This presentation "Personal Branding for Photographers in Social Media" was presented by me at the Social Media in Photography event in Kolkata on 31st August, 2014. As the slide deck was created for a live presentation, there was a lot of narration that went into it which is missing here, however, the presentation by itself should give a fair idea on personal branding and how social media can be leveraged for personal branding, for photographer or even otherwise.

1. PERSONAL BRANDING FOR PHOTGRAPHERS IN SOCIAL MEDIA
By Saptarshi Roy Chaudhury

4. What do we really want
• People to recognize us for our work
• Get more work / business
• Be considered as an authority / influencer
in our area of work

5. Why Personal Branding
• Attract attention – grow network
• Increase your online influence
• Find Work / Opportunities – Opportunities
find you
• Permission to be yourself
– You get to decide what your unique promise
of value is

6. What is Branding
• The process involved in creating a unique
name and image for a product in the
consumers' mind… blah.. blah… blah

7. What is Branding

10. Personal Branding is about creating
an identity
a perception that you want people
to have about yourself

11. Three Keywords for Branding

14. Create Unique Niche
GENERALIST SPECIALIST
Wild life
Travel
Wedding
Fashion
Food

15. Be Consistent
• Maintain Quality
• Communication – Style and messaging
• Visual Branding

16. Deliver on Brand Promises
Deliver Value
• Deliver high quality work
• Share Knowledge
• Guide & Mentor Juniors
• Share your thoughts and views
• May be do a couple of pro bonos

17. Why Social Media
The Biggest media channel you can have for
106 million Social Media users in India

18. Why Social Media

19. Photos Uploaded Per Day

20. Photos +

21. In first 9 months

22. Why Social Media
Increases your reach , Reduces your marketing effort

23. Why Social Media
PROSPECTS
SOCIAL
MEDIA
PLATFORMS
CLIENTS
PEERS
RELATIONS
MENTEES MENTORS
FRIENDS

24. Social Media Can Provide
Credibility
&
Exposure
Networking
&
Relationship
Learning

25. What You Need To Do
Invest : Time + Effort
+
Be Consistent
Deliver Value /
Brand Promise
Be Unique /
Select a Niche

26. Social Media is the
Engine;
Your Content fuels the
engine to deliver
mileage on your
branding

27. HOW
Inspire Quotes Motivate Coach
Engage Pictures Facts Stories
Advise Tips How To Solutions
Give Offers Discounts Appreciation
Participate Discussions Contests Groups

28. Your Brand Needs Your Personality
Personality matters in social media
Express yourself in social media as you
would do in real life..
FRIENDLY PROFESSIONAL APPROACHABLE AUTHORITATIVE

29. Social Media is Not Much Different
from Social Life in Real
BE YOURSELF
BE RESPECTFUL
SHARING IS KEY

30. Social Media is your Radio Station
and you are the RJ
Rj Stays on Theme
INTERACTS with Listeners, makes UNSCRIPTED comments,
at times REPEAT the same songs
Photo : RJ
Rashmi

32. Everyone Needs a Home
• Set up Your Blog / Website
– Make sure its visually appealing
– Clearly state what you offer and why someone
should work with you
– Your contact information
– Make it social – integrate popular social
channels

33. • Get a Facebook Page – people can’t “Like” people
but they can like “Page”
• This also helps to maintain a distance between your
“personal” and “professional” side
• Post consistently – make sure you reply to all
comments
• Focus on building a community
• Groups are helpful – don’t stop at joining but
participate and engage

34. • Post Photos – but make sure you have relevant
permissions
• Make sure your profile is complete and have a clear
picture for your profile
• Use Facebook as a portfolio space to showcase
your best photos
• You can pin your best recent photo on top of the
time line

35. • Look for and befriend mentors, guides and role
models
• Take time to appreciate and encourage others
• Never be snarky, vulgar or hateful – it will come
back to haunt you !

36. • Who you follow makes a big difference
• Use tools to identify right people to follow
– Twello.com / Wefollow.com
• Follow Photo hashtags #photo #dailyphoto etc
• Look at other’s followers / follows
• Create your twitter lists
• Twitter is real time- if tweeting photo , include date,
time , place, use relevant hash tags

37. • Your online resume + more
• Particularly important if you are a professional
• Good place to connect with professional
photographers + potential clients
• A lot of photography related groups to connect
• A good publishing platform
• Get testimonials + Control Endorsements

38. • A network meant specially for photographers
• Tons of photographer friendly features – uploads
camera info, can prevent downloads, links directly to
Getty Images
• Make sure to use detailed caption and tags for each
images – helps in discovery
• Join various groups based on topic and location
• Participate in contests happening in various groups

39. • The social layer to any Google service
• Not too many active users BUT
– Has a beautiful interface to display photos
– Numerous Photographer groups and
communities
• Can help with search engine visibility
– Use descriptive title, description for images,
mention, name, location etc
– If you publish anywhere else, set up authorship

43. • Mobile photography network with more than 80
million users.
• Only Square images with lots of filter options
• A highly engaged and interactive community
• Use tags and hashtags to find images and increase
discovery of your images
• Follow tags and communities of interest
• Share others images with statigr.am
p.s. There are a bunch of filters and editing options
inbuilt.

44. • Fastest growing social network with 25 million plus
users, predominantly female
• Made for photos – highly visual, content spreads
fast
• Create your boards based on subject, location etc
• Ideal to search for inspiration
• Pin others’ photo to inspire, connect and build your
repository of ideas

47. • Highly popular as photo blogging platform – More
than 80 million Blogs already..
• Reblogging is a key activity that ensures content
spreads very fast
• Share images with descriptive tags, location, subject
etc
• Research and follow community tags like
PhotoOfTheDay etc

48. Generic Best Practice
• Use a clear positive headshot as your display pic
across all social platforms
• Think of your headshot as your logo – avoid
changing it unless you really need

49. Generic Best Practice
• Use the About/ Profile section in all the channels
judiciously. Clearly state what you do, your location
and your web address
• Engage Actively : Connect with relevant
communities, initiate and participate in
conversations

50. Generic Best Practices
• Focus on your Audience : Post leading questions
that encourage your readers to respond
• Openly appreciate good work – even if its by a
competitor
• Be Opinionated – opinions make you stand out
• Consistently post quality content, connect with new
people, post comments and engage in discussions

51. Generic Best Practices
• Be an Expert : provide advice, publish content that
solves problems, how to guides etc
• Providing free expert guidance will help establish
you as an authority
• You can’t please everyone, so don’t bother if
someone hates you – but don’t give way to hating

52. Criticism + Reputation
Management
• Do not be aggressive, Do not give
excuses
• Own up your mistake
• Clearly state how you plan to make
it right
• You can’t remove negatives, but
you can build positives
• Monitor the media

53. The Brilliant Student’s Story

54. The Brilliant Student’s Story
PEOPLE REMEMBER YOU NOT FOR YOUR
ACHIEVEMENTS BUT HOW YOU IMPACT
THEM..
If You impact others well, that will create a positive brand

55. Saptarshi Roy Chaudhury
digitalSRC.com/blog
twitter : @rishi3211us