I’ve also been busy writing the majority of the Business blog posts at Fuel Your Photography.

The new year is fast approaching and I want to help you ensure that 2010 is the best year ever for your photography business!

Stay tuned!
darkroomRYAN

Drumroll please…

Business Planning for Photographers

I know this topic can be a little intimidating… I promise that I will do my best to make this series not only educational, but also entertaining. My theory is: If you’re going to create a Business Plan, you might as well have fun doing it.

Business Planning for Photographers is going to be a 7 Part series that covers the following:

I. The Photography Pond & The Fish That Swim There
II. Who Are You???
III. Building Blocks & Your Entourage
IV. Sales & Marketing (I had to have 1 “normal” Chapter Title…)
V. The Kitchen Sink
VI. $$$ Money $$$
VII. Tying It All Together

This series kicks off first thing next week – So stay tuned! In the meantime, I would love to hear any business questions that you have. Simply leave them in the Comments, or send them to me via Twitter. I will then address some of these specific questions throughout this series.

“Ryan’s magic is just the kind of stuff I love to watch. It’s highly visual and leaves you shaking your head in disbelief.”
- Luke Dancy, Magic Consultant for “Criss Angel Mindfreak“

How can you tap into the photography industry when there’s so many experienced photographers already out there? The answer: Be yourself and put the focus on your clients.

For years, David Copperfield was the main magician on television, and he achieved “rockstar” status. No other magician could compete with him, or get steady television air-time. Why? Because the other magicians were trying to be like him.

Knock, knock… Enter David Blaine in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. Blaine did the exact opposite of everything Copperfield did. Copperfield performed in large concert halls, Blaine performed in the streets of Compton. Copperfield performed expensive illusions, Blaine performed simple card tricks, and magic effects that could be bought from your local magic shop. The list could go on, and on… The main point that made Blaine successful is how the television special was edited. It didn’t put the focus on Blaine, rather it put the focus on his spectators and their reactions to the tricks.

Below are two video clips – one of David Copperfield, and one of David Blaine. I want you to pay close attention to where the focus is when they perform their magic.

David Copperfield:

David Blaine:

Notice how the focus in the David Copperfield clip is on David Copperfield. Whereas, the focus in the David Blaine clip is on the actual spectators and their reactions.

My challenge to you is to put the focus on your clients and make them the “stars” of the show.

In the meantime, let me share with you 3 ways to have your finger on the pulse of the Photography industry.

1. Hashtags
Using hashtags (#) in Twitter allows you to organize and share information with other Twitter users. You can visit hashtags.org to find a list of popular hashtags, or search for ones you might be interested in following. Hashtags also come in handy when you are attending a Photography conference. For example, hashtags were used at the WPPI Convention to inform photographers about various meet-ups and outings: #WPPI

Other hashtags that you might be interested in are: #photography, #Canon, and #Nikon. You can subscribe to a hashtag’s RSS Feed to have all Tweets automatically sent to your RSS Feed Reader.

2. Google Reader
Speaking of RSS Feed Readers, you can integrate Google Reader into Twitter. There are a number of reasons on why you would want to do this. One reason is to be able to share blog entries that you find interesting to your Twitter followers. By sharing blog entries that contain Photography tips or news, you are helping your Twitter followers keep current on the latest trends in Photography. Hopefully they have also read this blog post, and are doing the same. Another reason is to ensure that you do not go on a “Twitter Drought”. We are all very busy people and sometimes it can be hard to post to Twitter on a regular basis. By importing specific blog entries from your Google Reader into Twitter, you should automatically have some interesting items to share with your Twitter followers.

Integrating your Google Reader with Twitter is pretty simple – Thanks to our good friend: Twitterfeed. (Can you tell I’m a fan of Twitterfeed yet?)

5-Step Process for integrating Google Reader with Twitterfeed:
Step 1: Log into your Google Reader Account.
Step 2: Under “Your stuff”, open your “Shared items” page that located in the left navigation section.
Step 3: You will see a paragraph that says: “Your shared items are available publicly at this web page. You can choose people to share with in Sharing settings.” Click on the “at this web page” link. This will take you to your Google Reader Shared Items page.
Step 4: Copy the RSS Feed link of your Google Reader Shared Items page.
Step 5: Log into Twitterfeed and add your Google Reader Shared Items RSS Feed to your account.

After you have that set-up, if you come across a blog entry that you would like to share on Twitter, simply click the “Share” link that is at the bottom of every entry in Google Reader.

3. Tweet Stats
Birds of a feather flock together… Have you ever heard that phrase before? It dates back to 1545 when William Turner published a version of the phrase in his satire: The Rescue of Romish Fox. Okay… okay… I’ll get on with it.

Let me introduce you to TweetStats. TweetStats provides data based upon how an individual uses Twitter. You can find out the peak hours of when a particular individual uses Twitter, what days of the week they tend to use Twitter the most, what tools they are using to publish to Twitter, and more.

We are interested in the information TweetStats provides in the lower left-hand column: Replies to: (@’s). This will show the Top Ten people an individual @’s. So if you type in a “leading photographer’s” username into TweetStat, you will find out the Top Ten people that the leading photographer is talking with the most. You can then start following these “Top Ten” people to gain access to a “leading photographer’s” network and learn more about the photography techniques, tips, and information that they share.

Whew… I’ve had a blast putting together this Introduction to Twitter for Photographers series, and I hope you have been enjoying it! If I have accomplished my goal, you now have a better understanding of Twitter and how it can be used to help you and your photography business. Thank you very much for your support and stay tuned to Darkroom Branding for more Marketing Strategies for Photographers!

1. Flickr + Twitterfeed
In Part II of this series I introduced you to a service called Twitterfeed. A refresher: Twitterfeed allows you to automatically import a RSS Feed into your Twitter account. The nice thing about Twitterfeed is that you can have multiple RSS Feeds feeding into your Twitter account. This means that you could create a separate Set on Flickr that is dedicated to your Portfolio work. You can then import that Set’s RSS Feed into your Twitter account via Twitterfeed. By only importing the Set’s RSS Feed, you ensure that your entire Flickr Photostream will not be published to Twitter. Although you could easily do that if you wanted…

2. Twitpic
Twitpic is another way for you to share photos on Twitter. When you upload a photo to Twitpic, you can add information and tags to the photo. Twitpic also allows users to comment on your photo directly from the Twitpic website. When someone comments on your photo, you will automatically be notified via a Twitter message. Each Twitpic page also has a Views counter, so you can check to see what photos are getting the most traffic. I envision Photographers using Twitpic to share “behind the scenes” footage or “sneak peeks” of upcoming Photo Shoots that you will be posting on your website or blog.

3. Promote Other Photographer’s Portfolio
I know… I know… This sounds ass-backwards… But hear me out. This is the “Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you” portion of this series on Twitter.

Lets walk through a mock example: John Heil in Vancouver posts a tweet about Danielle Fuller saying “Check-out the portfolio of @BeyondTheLens: http://tinyurl.com/c6zfa5. She’s an amazing Photographer in Connecticut”. Everyone that is following John Heil will see this tweet – As well as anyone that searches “Photographer” and “Connecticut” in Twitter Search. Either way, more people are exposed to Danielle’s portfolio…

Here’s where you need to break-out your abacus: Someone that is following John (i.e. Mr. X) also finds Danielle’s portfolio amazing. Mr. X then Retweets John’s post. This retweet will not only share Danielle’s information, but also John’s Twitter username to even more people.

So a simple random act of kindness from John may lead to new clients, or at the least – the potential for new Twitter followers for Danielle.

Next up is Part 5 of this Introduction to Twitter for Photographers series. In Part 5, I will share with you how to use Twitter to Keep up with current trends in the Photography industry.

Until then, feel free to follow me on Twitter: @darkroomRYAN and visit the previous posts in this series:
Introduction to Twitter for Photographers, Part I
Introduction to Twitter for Photographers, Part II
Introduction to Twitter for Photographers, Part III

In this post, we will cover 3 ways Photographers can use Twitter to help them with research, and even find new clients!

1. PollDaddy
PollDaddy, is a free online tool that allows you to create surveys and polls for your Twitter followers. This can be helpful for you to determine future blog post topics, what photography conventions to attend, etc… When you create a survey or poll with PollDaddy, they will provide you with a Direct URL to the poll. To help distribute this poll to your Twitter followers, copy that Direct URL and then visit TinyURL to create a short version of the URL.

TinyURL is not only great to use when conducting these type of surveys and polls, but is great to use in any situation when you would like to share a link that has a long URL.

2. Ask Questions
Sometimes instead of creating a formal survey or poll, it is easier to simply ask a question. For example, if you are in the market for a new camera, you might create a tweet that says “How many of you shoot with a Nikon D300?”. Twitter users can then reply to your tweet and a conversation can get started on the Nikon D300. This conversation may help you make a logical decision to purchase the camera or not.

3. Research
Ok, I have to let you in on a little secret… I saved the best for last. I realize that some people may have gotten bored with the beginning of this post and quit reading, but if you are reading this now – What I am about to share with you will blow your mind… Hahaha.

There is an Advanced Twitter Search option, and there are numerous ways that you can use this Search option to help you and your business. If you clicked on the link above, you’ll notice that there is an “All of these words” form field in the “Words” box, and “Near this place” and “Within this distance” form fields in the “Places” box. Depending on how you fill these out, you could potentially uncover new client opportunities.

For example, lets say I am a photographer in Las Vegas… I just typed in “photographer” in the “All of these words” form field, and typed “Las Vegas” and “25 miles” in the “Near this Place” and “Within this distance” form fields. I just scanned the first page of the results, and there were two people that tweeted how they needed a photographer… It would then make sense for me to write a tweet to them introducing myself.

The best part of this is that you can save the RSS Feed of the Search. So anytime in the future when someone “within 25 miles of Las Vegas” mentions “photographer” in a tweet, you will automatically be notified.

Here are some other searches that you might want to create and save: “Wedding Photographer”, “Wedding Photography”, “Just Got Engaged”, “Fiancee”, “Fiance”, “Photo Shoot”, and “Photography Shoot”.

Granted, I am not saying to use this as your only means of prospecting for new clients – But it doesn’t hurt to have potential leads sent right to your RSS Feed Reader.

Alright, congrats on making it though the post! Hopefully you found it helpful. In the next part of Introduction to Twitter for Photographers, we will be discussing how to use Twitter to Showcase Your Portfolio.

Until next time, feel free to share this blog post with your friends and add me on Twitter: @darkroomRYAN