David Watson, marketing and social media expert, owner of Strategy Point teaches you how the “new” algorithm works and how to attract photography business on Facebook and effectively generate sales. After all, isn't that the reason photographers and business owners are using the platform?
Following the episode, you'll appreciate Facebook has made the changes for the good of the users. And by utilising the tools they freely provide, you can modify your posts and updates to make them relevant and useful for your fans and seen by them.
During the interview, you'll learn what so many photographers are getting wrong with social media and how to easily manage a strategy that suits you and your business.
The tactics that David reveals are enlightening and beautifully simple and will leave you with a clear direction on how to minimise your time and maximise your reach to the people that really matter to your business… potential and future clients.
Here's some more of what we cover:
It seems Facebook has become an extension of your normal photography marketing strategy; provide something unique and valuable for your clients and you'll always be busy, the phone will always be ringing and you'll be talked about, referred and liked.
Just one of the tools that Facebook is providing to businesses to improve their success.
What's on Offer for Every Listener
David is hosting a series of social media workshops around Australia and has offered all listeners of the podcast a 10% off promo code. In addition to this, Premium Members receive a further 10% off for an attractive 20% off any of the workshops.
You can learn more about the workshops on the Strategy Point website, including when and where they are being held here: http://strategypoint.com.au/workshops
Here's some of what you'll learn:
- How to develop a successful and repeatable social strategy
- How to create amazing content easily and often
- How to implement your strategy
- How to analyse and refine
What is your big takeaway?
Following this interview with David, I'd love to know what your biggest takeaway is – what is the one thing that you'd like to implement or learnt from what he had to share? Let me know by leaving your thoughts in the comments below.
If you have any questions for David that I missed, a specific question you'd like to ask or if you just want to say thanks for coming on the show, feel free to add them below.
iTunes ratings, reviews and Shout-Outs
Each week before recording the podcast I check iTunes for any reviews and each week I'm blown away by the comments and reviews from you. This week was no exception with an incredibly generous and detailed review by Lee Jones of Phi-Tography in the UK.
Sincerely Lee, thanks so much for your rating and review, I appreciate the time you've taken and it's very cool to hear about the successes you've been having as a result of the interviews.
It's these iTunes reviews that make a big difference to the podcast being ranked well and found in the iTunes store. If you have the time and are happy to leave an honest rating and review, head over to iTunes. Don't feel your comments have to be long, involved or gushy, an honest opinion is all I ask.
Don't be shy about leaving your business name in the review either – that way I can add a link in the show-notes and show my appreciation with a proper thanks and a Google loving back-link to your website.
This and past weeks, I've been chatting to listeners from around the world via social media, email and Skype and I'd like to leave a shout out for:
Ces White of Intelligent Dexine
Zara Poole of Zara Poole Photo
Belinda Marsh
Wayne Radford of Radford Photography
Anita Watkins of Anita Watkins Photography
Chris Kuhn of Peerless Home Repair
Steve Fallon of Bizweb
Neil from Today We Rock Wedding Photography
If you'd like to get in touch, ask a question or make a suggestion for the show, you can email me andrew@photobizx.com, find me on Twitter https://twitter.com/andrewhellmich or on Facebook at https://photobizx.com/facebook – I'd love to hear from you!
Leave a Voicemail Message
This week I received two voicemail messages which I love to share on the podcast if you're happy to leave one yourself. It's easy, just click the “send voicemail” button on this page.
This weeks messages were left by:
Ben Marden of Ben Marden Photography and episode 2 of the Photo Biz Xposed podcast
Rahim Mastafa of Sugar Box Studios
Links to people, places and things mentioned in this episode:
If you have a specific marketing question for David or want to hear more of his great advice, check out his Q & A sessions live every Friday (and available later) on YouTube.
Use the hashtag “#SPQANDA” to ask David marketing questions to be answered on his live Q & A sessions online.
David highly recommends your website or blog be at the centre of your social media activities to leverage the value of our content.
That's it for me this week, hope everything is going well for you in life and business!
If you've been enjoying the podcast, I'd love for you to tell another photographer about it – it could be in a Facebook Group you're a part of, a photography forum, with a photographer friend or on twitter.
If you do have a twitter account, simply click here: https://photobizx.com/tweet or use the share buttons below.
Thanks and speak soon
Andrew
Hi Andrew & David,
Thanks for sharing this Q&A session. Been a really interesting podcast. You’re creating a real resource here – do keep up the great work.
Regards,
Mark S
Hi Mark, nice to see your comments and glad you enjoyed the episode. Hope you’re well and see you over at G+.
Hey Mark, thank you for listening! Glad you enjoyed it!
Really enjoyed listening guys. Lots of great advice and tips that I will implement into my social media activities asap. This was the first interview I’ve listened too and can’t wait to look through the previous podcasts. Great stuff!
Hi David, great to have you listening and even better to see your comments as a 1st time listener!
I’d be interested to know how you found the podcast in the first place if you get a chance?
If you’re looking for some random episodes to get started on the back catalogue, I love them all but Gabriel Machuret, Matt and Katie, the first Bryan Caporicci interview and the Melissa Ghionis episode will have you hooked 🙂
P.S Cool website.
I found the podcast via the Wedding Photographers community on Google+. Thanks for looking at my website and the nice comments. I’ll definitely check out those other posts and interviews over the next day or two. Cheers!
Thanks David. Speak soon.
Hey David, very pleased that you found this episode and got some good ideas from it. There’s some great podcasts to listen to from the archives, I’m still working my way through them to but they are wealth of fantastic content. – David
Found this on Google+ and I’m glad I did! I took notes (on paper, ha!) and I’ve been implementing some of it directly whilst listening, and am going to do the rest over time too. Awesome.
Thanks!
Jorina
Hi Jorina – welcome! Great to have you listening and thanks for adding your comments.
I hope you weren’t driving… or riding a bike while taking notes 🙂
I think you are my first listener from the Netherlands, very cool!
Haha, I’m a skilled cyclist but I don’t think even I could manage that 😉 not to worry!
Notes??!! I feel honoured, thank you! Glad you got lots from this podcast, I’d love to hear more about how they are working for you if you feel like sharing them. Thanks again! – David
Hey Andrew and David
What a Amazing episode!!! I love the Facebook stuff and I am going to be making some changes to the way I promote my blog posts. One question though do you not think that using your Facebook personal profile to actively find you new customers and then ask them to then like your business page is a good way to use your personal profile? I find this works well for me 🙂
Like I said great episode! Thank you again to David!!
Shane
Hi Shane
Thanks for listening in, and for posting your question too. Its a good question to ask. I think that using your personal profile to “source” new customers and trying to flip them into your business page could work really well if you are a good networker and are careful in the selection process. One thing you want to try and avoid is getting big churn of friends on your personal profile as this can affect the way that Facebook values your interactions. (Churn = Lots of new people added as friends then defriending once they get to your business page). As a supplementary tactic to growing your business page it could be very effective if used well and carefully. Thanks for sharing your ideas and experience so that we can all learn from that. Good karma!
Hi Shane – in regard to using your personal profile and business page together – I was doing that and it was working well but I found I was running out of time and doubling up everywhere so I’m now using my personal profile less and less.
There is another successful photographer local to me that loves Facebook and does what you do successfully.
One of the biggest problems I’ve faced since reducing the use of my personal profile for work is tagging clients in when I post a blog and share it on FB. Now I have to either message or email them, or rely on one of their friends seeing the post.
Another great show. Really enjoyed this one, Facebook is where we focus about 70% of our marketing so it was great to hear some further advice on it.
70%, that’s massive Kane! Can I throw a few questions at you, no pressure to answer:
Are you focussing that much of your time/money on FB because of the results you’ve been experiencing or another reason?
Have you been utilising normal status updates or sponsored posts and paid ads?
Did you pick up any new ideas from David in this episode?
The main reason why we use Facebook mostly is because when we first started it’s where we had the better results and it’s spiralled from there and just become our main focus. I would say it is now getting more difficult to get work from it.
We now starting to work with Google Ads and utilise that but personally I’m not a big fan of it, business wise it’s great. With Google Ads I just feel as if you are just shouting to the customer “Pick me, Pick me” and when I search Google I don’t like that. But it works so we have to do it.
We generally do a mix of normally status/images, boosted posts and paid ads. We generally boost what we class as BIG posts (such as blog posts or our sneak peek images) because we know there is an audience for them. Our most successful post was at the beginning of January when we shared a montage of all of our bride and grooms from 2013 and boosted it by £20 and it was seen by over 10,000. From that we got three enquires and one is looking promising.
Yeah we did take something away from it, stop chasing pointless “Likes” and narrow down the audience of the paid adverts. So hopefully we can focus our money better.
One of the best things we learned from a previous podcast regarding Facebook is not to do everything at once. Upload the image, wait 30 minutes, tag the groom, wait again, tag the bride, wait again and then share post. Maximise the amount of timelines that post will appear on and give the post a longer life.
It’s good to hear you’re spreading your “advertising” around different social media platforms – especially if you’re seeing less results than you were from FB.
One booking from $20 is a great return – thanks for sharing some of your strategies.
Interesting to read your take on Google Adwords too. I’m seeing less results from Google Ads than I used to but I think it’s just become more competitive and expensive to get seen on the first page since so many other photographers have cottoned on.
I think David’s diagram is spot on – and as James Schramko said in his interview – “Own The Racecourse” (your website) and do what you can to get prospective clients there.
Thanks for sharing all your experiences with us, and good to hear that you enjoyed the episode too. For a lot of businesses, Facebook has been the engine room of opportunity but our reliance on it does need to be reviewed regularly to ensure that the ROI matches the investments of time and money that we put into it. Your strategy around boosting key posts is a good one, and you’re clearly seeing the results from that. Great work and thanks for listing in! – David
Great episode! I’m finally getting caught up after being away on holidays, and I really liked this one. I know that Facebook is something that I really need to figure out and spend more time (and money) on. And I really liked the idea of breaking blog posts up into smaller posts.
Hey Terry! Great to hear you enjoyed the podcast. Facebook is a land of opportunity and I hope you’ve got some extra motivations to master it now. In regards to spending money, just be sure to start small and analyse the results you get to be able to optimise it for when you have a bigger budget to spend. Used well I think its super effective at driving interactions, new clients and revenues. – David
[…] https://photobizx.com/051-david-watson-attract-photography-business-facebook/ […]
Hi David
I just wanted to say a big thank you from me for replying to my post. I can’t believe you have taken the time to answer each question! 🙂
hey Shane, you’re so welcome, I was stoked to get some more questions and lots of great comments. Keep in touch 🙂
I agree 100% Shane and thanks for saying so – David has been awesome with his commenting and feedback – not to mention what he shared in the interview.
Thanks again David!
🙂 Ahh this is the fun part of my job 🙂
Hi guys,
Ah great podcast, I recently had great success boosting some of my posts. Directing them to my website and seeing a huge increase in bookings. Therefor having one of my best months ever!! So to then hear you talk about this was just great!
I also loved hearing about the insights as I didn’t realise you could go that far into it. I recently learned how to check how many clicks on my links I was getting.
Thanks again and keep up the good work 🙂
Hey Leighton, good to hear how you’re making Facebook work for your business. Even with the changes its still one of the best marketing channels we’ve ever had access to as a small business. Here’s to many more “best months ever!” for you 🙂 – David
Great results Leighton, way to go!
Absolutely loved this podcast! Especially what David said about the benefits of keeping blog posts short and using only a few images from a shoot per post so that the others can be used for other blog posts in the future, drawing on other elements such as location, venue, etc for the content. Love it!
Thank you David for the great content and Andrew for always asking such poignant questions.
Hey Dalibor, I’m really pleased that the blogging advice resonated with you. So many of my clients spend hours and hours on a single blog that could be more effective in several smaller parts. As they start to do this, not only is it quicker to produce but they can load it with the right keywords and post to the right audiences at the right time which really increases the effectiveness. Let us know how its working for you as you implement it. Thanks for listening and posting your thoughts too. – David
Hey Dalibor – great to see you back here and getting involved after your holiday/trip.
Your takeaway was one of the biggest for me too. I love the idea of a shorter blog post and can see the value in it as well after David made it so clear.
Some really good content here, once again! I use Facebook for 99% of my business and just last night posted a comment at 11 PM but after listening to this podcast, I decided to re-post it in the morning, with a little story to go with an image, wait a few hours and then do a targeted boost for just my city. So far, the numbers are good, tho not many likes yet. To me though right now, it’s about exposure, about letting people know I exist.
Well done, and thanks again!
That’s so awesome to hear Rahim. It might take a few goes to really refine how best to post to your audience using some of these new techniques or strategies, but you’ll hit upon the sweet spot before long. Once you’ve got your reach up, then you can start playing around with different call to actions to build deeper organic reach and user engagement. Good luck, sounds like you are already well on your way. – David
Nice work Rahim – love what you’re implementing already!
Great interview guys. Some great tips and advice that I will definitely be trying 🙂
Thanks for listening Adam, and taking the time to send through a comment. It’s much appreciated. What was the best tip you got from the podcast?
Thanks Adam.
I’m thinking that I’ll have to block you from listening in future – you live and work too close to me to be hearing all this great content. 😉
Haha I’m not that close to you really Andrew 😉
My biggest takeaway was probably the idea of telling a bit of a story behind each photo you post on FB. And that posting a photo with just the Bride & Grooms names is just not going to cut it anymore.
Just kidding Adam 🙂
Hope you have a busy and profitable 2014 in front of you.
We have to organise a catch up again through the quieter months.
Good takeaway!
Hey Adam
Andrew must be putting together some really good content if award winning wedding photographers such as yourself are finding your way here. Love your work.
Great listening to David’s podcast. Great tips as always!!
Thanks Leigh – Andrew has built such a great resource for professional photographers everywhere hasn’t he?
Thanks Leighsa for adding your comments – great to hear you’re enjoying the podcast.
I’d be interested to hear whether we should be making comments as our Fan Page or as our personal Profile. I tend to keep the two separate and only lilke other businesses with my business page. Does that look too impersonal?
I tend to go to other vendors/photographers pages as my page and leave a comment that way. Is that the best way to do that?
Hey Chris, thats a great question thanks. There’s no right or wrong way to do this, it will depend on the objectives you’ve got. Sounds like you’ve thought it through first which is great. If its just you in your business – in effect, you are your business – you might find there is value in posting and liking as both yourself and your business so that you can build personal and business relationships with these other vendors (and maybe their customers). Its always nice I think when you meet someone and they know your business and they know who you are too. Thanks for listening and dropping by with your comments 🙂
Hi Chris – yours is the one question I thought about after the interview and knew I should have asked. Thanks.
I’ve recently dropped using my personal profile for business (as much as I can) and the biggest downside is not being able to tag clients on a post and generating some comments and likes more quickly.
I do tend to comment and “browse” with my personal profile but I’m going to try steering away from that if I can. I’m not sure though if I’ll have the same “freedom” to comment and share as my business page?
Hi Andrew, I’ve actually changed my Facebook Business Page to now be Chris Turner – Smudged Photo rather than just Smudged Photo as it looked a little impersonal without my name involved.
I now use that all the time to post on other vendors pages, or liking things that people have posted, or commenting. That way it brings people back to you page, as opposed to going to your personal page, then trying to find your business page.
I barely use my personal profile for anything anymore, of course it’s useful when tagging clients in images. I just wish you could tag likers in your business page rather than having to be their friend.
Great idea with the name change Chris and it sounds like it’s working well for you. I’d like to take the same approach but don’t feel it would work as well in my studio.
We’ve taken a slightly different approach because there are a few of us all using the Impact Images FB account. When someone other than me adds a comment or post they add their name to the bottom. I should do the same but get lazy sometimes.
Yes, tagging is the biggest “pain” when it comes to using the business page.
Andrew, I want to thank-you so much for offering all this knowledge on your podcast, and the fantastic guest you bring on! I spend a lot of my days at my day job on the road going from sales call to sales call, and your podcast is one that helps make those drives the most rewarding and enjoyable.
Being newly married and taking a step back from photography has been making me miss it and resent what I do during the days. I wish I was outside shooting, every time I get on the road for another sales call!!
You shows are definitely helping me get there, and the business and marketing tips are really great to hear.
Thanks Dave for your insight (no pun intended) on Facebook marketing, and I must say it’s one thing I haven’t been very good at. I’m currently using your advice and will be placing a lot more value in the quality of my posts, and scheduling them!
Thanks again. http://www.ryanbergen.com
Hey Ryan – thanks for leaving your comments and great to have you listening; even if it is while you’re out doing something you’d prefer to not be doing.
If it’s any consolation, there are a lot (a real lot) of people in the same position as you. I’m glad the podcast helps you through your day and you do get the chance to implement what you hear. How far off are you going full time with your photography?
How do you “take notes” when you get an idea while driving? I used to be constantly pulling over to scribble some notes and my head would be buzzing when I hit the road again. Makes it difficult to concentrate in the job at hand sometimes.
Great website too! Love your work and your about page.
Great to hear back from you Andrew!
After listening in, I’ve come to realize there are others in the same situation as me!
I was really busy in 2012 where I made almost more income with Photography than my day job, but it was too busy doing both, so I made the mistake of leaving photography for a year (I was really new at my job and didn’t feel right leaving). 2013 I did only a few commercial jobs, but no weddings or portraits. Now I’m making the decision to shoot again and take on weddings, but I think the best case scenario is if I get busy, I could go to part time at my job to allow more room for photography.
I live in a small town of 4,000 people, and it’s saturated with photographers. I am 1.5 hrs. away from Winnipeg (our capital) which is about 800,000 people, and figure I would have to rely on most of my clients being from Winnipeg. BUT, most of the big-name photographers in Winnipeg are starting to die off now as the prices are so competitive and it’s tough for them to make a living!!
This is something I’m excited to do, but I often feel a little discouraged because of the industry.
Occasionally I will pull over on the side of the road when I hear something really striking, but for the most part I just try to remember which podcasts I really liked so I can go back and listen to them again. It’s the time when the light is just perfect, and I’m driving by a fantastic scene, and I DON’T HAVE MY CAMERA!! Then the iPhone will do 🙂
Thanks again!
P.S. I think I clicked an unsubscribe link on the email that was sent.. I didn’t mean to!
Hi Ryan – that must have been a tough decision to give up your photography at the time. I think the route you’re taking now is a good one – having the security of a job is not a bad thing and allows you to enter the marked with good pricing form the get go.You won’t need to “scramble” to book every potential client out there.
It also means you can choose and target your market. I’ve heard (I think from Steve Saporito) that trying to appeal to everyone is a sure fire way to attract no one.
It’s interesting to hear so many photographers are disappearing from the market. I guess it means they were either competing on price and couldn’t sustain their business or they just weren’t attracting enough clients. Another great reason for you to not compete on price.
If you want to do this as a business, you may as well go in with your prices high enough to make a living. If you don’t book the clients you’ll need to reassess why but in the comfort of knowing you’re earning an income. Nothing at all to be discouraged about, you’ll do great!
I rarely go back and listen myself – I tend to take notes but have recently started recording any ideas and thought using the voice-memo app on my phone.
Sounds like you live in a nice part of the world!
No worries about unsubscribing – I have a feeling that was to receive updates of any replies to your comments.
This was my first podcast with you Andrew. EPIC thanks so much I have them all on my iphone already and have heard 3 or 4 more already. You might just make me go Premium.
Thanks so much David for all the tips and info. I have already used some of the tips.
Thanks again will be be leaving you some reviews on itunes too. Cheers
So glad you found us Joe – great to have you listening and now commenting already!
Stay in touch and keep us up to date with any change you make as a result of the podcast and how they are affecting your business.
An iTunes review would be awesome when you get 5min – they really help the show get found.
I won’t try and sell you on the premium content, instead, here’s an excerpt from an email I received 5 minutes ago from long time listener Lisa: “I’m still loving the Podcasts and the Premium stuff is great.” No pressure Joe 🙂
Hey Andrew,
Thanks for continuing to put out good material.
Its nice to know that despite all the negative feedback facebook has been getting in regards to limiting exposure of our posts, there are still some free ways and tools that we can use to our advantage to get the most out of this free marketing tool. Its all about having the correct knowledge base on using whats available to us and how to maximize its potential.
Looking forward to future episodes,
Addicted follower,
Gary
Great to see so many new listeners and so many comments. Cant believe you’ve passed your half century already. How time flies.
Loved David’s strong opinion on the long blog post. Its so true. I can try so hard to give my photos context by writing a long blurb before the photos but even then how many people will actually read it? I dont half the time. I think Im going to start mixing it up. Maybe a long gallery like post for clients and shorter repeats for seo and new visitors. His comments about new businesses and finding content in what little they might have has also got me thinking about what I might have that is worth putting up on the website.
So thank you David.
I feel the same Andy – 50 episodes was never on my radar when I kicked this thing off.And yes, it’s great to see the ever increasing involvement from listeners in the comments section.
Nice takeaways and I like your idea of “mixing it up” in regard to short and long posts – this is probably the approach I’ll take. The advice Gabriel Machuret gave about generating content is one that also resonated with me; I hope to use a combination of both because I still love the idea of clients writing my content 🙂
Thanks for adding your comments Andy
Loved the tips about reusing the content. I never thought of putting it out there in different ways, and at several times throughout the day.
This is such a great way to reuse your evergreen content and get it out to new eyes. I forget that not everyone lives on Facebook like I do or go through to their fave pages to “stalk” the businesses they like. I figured if they wanted to hear from me or see what i am up to they would come to me.
I am going to implement this one. Im sure I can schedule it up and then respond as people engage. My phone is practically glued to my ear anyway.
That’s awesome Te – great to see you have some good ideas regarding your posts from they interview. Sounds like you spend a ton of time on FB! 🙂
I very rarely go thorough pages that I’ve liked – I wait for the content to come to me.
Combining what David said with the scheduling (or using Buffer App) like you suggest should work great.
Love the podcast after finding it on iTunes a couple of weeks ago. Have listened to 35 already in the car. David was amazing and my takeaways were less photos on Facebook, dividing posts and getting active commenting on other posts – arggghhhh I can’t chose one – there were so many. Thank you David for your open and frank information. Andrew, you have a winning formula and a natural knack for asking some great questions, I have a list of about 50 task – I know, I know – i must take action, but I have. Currently I have set up blogs, scheduled posts on Facebook,planned out future blogs, split posts, set up a test web page and much much more all on the back of your podcast. I have picked up tons of great advice. You constantly ask for what other questions we would like, so here we go.
1, what website software is used and why – blog site or website? And fixed home page or rolling blog
2, camera settings – do the guys always use manual, or are there times when other settings are useful I.e. aperture priority and maybe spot focus
3, what flash techniques do the guys use during both the day and the evening
4, what is the maximum ISO setting they are comfortable using, especially during the evening when flash isn’t used.
And come on Andrew – it’s raw all the way 🙂 – if only for the +/- 2 stop adjustment – ok we shouldn’t need it but has the sun never gone in and uncle bob decides to do a handstand at the same time?
BTW I am a photography enthusiast always experimenting and trying new techniques and ideas. I do some limited paid work, mainly with a home studio.
Hi Adrian – great to hear how much you’re enjoying the interviews and the massive “to-do list” you’ve accumulated!
Thanks for the questions, I’ll definitely be able to use the first one.
No 2-4 are more camera technique than business so I’ll do my best to get them in but might have a crack at answering them myself if that’s a help for you?
Haha, not you too about shooting RAW! 🙂
I’m still happy with the way I shoot but never rule out the idea of shooting RAW. Just not yet.
Nice to hear you’re experimenting all the time, it’s THE best way to learn and develop your own style. I still play around and try things myself when I have time and love it. Always keeps things interesting.
You’ll have to add a link to your home studio stuff so we can check it out.
Thanks Andrew, yes it would be great to hear your thoughts on my other questions, particularly lighting options at the reception. I am always conscious that on camera flash during the evening casts some harsh light and I don’t see an easy alternative if I can’t bounce the flash – what do the pro’s do? Also the camera settings are of interest. I do use manual quite often but am also a lover of Aperture priority with auto ISO (set to a maximum 1600) and I often set a minimum shutter speed too. I have added my trial website address that I have knocked up with a free weekly account, would love your professional critique as I am aware it needs a lot of work. In regards to my other questions I would really love to understand what the best options are for a professional website and blog so that I can get to work. I have built up quite a referral list on Facebook for my studio sessions, as well as parties, a christening, pet shoots and a wedding on the back of a freebie for a good friend. I’m not making any real cash at the moment but covering costs – but really enjoying the photography jobs and experience.
I look forward to the podcasts and would rate yours above all the others out there as I have learnt so much. Thanks for all the great tips. Adrian
Hi Adrian – thanks for the rap about the podcast and rating it so highly!
For reception and flash, it will always be a compromise when you have to move about and grabbing shots here and there. Where possible, I’ll bounce flash off a wall as my first option to give some direction to the light. My 2nd choice is to bounce off the ceiling and thirdly, straight, on camera flash.
If there really is no option to bounce I will use direct camera mounted flash. I’ve tried a bunch of modifiers over the years but have found there wasn’t a big enough difference to stick with them for the amount of time I was using them.
There are very few times I would use direct flash though – I’ll happily push my ISO into the thousands on my D4 which is enough to let bounced flash light the scene.
Another popular option is to use radio triggers to fire flashes set up in the darker areas of the room. I don’t do this and tend to stick with the ambient light. It is quite a popular option though.
I shoot in manual for 97% of the day and the other 3% is aperture priority. I usually choose an ISO first (with an aperture in mind), select my aperture and finally a shutter speed to expose the shot correctly. If my shutter speed is too slow, I’ll usually adjust my ISO to compensate because I’ve selected the aperture for the photo I’m trying to create.
I’ll happily go well into the 10000’s with my ISO if needs be. My minimum shutter speed is usually the reciprocal of the focal length of my lens as a starting point. For example, with a 200mm lens, 1/200th of a second and with a 50mm lens 1/60th of a second. Just to prevent camera shake. If I can go higher, I alway do.
I’ll have a look at your website and email you but for advice on platforms, I don’t think you can go past WordPress as a platform. You’ll need to learn a bit to get going but nothing else is as versatile.
Other popular options are Squarespace, Pro Photo Blogs, Zenfolio and other templates blog sites.
Hope that helps Adrian.
Andrew, really appreciate the advice and info. Gives me some options for a few weddings I’m shooting this year. I was particularly interested in your flash options and I’ll be trying both the bounce and ambient lights with high ISO on my d7100. I have a basic website and blog on weebly adrianmillerphotography.weebly.com which was excellent as a quick set up option, but I think I need the flexibility of WordPress, so I’ll start to learn that site too. thanks again and I always look forward to the pods.
No problem Adrian.
You’ll love the flexibility of WordPress once you have it installed.
If you need help with anything, let me know and if I can I will – otherwise I’ll point you in the right direction.
Thanks so much for helping me with Facebook marketing. I’ve been feeling a little lost lately with all the changes, so I’m grateful for all the advice you gave!! xo
That’s awesome to read Nicole, glad it was a help.
If you have more questions, don’t forget about David’s Q&A sessions on youtube every Friday.
Hi Andrew, great episode as ever! I have a question about the relevance of Facebook linking back to your blog and bounce rate issues and the damage this can cause to SEO by Google penalising you. I was third on page one for my main keyword for 18 months straight and have dropped to ninth on page one in the past 6-8 weeks!
I think the reason this is linked to when I started boosting my blog posts on Facebook for £3 to £5 a time. Sure I’d get a few hundred more hits to my site (which is what i wanted for seo reasons) but the user would click the link to my site and clear off after 10 seconds or so (I see this info on my Stats Counter activity log) which seems to have effected the bounce rate of visitors to my site. Maybe the content I’m posting isn’t keeping their interest, but they are photos of weddings/engagement shoots etc, so maybe people are becoming fed up with them, I don’t know? Google does seem to penalise high bounce rate, so I think ill stop boosting posts on Facebook. Have you heard of this happening before?
You really have to keep up with all things SEO don’t you? What works one week becomes harmful the next.
Hi Marc – I haven’t hear of this happening before in regard to FB visitors. I’ll see if I can have David answer your question and add a couple of thoughts too.
It sounds like your FB posts are great and getting people to click to your site. Once there, they aren’t eating what they were expecting and are leaving.
OR, and I don’t want to sound too negative;
If you have a ton of likes to your page that are irrelevant, your boosted posts could be going to the wrong people. I guess they wouldn’t click on your Ad though. Hmm, I’m confused 🙂
Let’s get David in here.
Hey Marc, thanks for the question. One of the things that we have to mindful of is the bounce rate from promos. It’s great to do promoted posts to get people back to your site, but we need to be sure that what content we’re telling them they will find there, is actually what is displayed. Have a look at the page you’re sending them to and make sure that its clear what that page content is. Without knowing exactly what you are doing I’m only guessing but sometimes we can make our promoted posts so great that they get a lot of clicks but the actual content page is a let down, adding to a lot of bounces.
I’ll also echo Andrew here, if you’ve done a lot of promotions in the past to build your fan base and along the way you’ve collected people that aren’t really your fans or people who could actually be fakers, it’s not a bad idea to try and clean out the fans on your page. It will be laborious but worth it. I’m pretty strict with who I allow to like my page as they come through and I delete anyone that doesn’t fit my page profile. You could well be spending a lot of time and money boosting your posts to a segment of Facebook profiles that have little to do with you or your business.
I’d recommend being a little more strategic with your SEO and try to post good content on other services like LinkedIn and Google+ to drive better quality clicks back to your site. That will do a lot to helping you recover some of your lost ranking.
Oh, and if you haven’t done so recently, log into your Webmaster Tools to see if there are any errors in the indexing Google is doing. Sometimes a broken link or similar to that can have a pretty negative impact on your search results.
Good luck and let us know what the outcomes are if you get a chance.
Thanks for listening and stopping by!
Thanks David and Andrew for your responses. I’ll give those ideas a try and let you know how it goes!
Hi Andrew,
Just to say Hi and how much i am enjoying the podcasts. Found them recently and listen regularly. The interview with david was particularly interesting since I have never really got on with FB Anyway, after listening to this episode, it made me realise how effective my FB page could be.
I also really enjoy the relaxed manner of the show, not heavy or preaching and cover a wide range of subjects.
thanks again
Gary
Hey Gary, thanks for adding your comments and great to have you tuning in.
Facebook is always a battle for me too, although I have been utilising promoted posts and ads with some good success.
I do find it a little easier to manage after chatting with David and having help with posting content from Tenneille and Linda in my business.
[…] we have a long way to go with our website and marketing material, we have recently had a chat with David Watson who was interviewed in Episode 51 and will look to engage him a lot more in the future. David provided us with some excellent tips to […]
WOW – what a podcast. It was great to get some insight into how Facebook works. Thanks guys.
I plan to have David back on the show soon!
This has got to be one of the most powerful Facebook marketing podcast I have ever come across! I am certainly going to implement all this into my strategy. Thanks David & Andrew.
Great to read your comments Matthew! Look out for a return to the podcast from David in the near future with some more great stuff.
Hi Andrew
I tried some of the suggestion in this podcast. I am already seen the results. Keep the help coming.
Fantastic Matt! So good to know that you’re having success with what you’ve heard on the show. I’m planning to have David back on the podcast in 2015 so look out for that episode.
And thanks for sharing the episode on your social media feed, much appreciated! 🙂
Wow, this was so helpful. I’m new to managing a Facebook business page…and I didn’t even realize you could target your posts! David also brought up something I have been thinking about. Most of the likes on my page are from people in NYC where I just moved from, to Charlottesville, Virginia (USA), so although I was happy to quickly have 300+ likes…I quickly realized, hmm, kind of cool, but ultimately doesn’t help me get business in Virginia. I may start “boosting” some posts after this awesome lesson!! Thank you!!
Love that this episode was so helpful Amanda.
It’s funny you mention number of likes or Fans because when I was lining up this interview with David, a social media expert, I thought it a little strange he didn’t have tens of thousands of likers to his page. It all made sense after talking to him.
Hope your move is a great success!