A quick look how to best place your images in your SquareSPace website. Using a 3x3 gallery with a particular crop, in this case 1x1 / square, you need to be able to choose the viewable area of your cropped thumb to make the most impact - the video shows you how to adjust your images, it'd dead easy - drag the little circle to where you think is best, click apply, relax. Hi Ted!
2009 - Old gig I photographed, http://www.noisettes.co.uk/ || #Noisettes #BringTheNoise #MakeContact
This one's for you, Laviotette!
A quick pack up of the thinkTankPhoto TurnStyle 10 with my Yashicaflex 635, Zeiss Ikon, Sony RX100Mk4, MindShift memory card wallet and my regular wallet (Bellroy) to show it opened and closed.
The thinkTank TurnStyle 10 with the Yashicaflex 635 and Zeiss Ikon inside.
For sizing, I've stuck a Zeiss 16-35 f/4.0 on the left, Zeiss Ikon, Yashicaflex 635 as well as Sony RX100Mk4 / Memory Card Wallet (MindShiftGear) and my own wallet in the front.
Hope this helps some of you that want to pack light with a larger style / format camera and extra bits and pieces.
It was fun to go along to my lovely cousin's 40th last night and see some relatives I don't see often! I had a thought in the afternoon "Maybe I should take a camera?" and i emailed to ask if that would be OK. OK indeed it was and, so I thought - no worries, a7RMk2 in a holster / maybe a Retrospective 5, just keep it simple, you know...
3LeggedThing Tripod & MindShiftGear MultiMount Holster w/ Sony a7RMk2 + Zeiss 35mm f/1.4
That's always the plan, go light, go simple... So, The gear I ended up taking (In a new camera bag I'm using that I can't tell you about) was as follows...
Yeah, see, managed to travel light! Anyways, it was for the fun of it, the backdrop was tooooo small, but there were some fun pictures and a great evening - Happy Birthday Jo!
I manage social media for brands that exist inside and outside of my timezone. I don't stay up 24 hours a day, though sometimes it certainly feels like it - my choice. What can I say, I like the night sky.
Yes, that's my photo above - Taken on the 7th of May in Warburton East, 15 second exposure at f/1.4 and no, I'm not very good at it, but yes I'm learning. #GotMilk
So, rather than stay up late and click 'publish' when you want a post to go live (we talked roughly about timing last post) you can use many many tools to schedule posts, from ones that are built right into Facebook, to ones that you pay a bit for... I'm not going to cover them all, I'm going to cover the ones I use and have used for some time - that way, if you have questions, you're welcome to ask them in the comments and I can answer them.
I'm not going into detail about each platform, they do the same things, but they do them in very different ways - one stream v many streams - try them both (Sprout and Hootsuite) they're good platforms.
Facebook Native...
The first and most easy option if you're running a Facebook page for your business is to use the 'schedule' function on Facebook, you simply fill in your post as you normally would, an image or video or text / link and then hit the down facing arrow to the right of the "publish" button and choose schedule...
Remember what we said about TIMING and then get a few posts scheduled in to save yourself being online all the time. WARNING : Just because you CAN schedule, doesn't mean you can just set & forget! You gotta talk to those people / interact with those people that give your content the time of day... Like / Reply / Whatever / Block.
Hootsuite... Click the pic below to check it out.
Hootsuite is a great tool for monitoring and posting content, both real time and scheduled. They offer a free account that allows you to manage up to three profiles, get some basic analytics and schedule your content, and, based on the photo below, is it any wonder I want to go work there?
Sprout Social... (click HERE to check them out)
Sprout Social are a bit more user friendly when it comes to reporting, though Hootsuite has recently upped their game. Sprout Social are also more expensive than my Hootsuite Pro plan, but if you're managing multiple Instagram accounts (you can't fully schedule Instagram, folks) I find Sprout Social a notch above.
With both Hootsuite and Sprout you get some handy interfaces to see your scheduled content - Here's a screenshot of Sprout Social in "curated content" mode.
And this is the Hootsuite version of the scheduled content...
The main point of this post being that there are no excuses for not posting at the right time, and though it can take a couple of weeks to dial in, it's not hard to do - vary your publish times, see how your audience react / what works best and continue to work at it - often.
Get to work.
Meanwhile, please check out this new #podcast that I'm one half of, it's tech / photo / semi-amusic / quite daft, but fun and gives my good mate Stu and I a chance to rattle on for half an hour every other week. CLICKY
Leave a comment, ask a question, or don't - that's OK, too.
There's no doubt that it's harder as a small business / individual to make headway in advertising your business on Facebook these days, your reach number get smaller or don't grow much, you don't get all those likes you used to get... You wonder what you've done wrong...
Likes ain't everything, reach certainly helps, but there's one thing you've got to remember to do and that's to look after the people that have already 'liked' you, that said, here are a few really simple tips to help you out with your social media efforts, maybe you'll reach a few extra people and get that lovely smile back that you once had.
1. Timing is everything...
I've found that it's good to think about when you're posting your stuff. A small example would be, if you're a small business (say, creative) in Australia and you get this ace piece of content ready and then post it when you've finished it, you know, at ONE AM... Who in Australia is going to see it? Sure, if you're aiming for the morning tea crowd in New York or the afternoon break crowd in London, post away, but if you're after local market - maybe wait until you think they're online. Going a little further, think about silly things like this; Someone that goes to work isn't going to go right to their desk at 9am and jump on Facebook, they might do something like grab a cup of coffee, get to their desk at 8:45, have a quick browse and then strap in for the work day - so aim for when it makes sense that they will see your content. If you don't know what time it is where, use this - it's great www.worldtimebuddy.com
2. Re-Invigorating content...
There's nothing wrong with "re-invigorating" content... Though, rather than simply re-sharing it to your page, it's best if you can use interaction to bring it back to life. When someone likes or comments on your content, it jumps back up the news feed and when it does, there's a chance it to be seen again, so, if someone comments on your content BUMP up it goes, then when you reply you have the same effect - so think about this: if your content is getting comments, use those comments to help put you back in front of people, maybe wait a bit to reply (obviously if it's something that needs replying to, reply right away) and then stick a comment in - wait for another hours or two, or if you're a global brand, wait until another time zone comes alive (if you can)
3. Links, not always...
There are a few 'rules' regarding social media marketing, and they're mostly just made up - so I'd say make your own rules and stick to them if they're working for you. But, one I do try to stick to is the 5:3:2 rule... (many variations... but I'm currently with, roughly, 5:3:2) What the hell is the 5:3:2 rule? Well, it's pretty simply - 5 bits of curated content from relevant sources within your industry, 3 bits of content you've created directly related to your brand and 2 bits of fun - something to attempt a bit of "human" within your marketing messaging... Sure, it doesn't always work like this - but what I'm saying is don't ever use the ME ME ME ME ME ME model. Ain't nobody got time fo dat.
4. Support is important...
Point two was about holding fire, waiting a little before you reply... But there's nothing more frustrating for someone that not getting a reply to their social media question - sure, people don't think that we're not all 24/7 or that a small company would only have someone on deck for a couple hours a day. And not just getting an answer a day later (I always try for within 24 hours, usually a lot sooner, but you never know when someone's going to ask a question) Social Media in 2016 is as much a support channel as it is a social network for sharing cute cat pictures - If your customers can't find what they want on your website and it's out of hours, there's a good chance they're going to hit your social media and try their luck - you could use the auto-response feature within Facebook's messaging to let them know you're listening and that you will be in touch, but that doesn't work for page posts or comments by others, so keep your eyes open and make sure everyone gets a reply or a little loving like.
Well, they're four pretty simple tips (tips within tips) that you can adapt to your own brand and have a try with. I'd love to know if you're either doing these things or you're going to try them - feel free to leave a comment or find me on some form of social media, I might even reply!
--Simon
