MyPE

Community Business Directory, Event Listings, News and Views from Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay

Photographers, Copyright, Social Media

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A lesson for the ‘older’ photographers and creatives

Creatives live in interesting times – we produce and publish material that is very easily shareable by a general public that has become accustomed to freely using and sharing our work on the vast and hungry social networks that encourage this.

Of all the creatives I find that photographers crave the highs that a Thumbs Up on a social network can give BUT many HATE the Share function and take active steps to ‘enforce’ their ‘rights’ when people share their images on Social Media.

In the process they open themselves up to lots of personal stress and strain by spending hours chasing down so called infringers who do not acknowledge the source of any creative work.

Of course all creatives do need the ‘free advertising’ given by Social Media so they need to adjust their marketing to make sure that they can get the exposure and recognition they need from every share of their work.

So here are some tips to photographers using Social Media as their free advertising medium:

A. BEFORE UPLOAD:

  1. Reduce your image size (1000 pixels wide is good enough)
  2. Watermark your image
  3. Insert image metadata
  4. Reduce quality to around 80% – you are aiming for an image of below 200 kilobytes in size

B. UPLOADING:

  1. Upload around 5 in a batch at a time
  2. If your images are for sale then provide a link to where people can purchase/enquire
  3. Write a detailed, informative, fun description
  4. Tag people in your circle

C. MARKETING:

  1. Engage with people who comment, like, share
  2. Be friendly and informative
  3. Answer in a way that confirms you as the expert that you are
  4. If someone ‘transgresses’ your copyright then talk to them PRIVATELY and in a manner that gains respect
  5. Welcome other photographers who may share similar photos on your and other conversations
  6. Keep the dialogue going for as long as possible
  7. Occasionally provide a FREE image that people CAN download and print out
  8. Treat every interaction as an opportunity to grow and sell.

My Personal Standard Operating Procedure:

  1. Publish the most important creative on my OWN WEB SITE FIRST
  2. Then share that to Social Media

The idea is to send a signal to the Search Engines that my web site is more important and to date stamp any creative on MY web site BEFORE it is shared anywhere else. In addition any creative published on Social Media by myself has, the majority of time, a clear link back to one of my web sites – establishing provenance. In addition I want people to interact with MY SITE as it is a space that I control and where we can conduct business in.

A Final Word: Should YOU share any images placed by any photographer on Social Media and that photographer takes offence to you doing so or takes offence to any comments made under the image that YOU shared then tell them to FUCK OFF – they know the risks and accepted them when they used the free advertising offered by Social Media.

 

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.