Social media is here and is making a bigger impact in the business world than anyone had ever thought. You’ve heard of all the big names; Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Blogger, FourSquare…and the list goes on. So what does that have to do with photography? Well, the answer is simply…everything.
Commercial photography and videography mixed with social media make for a potent poison to other small companies. Websites like YouTube, Flickr, Photobucket, and others have jumped on the bandwagon by offering SEO services involving videos and photos for businesses. However, it is usually up to the business itself to do the research to see what works. Here at World Hyundai, we use many social networking sites. Since fall 2009, World Hyundai has been improving its online presence with photos and videos. World Hyundai now has nearly 1,000 fans on Facebook and World Hyundai’s YouTube channel now has over 400,000 views coming from people around the country (and also internationally).
How do you know if something works?
There is always the obvious…someone came across a video or a photo that you posted and they told you directly, either through an email, word of mouth, or some other way. The other way to know that it works isn’t as concrete, but the general fact that the company is getting more exposure, more leads, and more web traffic (particularly when no other marketing campaigns are occurring) is a clear indication that it is working.
Custom build your Facebook Page
There are many third party applications out there that allow you to tweak your personal profile Facebook page as well as your Facebook Fan Page. Many marketing companies offer to create a customized Facebook Fan Page for businesses. If your business fulfills a smaller niche, then this may be the perfect way to advertise. With a smaller company and a niche product, there is less competition from other companies, giving you an open area to quickly get your businesses’ webpage on page one in Google’s search results. The hard part is to find a social media marketing company that is able to do what they would consider ‘a small project’. But there are companies out there.
