Personal Branding in Social Media for Photographers

PERSONAL BRANDING FOR PHOTGRAPHERS IN SOCIAL MEDIA

By Saptarshi Roy Chaudhury

We would rather die as Individuals than live without an identity”

“

What do we really want

• People to recognize us for our work• Get more work / business• Be considered as an authority /

influencer in our area of work

Why Personal Branding

• Attract attention – grow network• Increase your online influence• Find Work / Opportunities –

Opportunities find you• Permission to be yourself– You get to decide what your unique

promise of value is

What is Branding

• The process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumers' mind… blah.. blah… blah

BORING

What is Branding

Personal Branding is about creating

an identity

a perception that you want people to have about yourself

Three Keywords for Branding

UNIQUE

Unique Promise of Value

Create Unique Niche

GENERALIST SPECIALIST

Wild lifeTravelWeddingFashion Food

Be Consistent

• Maintain Quality• Communication – Style and

messaging• Visual Branding

Deliver on Brand PromisesDeliver Value

• Deliver high quality work• Share Knowledge• Guide & Mentor Juniors• Share your thoughts and views• May be do a couple of pro bonos

Why Social Media

The Biggest media channel you can

have for FREE !

106,000,000106 million Social Media users in India

Why Social Media

SOCIAL MEDIA IS BUILT FOR PHOTOS.

100,000,000Photos Uploaded Per Day

600,000,000,000Photos +

150,000,000In first 9 months

Why Social Media

Increases your reach , Reduces your marketing effort

VIRALITY IS INBUILT

Why Social Media

SOCIAL MEDIA

PLATFORMS

PROSPECTS

CLIENTS

PEERS

MENTORSMENTEES

FRIENDS

RELATIONS

Social Media Can Provide

Credibility &

Exposure

Networking&

RelationshipLearning

What You Need To Do

Invest : Time + Effort

+Be Consistent Deliver Value /

Brand Promise

Be Unique / Select a Niche

Social Media is the Engine;Your Content fuels the engine to deliver mileage on your branding

HOW

Inspire Quotes Motivate Coach

Engage Pictures Facts Stories

Advise Tips How To Solutions

Give Offers Discounts Appreciation

Participate Discussions Contests Groups

Your Brand Needs Your Personality

Personality matters in social media

Express yourself in social media as you would do in real life..

FRIENDLY PROFESSIONAL APPROACHABLE AUTHORITATIVE

Social Media is Not Much Different from Social Life in Real

BE YOURSELFBE RESPECTFUL

SHARING IS KEY

Social Media is your Radio Stationand you are the RJ

Rj Stays on ThemeINTERACTS with Listeners, makes UNSCRIPTED comments,

at times REPEAT the same songs

Photo : RJ Rashmi

TOO MANY SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS

Everyone Needs a Home

• Set up Your Blog / Website–Make sure its visually appealing– Clearly state what you offer and why

someone should work with you– Your contact information–Make it social – integrate popular social

channels

• Get a Facebook Page – people can’t “Like” people but they can like “Page”

• This also helps to maintain a distance between your “personal” and “professional” side

• Post consistently – make sure you reply to all comments

• Focus on building a community• Groups are helpful – don’t stop at joining but

participate and engage

• Post Photos – but make sure you have relevant permissions

• Make sure your profile is complete and have a clear picture for your profile

• Use Facebook as a portfolio space to showcase your best photos

• You can pin your best recent photo on top of the time line

• Look for and befriend mentors, guides and role models

• Take time to appreciate and encourage others• Never be snarky, vulgar or hateful – it will

come back to haunt you !

• Who you follow makes a big difference• Use tools to identify right people to follow– Twello.com / Wefollow.com

• Follow Photo hashtags #photo #dailyphoto etc

• Look at other’s followers / follows• Create your twitter lists• Twitter is real time- if tweeting photo , include

date, time , place, use relevant hash tags

• Your online resume + more• Particularly important if you are a professional• Good place to connect with professional

photographers + potential clients• A lot of photography related groups to

connect• A good publishing platform• Get testimonials + Control Endorsements

• A network meant specially for photographers• Tons of photographer friendly features –

uploads camera info, can prevent downloads, links directly to Getty Images

• Make sure to use detailed caption and tags for each images – helps in discovery

• Join various groups based on topic and location

• Participate in contests happening in various groups

• The social layer to any Google service• Not too many active users BUT– Has a beautiful interface to display photos– Numerous Photographer groups and

communities• Can help with search engine visibility– Use descriptive title, description for

images, mention, name, location etc– If you publish anywhere else, set up

authorship

• Mobile photography network with more than 80 million users.

• Only Square images with lots of filter options• A highly engaged and interactive community• Use tags and hashtags to find images and

increase discovery of your images• Follow tags and communities of interest• Share others images with statigr.am

p.s. There are a bunch of filters and editing options inbuilt.

• Fastest growing social network with 25 million plus users, predominantly female

• Made for photos – highly visual, content spreads fast

• Create your boards based on subject, location etc

• Ideal to search for inspiration• Pin others’ photo to inspire, connect and build

your repository of ideas

• Highly popular as photo blogging platform – More than 80 million Blogs already..

• Reblogging is a key activity that ensures content spreads very fast

• Share images with descriptive tags, location, subject etc

• Research and follow community tags like PhotoOfTheDay etc

Generic Best Practice

• Use a clear positive headshot as your display pic across all social platforms

• Think of your headshot as your logo – avoid changing it unless you really need

Generic Best Practice

• Use the About/ Profile section in all the channels judiciously. Clearly state what you do, your location and your web address

• Engage Actively : Connect with relevant communities, initiate and participate in conversations

Generic Best Practices

• Focus on your Audience : Post leading questions that encourage your readers to respond

• Openly appreciate good work – even if its by a competitor

• Be Opinionated – opinions make you stand out

• Consistently post quality content, connect with new people, post comments and engage in discussions

Generic Best Practices

• Be an Expert : provide advice, publish content that solves problems, how to guides etc

• Providing free expert guidance will help establish you as an authority

• You can’t please everyone, so don’t bother if someone hates you – but don’t give way to hating

Criticism + Reputation Management

• Do not be aggressive, Do not give excuses

• Own up your mistake• Clearly state how you plan to

make it right• You can’t remove negatives,

but you can build positives• Monitor the media

The Brilliant Student’s Story

The Brilliant Student’s Story

PEOPLE REMEMBER YOU NOT FOR YOUR

ACHIEVEMENTS BUT HOW YOU IMPACT

THEM..If You impact others well, that will create a positive brand

“Be Yourself, Because Every One Else is

Taken”

Saptarshi Roy Chaudhury

digitalSRC.com/blog

twitter : @rishi3211us

Than

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