Social Photo Talk

Social Photo Podcast #16: iPad Poll Results, URL Shorteners, Andy Adams Interview, Call for Questions

Aaron — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:30:29 +0000

Subscribe via iTunes: – this link will launch iTunes for easy subscription

Episode 16 of the Social Photo Podcast is ready. Hosts Aaron Hockley and Lyza Danger Gardner talk about the iPad pre-sales polls, URL shorteners, a feature interview with Andy Adams from Flak Photo, and more. This episode is about thirty minutes long.

Links to Things We Mention

The Social Photo Talk pre-sale iPad poll
Jim Goldstein’s call for a reality check on iPad hype
The problems with HootSuite/Ow.ly
ShadyURL – Don’t just shorten your URL, make it suspicious and frightening.
Flak Photo
We’re doing a Q&A episode soon – send your questions about photography and social media to podcast@socialphototalk.com

Distribution and Feed

We’re now on iTunes – if you use iTunes, you can subscribe using this link: Subscribe on iTunes

You can also find the podcast as an attachment to the main Social Photo Talk RSS Feed. You should see a player at the bottom of this post if you want to listen directly, or you can grab the Episode 16 mp3 file directly.

Feedback

We’d love to have your feedback – technical, content, or otherwise. Leave a comment here or send mail to podcast@socialphototalk.com – thanks!

Photo by powerbooktrance, used under Creative Commons licensing

Social Photo Podcast #16: iPad Poll Results, URL Shorteners, Andy Adams Interview, Call for Questions is a post from Social Photo Talk. Subscribe to the free Social Photo Talk e-newsletter

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This Really Short Blog Post is Waiting for Your Answer

Aaron — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:30:07 +0000

What’s the social media thing that you know you should do, but aren’t? Why?

This Really Short Blog Post is Waiting for Your Answer is a post from Social Photo Talk. Subscribe to the free Social Photo Talk e-newsletter

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Social Media Time Management: Splitting Time Between Twitter, Facebook, and Blogging

Aaron — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:30:13 +0000

Let’s talk about social media time management. This is part one of a two-part series (Part two will be next week) talking about how to best use your time for social media marketing. Think about your…

Blog
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
Flickr
Forums

Each of the tools listed above (plus others) can potentially bring you new business or keep you in contact with your existing clients and colleagues. Fortunately, we have 74 hours per day so it’s not a problem to devote quite a bit of time to each of these ventures.

What? You don’t have 74 hours per day? I guess I don’t either, which means we need to make some choices about where to focus. How do you decide where to allocate your time? There’s not a single right answer, but consider the following factors:

Audience (Clients vs. Colleagues): Are you trying to reach new clients? Or do you want to keep up with others in the industry? Photography forums are a lot of fun but they probably won’t lead directly to new clients. Depending on your blog, it could go either way. The same goes for Twitter, depending on how you network. Facebook is generally going to reach your existing contacts. Flickr will reach photographers, but not the general public.

Audience, Part II (Clientele): Does your clientele organically gather on a particular website or service? If you’re shooting senior portraits… you NEED to be on Facebook. The same applies for weddings. If you’re aiming to produce annual report photos for large companies… Facebook might not be the best place to focus.

Permanence: Are you wanting to create content that will be around for a while, picked up by search engines, and lead to longer-term traffic growth? Your blog and Facebook page will give you the opportunity to create more permanent work, while Twitter posts and many forum discussions are more transient. Publishing work to Flickr, SmugMug, Photoshelter, or other portfolio sites is generally a good way to have your images gather some traffic long-term.

Time “Chunks”: Twitter (and Facebook or LinkedIn status updates) allows one to post and interact in short time bursts. In just a couple minutes one can post an update or respond to others. A well-crafted blog post will require more time. Even if you write it in a few sittings, you’ll generally want a dedicated block of time to pull it all together. Where you participate might be dictated by the amount of time you have before interruptions.

Without knowing everything about your business, your goals, and your clients, it’s hard to give you a magic formula of what is the best mix for your online ventures. The factors above should provide some guidance.

Tell me about your split… where do you focus your time?

Photo by nDevilTV, used under Creative Commons licensing

Social Media Time Management: Splitting Time Between Twitter, Facebook, and Blogging is a post from Social Photo Talk. Subscribe to the free Social Photo Talk e-newsletter

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Social Photo Podcast #15: Flickr Contacts, Shane Rich Interview

Aaron — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:30:05 +0000

Subscribe via iTunes: – this link will launch iTunes for easy subscription

Here we go with Episode 15 of the Social Photo Podcast. Host Aaron Hockley talks about the beefier Social Photo Talk newsletter, Flickr contact notifications, an interview with Shane Rich, and more. This episode is about fourteen minutes long.

Links to Things We Mention

The (improved) Social Photo Talk newsletter
Flickr’s improved contact notifications
The oncemany Project

Distribution and Feed

We’re now on iTunes – if you use iTunes, you can subscribe using this link: Subscribe on iTunes

Feedback

We’d love to have your feedback – technical, content, or otherwise. Leave a comment here or send mail to podcast@socialphototalk.com – thanks!

Photo by Neil T, used under Creative Commons licensing

Social Photo Podcast #15: Flickr Contacts, Shane Rich Interview is a post from Social Photo Talk. Subscribe to the free Social Photo Talk e-newsletter

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Please Don’t Use HootSuite; Ow.ly is Dangerous

Aaron — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:30:17 +0000

Today’s article is a warning for anyone using Twitter (including photographers). There are a variety of third-party Twitter clients (I generally recommend TweetDeck or Brizzly), but I’m concerned by one of the players that seems to be gaining some traction. HootSuite offers a range of Twitter tools (including some really nice ones) but one of their “features” is the Ow.ly URL cloaking service… and it has a big problem. Using HootSuite, when one shrinks a URL it uses Ow.ly, and in doing so you’re contributing to confusion and security problems on the web.

Bad Behavior

Most URL shortening services such as Bit.ly and Tinyurl route users through a shortened URL and onto the destination webpage, with some services offering valuable metrics along the way. Ow.ly behaves a bit differently. Instead of simply redirecting users to the destination page, Ow.ly displays the destination’s page content, but framed with an Ow.ly bar across the top of the page, and the Ow.ly shortened link showing in the browser’s location bar instead of the page’s true address.

Ow.ly: A Perfect Setup for Phishing

You’ve probably noticed an increase in the number of phishing attacks on Twitter, and it’s not just the newbies that are getting duped. How do we train folks to avoid phishing? Generally it involves a couple things: don’t click on links when you can’t verify where they’re heading, and before typing in your password, look at the browser’s address bar to be absolutely sure you’re on the right website.

See the problem?

It’s not just annoying to have the Ow.ly bar on the page, it’s dangerous, since it means extra work to escape from Ow.ly to know whether you’re on a legitimate site or one that could be malicious.

Do you want to be the one handing out confusing, phishy-looking URLs to your readers? Ow.ly defenders will argue that end users can opt-out of the service, but don’t blame the victim… your readers shouldn’t have to jump through extra hoops because you’re using a poor set of tools.

The Solution

Don’t use Ow.ly (which really means don’t use HootSuite).

Use Bit.ly or one of the other, more transparent services. Bit.ly can integrate directly with clients such as TweetDeck and one can use their Bit.ly API key to get a full range of metrics on the shortened URLs.

For another look at this issue, including some direct (and very telling) quotes from folks at HootSuite, head over and read No More Owls: An Open Letter to HootSuite.

Photo by hans s, used under Creative Commons licensing

Please Don’t Use HootSuite; Ow.ly is Dangerous is a post from Social Photo Talk. Subscribe to the free Social Photo Talk e-newsletter

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More Photo News… Direct to Your Inbox

Aaron — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:30:31 +0000

With the new publishing schedule here on Social Photo Talk, I want to continue to provide little snippets of news and information that don’t quite warrant a dedicated article, but still are noteworthy for photographers who want to keep up with what’s happening in the world of photography in this new media world.

For example, yesterday Google acquired Picnik, the online image editor that’s probably best known for being the integrated editor on Flickr. Does that mean big things coming for Picasa? What does it mean for Yahoo’s Flickr property? This would be the type of issue I want to cover.

Starting this Friday, I’ll be including items like this in the Social Photo Newsletter, which will now be mailed weekly and will contain a recap of what’s been going on that would be of interest to the modern photographer. If you’re already subscribed to the newsletter, you’ll start seeing the updates this week. If you haven’t yet subscribed, here’s how to get started:

New subscribers will get a copy of the free report: An Introduction to Twitter for Photographers, and of course you’ll always be able to unsubscribe easily.

More Photo News… Direct to Your Inbox is a post from Social Photo Talk. Subscribe to the free Social Photo Talk e-newsletter

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Social Photo Podcast #5: Copyright and Property Releases, Stock Photography and Journalism, Photo Sharing Poll Results

Social Media is No Longer New or Leading Edge

Aaron — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:30:46 +0000

One of my social media predictions for 2010 was that we’d reach a point where social media use and marketing would stop being thought of as some special or “new” thing and instead be considered mainstream and normal.

It’s the beginning of March, and I’m there, at least in the photography world. I’m pretty sure that most photographers are using social media and using it to market their art and services (either directly or indirectly). I think we’re at the point where anyone not using any sort of social media (such as blogging, Twitter, Facebook, and the like) is behind the curve.

And those folks that are behind the curve… well, I’m probably not going to reach them by evangelizing the glory of social media here on this blog.

No more “you should try out this Twitter thing” or “here’s how to start using Facebook” articles. The focus will be on doing it right, with the assumption that you’re already doing it.

Social Media is No Longer New or Leading Edge is a post from Social Photo Talk. Subscribe to the free Social Photo Talk e-newsletter

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Social Photo Podcast #14: More iPad talk, eBooks, HDR

Aaron — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:30:30 +0000

Subscribe via iTunes: – this link will launch iTunes for easy subscription

Episode 14 of the Social Photo Podcast is ready for the world. Hosts Aaron Hockley and Lyza Danger Gardner talk about the iPad (and its uses for a photographer), eBooks, Trey Ratcliff’s HDR presentation at Google, and more. This episode is about ten minutes long.

Links to Things We Mention

Distribution and Feed

We’re now on iTunes – if you use iTunes, you can subscribe using this link: Subscribe on iTunes

Feedback

We’d love to have your feedback – technical, content, or otherwise. Leave a comment here or send mail to podcast@socialphototalk.com – thanks!

Photo by Darwin Bell, used under Creative Commons licensing

Social Photo Podcast #14: More iPad talk, eBooks, HDR is a post from Social Photo Talk. Subscribe to the free Social Photo Talk e-newsletter

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Resources for the Business of Photography

Aaron — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:30:07 +0000

Yesterday on Twitter @thats1hotmonkey asked me about resources for photographers as small businesses. I put together this list of some of my favorite resources for photography business information.

Best Business Practices for Photographers (2nd Edition) by John Harrington – a great book that talks about all elements of the photography business, including contracts, licensing, taxes, vendor relationships, and more. A must-read for any photographer.
ASMP’s Strictly Business blog – discussion of business topics from one of the big pro organizations
The Business Forum at Photo.net – discussions of business topics. A fair amount of newbie questions.
Flickr’s Pro Corner group – Used to be a lot more active than it currently seems to be.

In addition to the online resources (and book) noted above, the pro organizations such as the American Society of Media Photographers, Professional Photographers of America, and Wedding & Portrait Photographers International have a variety of resources, workshops, and events designed to help out the professional photographer.

What did I forget? What are your favorite resources?

Photo by Photos8.com, used under Creative Commons licensing

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Changing the Pace

Aaron — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 04:35:10 +0000

Since June I’ve been publishing content on Social Photo Talk an average of five times per week (generally once per day, Monday through Friday). I’ll be slowing the pace a bit. Ultimately this is an issue of time; with a limited number of hours in the day I need to spend a bit more time focusing on things other than content production for this site. My current plan is to publish three times per week, with articles on Mondays and Wednesdays and the Social Photo Podcast continuing to be released on Fridays.

Interestingly enough, some of the projects that will be taking more of my time will ultimately result in new things here (beyond the usual articles).

Thanks for all of your support… I’m not going away; I’m simply changing my pace a bit to better spread my energy amongst personal and professional projects.

Photo by wwarby, used under Creative Commons licensing

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