Social Media To the Point of Distraction!
11 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
One of the things that a person very close to me has been talking a lot about is simplifying things from a Social Media standpoint and trying to get some of the ‘shiny things’ as she loves to call them under control. At first I basically ignored what she was saying but I’ll be honest, in the last couple of days, I’m starting to see what she is talking about.
As Fall turns into Winter here in Michigan I’m starting to evaluate 2011 from a business perspective and see how I can begin to get a grasp on where I have been, what I am currently doing, and where I want to go in the future. One of the things I’m looking at is how I interact with people.
I sat down and made a list of the Social Media that I am currently using
1. Facebook: Professional and Personal
2. Twitter: Professional and 2 Personal Accounts
3. Google +: Professional and Personal
4. Website: Professional
5. Blog: Professional and Personal
What I realized is that I’m doing a heck of a lot of time trying to keep people informed about what I’m doing and no where near enough doing what I’m supposed to be doing. The problem is that each of those different things holds something that I value and don’t necessarily get in other ways.
For me Facebook is an incredible connection place with friends from my past and has helped me gain exposure to High School Seniors for professional purposes. Both of those are invaluable to me and I really can’t see giving them up. Twitter is another valuable personal connection that I have made some professional connections through. The aforementioned friend is someone that I met through Twitter and I would not trade that friendship for the world. Still from a business side, I don’t fine that my Professional Twitter account is doing that much for me. Granted, I’m not on it as much but to be honest, I don’t see that even if I were on it more, I would see an appreciable change in how I benefit from it over what I get from my personal Twitter account.
Google + is the new kid on the block, the Facebook Killer, the way all Social Media will be, or maybe not. I have found it to be incredible in its depth from a photographer standpoint in helping me see other work and learning new things. There was a slight uptake in new people on there from a “normal person” standpoint when they opened everything up and Facebook decided to make some changes but realistically, it is 2 years away at a minimum from being a heavy hitter for the connections I need to grow my business. For the meantime I see myself keeping the personal page somewhat active and keeping the professional page merely as a placeholder. Something to direct people to other areas that I tend to keep more properly tended.
That brings me to my blogs. Again, neither one of them are kept up as much as they should be or perhaps I’m jaded in what I thought I would be doing with them originally. At first the thought was to update the professional blog at least 5 times a week and hopefully update the personal blog maybe 2 times a week. Honestly, that is going to be scaled back considerably. The professional blog (what you are reading now) I am looking to set a schedule up to update twice a week and the personal one (a weight loss blog) I’ll update weekly.
Finally the website. I have already changed the website from one that I created myself and maintained to one hosted by SmugMug where I can utilize their infrastructure geared towards photographers to my advantage. In the next few weeks as I begin to determine where my business will take me in 2012 and beyond, I’ll make modifications to this basic infrastructure to meet the style and direction of my business. As for a personal website? Honestly in the days of Facebook, there really isn’t a strong need for one.
Where does this leave me in the end. For one thing, within the next two weeks, I foresee only one Twitter account. It will be a renamed personal account that I use to cross promote the photography. On Facebook, I’ll keep the personal page and the professional page but instead of uploading as many pictures to the Facebook page, the thought is to link back to the website since it can do all the things Facebook can, people can use images from there to post on their profiles. This is subject to change but it will be helpful in updating.
Similarly with the Google +. The personal page stays, the professional page will stay dormant at this point. I will update the personal page occasionally but most stuff is going to run through the blog or the website.
Finally the blog. Your here right now although not many people read it I know. As I mentioned earlier, I’ll blog shoots and will try to keep this updated twice a week simply so you know what I’m going both personally and professionally. The hope is more consistent content here as well.
I know this has rambled a bit but it was good for me to work though and I hope you can utilize some of my thoughts if you are in a similar position.
Thanks 
Tim
