, who has been on countless shoots and Ahi Taco lunches, and PBJ burgers in Eastern Washington with me; Shyn, a make-up artist, photographer, and friend, who has done more make-up on my shoots than anyone else so far; and Kim McCormick, a local designer, who has styled many of my early shoots.

The purpose of the shoot was really a get-together one more time before the big move, as I’m gearing up to relocate to Metro NYC in the coming weeks. An exciting move, as it will get me into a much more fertile marketplace for my work, but also a lot of work of rebuilding my network and client base. More on that to come in future posts.

The other change is that I recently acquired a used digital back for my Mamiya camera. I don’t usually talk much gear (on purpose) on my blog. But that’s a significant change in the way I work, so it’s worth noting. I’ve been shooting medium format for quite some time, but so far it has been exclusively with film. I enjoy that aspect very much, but while film has a ‘look’ that digital can’t replace, it also has a price and time component that only make it suitable for certain work nowadays. In order to apply medium format to a broader range of my work, having a digital back was an appropriate upgrade. Now, they don’t come cheap, so I’ve opted for an older used model that I own and can use everyday, with the option of renting a more up to date or higher-res version on occasion when warranted and in the budget.

Incidentally, these older backs have such crappy LCDs that some of the advantages of film shooting still hold true – the manual focus, the need for a light meter for exposure, and the fact that the LCD just lets me verify that the exposure is in the ballpark. But that’s all good – that is one part that I enjoyed about shooting with film, but now I can get home and see the results quickly, or I can shoot tethered into CaptureOne on my laptop.

FGI Regional Directors Conference 2012

2012-05-14T13:41:00.001-07:00

I spent the last couple of days in NYC for the regional directors conference of Fashion Group International. Always an intense and informative set of days, meeting with the NY office and the leaders from all our chapters around the world. Many US chapters, as well as Toronto, Mexico City, Puerto Rico, Colombia, and Amsterdam were there.

Lots of good discussions and information, and connecting with some of the other folks from FGI in person that we interact with regularly. Many of the pictures were just taken by iPhone, and I was there primarily for the conference not the pictures, so you have to excuse some of the lower quality shots.

Day 1 kicked off with a reception at the most interesting material library at Material Connexion.

Day 2 took place at the Conde Naste auditorium on Times Square with a long series of speakers, including the co-founders of Gilt, and people throughout the fashion industry. I actually found the presentation by Laura Siv from Firmenich on fragrances the most fascinating.

(photos – left: attendees @ Conde Naste; middle: Margaret Hayes; right: Farley & Leesa from Toronto)

In the evening we had an awards dinner at the Cosmopolitan Club. Before the dinner FGI’s Marylou Luther (the voice on the Trend DVD presentations) interviewed Betsy Johnson. Also present were Betsy’s daughter who will be part of one of their soon to be launched ventures.

(photos – left: Betsy & Marylou; right: Betsy & daughter in the middle)

Day 3 took place at the FGI offices on 40th with a view of Bryant Park, where we had discussions with the 2012 Rising Star winners, including Vasken Demirjian and Simon Spurr, as well as a very interesting Spring 2013 Trend Preview by Pat Tunsky from the Doneger Group. The afternoon were group discussions at the Movado offices a block over.

(photos – first row, left: view from office; right: Margaret and Rising Star Panel)
(photos – 2nd and 3rd row: Movado offices)

In between meetings there was time for walking around and enjoying the always vibrant NY sights & people, and catching up with friends over brunch and crashing an ASMP NY event and getting to meet their board members.

(photos – top row - left: Strand hotel lobby; middle: 22nd & Broadway; right: 37th & 5th)
(photos – 2nd row – Madison Square Park on Mother’s Day)
(photos – 3rd row – left: Bryant Park; middle & right: people on 5th Ave)
(photos – bottom row: Rebecca Minkoff sample sale on Sunday)

No Growth Hormones For Your Social Media

2012-04-27T08:04:00.001-07:00

(Reposting a conversation I had on a local LinkedIn group)

There isn't a networking meeting where someone brings up - 'You should tweet', and someone says 'I don't know how' and 'I don't have the time'.

It feels like the collective sense in small business is that social media is the latest version of sliced bread, and if you're not there, then you are loosing out, or that if you only did social media your sales numbers would go through the roof. I think like most versions of sliced bread, that is vastly over-simplified and over-hyped.

Now, I do think that everyone should educate themselves about social media, know how it works, and what it can do, so that you can make an educated decision if it would have any meaningful impact on your particular business, and whether its worth the ROI compared to any other sales and marketing efforts you have going on.

The one thing that can be said unambiguously today, is that pretty much every business has to have a web presence. Most customers today will want to be able to find your contact info, look up your services, your menu, your prices, make that reservation, find out more about you. Having a web presence is in today's commerce a legitimacy test as a business, and a quality website is a must. In fact the quality of your website is the first impression you will leave on existing and potential customers, just right there with the cleanliness of your store as they walk in and how well the shelves are stocked, and the thought that went into your endcaps.

But social media is a different level of web presence, the premium version so to say. The two key questions to look at are: Are your target customers engaged in social media? Because if they aren't, then your ROI is pretty negligible. The reasons they might not be, is usually generational, lifestyle, and demographic related, as well as your particular industry. Each generation has their preferred communication style: the oldest ones are only reachable by phone, the 30-50s and those working in corporate jobs are best reached by e-mail. The 20-35s are best reached via FB, and the teens are pretty much text msg only. Anyone below 35 may not have a steady e-mail address. Some businesses, like mine, have to interact with all of them, which means I have to be good at all those communication methods and pick according to who I talk to at the moment. But that's a whole topic into itself (which I blogged about before).

The second is, are you prepared to engage with your customers through social media? The most effective use of social media is when you actually have an authentic presence, when you are willing to have a conversation with your customers and prospects before they come in, or while they're not in your store. That means it's really not enough that you tweet some basic information from time to time - unless you are Amazon and have a stream of daily deals everyone is eagerly anticipating. Because just tweeting static information is akin to TV advertising on a smaller scale - impersonal, un-targeted, one-way communication. The social media generation is tired of that and automatically tunes it out.

What people want to use social media for is to get real-time service, provide feedback, have engagement with the person behind the business. Which means, the social media really has to be handled by the business owner, or someone who is a decision maker, not just an intern you outsource this to. And you have to be around to respond to comments and twitter replies. Nothing worse than having a Twitter presence, having a customer complain, and then there is death silence. You're better off not having a presence then.

My wife, who runs digital marketing for a major brand, uses Twitter readily to interact with customer service for airlines and hotels. Just this week she was stuck at a hotel w/o working WiFi. The first thing she does is find the Twitter handle for the hotel and she expects someone to help her out, because the front desk person surely is clueless on their IT issues. Same thing with Delta airlines, who monitors their handle very well and will respond within minutes to travelers issues, can accommodate upgrades, etc. You can tell the quality of marketing of major brands by the quality of their social media presence. Now granted, it's her job to do these things, so she pushes the envelope for a reason.

But I use it too. The other day I saw on a local restaurants FB page their new chefs specials. I skipped it that day, but went back the next day expecting to order it. Except it wasn't on the menu for a Saturday. Big disappointment. That was a social media failure - don't advertise and then don't deliver. This would have been an instance where I could have immediately commented on the FB post and left a negative comment. I choose not to, because I know their marketing person and I gave feedback via e-mail. But she's good, because she usually comments within 30min when I check-in at their restaurant via FB. So she's on top monitoring their social media presence.

So don't feel you have to do social media, if you don't know for sure that your audience will listen, or that you can engage with them authentically. And if you choose to be on social media, don't do all of them - think of it as a portfolio that you invest into thoughtfully. Maybe FB is for you, Twitter isn't. That will be the case for most businesses. LinkedIn is for your business contacts, suppliers, vendors. FB/Twitter is mostly for your customer engagement.

One final note, and pet peeve of mine when it comes to social media: Stop counting followers, likes, and above all stop with the 'help me to get to xxx likes'. It's a totally meaningless.

In social media it's about engagement (i.e. being social as the name implies). It’s something business aren’t used to. It’s a paradigm shift and we have to be ready to embrace that shift, not just want to jump on the latest fad. Everyone who has gone to a party, is tired of the person in the room that only talks about themselves and is to busy self-promoting that they stopped to listening to you. You take your drink and find someone more interesting to chat with. Much of what we’re taught as in-person networking 101 also applies to social media, it’s networking in the virtual world, 7/24 with a global audience.

A follower or like that doesn't engage with you, is totally useless. That's like advertising on TV to an audience who has a DVR and fast-forwards through all ads. The only followers and likes that are valuable are those who follow you because they're genuinely interested in you and your business. And they will follow and like you organically once they find out about you. So you have find ways for them to know about your social media presence - through social media links on your website, in your e-mail advertising, in your print advertising.

On FB, if one of your customers likes something you put out there, you might show up in the newsfeed of their friends, who then may be intrigued and like you too. That is organic and meaningful. Posting a 'please like me' actually mostly goes to people who already like you, which means it's redundant and you're using your precious airtime to give people information they already have.

That said, you do have to grow your audience. So the number of likes and followers does matter. But you have to go about it the right way. Grow it organically and celebrate when you reach certain goals. You might buy organic produce for your dinner, treat your social media with the same healthy attitude. No growth hormones for your FB and Twitter feeds :-)

If you own a FB page, spend the time to understand the 'FB Insights' stats they show you. They actually display not only likes but engagement statistics. How many people interacted with your content, what your total reach was, and how it trends. Twitter doesn't have the same stats, but you can check out Klout which does analyze your overall social media presence and style.

See you all online…