Social Media Strategy

For my photo and video business, I would implement a blog, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. The blog would be the main source of content and utilize the other 3 tools to direct fans back to the blog.

This strategy would consist of weekly postings to both Instagram and Facebook. These would give clients or future customers "snapshots" of what the business is currently working on. A link to the blog site would give them detailed information of the project. The YouTube site would be used to showcase completed projects.

A detailed examination of analytics is necessary to see how users are engaging with the postings and to see what the click-through-rate is back to the blog. Another way to test out our strategy is to simply check how many new and returning customers the business is attracting by asking "How did they hear about us?"

All this strategy and organization would be done by hired help. They would focus on the administrative/social media while I can focus on the client project side.


ROUGH DRAFT PLAN FOR THE NEXT SIX MONTHS:

Month 1: - Purchase Domain Name
               - Create Social Media accounts
               - Develop budget for Social Media (Employee, hosting, domain)
               - Create content to web space

Month 2: - Hire employee to oversee business Social Media and administration
               - Develop web space and branding
               - Weekly posting of current and past projects

Month 3: - Weekly posting of current projects
               - Begin to examine the opportunities for promotion
               - Set goal to gaining two new clients per month

Month 4 - Promotion "Refer-A-Friend"taking place on Facebook
              - One to two project postings per month on YouTube
              - Research possible ads on blog site to generate additional income
              - Continual weekly postings of current projects

Month 5: - Begin advertising on websites and allowing ads on blog site
                - Weekly postings

Month 6: - Begin Promotion for returned customers
                - Weekly postings
             

Comment Posts on blogs

http://gnometraveler42.blogspot.com/

http://jessicaipina.blogspot.com/

http://beckybeamer-csit155.blogspot.com/

Newsletter

I would send out a newsletter once a month for my business. I would highlight the new trends in the photography and video industry, which would also cover new products. Another section would showcase the latest projects that we're working on. It would highlight to future customers what our business is capable of producing. Lastly, we would have a section that would showcase what we're currently involved in when we're not behind the camera. This would be family life, community involvement, trips and activities. 

Now you're getting personal...

How personal can you be on your blog? I think if you have a individual blog, get as personal as you want. But a business blog need to carry a level of seriousness and sophistication to it. You want your customers and future customers know that you care and take serious the product that you are selling. I believe customer confidence in your brand or product is important to having repeat sales.

As strongly as I feel about the level of seriousness, I do feel that there needs to be a level of personal interaction. A sense of knowing that the business just doesn't want my money but that I am satisfied with the product and/or service as well. I know this is easier said than done, especially with larger businesses and companies. Now I'm asking myself, "why can't it be done?"

I guess i'm beginning to realize that businesses need to show their personal side to their customers. Not everything is about sales and pushing product. The "human side" of business needs to show its "face" and let it's customers know that they are important. Business does not happen without them.

Similar Business social media

brandonsetter.com

richmiro.com

With my business dealing with videography and graphic design, social media networking very helpful in displaying your work. The two sites that I visited were very social media friendly. Both sites used Vimeo , Twitter and Facebook to be in contact with and/or display their work. It's interesting to see that their respected websites showcased their work but on their social media sites, they displayed more of their work. It made me think that their is no one way to reach your teaches audience. A business must be open to all avenues for future clients to reach them. In this line of business, it does not hurt to display your work to as many people as possible.

Best Visual Network sites for Business

Based on my start up service which deals with the visual arts, any one of these four visual Social Media networks would be helpful in my service.

YouTube would be awesome if my service solely dealt with video production. But unfortunately my service also provides Graphic Design elements and sometimes video is limited to specific video sizes and therefore difficult to view a graphic design piece in it's full high quality.

Instagram is a fantastic service which is able to showcase both images and video. The only issue that I have with the service is that you are limited by a square frame. The video work that we offer is always presented in a widescreen format. The viewer would be unable to capture the entire "feel" of the video.

Pinterest offers a great a way for content to joined together with similar content. It seems that Pinterest is a wonderful community that users can share similar interests and likes. Hopefully these communities can benefit by learning from each other and helping each other grow and develop. But is this the best option for by start up service? It's close, but not quite.

Tumbr has one little feature that makes it the best visual network for our service: the ability to write posts. Sure, on the other visual networks you can post a video of yourself discussing your topic but there is something to be said about good journalism. Yes, a picture can say a 1000 words, but a 1000 words can take a person beyond a single image. We want people to be inspired by our work and our words.

Facebook Page: The Iris Picture - "Following Other Businesses"

As a creative service to others, my inspiration comes various area such as digital and physical print, photographs, and motion pictures. I chose to follow others as another source of inspiration. It also great to have someone else from the creative field to ask questions and bounce ideas off each other. Inspiration cannot be limited to my own head. Fresh ideas grow my as an artist and hopefully result in higher quality work!