A way to look at Twitter!

Social Media is here to stay. It just is. The conduit through which social media will be used may change along the way, but social media nonetheless will be with us from now on, so we as photographers need/have to embrace it.

I got a comment on one of my older posts here the other day because I was offering to provide a coupon code to anyone who sent me a tweet. The comment read:

Hey (James) Brandon, ive tried twitter and find it the biggest waste of space going so having to follow you to get a discount is more trouble than its worth!

I am not including this quote to call anyone out at all. The truth is, I use to feel the exact same way about Twitter! To get your juices flowing around the idea of Twitter and Social Media in today’s age of technology.

Twitter Is Good. Not Evil!

Twitter is all about community, but Twitter is not Facebook.  I think a lot of people who have Facebook (but haven’t given Twitter a try) believe they are very similar so there is really no need for a separate Twitter account. Well, they are not very similar at all! When someone signs up for a Facebook account, they are guided through a process where they can begin finding people they know from the schools they went to, and by going through the friends lists of people they know. If I add my buddy as a friend on Facebook, then I have one friend and that person has one more friend than they had before. It’s reciprocal. If I go through and want to be friends with 1,000 people, I will have 1,000 friends. That means I will see the feeds on 1,000 people, and all of those people will mutually see whatever I put on Facebook.

When people come to Twitter I think they are expecting the same thing. Facebook is easy. There is no challenge to it really. You don’t have to work at getting noticed. You simply become friends with the people you know and that’s it, you then have access to post on their wall, send them messages, chat with them when they are online, etc.

When people sign up for a Twitter account, choose a username, and start adding people to their ‘Follow List,’ they immediately notice the big difference and the initial problem with Twitter: They are alone.

If I decide to follow you on twitter, there is no guarantee that you will follow me. That means I will see everything you tweet out, but you won’t see anything I tweet out. I’m basically alone and invisible in the incredibly massive and somewhat intimidating world of Twitter and it’s not fun.

You see, Twitter requires work. It requires a lot of work. You have to invest time in others and find a community of like minded people to start building your following from. People have to make a decision to follow you, and there isn’t much you can do to help them make that decision besides getting your name out there and being interesting to them.

The first 100 followers on Twitter are very difficult to get, especially if you aren’t a very well know photographer outside of your (tangible) community. Once you get to that 100 followers mark, the ball starts rolling slowly. Every time you send out a tweet, you have an immediate audience of 100 people. But it still requires work, and a lot of investing in other people.

Once you get plugged in to a community on twitter of likeminded people, it becomes incredibly fun and rewarding. If you can become part of a powerful community, your tweets start getting exposed to thousands of people through things like retweets and mentions.

Do you really get Social Media?

Social Media Logos, originally uploaded by socialmediamixer.

Social Media is a constant evolving form of communication. It has no boundaries. Social media has changed the way consumers & business interact & communicate with each other. No longer are the days of feeling out of reach with your favorite brands. And if you can't reach them through social media, its a good chance they're loosing consumers, fans, etc...

In 2011, its simply no reason what so ever any business any size lacks a social media presence. Their are simply too many platforms available for any size business. And like i tell businesses in my consultations, your consumers are talking about you on the web regardless if you want them to or not. It amazes me the attitudes of small business owners who figure if they don't engage in social media no one will say anything about their business. This has to be the biggest misconception ever heard. Simply google your business name & see what pops up. Its that simple. You'd be surprised to find your business on Yelp or some other review site at the least. In fact these businesses already have your establishment in their database, their just waiting on you to claim it. So in short its a double edge sword.

We can help by properly educating you about social media & its affects on your business. We offer management services of your social media so you can run your business without worry of your online reputation & brand monitoring. Contact us for more details