7 Tips To Create A Highly Marketable Social Media Portrait Session

I first introduced the concept of a social media package over a year ago when I introduced Neil Creek, a photographer who created MeetHeads as a way of introducing people to his portrait studio through the use of social portraits.

Since then I’ve been watching the trends with social media portrait packages, and taking in how photographers are using them. There is definitely a right and wrong way to introducing social media to your clients. Yet as most photographers today continue to hand over the digital files, and your clients are using them in social media anyway, why not create a package just for them? Not sure how? Follow these tips.

1. Think outside the box with your sessions. How can you get creative, take images from a variety of angles, and give your clients many opportunities for sharing images online? Talk with your client about likes/interests. Incorporate some of their favorite hobbies into the session as well.

2. Put the focus on social media. Facebook is the rage right now, so use it. Market your portrait session as a great way to share images with the online world. You can even provide perfectly cropped photographs, sized specifically for different social sites. Social Media Training

3. Introduce props and special options. How about a glamour session – work with a local hair/makeup artist who can spend an hour before hand glamorizing your client. Seasonal portraits can also be fun – fall colors, winter snow, and summer on the beach.

4. Don’t hand over a raw disk; make sure your packaging says wow as well. For a low cost, you can buy blank CD/DVD holders, and customize the front packaging. Then screen print your CD/DVD with your branding, or print one off with a CD label maker for and even more customized look.

5. Charge appropriately. If you’re handing over one file of a quick 20 minute session, $99 may be okay. But if you’re doing an hour or more shoot of an entire family, and spending time customizing the images, you can charge several hundred dollars or more. They get the files, and they will print large images if they desire to do so. Part of your fee is for the entertainment factor of the session as well. If they have fun, feel comfortable with you, and like the results, several hundred dollars is more than reasonable.

6. Create social media days. Especially if you are creating a specific background, or on location at a local park, limit your social media sessions. If you shoot one a month, 4 sessions at a time, people will quickly learn there is a high demand for your service. Create a waiting list, and announce a month or two at a time. If you make each month in a different location, it will quickly become a limited event, and you’ll have more than enough business to fill each session.

7. Add something that says WOW. You’ve read about Moo cards here quite a bit – I love them. So why not add a mosaic frame filled with Moo cards as one of your options. If you are photographing a family, you’ll come up with a variety of images of individuals as well as the group. Create a pack of mini-cards, throw in a frame, and along with the CD/DVD of the images, you’ll have your clients talking in no time.

And if you want to try out Moo today, I’ve got a special that will allow you to do so with a 10% discount. If you’re new to Moo, type in RZUMYP at check out, and you’ll get 10% off your entire order. It’s only through September 30, 2010, so get going on your first order.

Photographers – 8 Tips To Make You Better At Twitter

Want to take your photography business onto Twitter, and use it to bring in a ton of clients? We’ve been on Twitter for well over two years now, and we’ve learned:

• What works for us might not necessarily work for you

• There really isn’t a right or wrong way to Tweet

If that’s the case, how will you ever learn to use Twitter? How do you know if you should take Twitter on as one of your marketing techniques, and use it to promote your business?

And once you do take it on, whom should you follow? What strategy should you start out with? How often should you tweet? And so on. You’ll never be at a loss for questions related to Twitter. Yet that’s the beauty of it.

Because people don’t have a regiment in place, they don’t know what to expect. Your Twitter account is what you make of it. Here are 8 tips to make you better at Twitter, and get you started on the path to more clients.

1. Tweeting frequency
Not sure how often you should tweet? Its really up to you. The important thing is to have a schedule and stick with it. Maybe four tweets per day five days per week works for you. Or ten tweets all day long seven days per week. The key is regularity so people will begin to recognize you.

Social Media Training

2. Non-tweeting times
What if you forget to tweet for a few days? What if you don’t want to tweet on weekends? What if you’re gone on vacation for a week – should you apologize for being away? Twitter isn’t an exact science, so be active when you can. While you should maintain somewhat regular patters, don’t worry about null times. Simply start in again.

Twitter – 50 Ways To Use it

1. Use your real name. (Twitter.com/AndrewOsterberg) This is a way to build your expertise.

2. Use a photograph that shows who you are.

3. Change your photograph out, but make sure it always represents your business image.

4. Change out the free Twitter background to include more about you or your business.

5. Start using some of the different applications for Twitter

6. Automatically feed your blog posts into your Twitter account.

7. Automatically feed you Twitter posts into your WordPress blog.