There is no way anyone can win the social-networking arms race. It’s time to scale back. It’s time to realize that social-networking sites come with only one guarantee: You’re going to spend a lot of time on them – time that you could have spent on your own photography.
via Conscientious.
{ 15 comments }
AMEN!
+1
Ever wonder why a majority of top photographers aren’t involved in social networking?
A good number of them don’t even have personal websites.
I tend to disagree. Social Networking doesn’t take up a huge amount of time, and it is a valuable tool to present work the internet.
Social Networking sites like Facebook, Linkedin, and Google+ have allowed me to meet other photographers that I would never have met in life, many from all over the country and internationally. Looking at work of high caliber from these photographers helps guide me in my work, and advice from others is a great way to figure out where to go in this crazy world.
As far as the business side, I wasn’t putting any photos on Facebook/Google+ for a while, but realized when I did, I got more comments, and more hits to my website and blogs. It’s a question for me of potential exposure. I am trying to get my name out there among the mass of other photographers.
Right on… I am totally going to shareupdateposttweettumbl this!
Yeah Fred, have totally noticed that most of the photographers that we look up to and that inspire us don’t participate in the electronic network ‘arms race’. It distinguishes them from the rest of us punters.
And we’re the ones who need to be out there working on our craft the most…if we want to move above punterdom.
To paraphrase internet marketer Jim Cockrum, “being a good [photographer] is entirely different from being a good web marketer. I’ve met only a handful of people in my life that were decent at both and I’ve yet to meet someone that is great at both…You want someone with a marketing mindset in charge of your [social media] efforts, not [a photographer]”
We can be mediocre at a lot of things, good at a couple of things, or great at one thing. To try to be great at a lot of things just dilutes our efforts. We should be working with people who are “great” at what they do. If you can’t hire them, partner with them, collaborate with them, and form mutually beneficial relationships.
We should choose what we want to be: a photographer, a photoshop expert, a networking marketer, or whatever and strive to excel at that.
Nice post. Now back to shooting. :)
Is it really a “race” that photographers are trying to “win?”
Steven Walters nailed it.
I read Jorg’s post and have often felt that there are too many social networking sites myself. Everyone is peddling something on Facebook or trying to accumulate mentions and retweets on Twitter.
The irony in Jorg’s post is that at the very bottom, there’s a button in which you can share his blog on well over 300 different social networking platforms.
Times have changed, those who are established don’t necessarily need to use social media to advance their careers. Newer fotografers do have the need to use social media, however it can be a black hole. It is easy to get sucked into spending too much time, instead create a focused presence and attend to it just as you would a promo marking plan. That is really how it should be used. JMHO
Here is a post from Tim Tadder back in October 2009 on the subject: http://www.timtadder.com/blog/2009/10/26/shut-up-and-make-better-pictures/
It is a quick read for those interested.
Great article, all industries should look to this as inspiration. Everyone is breaking their own arms patting themselves on the back for the work they do.
If you view social media as a tool it is great. The problem comes when it becomes so important to you that you forget to go out and meet folks in real life. You can be big and bad behind your keyboard but how are you when you met someone face to face?
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