Is it funny that so many people trying to wrap their heads around social media don’t get it? Not really. It’s ironic because they do it on their own…mostly. Most people (including many photographers) peg away and work at building links and creating a network of “me-toos” and they work long hours and work at it alone. That sucks. No really. You’re climbing an uphill battle if you try that approach. We’re not doing that here.
Social Media. Social. Media. Social. Networking.
You can’t go at this alone. Even though you are jumping into online networking to increase the reach of your photography light years ahead of most, you’re still way too late in the game to go it alone. I’ve been doing this for 3 years now and I’m still trying to play catch up to the guys that started just a year before me. Sure, I’ve leaped ahead of a few, but I’ve also been leaped by others.
No big deal. This is a marathon. You’ve got big lungs. You can hang.
You need a little help though. Especially in the beginning. You need links. You need partners.
I’m about to share with you a very broad tactic I use to help build online word of mouth marketing one tiny link at a time, one valued reader at a time, and one valued art buyer at a time.
If at any time I use terminology that you don’t understand. Contact me. I’m here to help.
Partners
This is what I do. You don’t have to do this. It just makes sense to me. It’s more of that “paying it forward” stuff. It’s one of the ways I’ve built up readership and traffic to YourPhotoTips.com.
The easiest links you can get when you’re just starting out are blogroll links. Many people will argue that there isn’t much SEO benefit from this as most blog platforms have the blogrolls as a no-follow link so there is no page rank that is passed. So why bother?
Forget SEO right now. We’re talking readers!
Blogrolls are a great way to exchange links with other bloggers in your niche. We’re all photographers here so you’ll want to contact other photographers and try to exchange blogroll links. It’s easy. Just find the contact info on their site, introduce yourself, and ask politely. Most will not respond but you’ll get a few. It’s a good way to introduce yourself to the photography blogging community and a great way to get an easy link. This may provide an extra 10-20 potentially new readers each month. If you have your blog on 30 different blogrolls that’s could turn into an extra 300 – 600 readers a month. Those numbers keep expanding and expanding as those readers become fans and share you work with others and they share your work with even more people. There is long tail SEO that can happen organically from efforts like this. It’s ripple effect marketing on the Internet and it works. So find some other photographers to exchange links with. Go ahead. It’s worth the time.
Done?…almost…there’s more.
Here’s the deal. SEO and traffic comes from all over the web. It comes via search engine traffic or referrals from sites that link to you. You’ve got a few partners now so why not promote their work? Why not promote their websites?
Here’s what I do for my partners. I have many. It’s a good thing.
All of my partners RSS feeds go in a special folder in my Google Reader. I hit this folder every morning after my email. I promote the heck out of this content all over the web. I submit their stuff to StumbleUpon. I share it on twitter. I “like” and “share” it on my reader (that sends it FriendFeed). I’m getting better at taking a few minutes and commenting on their posts and adding content to their communities. That folder is where I get most of the info that goes in my weekly photography links posts at my photography tips site (EXAMPLE: 6 of the 12 links in this one are to partner websites) I don’t do this with every single post that comes from my partners, I don’t have that kind of time. But I do it as often as I can.
Why do I do this?
Simple. To help increase their overall exposure on the Web. To increase the traffic on their websites or blogs. To increase the authority that those partners carries in the online community. Mostly, it’s because I like these people and I believe in what they do.
Beneficial?
Of course there are benefits. If I can help to create some added exposure for my partners and their websites flourish because of this I’m also helping myself. If their websites and blogs start to generate more traffic thereby gaining more links their authority in Google will increase and that will trickle over to my site as well.
I do this because we’re partners. Because a rising tide raises all boats. Again, because I like them and what they’re doing. And I believe that every time you help someone it’s like building Karma points. Besides, I’m sharing great work, thoughts, photographs, and insight to my readers, thereby helping my followers discover some of the other great content that can be found around the Internet. I’m increasing my authority in the photography community when I share great content.
Most of my partners notice. They may not know why I constantly push their stuff in front of my readers, but they notice and they thank me. I’ll admit it’s nice to get a thanks. Thanks for tweeting my last article. Thanks for commenting on my post, I read yours too. That’s stuff is good and it feels good to give back to the community that has given me so much.
WARNING
Here’s the deal. If you’re going to take this approach you have to be fairly strict with who you choose to partner with. If you start plugging every Joe Blow off the street that’s willing to exchange links with you then you won’t be adding that much value to your readers or your followers. You’ll start to lose readers and followers. Only push the good stuff.
Homework
Find some photographers to exchange links with. Then promote their stuff. You’ll benefit and feel good about yourself.
And…
You have a little time left to get your Twitter photographers recommendations in to me. I don’t have as many as I thought and that’s a shame because I’m really wanting to get feedback from the photographer community. I’m really wanting to share your thoughts and share your Twitter profile with the readers of my photography tutorials blog.
Photographer Promotion Opportunity
Here’s an opportunity for the really daring! Here in America we lovingly refer to the day after Thanksgiving as “Black Friday”. A rush of people to buy cheap products from almost every retail outlet has led to disaster at times. People get crushed. Things get broken. Well intentioned dads get trampled by lioness mothers intent on not being left with the latest and greatest hyped up offerings for their children. It’s insane. No really.
So some really awesomely awesome photographers and artists have an open call for submissions on their project “Picture Black Friday“!
“The project is an open call to photographers nationwide to photograph the event that unofficially rings in the holiday shopping frenzy here in the U.S.
To see a list of jurors click here.” – Mary Virginia Swanson
I’m actually thinking about getting up early and documenting some of the events. I’ll be in Lubbock, TX visiting the in-laws and I can certainly remember living in that town during these crazy days (I used to live a couple blocks from the Mall!) Crazy.
Let me know if you’re going to do it and in what town or retail outlet you’ll be documenting. I’d love to see how many people participate in this experiment. It’s like human wildlife photography. Wondering if I should wear camo or body armor?
Until next time, Keep shooting and keep promoting!
"I'd Rather Be in the Studio"
by Alyson Stanfeild
as one of the most comprehensive
self-promotion books for artists
of any genre.
