My Top 10 Tips for Successful Social Media Marketing

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The times they are a changin' – Bob Dylan, 1964

Yes, the times are changin'. Social media marketing is “where it’s at” if you want to grow your business. Here are my top 10 tips to help you along the way.

1 Take the Time to Tweet – Spend an hour a day on twitter.com – your small investment in time will result in a wider audience for you and your services and your products.

2 Be a Good Blogger – Don’t blog about you and your coffee or dog. Blog about stuff that will help people – or that, at least, will be of interest to most folks. (See Jim Harmer's comment below. He says the same thing this way: Content is King.)

3 Get Face-time on Facebook/Have Fun on Flicker – Use Facebook and Flicker to show off your work – for free! Expand your audience – again, for free.

4 Have Fun on Forums – Participate in forums that can help others in your field and that can help you get your message across.

5 Be on Bit.ly – A must. Use this site to track the number of hits on a link. Cool!

6 You Do It On YouTube – Post videos that relate to your business. Keep them fun, entertaining and informative. And short.

7 Invest in Being Interactive – Do all of the above as often as practical to maintain your visibility.

8 You Snooze You Lose – Don’t do all of the above as often as possible, and you’ll lose out on an increased audience – and maybe even lose part of your existing audience.

9 Keep Up with Technology – Stuff like twitter and bit.ly are relatively new. Keep up with technology so you can keep up with your competition.

10 Know Your Audience – As with all marketing efforts, it’s important to know your audience. Don’t waste your time, or anyone’s time, on relatively useless information.

Hey, leave a comment about your involvement is social media marketing - even if you are just getting your feet wet. I'd love to hear what you are doin' - in these changin' times.

5.28 Photo Thoughts for Thursday

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Hi All

The first Thought for Thursday comes from my buddy (and wonderful photographer/artist and instructor) John Paul Caponigro. Click here and Learn To Be More Creative.

My Thought for Thursday: One out-of-focus picture is a mistake, 20 out-of-focus pictures is a style. :-)

Hey! If you have a thought, please share it here.

Take care,
Rick

Each week I will try to post:
• Monday’s Inspirational Message
• Two Tips For Tuesday
• Where in the World? Wednesday
• Photo Thought for Thursday
• Friday Fun Photo
• Saturday Photoshop Mini-Session
• Sunday Speedlite Secrets

Subscribe to my blog and join the fun.

5.27 What and Where In The World? Wednesday

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Okay, so this Wednesday's post is not only about "Where in the World?" (as usual) but rather, "What and Where in the World?" Hey! It's my blog. I can do what I want :-)

Here is the question: What in the world am I doing- and where am I doing it?

The answer to the "what" part of the question is actually a very good photo tip.

The person who gets the 1st correct answer (or comes closest on both accounts) gets a copy of PhotoTools from onOnesoftware. PhotoTools is a cool Plug-in for enhancing your images - and your image among your friends.

US shipping only. Insurance, tracking, custom forms and postage makes shipping internationally too complicated.

Hey, if you don't win, you can still get 15% off all onOnesoftware products if you use this code upon checkout: ricksammon.

Good luck,
Rick
P.S. No pros, please.

Each week I will try to post:
• Monday’s Inspirational Message
• Two Tips For Tuesday
• Where in the World? Wednesday
• Photo Thought for Thursday
• Friday Fun Photo
• Saturday Photoshop Mini-Session
• Sunday Speedlite Secrets

Subscribe to my blog and join the fun.

5.26 Two Tips for Tuesday

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Top Photo:
Long Lens See Thru


by
Eddie Tapp
www.eddietapp.com


Using a telephoto lens, try shooting through leaves or any obstacles that might add some mystery to your images. Be sure to use manual focus to keep your subject sharp and your foreground element soft.

This image of Nikki and Renee was created using a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and my favorite lens, the 28-300 f/3.5-5.6L IS USM at 120mm f/6.7 at ISO Speed 100.

Hey, I have a brand new educational DVD from Software-Cinema. If you use this code at checkout you'll get a 15% discount on your order "ETCS4.” Check it out from my website at www.eddietapp.com.

Bottom Photos:
Think “Flashy” Outdoors Pictures

by Rick "RAW Rules" Sammon

Compare these two images, which I took during Carnevale in Venice, Italy. The picture on the left is a flash shot. Notice how well you can see the eyes in that image compared to the natural light shot on the right.

When setting out to photograph people, don't leave home without a flash – and a reflector and diffuser – to control the light.

The key is to balance the light from the flash to the available light – so that your picture does not look like a flash shot. You might get that on the first try if you set your camera to the Av (Aperture Priority) mode and set your flash to E-TTL. However, you'll have more control (over the flash and natural light exposure) when you set your camera to Manual.

For a quick how-to on fill-in flash photography, click here.

Thanks Eddie for being part of Two for Tuesday.

Thank YOU for stopping in. Post a comment if you like this kinda stuff. And, scroll down to the bottom of this page to subscribe to this blog.

Best,
Rick
P.S. Check out Eddie cool book, Practical Color Management. And don't miss Eddie's Photoshop classes on Kelby Training.


Each week I will try to post:
• Monday’s Inspirational Message
• Two Tips For Tuesday
• Where in the World? Wednesday
• Photo Thought for Thursday
• Friday Fun Photo
• Saturday Photoshop Mini-Session
• Sunday Speedlite Secrets

Subscribe to my blog and join the fun.
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Interested in Learning How to Shoot/Edit HD Video?

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Hi All

I am thinking of adding a HD video shooting/production component to my Croton Workshops.

Emmy Award winners David Leveen, who shoots/directs/edits all my DVDs, and Andy Young, known for his outstanding documentaries, live here in Croton and are interested.

Click on the above links to see their work.

We'd do a two-day, weekend workshop: 1 day shooting, 1 day editing.

Let me know if you are interested.

I'll be the first sign up: with my Canon 5D Mark II.

Rick

5.24 Sunday Speedlite Tip: Diffuse the Light

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While working on my studio/on-location lighting book (due out in September) with my co-author,Vered Koshlano, we had a blast creating the lighting setup for the top photograph, taken at the Explorers Club in NYC.

The lighting set-up: one stand-mounted Canon Speedlite 580EXII was fired through a stand-mounted Westcott diffuser that was positioned above eye-level and off to camera right at about a 45-degree angle.

A similar flash/diffuser setup was positioned to camera left.

A third flash was positioned on the red couch (out of camera view) and pointed toward the rear wall to illuminate the background. Our assistant, Hector, held a fourth flash below eye-level and to camera right to light my face.


All flashes were fired from our hot-shoe mounted Canon ST-E2 wireless transmitter. The ST-E2 works great indoors. Outdoors, and indoors when a flash is "hidden" in a soft box, I use the Pocket Wizard.

So the tip for today: Explore the lighting possibilities with camera flashes – and diffuse the light to increase and soften the light source.

I teach stuff like this on most of my workshops. Good fun - no matter what camera system you own :-)

Good news! Joe Brady from the MAC group will be a guest instructor on my Croton Shoot.

More info on Speedlites.

Cool book on flash photography.

And here's a bonus flash tip.

If you have a quick flash tip, post it here. Got flash questions? Post 'em to me/Scott Bourne on Twitter for our PhotoFocus podcast.

Keep a smile,
Rick

Each week I will try to post:
• Monday’s Inspirational Message
• Two Tips For Tuesday
• Where in the World? Wednesday
• Photo Thought for Thursday
• Friday Fun Photo
• Saturday Photoshop Mini-Session
• Sunday Speedlite Secrets

Subscribe to my blog and join the fun.
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