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C.C.: Social Photography

Let's face it. So social photography has changed. All the rules completely changed all the rules. These air. This is actually a picture of my photography, these of the apse I use on a regular basis. At the moment, it changes drastically. There's new APS every single day that come out, especially the photography world. But social retire. The mobile phone changed photography forever for good or bad. We'll see in a few years from now, but it is epically changed everything, and it's never, ever going back. People share pictures on the fly. They're going to take pictures of your product or service, good or bad. Keep that in mind. That's where listening comes. And I know the other instructors are going to talk more about that. Paying attention to what's being said about you is another whole conversation, and it's absolutely critical if you're not doing it, you have to because other people are gonna post pictures. You know they're gonna post negative and positive. But I love social photograph...

y. It is the best thing in the world, and it took me a long time. I'll be honest when I first saw Instagram. I'm like I don't need ugly filters on my pictures is what I all I thought Instagram waas and I'm being totally honest. And but then I started using released. No, no, no. This is all about The community has enough. I don't have to use the soldiers. I can just take a beautiful poem, Photo and post. It doesn't. I don't have to ever touch those filters, filters, air fun and people like in the I don't me Wrong. I use them sometimes we're gonna talk about my work flow and how you can do that. But I love it. I love the community. I love the fact that I can take a picture and share it toe whatever networks I want, and I can control that. And sometimes I post to Facebook. So those opposed to Twitter's and I was opposed to four square. It all depends on what feels right to me at that moment, and there's no right way. There's no wrong way. There's very few hard and fast rules. That's it's a tough word because you have to figure what works for you. But social photography is not going away, just like the Internet's going not going away. Even a few years ago, I still had clients like those Internet things, a fad or social Photography's a fad, and I just I giggle about it because it's not going, and people are still not using social photography to the level I think they can. The other day I saw I don't know if people are familiar with uber there's this. You click a button on your phone and a car magically appears and brings you some place in the world. But they did this really cool campaign where they brought three other day. You could order a scream trucks to come to your come here wherever you were. I need an ice cream truck now and I'm like, That's awesome. But what I thought was cool about it. Now, of course, people were taking pictures of the ice cream truck I saw all over. I forget the actual hashtag, but they had a hash tag for the day. They were encouraging people. Take a picture on the ice cream truck comes because who was not take pictures the ice cream truck. But they also realize that didn't get as much. Fanfare was the hot least in New York. They hired a photographer. The reason I know this is because she's a friend of mine. I saw her Instagram feel like What do you doing? They hired her to ride along for the day and take pictures on one single New York ice cream truck, and she was posting pictures all day of the happy customers of riding through traffic. It was just a knee exam. Simple example where you know that they could have. There's an example of hiring somebody right? They could have just not done it and relied on just the customers. But instead they said No, no, we want someone actually here who knows what they're doing. She's a great photographer. He's a travel photographer by trade, And she was. So she rode around with Extreme Truck all day and killed me because maybe want ice cream all day long with her photos. It was beautiful. So think of the ways you can integrate social photography into whatever you're doing. No companies too big or too small to do this, and I'll show some examples later of companies. I think they're doing it top notch, great, great job with it. And here's the other. Here's Here's one of the photography advice. Don't take the shot. Everybody else is taking the straight on. Let me look at this plate of food or who is the pretty glamour shot of my product. Everybody's got that shot. What can you do to be different? Look for the crazy angles. Look for You know, I'm not saying you have to lay down on the road and take pictures and trying to get run over by cars like this. Idiot did. He's a friend, but he's still an idiot. Ah, uh, but look for those unique angles. This is photography 101 Right. You want to find that different angle? You want to find that different? You know what makes it you and you're gonna develop your own style. Over time, you're gonna figure out what you like to shoot. What you don't like to shoot? Find something different that's gonna make you stand out. If you're a stationery company, you're a wedding photographer. There's lots of those out there. What makes you different? Everybody's got their own style and you may not have it yet. You may not have found your style. Yeah, that's why I encourage you to shoot Mawr and take more photos cause your photography your style is gonna come through. It doesn't have to be like the person next door doesn't have to be like the most successful person you're gonna have your own. You'll start developing your own voice. You're gonna hear more. I've I have not seen the other. The other instructors slides by guarantee you're going to hear your your voice over and over again. You say it the way you want to say it. I write my way, I take photos my way You're gonna take him differently and that's okay. Read any one of my block post. You'll see the horrible grammar, innit? I'm an author of a published author, and I need my editors, but I don't worry about the one running a block post at 6 a.m. Because I'm like I want opposed out. I'm not saying have bad grammar from You're saying That's my voice. I know I make mistakes. It's OK, but when you're taking pictures, you need to find the angles that are different. Look for them. Seek them out. Have some fun with it again. It doesn't cost money to take five pictures at different angles. Play with it. You'll start figuring out what looks good and it will be amazing. I promise you. You start taking more pictures eventually, you're I take millions of photos every day, not really walking on the street. There's a 1,000,000 photos are like I'd be cool. Usually I stop, but you can. But in my head, I'm taking pictures nonstop. That photography that the eye of the photographer will get developed. Your start Tell the photographers in the room two because they're like, yeah, it takes It takes time, though. So we're gonna do is we're gonna start looking for moments, capturing those little moments in your day in your life that you can take pictures off. This is one of things that instagram kind of shined a light on was that it could be moments doesn't always have to be a grand scheme thing. It can just be a little moment. It could be, you know, the drink menu in New York City. The actual this was that we were at an event for Ford in this picture, and they this cool little thing at the bars were taking pictures of it. If these are the things you start finding more of, the more you take pictures those little moments that no one else can see. Those little things that make what you do in your life special. And that's what you want to find and you want to share. You had a question, right? Um, I don't know so much a question. Well, maybe this and uneven. I am a photographer. Ah, and you keep mentioning being afraid of photos where I'm afraid of words. So I I am happy to share photos, but adding the words and the blog's and I so admire the people that to write thes fluffy, right, you know, wordy block post as photographers. Um, you know, my history and training was in photography. And, yes, a photo should say it enough. How do you combine that and get over the fear of the words and adding, okay, so flip will flip it. The same rules apply. The more you do it, the better you get at it. The more comfortable you get at it. And it's really, really true that like I it's funny. I think visually first, like I wish I could just do photo essays. I make me happy with no words. I would make my life happy. But the same time I do enjoy writing. Um, keep in mind that you don't have to. There's one of you don't have to have 300 words with every photograph. You don't have to. You configure what's most comfortable for you. But I would tell you to start, and it will be. It'll come easier to you over time. Don't stress over it. There will be days. You will stress, but don't the only way you get better with any skill. I don't care what it is is to do it on a regular basis. I mean, it's really true. You want to be a writer. You got to start writing on to be a you know, a gymnast. You gonna hit the gym? I mean, you need to do these things, but don't be scared. Especially cause if you Yeah, I think I could say this. If you're a really good photographer, nobody's gonna Nobody's gonna be critiquing the words if the photo stand. I mean, that's that's away over generalization. But it's true. I mean, if you have a beautiful post about wedding, you shot or an event you shot. They're gonna look at the photos more than the words. But if you get bullied this morning with this beautiful travel post from Seneca, I figure where there were some things I've never heard country never heard of. And it was this person could write and shoot beautiful photographs. But it's funny, cause by the end of it, I was skimming. I want to look at the pictures rather than words. I felt bad cause he could really? Right. Well, I guess part of my fear is alleviated by the fact that I really don't have followers, so I don't have to worry about the judgment. So what I do put up there in the middle of the night in San Francisco the time zone again, coming into effect, No one seen it. So okay, And that can change over words. The thing I'm going from zero followers to having following can happen overnight usually doesn't usually takes a lot of time. This stuff grows organically. But for me, I actually had my first actually here in San Francisco. Also I had been blogging for years, you know? My mom read it. My wife read it that was about it, Some friends ready, honestly. And then all of a sudden, one day I was here in San Francisco for a meeting and I was talking to someone on the phone. He's like, So do How was the German food? Last night I stopped. This is pre Twitter prion proof. It wasn't Facebook, but and I like How did you know I had German for use during your blog's? This was an executive for a company I was interviewing with like, Oh, you read my blawg And it was funny because that was That was one of those lightbulb moments. Even though I knew the Internet, I knew how it worked. I was like, Oh, my God knew People are starting to read what I write and it can happen that way. You don't realize who's reading and another truth of the Internet. That's very and I see it still is day. There are more people reading and watching and consuming what you create than you will ever know people, which is weird and what I mean that as far as is they're not gonna comment on your blog's. They're never gonna like a post. They're never going to reply to a tweet, but there are out there consuming and you never know. I mean, I go to conferences, I speak around the world and some like O. C. C. I love that post. You read A B wrote three months ago about blood. I'm like nobody read that post because I'm also I I am strange. I hate looking at my Web analytics, even though I told you all to do it, cause you should. I don't ever look at my Web analytics. I have no idea how many people were coming to my website or which articles were getting the biggest hits. I just don't look at it at that level, so I do judge it based on comments. Sometimes I'm like, Oh, that's got a lot of hits. What? There's always people out there consuming that you have no idea. And you never know when someone might be a client perspective, client customer or, ah, business partner. You never ever know which is why it's important to be smart herbal what you're doing, and we tell the house that we tell the high school and college kids I have. You know, teenagers now think about what you post online job in. Your viewers are gonna look at it and it's true. But the same goes for us that Seymour adults being idiots, what they post online, you know, Did you really want to show what you're doing there? But for some people, it's OK. It's part of that building, your brand of who you are and what you do. Um, yeah, people are out there, they're watching and you want them to. That's the point of view. If you get nervous about people looking at what you create, then social meat get get off line. I'm sorry. It's the trip. We live in, an always on world. Everybody knows whatever we share. It's not whatever you're doing. I mean, it's what you share, what you put out there. That's why when things like, you know, when the government is spying on you and stuff happens, like of course they are. You're putting your stuff out there, so don't put anything out there. You don't want people to see, and there's no magic formula for that. Personal versus professional is what works for you. You set the guidelines like I as a parent, I've always posted photos of my Children online from day one. And, yes, I understand the risks. Yes, I understand the dangers, but I've had far, much more good come of it. But I set my own rules. You know, there's no tubs, tubby pictures, you know, there's no naked pictures. There's no I think, which sounds, you know, it's a baby picture. What do you worry about? But that was my rule. That was my boundaries. But then I have other friends who post no pictures of their kids online cause they want them to make the decision. And it does change because now my kids are 12 and 14 their online now, so their friends see the old pictures. It's a weird, weird thing. So you set the guidelines, you figure out what's right for you. Tons of questions coming in. And just so everyone knows that's on the Internet. We have speakers throughout the day, so we might not get to write in this segment, but we'll definitely get to it at some point. So keep them coming in. Yeah, we have a question from Honey Comb Communities. Is there a situation where a bad photo is a good photo about. I think they mean a negative photo as opposed to like a crappy photo. Um, example, you know, news or some sort of insider BTS shot like, Is there a reason not to post it or, I think wear when we were talking about a photograph? This is a picture. And so what about what would be bad photos, but that being inappropriate or good? Yeah, okay, quality of a photo like it's not properly composed or lit is okay. I think it's fine. It shows authenticity. It shows transparency. If everything is a glamour shot, if everybody always looks perfect in the photos, smiling and posed, that gets old really quick, like with snapshots, right? Well, hate when it's all posed. You want that natural emotion. So, yeah, behind the scenes stuff that's rough and not perfect. I think it's totally fine and adds, I think it adds to your credibility. Same thing online. This is the weirdest thing. I got really frustrated until I got my 1st 1 star review of my book because it looks fake. If everything's positive, if everything's polished, that looks fake to us. What we're human like, it can't be that good. The restaurant that has no negative reviews. Come on, something's gonna not. Nobody's on every single day. Nobody rocks it every single day. We'll have problems. So you ever for photos out there? It's okay. Toe. Have it just be, Ah, phone picture or a point and shoot. It's OK if it's your it's your home page showing off your high end luxury home. Maybe not. The best idea depends on what it depends on what your marketing, right? If your marketing Ah, hot sports car, you want those photos to look great. But if it's a restaurant and you're showing today's special, it could be, you know, a quick snapshot. People understand that, especially now, because we do live in a culture where we are taking snapshots all the time. We get that. We know that's a real picture that's not a staged, you know. You watch McDonald's commercial. Nothing looks like that cause it stayed. We all know that. But so we all this when you were humans? We understand that not everything can be staged. I know. Do not be scared of taking photos that a real and authentic if they're not the most high quality beautiful photos. It's okay. All right, everyone, thanks again for your patience. We should be all good to go once again. You did not miss any content. We've just been chatting here, which is very easy to do with you, Sisi. All right, so, backer over to you as we were. All right, so we're talking about photography and how to get better at taking photographs, how to make it more part of your day to day routine if you're not already a photographer. And my advice like to give people is to shoot like a kid. I love giving my kids cameras and just saying Go shoot because they find angles that we never do because they don't think about it. They're they're they're looking for cool things because they've got their own style already, even if they don't know it. And shooting like a kid is such a great way to do it, cause it too often we had hung up on Is this going to get enough likes? Is this gonna generate the traffic? And it may not. And I think those things get in your way. Yes. You have to think about it. You have to think about, you know, Is this gonna help me do what I want to do? You have to think about those things, too. But sometimes you just want to go shoot. You shouldn't take pictures and have fun doing it. And that's what kids do they find. I love, there's my daughter. I love going out with her and a camera. And she's an instagram feed now, too, which is fun to watch, uh, because she takes pictures of things that I would never, ever take pictures off, and it cracks me up. Granted, it's fun when I'm on the road and I see pictures of what she's doing at home, and I don't know what it is. The end of the other day there was blow dryers and crayons all over my office, and I was like, What is she doing? She was doing art. In the end is what I saw, but it was cool, and that's her brand. She's not thinking about building a brand. She's 12 years old, but that is the brand of Emily. That's what she does. So when you're out there shooting and you start thinking that you start thinking about, just take fun pictures. It's OK. Have a little variety with it now. We were talking about cameras before, right? Big shout out. I'm still This is a quote. I got to give credit to him. One of the founders of Creative Live is Chase Jarvis, who is a huge photography influence on myself. And he has this great quote that the best camera is the one you have with you. And it's so, so true. If you don't have a camera with you, always, you should. And But we do because we have our phones these days, they're still. Sometimes I ask when I'm in an audience. You know how the people that you have a camera who have a camera, who have a phone that no, that don't have a camera and there's still some once in a great while they break out the old flip phone. I'm like, Wow, but like this picture here, I love this because that's a phone. It's an old Nokia and 95 but that's it. It was a camera. So whatever camera you have with you is the best one for that moment, because if you don't have a camera with the you cannot capture that moment and you should be thinking about photos all day. You might be having a meeting with a potential client. Maybe your meeting with new business partner. If it makes sense to share that moment and capture that moment, capture it, then the other question to think about, though, is maybe you shouldn't share that yet. I like to capture moments. I remember when we first signed a book contract. Both me and my co authors took pictures of ourselves with the contract, but we couldn't announce it yet. We had the weight, but we wanted to have that moment because we were never, ever gonna build captured again or look staged. So captured those moments, you never know when you might need them or when it's gonna come up that picture. You know, at the beginning of this, with my picture of me grilling, watching creativelive, I had no plans to use that ice was captured the moment for myself. But then who knew? You know, here we are three years later, and it was an important picture. So you if you don't capture those moments, but do not get hung up on the gear, I just I have to stress that because, you know, during one of those breaks we're talking about cameras I shoot with and I shoot with which everyone's in my hand at that moment. So make sure you have a camera with you and do not think you need to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on a camera in order to get those beautiful photos. They're fun looking the wrong, having that big cameras. Great. But you don't have to have that with you. So get the one that you're you're gonna have with you and shoot with that. And the best way is to shoot more often. It really I stress this because we talked about it. Ah, lot, but it really is. It is the trick to taking better photographs is to shoot more often. I try to post on instagram picture a day. I usually have a problem with that, but it's one of those goals that I've set for myself. And having some discipline is not a bad thing. As you start figuring out, okay, I'm gonna start doing something. Start writing more. We're my photography, you know? Maybe you say you know what? Once a week, I'm going to write a block post that goes along with my photos. Or I'm gonna aim to have, um, a photo essay or a photo collage once a month or, you know, you set these goals. But photography is not one of those things that it's really hard to stick that square peg in a round hole. You really have toe shoot mawr and really focus on what it is otherwise. You're never gonna get better at it, so just keep keep shooting. Do we have some? Quite Take some questions right now. Absolutely. We have so many cool. Let's take some questions for sure. Yeah. What do we got? Well, this is a great general question. It's from our lk photography. If you're starting out, if you're starting to branch off your website, is there a good social media venue to get started with, like, where is the most important one to start? Oh, wow. So if you already got your website established and you want toe start going on a different social network, I think you have to at a minimum, in today's world, I think you have to have a Twitter account. You have to have a Facebook account, and then I get kind of and then it gets kind of iffy. Do you need an INSTAGRAM account? Do you need, I would say, an Instagram account, and I'll justify why Twitter is a great way to interact with people on Twitter now has become almost commonplace. It's not quite that don't get me wrong. There's still a certain level of people that are using Twitter, but it's gotten so much bigger, it's really interacts. We would ask questions. It's my personal focus group. Whenever I have to do anything, I asked Twitter. It's a great way to come back. Facebook. Let's face it, almost the whole world is on Facebook. It's really weird to see the numbers, but it's true. So you have to be on Facebook. Those people are going to be searching for you. They are in Facebook. Facebook is going to get any smaller any time soon. They may fall down and die. Eventually, someone may replace them. I mean, we were I mean, I remember Friendster and MySpace and a well, although a well is having a comeback. They're doing a lot of new content, which is interesting. I don't like the email addresses air coming back. But, you know, and then the reason One of the reasons I say Instagram is a must and this is a weird thing because I would have said this that long ago, but they change something that made it so. I think Instagram is a must have for anybody who is using social media for their business. And the reason I say this is Instagram now. So if I'm on Instagram today and I'm posting, I post something and I say, hey, hanging out with his great audience at Creative Live. And I put that at symbol there and I want to post that to Twitter. So I just got you don't want to share this to Twitter. If Twitter gets that message and it and it doesn't know the Twitter handle so say, like, some people in this room had a different twitter handle than their instagram account, right? If when it post this happened when Facebook bought Instagram and Twitter kind of wasn't happy about it, I'm sure if it goes over and Twitter doesn't know the instagram name in the Twitter name, those aren't linked together. Somehow it rips the at symbol out. It pulls it out and it's gone. So all of a sudden, what that means is because the hope when I share that the hope if I say Hey had his great meeting with Molly, and I used her Twitter handle in my instagram and I post it but say she hasn't set up an INSTAGRAM account. Twitter pulls that at symbol out. Nobody can click through to her name. Hillary's you put an at symbol is because you're hoping it's gonna drive traffic to somebody and they changed that rule. It doesn't have to be the same. I thought it had to be the same at first, but then I found out. No, it's actually just has to be linked. If you have an INSTAGRAM account, you have to tell it about your Twitter account. Otherwise, any at mention of you goes away, and that's something new. It's those rules that changed everyone. What the heck happened? So it's really critical. That's why I say instagram is a must, because I think Instagram isn't going away because, let's face it, Facebook bought them for almost a $1,000,000,000. They're going to do something with it. It's gonna get integrated. Mauritz not going away overnight. So you have to think about interim, especially the photographer. Any photographer who is not on Instagram. I don't understand that isn't screams all about photos and you can post you know, beautiful photos to that doesn't have to come from your phone. You can post beautiful. I mean, if you want to see looking like the U. S interior their instagram accounts. One my favorite National Geographic. I mean, unbelievable photography out there. All right, we have great questions coming in and this you just talked about. It's kind of a follow up to that last question from James Allen when starting an instagram or Pinterest profile, Should I upload a lot of images to start? So say I have nothing or exact about annoying people like Bill here, just Souto ramp up with a lot. Do you always have toe publish, um or can you get him in there another way and and first before that. Thank you so much for explaining that Twitter too, because it has just been changing for me and other people have tagged me in there and I thought mine were connected, so I'm gonna have to go check in. Look, it's really weird because until the other little until last week, I thought it was you had to have the same name, right? And then somebody we were having this conversation on Twitter. There's, like four of us trying to figure it out and somebody found an article on the Instagram's. Like they said, No, they have to be linked and talk to each other. The question about Pinterest let me set it up and you're starting. I think you could. I think you get upload as much as you want, because let's face it, when you start a profile, nobody is looking at it anyways. So nobody is gonna be upset that you've just uploaded all those photos. Granted, if you're planning on using it a lot, you don't want to just throw everything out there cause then you're not gonna have anything to add to it. But be strategic about it. But especially pinchers. People love. It's funny. I watch photographers use it very differently. I mean, think about we're talking about Pinterest for a minute. Make sure you're organizing your photos by boards, which is where Pinterest is smart. Maybe have a travel board. Maybe you have a local board. It all depends on what kind of photography, your posting, but logically think about how you're gonna group your photos. So that way they make sense to people. And they confined them. Because Pinterest's interesting thing now where when you pin something, it sometimes suggests other boards for you. So you're hoping those come up, look for group boards, looking places you can share, but I have no problem. Think filling it to star is great because it kind of primes the pump to get it going because no one's watching yet anyways. And so that way, when you do start pushing, people will come see it now, once you have a profile, Andi, you've got followers and people pay attention. Then a massive upload might upset some people, but most times they're not. I'll upload batches of photos to flicker, and I know Flicker only shows the latest 52 people. But I'm all right with that, because I can't upload five at a time that would drive me insane. So there's there's there's no right or wrong way, but yeah, if you're setting up a profile, fill it? I would say right away. Thank you. We'll do. Yeah, I will advance from 2 to 3. Yeah, OK, but And you raise a good point. Everybody has to start someplace. That person that has a big following or has all those numbers It started somewhere they started with nobody either. And with all these social networks such as Twitter or Pinterest, you've got to use them to actually find the value in it. I love this whole thing of I never gonna You set a twitter and then I'll ask them, and they haven't actually used it. I mean, really, you spend a week, spend them of interacting with people, and it will grow organically. Everything in this everything you're gonna hear over the next three days takes time. This stuff does not magically happen over. And I have clients all the time. They're like, See, See, we need a results in two weeks. And I'm like, I hope you have a lot of money because you're gonna have to buy impress. You have to buy that traction. That's why movies do trailers and billboards and stuff. Because they do. They have a finite time. They don't have time to build an audience. They need to build buzz and build people there immediately. So think about that because it's going to take a long, long time. And my daughter looks at me and she's like, My friends don't understand why you have so many followers on instagram it weird. You want weird out a 12 year old Have a big following an instagram. It's fun, but it took a long time, you know, that builds up over time, so little acorns keep that in mind. Big oak tree. That old metaphor. It's when I use all the time I need a London and Warnke. You kind of have some questions coming in. Picture related. Um, should we avoid pictures with faces when I blogged, do people prefer faces versus things and also warns Question is more concerned about releases? Yeah, terms of people's pictures. Okay. I am not a lawyer. Anything I say I'm not a lawyer. Got that Internet. Okay, I just have to put that because I'm not I'm not a lawyer. And photography is a big gray area. It really is. You're in a public setting. If you're in a public street, I can technically take pictures and post them. If I start selling them, it gets It gets weird. If I use them in a commercial, it gets weird question off. If I take a picture like I took a picture of you guys and I mean, you're a bad example cause I think they all did sign releases so that your butt, it's one of those people do like faces. They like seeing other people you know we love. We re you know, here's a face. We'll be reacting. This is a man with a camera. If I just had a picture of a camera on the ground in a calendar for the metaphor shoot every day, that wouldn't probably is attractive, But you do have to think about releases if you're doing something commercially with them. Um, I don't know. I'm curious in the wedding. Do you get releases from the people? You shoot your clients, but they hired you, so then it's OK, but it's gray. It's There's the Internet, and photos are very very. It is very gray, and it's funny. I do a podcast on managing the gray, which fits that whole thing perfectly. Did you kind of have to balance it out and have to be smart about it. It's people get sensitive with kids, you know? I mean, I've seen and I've seen, and here's a usually the follow up question of this is Well, I'm a photographer. I put online people going to take my steal my photos and use them. The answer is yes, it's going to happen. There are evil people out there, and they're going to do things that aren't right. And I've seen my picture Shobin ads on Lee once that I have to really slap somebody hard. Not a pretty that this was actually a was an Internet ad and they grabbed a picture and I said, You have my lawyers and a nice polite Hello? You shouldn't do that. Um, but only once and so. But I've had much more good come of it by putting it on the Internet. So the question comes up. Should I watermark my photos? Should I put something on them that usually comes up as well? That is one of those personal preferences for you. I personally think watermarks detract, but at the same time you put it down on the corner over here and it's light. It doesn't distract. But the point of watermarks usually is to prevent someone for from taking that photo and using it. I don't know. I crop out pretty much any watermark analysts across the middle, which then that ruins it anyways, um, so putting them up there, I just I get more benefit out of it putting them up there, and I only had a few bad instances. I've had much more good instances come out of putting it up there. Can I went down a whole bunch of paths. Anything else from your target with the community, because given ideas and so on. How would you say that? Yeah, they were asking that exact same questions in terms of stealing images, people editing out watermarks give a shake, and it happens. And unfortunately, you're not gonna know about it. Most times you're really not, because, let's face it, there's There's been some attempts to build services, so you could like register your photos and then it would scan the Web. Listening for your name. That's hard to do with images. Has been people trying to do that for a long, long time. It's going to happen If you're a good photographer, it will have your bad photographer and nose and still your photos. It's OK, Um, but it will happen. But more often than not, really great opportunities will come along and most people are respectable. They were respect your cooperate. They will ask you, but you will see. By the way, when you start blogging, you're gonna have these sites called scrapers, that are going to steal your post verbatim and post him as their own. It happens every day happens almost all all the time. Most of it is purely scam sites. They're just trying to get S CEO. It will happen, though. It's one reason why I used to put in the bottom of. I used to make sure on every post I would link back to my Web site at least once somewhere. So at least I was getting some traffic. It I get a link, but that's part of the Internet. The Internet is full of evil people. The world's full. Is that the Internet? Sorry, the world. It's full of evil people. The Internet just lets us find them easier, but it's it's a beautiful thing from the other side when I'm curating content for the Facebook pages, I managed businesses. Sometimes I just don't have ah photo. I take a lot of photos myself, but sometimes I gotta search for everyone and you know, some content because I've got a post every day. What are the best practices for crediting that photo? Because sometimes it comes from tumble are so I don't know. But sometimes it does come from somewhere. Can I just put photo credit? You know this website or what are those best practices? Yeah, best practice when you're grabbing photos because, let's face it, we can all the Google image and find an image right now. Whenever possible, give credit to the actual photographer attribution is a beautiful thing. Flicker. I like going to flicker because flicker allows me be the search. You go to advance search. It doesn't do it by default. You can say Onley, show me creative Commons license photos which, like all my photos, all my photos except for Mike, one of my kids are licensed creative comments. I've told the world you may take this photo, do whatever you want with it as long In my case, I've selected the different licensing options. You don't change it. You don't use it for commercial purposes and you give me credit. So putting on a block post is okay. As long as it says photo credit to see, see Chapman and links to me. That's that's what a lot of photographers and flicker have done that different photographers have different philosophies. That's mine. But and I always make sure because I take photos for blocos all the time from other people, and I always make sure to give them a credit and a link. Some people don't do the link part, but I know as someone online I like to give them the link I want them to know. And then I usually try to tell them as well, like if I took it. If I borrow it from Flicker, I will leave a comment say, halfway. I use this photo in a block post because usually because again they don't know they've never seen it, and I get I get a rush when I when someone does that for me cause it feels good, it's like, Oh, wow, that feels awesome And I go read the post. Um, sometimes you can't if you pulling it from Tumblr? You have no idea. My advice would be not to use those if you can't, because let's face it. Eventually, you could post it that your for your client and they could get a cease and desist if the photographer who did take it originally sought the usual line was usually gonna happen. If you do use a photo inappropriately but by accident, usually you're gonna get a cease and desist order for is what's gonna is again, not a lawyer is. That's usually what's gonna happen. No one's gonna slap you in a lawsuit they'll tell you to take down. The photo is usually is the worst. That's gonna happen first. If you blatantly goes, keep doing and keep doing it on. The Internet will hate you, but that's a whole other thing. But if your heart's in the right place, just make sure you cover your bases as much as possible. And I like flickers. Having that creative common search just makes it a lot easier. And if you're a photographer, think about that, especially if you want your work to get out there. I mean, think about licensing under Creative Commons and we could have a whole discussion of that. There's probably creative lot whether there's a creative Commons class or not. We don't have one. Maybe you can come back. I'm not a lawyer, but it's something to think about because I see this for clients like I've gone out and we've shot down an event like a fashion show or something, and they don't put their late The pictures is Creative Commons. Technically, bloggers can't use those that legal legally block. If you have it all rights reserved, nobody can take those photos and use them. And usually you want people to share those photos from the event. Or, you know, if your product or service you want people to find those photos. So that would be what I would tell you to dio, That's great. And just a follow up from that s Oh, thank you. Because again, people had been asking that same question. So thank you. Uh, follow up is from social. Or so she al for That's a great name for a non photographer, and a non photography business is flicker a good idea. Oh boy. So we're recording this in July 2013 and The reason I'm saying that is because we flicker is going through an interesting time right now. Flicker was like the original place to share your photos. I've been posting photos of everything on Flicker since, you know, since I started blogging before I started blogging. Um, but it's been bought by Yahoo. It's going through a change right now for good and bad, so people don't know what's gonna happen with it. Right now. Flicker is a great place to share your photos. And I say that because if nothing else, it gives you an archive of your photos I've got. Actually, I know this because I post one. That's more I like almost 18,000 photos on Flicker, and it's a backup for me. It's an archive of me. I know it's out there. They allow for easy in beds and block post, which is what I like about him. So you can pick us that you can upload in super high resolution and then say, You know what? I only need 800 by 600 version of this, and they give you the embed code to put it right on your block and make it really really easy. So if you're not very technical flickers great for that. Granted, most blogging software does that now, too, but I like it being out on flicker. But then again, Facebook is a massive repository of photos as well. So some people would would argue should put him on Facebook. There's no right or wrong. I like Flicker. I think it's got potential, and I'm rooting for Marissa Mayer. Kalon girl to not mess up flickers Flickers been dead for a long time. It really has. It was the first social photography place, and then it just sat there for years and Facebook came up, ate their lunch, beat them at their own game and others. Other sides like 500 PX and all these other sites, which are more geared towards professional photographers. Buying flickers a great opportunity for you to put your photos up there, and it integrates with everything you can. I can even flicker, allows you that a lot. People don't use it anymore, but I can post a photo to flicker from my phone, and if I've set it up, have it automatically post to my blawg as well. Total path through solve sudden I've written have taken a photo of written a caption and it posted All right to my blog's A flicker Does that better than anybody else. So I would tell you, you're thinking off liquor. Sign up. It's free. It doesn't cost anything. So go from there. Let's do one more from the Internet. Bill, You're so tough. Tootle Okay, Regular. Really? Welcome back. Um does instagram for snapshots cheapen the brand of pro photo tag by shooting by showing work of a lower quality? Absolutely not. No, because you don't have to post low quality photos to Instagram. I can take a beautiful photo. I'm using a testing a camera and where I can actually instagram from the camera. So literally I take a beautiful shot with a lens and everything and push up button on the back of it goes the instagram. So you're what you post instagram is up to you You don't have to apply the filters. You don't have to doesn't have to be low quality, so I do not think it lowers the brand at all. In fact, I think it strengthens it having those less talk about a little bit about Burberry, which is a clothing brand. They do all kinds of instagram behind the scenes, and there are high fashion brand that I know nothing about. It is not my world, but they're always doing instrument behind the scenes, and it's behind the scenes. It's cool. It's a peek behind the you don't always get so I do not think instead I don't think Instagram comes with baggage that some people think it does it. When it started, it might have, but it doesn't anymore because you post whatever you want to. Instagram doesn't have to be low quality photos. Great an s e studio also had a question. If you have a INSTAGRAM account, do you need to have one for personal and for business? Or can they? This is across all media, all media channels, big topic, and that's a huge topic, personal versus. And I think it depends on your business. It depends on how tied you want the two. Because, you know, I think if I don't know, But like Molly here, I'm totally using is a dam because I don't know, I don't Her business was healthy living right. I think Molly is gonna be that fits her company. It's her brand, so that's the two we're gonna go hand in hand. But if you work for a bigger company of your Ford, if you're General Motors, if your Starbucks it's some you know, then there probably is gonna be separation. It's if you have to figure it out for yourself. For me, my brand is me. I'm just me. There's no separation. Even when I was working for companies, I say, Listen, I'm myself in that So it's I wish it was a magic answer. I think it's a case by case basis. You have to figure out what's right for you in your business. If you're a small business, the two are probably gonna be very interconnected, right? And that was a question that Mallory in the chat room, one of our hosts, actually as well had said, What if if you're not just a solo preneurs, what if you have other people that are posting your posting for you are working for you or their multiple people in a company? How personal can you make it? Well, I think you can still make it personal because then you have things like you have the corporate account. You have Company X account, and then you might have, You know, Jo Su and Mallory's accounts. And obviously, sometimes that's gonna be work. Sometimes it's not an instagram, unfortunately, using them because they were asked about. Unfortunately, they don't make it really friendly for businesses yet. Like you can't, um I can't have a business account and a personal account on my phone. I have to log out, Log back in. Andi, I hope. Please Instagram fix that. Because a lot of people do post the multiple accounts. I want to be able to post this photo to the work account or personal account. I see that I have a friend who works for Kodak, and you know, she is the brand. But she's not the official. There is a Kodak Jenny. Jenny's the chief. Where's your chief chief blogger? Chief listener. Another official title is, but she post stuff, you know, she posts if you like pugs follower cause she post pictures of plugs hurt. She loves bugs, but she also posts she is the brand to. She's like I worked for Kodak. You're gonna see lots of Kodak stuff, but you're also gonna see pugs and coffee and Pinterest things she loves to dio. You're going to see both. Figure it out. Make sure you have clear guidelines. If your company thinking of getting the social media, you have to have clear guidelines and good training. Everybody forgets those because they're not sexy. They're not fun, but they will save your but in the long run, so start there.