7.26.11 Tuesday's Talented Twitter Find: Ken Toney




This week's Tuesday's Talented Twitter Find is Ken Toney

Follow Ken on twitter.

About My Tuesday's Talented Twitter Find: Each Tuesday (when I am not traveling) I will pick a talented photographer I find on Twitter - and promote the talented photographer here on my blog and on twitter, etc.

Nice work Ken!

Explore the light,
Rick

P.S. If you are not following me on Twitter, click here to keep up to date with what I'm doing. And, keep posting interesting photo stuff on Twitter!

Exploring the Light Seminars in California in August - Start Two Weeks From Tomorrow


I hope to see some of my California photographer friends in August. 

I'll be giving two free seminars that are open to the public.

August 2
6-9 PM
Brooks Institute
Screening room
5301 North Ventura Ave.
Ventura, CA
Just show up :-)



August 3
Artist Reception 6 -7
Lecture 7-9
Digital Arts Building #20
El Cajon, CA
To register, contact Suda House.


Explore the light,
Rick

P.S. If you need more info or have any questions, shoot me an email.

Some Thoughts on Your Business For the Start of the Work Week - Not Only for Photographers


Welcome to the start of another work week.

As work is on my mind, as well as my photography, I came over to the office this morning and flipped through the slides in my "The Business Side of Photography/Social Media Marketing" class for my October creativeLive class.

Above is one of the slides. It outlines what I recommend photographers do each and every day, if possible. Basically, the objective is to drive folks (customers) to your blog through various means. I say blog rather than blog/site because my blog is my site and I think blogs are more important (and easier to manage) than web sites.

Yes, all this stuff takes time, but as I talk about in my class: "You have do to what you don't want to do  to do the things you want to do."

Another one of my quotes: "It takes a lot of peanuts to feed an elephant." With that quote, I talk about the importance of having affiliate/associate programs.


Above is another sides from the class. Here I talk about the importance of thinking internationally - if you have a product or service to sell internationally. This screen grab is from AppVis, a program I use to check the sales of my apps . . . yes daily :-)

If you don't offer international products/services, think locally. In both cases, here is one of the keys to being successful: Know Your Audience.


Above is another slide from the class. It drives home the point that we are all in this together, and that we need to network and share.

Well, that's it for now. I need to follow the advice I give in the opening slide and get to work!

Explore the light,
Rick

Is Google+ The Next Big Social Media Marketing Tool?


Well, I've only had my Google+ account up for about a for a week - and I'm loving it. (Google+ is not officially launched. You need an invite to join.)


I'm not alone in lovin' Google+. Many of my fellow professional photographer friends (more than 50) are currently in my main Circle (a cool feature that lets you make select groups). What's more,  even a few well-respected pros are having Hangouts (where you can quickly and easily set up live video chats with folks in Circles).


I'm lovin' how easy it is to upload a picture, and a bunch of pictures - and to share those pictures. Adding links and videos is easy, too.


All this stuff is easy to learn with the videos that Google+ offers.


I also like the super clean look of Google+ pages. That look makes one's pictures really stand out.


Getting back to my fellow professional photographers, many are starting to use Google+ as an additional social media marketing tool - adding it to twitter and facebook as ways to spread the word about the stuff they are doing. Guess what? Me, too!


So if you are a pro or an aspiring pro, I'd recommend that you check out Google+ and look at its possibilities are as marketing tool. In the meantime, my guess is that your fellow photographers will be doing just that. :-)


Of course, Google+ is also great for keeping up-to-date with what your family members and close friends are doing. Yup! Just create another Circle.


Take a tour of Google+. Stay tuned for the official launc.


Explore the light,
Rick


P.S. I'll be covering many topics on my creativeLive class in October, including the Business Side of Photography/Social Media Marketing. I'm sure by then I'll be much more into Google+ . . . . and whatever new social media marketing tools come our way. Hope to see you there.