CSIT155_F18_CDahmann

To be quite honest I've never really took to blogging and always thought of blogging as sort of a digital diary/journal that's open for others to see. I especially have never seen how it could benefit myself and my business as a photographer. But in recent times, especially with the emergence of vlogging, I'm starting to see how it may be of benefit. Although I don't necessarily see myself starting a blog, I do have some ideas stirring around in my mind of how it would be structured. One possibility would be to organize my blog into the different types of photography that I currently involve myself with (Portraits, Surf, lifestyle, etc.). This would allow prospect clients to see the diversity of my work and allow them to make a well informed decision on whether I am the right fit for their photographic needs. The other direction I would go in would be simply to make it a travel blog and organize it by each place I visit and what I shot there. It would probably be more o

How personal do you want to get? A question I personally ask myself when posting any of my art, and a question I still struggle with even now. Of course if your profile is personal, regardless of the platform, you can post whatever, whenever without caring. But when it comes to business, you'd better watch your step. Each business is different and has different needs, therefore how personable they can get on their social media depends on those needs, and of course their audience. For example I myself am the sole face/personality of my business therefore how personal I can get is completely up to my discretion. Adding some personality to posts I've found can help boost engagement with your audience and establish rapport which will ultimately lead to better business. Also having and creating a personality for yourself will help set you and your business apart especially if your doing business in a saturated market. Obviously if you are representing a company and its social media,

Once upon a time, back in my high school days, I had a twitter which I could always count on to give me a good laugh. It was the source for all the memes for my friends and I. Now, after all these years, coming back to it hits me right in the feels. Using it from a business stand point should be interesting because when twitter comes to mind, memes and more memes is all I can see. Since I'm already familiarized with twitter from past experiences, it wasn't hard to find what i was looking for. When I started searching I had two things in mind, potential clients, and potential partners to collaborate with. With that being said, that's exactly what I made my two lists, Potential clients and People to Collab with. I could see why people use lists, more than anything its just an organization tool that can be molded to anyone's needs. In my case I could use it to list photographers I look up to and would want to collaborate with in the future, using lists to help me hold myse

I 100% think visual media is the perfect fit for my business. Since I am a photographer I don't think its too hard to see why. Photography is a visual art that requires a platform that is primarily focused on visuals and that doesn't diminish content with other minutia (like Facebook). This is why I've chosen to base my business primarily on Instagram. I'm sure many other artists like myself would agree that Instagram is probably the main platform helping visual artists get a start in their industry. It's easy to use, and its simple layout is centered around visual content. Although Instagram is far from perfect, it's a very powerful tool if used the right way. On Instagram, I follow many talented photographers who are well known within the community and who also make a living off of photography. Jared Chavez (@jaredvisuals) , Alberto Villa (@rightoushombre), Kevin Jara (@jara.photo), and Jethro Alaba (@jethroalaba) are all exceptional artists/photographers wh

So I currently already have an Instagram page that I use as a business page for my photography. My handle is TheCarlsRadKid and I currently have 440 followers and my last post was on October 2nd. I've recently been trying to re-position my business and go for a different style and target audience which is why I have been lacking on posting as of lately. Before however, when I was shooting regularly and had plenty of content to post, I was posting once a day around mid-day because that's when I would get the most engagement on my posts. I would use about 20-30 hashtags (that I have pre-typed and saved on my notes app) per post, all related to the kind of photography I was doing. When I was posting consistently I would gain at least 10-15 followers per week and see a lot of organic engagement on all my posts. But in the past couple months that I have not been shooting and have not been posting I seen a steady decline in my followers and engagement. Lately I've been getting my

I can honestly say that before this assignment, I hadn't logged into my Facebook in years! But that's neither here nor there, we're here to talk about post reach and post engagement. Post reach is exactly as it sounds, how many people actually see your post on Facebook. Not a terribly hard concept to grasp, but then it can be further broken down into 3 main categories organic, viral, and paid reach. Organic reach meaning how many people naturally saw your post on their feed rather than it being advertised on their feed or suggested because its trending. Post engagement is the number of people who actually interact with post whether they like it, comment on it, share it, or click a link. With Facebook insights, engagement is measured with post clicks, likes shares and comments. So why does all this matter? Well let me explain. If a post is reaching a lot of people, but it has poor engagement, it usually means that the content is either poor or its simply not reaching the rig

I know I may be a little late to the party, but better late than never. Honestly, I had a bit of trouble deciding who/what I wanted my target market to be, or who my dream customer is. Up until recently I've just been doing photo shoots to gain practice and sharpen my skills, not taking into account who I would really want to be a photographer for. After quite a bit of thought and self-analysis, I think I've been able to come up with what I think is my dream market. But first, you must understand a little bit of who I am and what I like to shoot. My main area of focus in photography is portraiture, and since the beginning I knew that was going to be a main focus of mine going forward. I love the ocean, I love surfing/skating, I love vintage stuff and things that give off vintage vibes. And although I have yet to get my hands on a water housing for my camera, I think my style of editing and taking photos reflects who I am and the lifestyle I choose to live. So now I present to y