02.23Introduction to Twitter for Photographers, Part II
II. Using Twitter to Extend Your Photography Brand
There are three main ideas that I want to to share in this blog post that will help you extend your Brand using Twitter.
1. Consistency
Twitter allows you to have a Profile picture. You should take this opportunity to use an image of yourself or your logo for your Profile picture. Twitter is all about relationships and having conversations, so I encourage using an image of yourself instead of a logo. It makes your tweets and your Twitter account seem a little more personal. However, there are successful Photographers that use their logo instead, i.e. Jessica Claire.
Regardless of what type of image you decide to use as your Profile picture, it needs to be consistent with your image, and brand. This same Profile picture should be the one you use on all other social network websites. By doing this, you are developing a sense of consistency throughout your web presence and it ties all of your accounts together.
2. Twitter Bio
Twitter also allows you to create a short (160 character) bio for your Twitter account. It is extremely important for you to think about what you are going to say in this area. Many times people scan this short bio before deciding if they are going to follow a specific Twitter user or not. Remember in Part I of this series how we used tools to find interesting Twitter users? Some of those tools use the Twitter Bio space to determine which Twitter users show up in a search. Using keywords such as: “Wedding Photographer”, “Fine Art Photography”, “Los Angeles Photographer”, etc… will help ensure that your account shows up in relevant searches.
Going back to our previous example of Jessica Claire, her Twitter Bio states: “fun, fresh, fabulous photographer living the good life in the OC”. I want you to note three things about this bio. It 1) Uses words that describe her brand, 2) States her profession, and 3) States her location. All signs point to this being a great use of the 160 character area for her Twitter Bio.
Besides keywords, the Twitter Bio area is a great place to share your USP. In my case it simply states: “I Help Photographers Gain New Clients”.
3. Sharing Your Portfolio Updates and Blog Posts
There is a great service called Twitterfeed that allows you to automatically import your blog’s RSS Feed into Twitter. By setting up a Twitterfeed account, whenever you post a new Wedding or Engagement Photo Shoot on your blog, a tweet will automatically be created in your Twitter account with a link pointing back to your blog post. This is a great opportunity for you to share your work with more people, and a way to drive traffic to your blog. We will be discussing some more creative uses of Twitterfeed in Part IV and Part V of this series.
Your homework for now is to think about what type of Profile picture you will use for your Twitter account, create a keyword-rich Twitter Bio that states your USP, and sign-up for a Twitterfeed account. In Part III of this series, I will share how to use Twitter to Conduct Research and Surveys.
As always, if you have any questions – Please feel free to contact me. I am here to help you.
PS Please follow me on Twitter: @darkroomRYAN
The one thing I point out to other photographers with regard to marketing with Twitter is to customize their background image. It’s a perfect canvas for giving additional methods for contact information. Mine, for example, includes methods for contact and other websites.
http://twitter.com/whoisariston
Great write up! Keep ‘em coming!
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:24 pm
[...] Flickr + Twitterfeed In Part II of this series I introduced you to a service called Twitterfeed. A refresher: Twitterfeed allows [...]
March 2nd, 2009 at 12:59 pm
[...] through! By now you should have found some interesting people to follow, and crafted your own Twitter profile so interesting people can find [...]
June 14th, 2009 at 2:47 pm