The Other Side is an in depth documentary about the homeless situation in Durham NC. I decided to sit down & give a few voiceless citizens in Durham a voice. This is them telling their stories from from their perspectives. Nothing is scripted or sketched out, this is about as raw as it gets.
A company that actually gets it....
It's great to see companies that actually have fun in their business models. The New Belgium brewery company earned a new found respect from us with their Tour de Fat festival.
This was our first one any of us ever attended & we promise this will not be our last. We believe that in order for businesses to survive in this era, you must do somethings out the norm. Promotions for this event couldnt have been better! A festival in Durham NC with stage acts, bicycles & lots of people. The bike parade itself attracted more than 500 people, just think of the exposure that created. Their were plenty of social media activity going on about the event, picture postings & facebook updates. Theirs alot to be learned from these guys. Pay attention...
Getting under the problem
The only way to understand a problem is getting under the surface to see it from a different angle.
A way to look at Twitter!
Social Media is here to stay. It just is. The conduit through which social media will be used may change along the way, but social media nonetheless will be with us from now on, so we as photographers need/have to embrace it.
I got a comment on one of my older posts here the other day because I was offering to provide a coupon code to anyone who sent me a tweet. The comment read:
Hey (James) Brandon, ive tried twitter and find it the biggest waste of space going so having to follow you to get a discount is more trouble than its worth!
I am not including this quote to call anyone out at all. The truth is, I use to feel the exact same way about Twitter! To get your juices flowing around the idea of Twitter and Social Media in today’s age of technology.
Twitter Is Good. Not Evil!
Twitter is all about community, but Twitter is not Facebook. I think a lot of people who have Facebook (but haven’t given Twitter a try) believe they are very similar so there is really no need for a separate Twitter account. Well, they are not very similar at all! When someone signs up for a Facebook account, they are guided through a process where they can begin finding people they know from the schools they went to, and by going through the friends lists of people they know. If I add my buddy as a friend on Facebook, then I have one friend and that person has one more friend than they had before. It’s reciprocal. If I go through and want to be friends with 1,000 people, I will have 1,000 friends. That means I will see the feeds on 1,000 people, and all of those people will mutually see whatever I put on Facebook.
When people come to Twitter I think they are expecting the same thing. Facebook is easy. There is no challenge to it really. You don’t have to work at getting noticed. You simply become friends with the people you know and that’s it, you then have access to post on their wall, send them messages, chat with them when they are online, etc.
When people sign up for a Twitter account, choose a username, and start adding people to their ‘Follow List,’ they immediately notice the big difference and the initial problem with Twitter: They are alone.
If I decide to follow you on twitter, there is no guarantee that you will follow me. That means I will see everything you tweet out, but you won’t see anything I tweet out. I’m basically alone and invisible in the incredibly massive and somewhat intimidating world of Twitter and it’s not fun.
You see, Twitter requires work. It requires a lot of work. You have to invest time in others and find a community of like minded people to start building your following from. People have to make a decision to follow you, and there isn’t much you can do to help them make that decision besides getting your name out there and being interesting to them.
The first 100 followers on Twitter are very difficult to get, especially if you aren’t a very well know photographer outside of your (tangible) community. Once you get to that 100 followers mark, the ball starts rolling slowly. Every time you send out a tweet, you have an immediate audience of 100 people. But it still requires work, and a lot of investing in other people.
Once you get plugged in to a community on twitter of likeminded people, it becomes incredibly fun and rewarding. If you can become part of a powerful community, your tweets start getting exposed to thousands of people through things like retweets and mentions.
Darius Goins' photostream
Darius Goins' photostream on Flickr.
Be sure to head over to one of our in house photographers Flickr stream. He's constantly uploading photos & updating his sites.
Kids portraits
We love shooting kids & capturing their expressions! Kids are not the easy subject to capture however, lol.. They can be a bit of a challenge when their not in the mood for photography. You gotta love capturing kids, they provide a certain energy & essence when shooting. An innocence they we tend to loose in adult hood.
If you're in need of kids portraits or events or photos for publishing, be sure to let us know.
Dual screens
When the workload calls for it, you gotta double up sometimes. Photoshop on one & internet on the other. A small & easy setup if you have the systems available. One of the reasons I do seperate projects on the computer is simple, multitasking & the ability to alternate back and forth without switching screens. I often hate operating any editing programs while thee internet being launched.
Android FX app, the Power of Mobile Media
The new smart phones without a doubt makes blog posting much more convenient with ease. From anywhere now, bloggers &.social media enthusiast can easily keep up with the social media demand. I am doing a test run right now with the My Touch 4G & the Blogger app for android. I just took a photo & uploaded & captured a few thoughts on the technology genius. This even applies to business owners & them keeping up social media & their brands online while on the go
Do you really get Social Media?
Social Media is a constant evolving form of communication. It has no boundaries. Social media has changed the way consumers & business interact & communicate with each other. No longer are the days of feeling out of reach with your favorite brands. And if you can't reach them through social media, its a good chance they're loosing consumers, fans, etc...
In 2011, its simply no reason what so ever any business any size lacks a social media presence. Their are simply too many platforms available for any size business. And like i tell businesses in my consultations, your consumers are talking about you on the web regardless if you want them to or not. It amazes me the attitudes of small business owners who figure if they don't engage in social media no one will say anything about their business. This has to be the biggest misconception ever heard. Simply google your business name & see what pops up. Its that simple. You'd be surprised to find your business on Yelp or some other review site at the least. In fact these businesses already have your establishment in their database, their just waiting on you to claim it. So in short its a double edge sword.
We can help by properly educating you about social media & its affects on your business. We offer management services of your social media so you can run your business without worry of your online reputation & brand monitoring. Contact us for more details
Independent Business
There's nothing like independent business in todays society. With the support of each others business we're able to thrive & grow continuously. We help businesses get familiar with social media & visuals.
Relaunching the blog
Whats up everyone! Yep we've decided to give the blog a slight facelift. Especially since we've extended our services into the Durham NC area.
Be sure to connect with us on Twitter & other social media outlets. We're actively engaged in the web!
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