When I began this new road in my life, I thought I had considered all the options available to me. Upon expanded research, I discovered some things that I had not known. Things which make a huge difference in how I walk this road. I thought I would take a moment to share them with you. Maybe you might find some value for your own path.
Let’s get started with Twitter since that was the last thing I spoke of. As mentioned in my previous post, Twitter seems to be in a freefall. Not just due to the limitations of the platform, but also due to the limited understanding of most of its users. They do not seem to get how useful and important retweeting is. Thus Twitter usuage is going down daily.
If Twitter could figure out a way of making it evident what people like, then they would have a built-in sharing mechanism. I have learned, that not only are people reluctant to share tweets made at Twitter, they are less likely to even read anything from outside of the site, such as this post. Just how bad it really is, can be seen with one simple example.
I posted the exact same picture to my author blog, to Twitter and Facebook, via my blog. The blog post received over 20 likes here at WordPress, where as on Twitter it received NONE. Granted one person came from Twitter that day, however, they were not one of the people who liked the picture post.
Now most people would find this counter-intuitive. Shouldn’t a short form platform be better for posting pictures? Apparently not! In fact, the same picture got no response on Facebook either. Speaking of Facebook, lets move on.
Facebook business pages are supposed to help out your business. However, they do not! The current algorithm used by Facebook, hides your business posts from people who have actually “Liked” the page. WTF? So a business brings in people, only to not be able to market to them? That is just the dumbest thing I have ever seen. Had I know they had switched to this new algorithm, I would not have bothered setting up the page. I can see that I will be dumping the business page in favor of using my personal page. It simply makes no sense, to share pictures with people who most likely will never see them.
This leads me to what appears to have the most potential for a photographer…Instagram. I have just started this account and have only 6 pictures up. Seems like I have my work cut-out for me. BTW, if you want to follow me on Instagram, I go by j.b.thomas(No caps and no spaces). Please don’t follow me if you don’t plan on sharing photos you like. 🙂 Having an Instagram up and running, still has its drawbacks. Business profiles are frowned upon and you must still post your pictures at Facebook and Twitter, because both sites tend to ignore outside posts.
Despite all these little drawbacks to success, it seems like things are beginning to take shape. The ad I placed on Craig’s List (http://houston.craigslist.org/crg/5900979589.html) has already gotten responses and it appears I should have a few models, both male and female, to round out my portfolio. This is obviously a step in the right direction. I am slowly but steadily, getting my photos up from 5 years of photography and 16 yrs. of graphics, onto my web store. Eventually, I will build a website that has a blog devoted strictly to photography.
All things considered though, there have been some setbacks, but I believe I am moving in the right direction. Just might take a little longer to get there…
I hope you found some value in this post and if you live in the Houston,Tx. area, keep me in mind for your photography needs. Take care and have an amazing weekend!
Axe
Axe's Asylum 