Socialnomics... The book...

When you are looking for news or information do you turn on the TV or your computer?

Do you even have to search for it any more?

Socialnomics, by Erik Qualman, walks us through the rapid evolutionary growth of social media and how it has changed / impacted our lives.

Things have changed dramatically, we are no longer looking for things online (information, news, reviews), it is finding us on our mobile devices while we're sitting in the movies, driving in our cars, or waiting for us when we wakeup.

And this is not a one way push of information, it's a two way conversation, because companies will hear from us regarding their products and behavior, they don't dare ignore us because our thoughts and concerns will reach more people by twitter, Facebook, and YouTube faster and more thoroughly than their advertising budget ever could.

Companies are making the shift from "creating and pushing" to engaging, listening, and reacting to our needs.

Socialnomics is an easy and insightful read whether you want to understand how social media can help your business or if you simply want to understand how it shapes today's society.

A great example is the chapter on how Barack Obama's success was driven by social media, it has forever changed the face of political campaigns.

One of my favorite lines from the book is "live your life like your mother is watching, because she probably is".

On a recent trip away (without my family) I was surprised by how much we used Facebook to communicate, unlike the telephone, it allowed us to communicate at times when it was convenient for both sides.

The new social media world is here, we can either learn to live in it, or be left behind.

If you are part of the first group, Socialnomics will give you a better insight of the new world and help you better navigate in it.

It gets two thumbs way up.

You can learn more about (and from) Erik at his blog or Search Engine Watch where he is a contributing writer.

Socialnomics...

Seeing this video is what made me decide to do the series on social media and if this doesn't drive the "new media" point home, nothing will.

And again, I apologize to all of the subscribers, but to watch this powerful video you will need to return to the blog to view it.

Don't ya just love a "feel good" story?...

This was on our local news two days ago and thought I would share it.

For some reason the embedded link will not "embed" in some browsers, but here is the link to follow.

enjoy.

Wrapping up week one...

Week one of promoting your photography business is coming to an end.

We are going to close it out with some additional links on several things we have already discussed.

Several days ago we told you about the free report from PhotoShelter, Google Analytics for Photographers, well they also have two other reports you will want to check out:

1. SEO for Photography Websites - this guide walks you through everything you can do to improve your photography website's search rankings.

2. 2009 What Photo Buyers Want survey - A survey of over 550 of the largest photo buyers share what they love and (and just as important) hate about photographers' websites. This will help you setup your site to catch the attention of the decision makers.

Yesterday we discussed keywording and we have two more resources that will help you be more thorough and efficient performing that task.

Both of these programs were developed of microstock photographers (and both have free versions), but many folks use them just for their keywording capabilities:

1. ProStockMaster - here is the link to their free version, and this link will take you to the "Quick Start Guide"

2. Cushy Stock 2.0 - you will find the "Quick Start Guide" here and the video tutorials here.

Come back next week as it will be chock-full of resources and products that can help ensure your success as a photographer.

Speaking of updates, Adobe has another....

Adobe has released Camera RAW 5.5.

This new version of Camera Raw replaces the original that was installed with Adobe Photoshop CS4, Photoshop Elements 7, and Premiere Elements 7.

Support for new cameras from Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic has also been added.

You can download the Windows flavor here and the Mac flavor here.

And I have a special prize for anyone who reads completely the 146 page Read Me file.

Adobe releases Lightroom 2.5....

Today Adobe released Lightroom version 2.5.

This update includes support for several new camera models like the Nikon D3000 and Olympus E-P1 as well as corrections for issues that were introduced in previous Lightroom 2 releases.

You can get the Windows version here, and the Mac version here.

If you are truly board (or an insomniac) you can peruse the Read Me file here.

The importance of photo keywording...

We have discussed photo keywording here in the past, but want to discuss it again during this series to drive home its importance and offer you more resources on the subject.

First, let's debunk the myth the you only have to worry about keywording if you are a stock photographer - NOT TRUE!

If you have a blog and/or website search engines will "spider" them on almost a daily basis and if your images don't have titles, descriptions, and keywords you have just missed a golden opportunity to be listed in the millions of searches that are going to be conducted on any given day.

And to be clear, I am not talking about just the photographs you post, you should tag every image (borders, headers, backgrounds, etc.) that make up your website as well.

Here are some articles that you should (seriously) consider reading:

1. Effective Photo Keywording Step by Step (Photopreneur)

2. Photo Keywording 3.0 (Photopreneur)

3. Keywording for Stock Photography (Story Hour Photography)

4. Keywording and Broccoli, Parts 1 & 2 (Keyword Compiler)

If you want to get an idea of what other folks are doing with regards to image tagging there is a waaaay cool tool from Yuri Arcurs (the undisputed king of microstock photography) that allows you to search shutterstock for images similar to yours and then see how that image was tagged by its owner.

I am not suggesting you "steal" from others, but if you are new to the task of tagging and keywording images this could help you better understand how the process works.

And finally there is a free tool called iTag that will help you automate the process of embeding titles, descriptions and keywords into your images.