Beyond the obvious

Artist Willem Vermandere delicately uses a small file to express himself through his marble sculpture In my previous two posts I covered the topic ' the real value of social media to photographers '. These articles explored why and how you should use social media to engage with a specific audience. The thing that I did not cover in great detail was content, which, as the title of this blog implies, is the most important element to attract people to your work. Once people have found your website or blog you have to give them a reason to return. The simple logic is they have to find something of value in what you write about. There are many blogs that attract readers by simply being curators of content. In other words they find great content and then link to it and by doing this become a good resource, a one-stop-shop for people wanting to find valuable content. I prefer to create original content. This does not mean that I never link to anyone else. It just means that

Build a social community that lasts In my previous post I asked what the real value of social media is to photographers, highlighting the challenges we face to make money from our work. If you've not read the blog post yet then I recommend nipping over and catching up before reading on. The focus of this article is getting a business benefit out of social media. If you just use social media because you like sharing your work for fun then that's a whole different ball game. Nowadays it's not a question of whether you should use social media . The question is HOW should you use it to help promote your photography. I'll keep this brief. All of the points below are based on experience and backed up by personal research. Steps to getting real value from social media: Set clear goals - what do you want to achieve. The clearer your focus is the higher the rewards for your effort. For example if you're trying to sell work to advertising agencies but then spend