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C.C.: Useful Tips for Social Photography

you should share what nobody else can. You have unique situations. You're having moments that are just nonchalant. There just your daily stuff. Why would anybody want to see a picture of this? Because you are the only person who can share it Whenever people say I have nothing to blogged about. I used the same argument. Tell it from your voice. Your voice is different. Your images air different. There are tens of thousands avoiding photographers in the world. How do you stand out? Stand out by figuring out what makes you unique. There's 1000 photographers. There's 1000 small businesses, but what you see, what you share would you dio That's what makes you different. There's so you got to stand out somehow. So shoot the things that only you can shoot. You know, this is an example. This may not look it, but this is ah, friend of mine. Instagramming. We were at a hospital outside of across Ghana. It is just a meeting. We're meeting with these moms, but nobody else could capture that moment.

It was a little moment we were there for the one campaign, and they've used these photos all over the place, but you're gonna have those moments where only you can share and capture that Burberry. Here's a great example. They dio now. I could care less about the Burberry brand. There just a really great example who do this. They do it in. By the way, they don't seduce on Instagram. They have a beautiful account, but there's showcasing behind the scenes, you know, behind the things of a photo shoot. I've seen them. They actually have instagram er at all their fashion shows, and I think it's interesting. The fashion industry is very image focus you want talk about, especially Burberry. They want, you know, their high end. They're gorgeous photography, but there, behind the scenes, are exactly that behind the scenes. Granted, I've noticed their style is almost always black and white, behind the scenes black and white. You know, I could make photographers cringe. Black awaken, cover up things. Sometimes it makes who is black and white. It's acceptable. I know I'm just sort of kidding, but it can. That's a tactic, uh, and that you know, this post this album, you know, it's on. Lee had 17, likes on it, so it works. It works really, really well. There was a ton of comments to I know you can't see this out there, but when I took this screenshot till today it had 499 shares on Facebook. So means 499 people shared this album on their personal. So it works. People like the images. Bless you. They like that. Bless you and also to one of things like this also linked out to a video. So they're doing all their kind of integrating, doing all these different things. But there's nobody else can share behind the scenes of one of their photo shoots. Nobody. And it's funny because five years ago I was working with a huge retail brand, and we were suggesting they're shooting on location in Hawaii. I'm like, Have when your interns shoot behind the scene Photos, please. For love. They were like, No, no one's gonna want that Hate that I was like This would be awesome. Their market was college kids loved it. But now they've lived and learned they do this the other thing. Of course, this is a no brainer in this class, but I still wanted to bring it up. You have to share what you shoot. You start taking all these beautiful photography and then do nothing with it. Have you posted to Instagram and then never shared anywhere else? That's kind of pointless. That's not for your business. For your individual, that's fine. We're talking business. You have to share what you shoot. You have to be social about it. You take that photograph you feel good about. You never share it. You never put it out there, does you? No Good as a business, you're never gonna grow it. One of my favorite examples is Ben and Jerry's. They do this better than anybody you want to see fun with their instagram account. They're taking pictures of ice cream cone. There's only so many ways you could take a picture of an ice cream cone or thing of ice cream. You'd be amazed what they do. The other day when there's a full moon. Somebody took their time. I couldn't find this for this. They actually had a cone, and they waited till the name of the moon right on top, like an ice cream scoop like That's awesome. But see, they're having fun, too, because This is an instagram picture. This is Ah, you've never looked at an instagram profile on the Web. This is what it looks like when you blow up a picture in the back. You see pictures in the background. Instagrammers really updated their Web presence. Really nicest. You have a beautiful profile page. You haven't looked at it. It's gorgeous what they do now. The header changes the pictures go in and out. But they were doing something silly. Or so it says. Yeah, by the way, Boston right now is melting. So I love San Francisco. That says, Holy Heatwave, Batman. Cool down with one of these. So there, promoting their product in the ocean makes it feel nice and cool. They currently only had 12,000 likes on this, you know, the only 12,000. Um, but again, it's not necessarily about the numbers, but they're getting that interaction. Instagram doesn't show the number of shares I would like to see other people share. You know, people don't re shared to instagram that often yet. Unfortunately, one thing to think about to another wrinkle in it is ever since Instagram got about about the Facebook they don't display the images in line on the Twitter client. It used to be, you would see someone's tweet and would have the picture right below minute Facebook bottom that went away. So someone has to click through to Instagram. So there's an argument of Do you post actual photo to Twitter as well? Because then it was showing in line again up to you. What, what feels right to you? I do, very. I still rely on Instagram and, like, come over to my instagram site and check it out. But Ben and Jerry's shares nonstop. They do show pictures of kids like I can see this one. Someone's feet in the water and they do show pictures of their product all the time. It also shoot what you love again. This goes back to doing what you want to do. If you enjoy it, it's fun. It's You know this. My friend Phil, taking a picture of his daughter, Bella. She's so cute. It's funny because I'm sure this is at Nottingham Castle. I'm shooting pictures of the Robin Hood statue, but he's taking pictures of his daughter because that's what he loved. That makes sense. But that's gonna if you can fit that in your business. There's a place for that. This is a company. Go rock, go rock makes backpacks or a lifestyle brand started by some ex green Berets. But what I love about so they're all about little. They make backpacks that makes sandbags. They do athletic challenges. Or like the tough mudder is that they have the go right challenge. But this is your home page as of the other day and you can see Yeah, there's a logo here. They're talking about one of their products. But then this the Jamestown experience in Middletown, New York What? Painting the town red, black and green. What? It must have nothing to do with the product. What it has to do with is go rocks all about American manufactured products. The CEO loves small town America. He also loves dive bars. So he will do. He will share posts about that. Does it have anything to is selling the product? No, but it shows his human side. People connect to that because if all you're ever doing is saying, buy me, buy me, buy me. Nobody likes that. You just become the guy with the big megaphone. Nobody likes that person. They like to have the variety of it. Jason also has a dog named Java. This I did a filter on his website of just the Java posts and you can see he's everywhere and I love this like this is announcing a new color of backpack products. But job is in the picture. I happen to love dogs. I have. I have a lab mix myself and I love Java. But he has all these posting jobs. Kind of originally. Jason Services, a one person company. He had him in his dog driving around the country. So Java was in a lot of pictures. But that's what he loves. And now job has kind of become a mascot and a quick personal story. I took this picture cause I got to meet Java. I went to New York to meet Jason, and I said, Is Java coming? And I got to meet Java. Job is a great dog. He likes, likes burgers. He's he's funny. He's a great great dog spoiled. But here's an interesting thing about why photography and marketing is fun. So I took this picture Java send it to Jason, said Hey, get this great picture of Java. Use it however you want to, and he put it on the website. You know when that when I did the interview with him, But what's cool and for me was cool, and this was a great example of something that wasn't meant to be. This was just a picture, and it turned into marketing. They now sell these T shirts that he's turned. This is Jason. This is the CEO but an asshole. The chief job is my homeboy, and it's got my photo on it. You never know. But there's an interesting take. I would have never thought of taking a photo and turning into a silly T shirt, and that may not work for your brand cause that works for his brand. But it tooks and these shirts sold out almost immediately because everybody loves Java. Um, and the funny part about a little side story. We're talking about rights and all that. The designer sent me an email about a month after these came out apologizing because he had seen the photo on the website and just used it, and I'm like, No, I get he was apologize because I thought because it was on the website, Jason took it cause Jason, the CEO, is also a photographer. No, I gave him carte block. It's all he was all worried. I was going mad from a licensing perspective, you know, the company has full permission. I give them full license to do anything they wanted with it. But it was I thought it was nice that he actually stopped and freaked out because most people would never give it a second thought. But I just It's one of those things where I love I love the brand because I buy, I buy their backpacks. I use him as I've got mine in the Green Room. I love their proxy love what they stand for. But I love that. I got to know Jason be a his posts me Look, if you go to their block. There are Blawg product posts but also literally post pictures of dive bars and cool restaurants. Because what he looked, he goes and visits factories of other American manufacturers. That's part of their DNA as a company, and it just showcases, and he uses a lot more pictures and words. By the way, you feel like Set it up. Hey, I went to visit this factory, but it's just kind of need because people kind of seem to forget that you don't have to create all your marketing does not have to be about you about your product in your service embodiment. Everything has to be a sale. Those other things in the social media world, you know, catch up to you. They help you. These other stories are great. He just loves his dog has not. But now job is part of the brand. He's actually sell Java posters now, which cracked me up my daughter when she saw the sugar. That's Java. She was all excited. Just an example of how shooting what you love. Nobody else gonna shoot those pictures, right? And he shoots him on his phone. He shoots him on his camera, he has a little Nikon. He shoots with what he loves doing. He does it himself. And b you Yeah, I love that. I realize I'm talking about, like, regular cameras. And my friend Clarence is God is like a, you know, most crazy, Overrated. Cameron, the world Just my two cents. Sorry. I just had all kinds of hate come down. I'm sure online because, like a fanatics, if you're not a photographer, you know, like is there like the Ferrari of cameras, but whatever but again, be yourself. You can observe others. You should learn from others. You should look at your competitors, look at other people in your field, be inspired by other people out even other fields. But be yourself photography, especially. You have to figure out what is right for you. I use charity water as an example. If you're not familiar with the work, they do their whole goals really, really simple. They want the whole world have clean drinking water, really simple, really hard at the same time. But one of their things you think about it. They could show suffering and, you know, malnutrition and sick kids. They have a rule. They never show the suffering. They only show the positive side of the work they dio. It's a conscious decision that their whole company has made, and they use photographs better than any nonprofit I've ever seen and non profits or something I like to work with. And I picked on these guys going to sick of them being the poster child. I want other people to step up and up their game, but they always show happy. They show the results of what they do. Yes, they show, You know, they show that the trials, they show that how rough it is. But they never, ever show the suffering. And I think it's a really interesting figured out. That's the way they want to do it. Other nonprofits take other angles. They do show the suffering and they play that card. There's nothing wrong with that. Same with your business. Figure out what works for you. What makes you now? This next picture is the one I was talking about that I said goes against everything I told you earlier about. No words. Think about a job posting, right? We've all seen job postings wanted. Blah, blah, blah, Bob. All right. I have not seen many photography job postings, meaning using a photo for the job posting. Have you mean hasn't I haven't seen many of those usually worded text right instagram the other day this pops up. Are you a field volunteer? Come join our team, apply at charity water dot org's and I went nuts you know, there's a compass and a Cameron a passport, if you a little change. If you look at that and you get excited, that's probably you're a good person for that job. If you look at that and it turns you off, you don't get excited. You're probably not right for the job. This this little this was posted just the other day, and I was so blown away and on course they've got text. We're looking for qualified volunteers to visit and report on charity water projects around the world currently opening in Ethiopia, Liberia and Uganda. I just I was blown. I'd never seen a job opening like that ever. And I thought, Wow, I got it was funny because I got to put this in the presentation I have to cause I thought it was such a well done. And you can tell this is a This is probably IPhone photo camera, for It's not the most glamorous shot in the world, but it gets the point across. You really want the job? Charity water dot org's slash volunteer. That's what warning to take this job cause I looked because I got excited. You have to have lived in a developing country for three months already. So you have to have that just They didn't put that in the picture, but I thought it was great and you probably can't tell from there. But the map is of Africa, so kind of shows where he needs. I just thought This is a really neat example of being, you know, if it fits their voice, it's playful. It works for them. And I had never seen this done before. This just a is a job opening. It's pretty boring. Think of things you can do to promote your brand. There's lots of you can have fun. I think we're gonna see more people do this now. That's such a great idea. Why didn't I think of that? The other thing is, once you get fans, you can use their photos. You granted. Yes, you have to get bigger, but your clients or customers, this all depends on your industry. You're gonna have fans. We're gonna take photos and you can use them. Yes, using with permission. All those things get, get the rights and everything you know, But you can use them and you can leverage them I think it's It's funny because this is an old picture and look at the technology they're using all the flip phone. There's not a single IPhone in that crowd. Well, this this was a concert I was at and I was in the pit and I turned around, took pictures, all the kids taking pictures of that was great. And one of the one example. Just a quick example. Something doesn't raise the Today show every the Today show with every concert they did. I think they do it on Fridays. They have a hashtag for the event, and they encourage people to share their photos on Facebook and Instagram, and then what they do this is used. This is actually a long infographic that they build. This goes down and you'll see on It's got the credits for all the different people. Some of them are official. Today's show. Some of them are interns for the Today show, because I know who she is, but others are just fans, and they take those photos and they use them. This is great for events when you do an event, if that's appropriate for your business, encourage people to share the photos they take, you can create a flicker group. You tell him to put on Facebook, create a hash tag so they can actually tagged them so you can find them after the fact. That's why there's a hashtag for this event, because afterwards they could go look up and go show me everything that's tagged with this and hopefully hopefully will be blocked post hopefully photos over the big classrooms. If you don't set it up front, then they can't find you. They're gonna talk more about that. Yeah, What that is Yeah, here's a softball hash tag, Social boot camp, and we'll be using it for the next few days. But if they hadn't told you that nobody could create, they'd be creating all these great content and not tagging it. So if you're going to leverage social media this wait another. The other instructors gonna talk more about this setting up that hashtag ahead of time. Helling, People point blank. This is what we want you to do. That's why we said we want you to share your classroom photos saying, Take a picture of your screen. Sounds kind of boring, but saying we want pictures of where you're watching this class tells them exactly what Creativelive wants. So if you're going to leverage fan photos, tell them what they want. If you ever watch on these concerts on the Today show they're talking about, you see this was a journey concert cause it's a journey today is their instagram account is that it's a tag, but I do this for their concerts, and then they share this out on Facebook. They share it out on you. No other network they shared on Pinterest is just a great way. Always be thinking how you can re imagine content. You shoot it once. How can you use it again and again in different ways? The other thing is, I'm big on So there's a go rock. I forgot that you were talking about backpacks. That's That's my go rock. You need to tell stories. Photography is a beautiful way to tell a story without words or with words. And now we're going a little quiz on one of the best stories, I think. Can anybody tell me what brand this is for? This is a photo essay for a huge American brand that I guarantee I would almost guarantee anybody in the world has heard of this brand. Any guesses here in the studio? Just shut it out. Haines Haines. Okay, Levi's Anybody in this interrupts Kraft tough, toodles craft. Okay. Oh, now I get the Haines and Haines looking really get it. So there's other pictures of those beehives. There's a skillet with a knife cooking on the fire. The point. You're not going to get it. There's no way you're gonna get this. There's one picture over here. There's a motorcycle behind a fire. This is for Harley Davidson, all right, and people are going. What? There's no motorcycle in this. There's no glamour. But what they did was they built this whole website recent called the Ride Book. It's still out there, still live, and what they did was they wanted to create stories around the lifestyle of riding a Harley. And hardly if you talk to a Harley, I'm not a Harley rider. I'm not a motorcycle rider, but there's a whole lifestyle to, and it's not just the biker in the letters, not just sons of anarchy. It's it's there's more to it than that great television show that I love that show. But they did this whole thing where, like this one focus, what they actually did was they went out to other sites and had them create content for them. This one focuses on a bike. The one I was showing you behind the hive. What the It says bees, bikes, corn bread and campfires. Chef Davis Gauss takes some time away from his bakery to get in touch with a local flavor. He went out riding his Harley, went to a local farmer. Got got, uh, honey, and he made this corn bread. What? He's camping was kind of showing the different style off. Um, you know, this is him cleaning off a knife, But it's interesting because this lived right above here, Of course, by the way, so I could hear people We didn't get it. This is wrong. Right above this is the Harley logo. I just cropped it off on purpose just to focus on the photography. But it was beautiful because this was a photo essay. You could click on the little photos, show bigger ones, and down below there was text, but you could just look to the photos if you wanted. If you check this out. It's tough. There's also video out there. Um, it only got, you know, heart. Well, this is for Harley, but 4.7 million likes, um, but they did all kind of didn't really like this Prohibition tour was one of my favorite ones, This band that I didn't know. They set him up with cameras video and film them right on their Harleys to gigs. This one's about a barbershop that's also a garage and Brooklyn. It just I thought it was one of those great examples where the photography is the champion. Here. It's beautiful. These guys do the ghost town U S. A. They actually shot anything with her IPhone. So they did like an instagram road trip, which is really cool. It was the right flavor cause they're on the dusty roads of Arizona out in Ghost town. So the instagram vibe kind of worked for them. They used it as, ah style rather than just, you know, the tool. So I want to show you that I think this is one of my favorite examples of I just I absolutely love this campaign, and it was just It was so beautifully done even if not as a Harley guy. I just loved everything about it. A few final things to remind you, um, as we part ways on talking off, This is a big topic. There's I'm sure you have tons of questions, tons of things. They're all great instructors coming up, but some things to keep in mind. I said this earlier. Your eye gets better. The more you use it, the more you take pictures, the better you'll get it. The more you look at other people, you'll learn as well, you know, talking about using Instagram as a style. You know, some people never think of it that way. Or, you know, for this this event, I do this sometimes where I will say, you know what? For this event, I'm going to shoot in black and white, or I'm gonna go for, you know, Onley prime lenses. I mean, I'm getting kind of technical here, but you set those limits and they're kind of exciting. But the more you shoot, the better your I will get them or you'll be thinking about this stuff. It does get easier over time. Writing gets easier over time to a promise it does Friendly reminder You're gonna shoot more than you'll ever use. I love it cause people were always like Sisi. You always post the best photos of me online because I only post good photos. I refuse. My personal rule is I never post a bad photo of somebody. If it's like one person looks great and the other person looks like trash, I won't post it. I'll crop it because I don't want I don't want to put up bad pictures of people want them to feel great when they see a photo I took of them. That means I take hundreds of shots of them to get that one killer shot. You're gonna throw a tons of them. And I love to. I love using this because if I showed us to a younger crowd, they have no idea what those are. What is that? Those air splitter slides we used to develop on these things called slides. I never did, but my grandfather did. Sometimes you need a pro. You have. There is nothing wrong with bringing in a photographer to help you, whether it's on an event. I mean, just this morning I got I got hired to go. I think I should a horse race. I don't shoot sports, but they actually want me to go experience because I don't know what it is. They're hired me. Just go and capture the moment and share it cause I like what I have done. I would go cool. That'll be fun. Everything about horse racing. But I'm scared about shooting actual race, but they don't want. They want the experience around the race, so don't hesitate to hire a pro. There's plenty of photographers out there. They already have the I. They have your story. The really good photographer will be able to help your story. They will find it for you. It's even a rare Obree. But they're out there. Where I recently got, someone was approaching about. Hire me to freelance for Ah, publication like, Why are you a reporter or you're a photographer and I'm like, Can I be both? But usually the past it wasn't you were one or the other, so bring in a pro. There are, and they're pros. For every type of photography there are, you know, editorial, There are events. There are weddings or everything. Find the photographer. That's right for you and hire them and pay them what they deserve. Photographer for Tar Visa Skill They should be paid for it. You're on a tighter budget. There's other options you can find out, you know, photography student, and you can pay them, and it will probably cost less than a pro. But you're gonna pay. Just figure it out. Don't be scared. You have to pay money to make money. It's all good pro photographers out there, not slight. You should be hired. I respect photography. Always, always, always have backups. If you do not back up your photography, it is going to bite you. If you do not, trust may only take one computer crash before you start backing up your computer daily. We've all been there. I could see some of United's going. Yup, I've been there and it hurts. So back up. Whether it's cloud based, there's tons of cloud based options or lily walking on the best Buy staples. Whatever dropped 200 bucks on a terabyte hard drive. For most of you that will cover cover you just getting started when you outgrow it, you could buy more. There's so many options out there. Just make sure you have backups. Because there's nothing worse than losing those beautiful photographs that you took and the one last most important thing. If you take anything away from this, you're nervous. You're scared. I don't know if I have time for this. Have fun doing this. It is the key thing. I love this stuff. The more you get into it, the more fun you have. People get too strict. The rules say this or I read a report that told me I had to do that. Have fun doing this stuff.