The Importance of a Good, Consistent, Easy to Recognize Avatar

So often, I see people use avatars (those little icons that represent you on social media sites) that are anything but an easy to recognize photo of themselves. Maybe they use their logo, their favorite signature photo of a client, a photograph of something pretty like a flower, or even a photo of themselves -- with a camera in front of their face.

When you use photos like this, guess what? No one will ever recognize you.

At WPPI, I had people tell me daily that they recognized me -- often followed by the question, "red wall?" Why? Because I use the same photo everywhere. Me, easy to see, with a red wall behind me. Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, OSP, Fast Track Photographer Forums, here on PhotoLoveCat. All the same photograph. I joked after the second day that I was going to figure out a way to have a piece of red poster board behind me at all times so I would be even easier to recognize.

While at a party one night, I was approached by another Twitter user who wanted to introduce herself. Because she also has an easy to recognize avatar, I remembered her right away - it was an instant visual connection. (Needed, because the party was so loud I could barely hear!) We work in a visual medium, and many of us remember things we see faster than we remember names.

This helps your clients too -- put a photo of yourself on your website so that if you are meeting them outside of a studio setting they can spot you easily. Don't cause them the stress of wandering into Panera or Starbucks and wondering which person sitting there with the laptop is the vendor they are supposed to be meeting with!

Get together with a photographer friend, shoot headshots of each other that you really like, and get them online! Make it easy for people to know who you are! Be sure to use a photo where everyone can see your whole face so we know who you are!

Christine Tremoulet is a Houston, Texas Hot Mama Boudoir photographer and wants you to have a Business of Awesome. She also runs Wholly Matrimony, a destination wedding blog. She is a creative geek, having blogged since 2000 at BigPinkCookie. When she isn't taking photos or knitting, she is busy devouring all the info related to Marketing & Social Media and its powers that she can find online. Follow her on Twitter.

Talk Tweet To Me

I've been on Twitter a long time, so by now the language used there is sort of second nature to me. And a lot of it is the same stuff you see all the time on IM conversations - things like "LOL" because there is only so much you can fit into 140 characters. I hope to help take the mystery out of some of the other stuff that might come up there.

1. Follow

This one is sort of obvious. You read something that someone likes, and you want to follow them so you can read more. It has a few different impacts on your relationship with that person when it comes to Twitter. Not only do their posts now show up in your stream to read, but depending on their settings, they will now see @ messages that you send to them, and you can receive direct messages (DMs) from them. Follow people you want to keep up with, people that are interesting to you, people you want to network with, companies you use ... heck, you can even follow God, DarthVader, and a long list of other wacky accounts.

Here is the catch though -- just because you follow someone, they may or may not follow you back. The same holds true that you don't have to follow everyone that follows you. Personally, I try to follow people that bring my life value, that I can relate to somehow. I use TweetDeck, as I mentioned before, to keep them all straight. I have to admit, I think that if you're using Twitter to market your business, you *should* try to follow the majority of people that follow you. If someone walked into your studio, you wouldn't just ignore them after telling them about your latest promotion. It is a conversation - join in.

2. The @ Thing

This takes a little bit to get used to, but before you know it you will find it to be second nature. This cool little thing makes it easy for someone else to hear you. Think of it like walking up to someone at a party and saying something - out loud - directly to them.

Something important to know -- the @ reply works best when you put it at the FRONT of the message, before anything else. Otherwise, Twitter.com and some of the other software will not display it to the user you intend to see it.

For example, the other day Anne sent me this message:
@christinebpc thinking about going to SXSW in March for @alexruthmann's spring break- any advice?

The whole world could see her message, but because of that magical @christinebpc up at the very beginning, it showed up on Twitter.com under my "Replies".  How awesome is that? Just like at a party, other people could "hear" what we were saying, and join in the conversation if they wanted to -- sometimes, I find out really helpful things that way. Someone else who read that message to me might choose to tip Anne off to great hotel room deals, or things to be sure not to miss. Just like a group gathering at a party.

The @ part of the example above, where it has @alexruthmann, would not show up under Alex's Twitter reply tab though, because he isn't the lead @ in the tweet. However, it would still be a link to his Twitter stream, so people could follow it and check it out. Some softwares will display it too, and it would show up in Twitter Search as well.

Want to streamline what you see in your Twitter timeline? You have the option in your settings on Twitter to view all @ replies that the people you follow send, to view only the @ replies sent to people you are following, or no @ replies. I have mine set to show me all @ replies, even to the people I don't follow, because I often discover new people and things that way.

You can send @ replies to people you do not otherwise follow. Depending on their settings, they may or may not see them. I use Twitter Search to find any replies I might have missed (along with a variety of other things.)

3. The Direct Message aka DM

You want to say something directly to someone - but you don't want the whole world to see what you're saying. A nifty feature of Twitter is the ability to send someone a Direct Message, or a DM. Only hitch? They have to follow you in order for you to DM them. If they don't follow you, then you just have to shout to the wind with an @ message.

If you are on the Twitter site, and viewing someone's profile page, you can quickly tell if they follow you because there is a "Message" option in the right sidebar, just above the icons of who they follow. If that Message option is there, you're all set. Click it, and send your private message along.

There is an even faster way to send a direct message though! Just type a d before the username, at the very beginning of the tweet, then when you hit send - they will get the message! This is really handy if you use SMS to send tweets along. As long as you know their username, you don't have to go to their profile to send a message.

Note: there is no @ needed when you're sending a DM.

Here is how you would format it:

d AnneRuthmann I got your message about SXSW - it is so awesome! You must come! I can't wait to see you there.

Once I hit send, this would go straight to her.  If you try to do that to someone that doesn't follow you, it will bounce, and I don't think you'll have any way of knowing it unless you're on the Twitter site.

If you use the Message option on their profile page, you do not have to type "d username" also. It is a one or the other thing.

Sometimes you'll see people write a post, and they will say at the end "dm me" or "d me for more details" -- I know someone that sold her used camera gear that way, listing it in a tweet, and the person that bought it sent her a direct message to start to make the arrangements.  

4. TinyURL? Tr.im? What are these strange addresses?

The down side of Twitter is that 140 character limit. Awesome to make quick posts. Not so great to post a long website address. Ugh.

Two of the services out there - there are many others, I'm sure - that will allow you to shorten a URL so it will fit can be found at TinyURL.com and at tr.im. I use Tr.im most of the time because it is shorter, but TinyURL.com was one of the first available, allows you to create a custom TinyURL, the URLs are permanent and never expire, and is a reliable service.

Hope that helps with the basics - in the next few day, I'll talk more about some of the other terms you often see on Twitter. Is there anything you've seen over there that you can't figure out? Let me know!

Christine Tremoulet is a Houston, Texas Hot Mama Boudoir photographer and wants you to have a Business of Awesome. She also runs Wholly Matrimony, a destination wedding blog. She is a creative geek, having blogged since 2000 at BigPinkCookie. When she isn't taking photos or knitting, she is busy devouring all the info related to Marketing & Social Media and its powers that she can find online. Follow her on Twitter.

Tools for Tweeting

The whole point of Twitter is that it is all about the conversation. You don't want to just post a tweet about the latest update on your blog. Follow people that follow you - and others that might be of interest to you. Make sure you talk with them, just don't just post updates!

You're using Twitter to build your personal brand. YOU are what your clients are buying when they hire you - everything that they get, including your stunning photography, is an extension of you. So always remember, if you don't want something attached to your personal brand (the details of the party you went to on Saturday, your rant about someone or something) -- then don't post them to Twitter, or really anywhere else online!

You can always just use the regular web browser for reading and posting to Twitter - lots of people do that. But why limit yourself to just that when there are some other really cool software options out there?

I use Twitter a LOT, and I keep up with a wide variety of people - wedding photographers, children photographers, other wedding vendors, friends in my area, and knitters. To make it easier to keep up with everyone, I use Tweetdeck. The coolest feature of Tweetdeck? I can sort people into groups! That makes it so easy to keep up with what is going on in my different circles of friends!  Note: one big tip for using Tweetdeck? When you first set it up, it takes awhile to populate with everyone you're following and all of their posts. Don't worry, as people update, they will update in Tweetdeck too. (PC, Mac - Free)

When I'm away from my computer and want to post to Twitter, my tool of choice for the iPhone is Hahlo - which actually runs through the web browser. It has a nice, clean interface, easy to use buttons, and my favorite? When people respond to a post on Twitter, you can see what they are responding to - right in a nice, streamlined interface! (Web browser based, great for mobile phones - Free)

Twitterific is another very popular application for Twitter, available for both Macs and the iPhone.  It is a nice, clean, easy to use interface. (Mac, iPhone - Free)

Before I discovered Tweetdeck, I used Twirl, which runs on Adobe Air (like Tweetdeck), so it will run on both PCs and Macs. It also has a very nice, clean interface with some customization options. Sometimes I switch back to using it if I want something smaller on my desktop.  (PC, Mac - Free)

Other applications that are highly recommended - but I haven't tried them out yet!

- TwitterFon (iPhone - Free)

- Twinkle (iPhone - Free)

- Tweetie (iPhone - $2.99)

- Twitterberry (Blackberry - Free)

- TwitterFox - Firefox add-on (requires Firefox. PC, Mac - Free)

- TwitBin - Firefox add-on (requires Firefox. PC, Mac - Free)

- Twitterlicious (requires .NET framework to be installed. PC only - Free)

What is your favorite, most used Twitter application? I would love to hear all about it!

Christine Tremoulet is a Houston, Texas Hot Mama Boudoir photographer and wants you to have a Business of Awesome. She also runs Wholly Matrimony, a destination wedding blog. She is a creative geek, having blogged since 2000 at BigPinkCookie. When she isn't taking photos or knitting, she is busy devouring all the info related to Marketing & Social Media and its powers that she can find online. Follow her on Twitter.

Tweet, Tweet, Tweet!

Next up in the Social Media lineup? Twitter!

I first discovered Twitter shortly after it launched.  Back in 2006, Evan Williams (the original person behind Blogger before Google bought it out) had a little box on his blog with his latest tweets, sharing with the world in a micro format what he was doing.  I immediately went and signed up. Evan is an innovator, and I knew if he was involved it was going to be something cool.

Twitter didn't really start to grow into what it is today until the spring of 2007. There is a large Film/Music/Interactive festival in Austin, Texas every spring called SXSW. At SXSWi, enough of us were on Twitter that we found it really useful to coordinate meeting up with people, making dinner plans, and everything else you can think of. From there, Twitter took off. (You can read a lot more about Twitter over on Wikipedia.)

But what is Twitter?

Twitter is basically microblogging. In 140 characters or less, you share what you are doing at that time. You can use it for any number of things - post where you are at, the funny joke you just heard, ask for help with something, talk about what you had for lunch.

There are no rules.

The best way to start with Twitter is to just sign up. Find people to follow that you might have similar interests with - other photographers (I'm there and so is Anne), people in your city, people you know on Facebook.  Follow people who those people follow. Join in the conversation. If you just sit on the sidelines, it won't make any sense. It will make a lot more sense if you talk with people through Twitter.

Yes, Twitter can even help your business grow, in a lot of different ways. I've often heard people say that Twitter sure seems fun, but really? They will never get business from it. That isn't true. Back on November 10, 2007 I helped rescue a wedding thanks to Twitter.  I had done shoots for a local magazine, along with my friend Mark. He is an amazing concert photographer - and for months, we had chatted back and forth via Twitter. The owner of the magazine was in a wedding where the hired photographer did not show up. He only had the other photographer's phone number in his cell phone. Being a concert photographer, he knew he wasn't up for a 300+ guest wedding - but he immediately thought of me & my second shooter, Elaine. He messaged us both, and within 15 minutes we had talked with the groomsman and we were on our way to save the wedding. We booked at least 3 weddings in 2009 that were a direct result of that wedding (1 of the bridesmaids, 1 friend of the bride's brother, and 1 who just thought it was awesome that we would do that) -- and it is something that would have never happened without Twitter, and networking with people in my city. The whole thing was a Defining Moment for me and my business.

Do you Twitter? Has it helped your business? Has it helped you grow a stronger community of photographers around you?

Christine Tremoulet is a Houston, Texas Hot Mama Boudoir photographer and wants you to have a Business of Awesome. She also runs Wholly Matrimony, a destination wedding blog. She is a creative geek, having blogged since 2000 at BigPinkCookie. When she isn't taking photos or knitting, she is busy devouring all the info related to Marketing & Social Media and its powers that she can find online. Follow her on Twitter.