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Not all of us have hours on end to spend on social media (myself included). Most photographers make their money by bringing in clients whether it’s families, brides, small businesses, whatever it may be. So any excess time spent on social media is time that could be spent sourcing clients. Now, social media can actually be a way to source clients if done properly, but that’s a whole other article! In this article I want to show you how you can take one single post and make it appear on all the social media outlets mentioned in the title. So I’ll simply go through my workflow in this area and you can take it or leave it 
.
This is the first step for me. Using a wordpress plugin called Google+Blog created by Daniel Treadwell, I can create a post on Google+ (be sure to follow me there!) and have it automatically export that post over to the pending section of my blog. There is a free version of this plugin but I was more than happy to pay $10 for the paid version. It supports the hard work Daniel put into this plugin and it gives you more features and options.
Google+ is the best for step 1 because you can create titles and headers using bold font and there’s (virtually) no limit to how long your post can be. Google+Blog even imports comments from G+ to your blog so that’s a plus (pun intended) as well!
Setting up the plugin is quite easy. The way I do it is to only have the plugin export posts to my blog if I include the hashtag #photography in the post. That way I can post all kinds of stuff to G+ but only the images I share (along with accompanying stories) will get thrown over to the blog and only when I include that hashtag somewhere in the post.
Once the post goes live on G+ I go over to my blog. The post only shows up on my website when G+ makes an API call at certain times throughout the day, but you can speed this up by going to the Google+Blog option in wordpress. There’s a checkbox next to the “Update Options” button that says “Import Posts On Options Update.” So I just check that box and update the options, then the post shows up in Pending Status immediately. Now, it should be noted that I had to set it up that way. Under the options I chose to have all posts start out as pending. That way I can do some slight tweaking before it goes live.
Now that my post is imported to my blog (which you can check out at james-brandon.com) and in the pending section, all I have to do now is make some final tweaks to make it ready for my readers. When I create the post on G+ and it exports to my blog, the image that comes over is a bit too small for my blog. But the title, the words and all the links are imported over perfectly. So all I do here is quickly delete the small image and upload the full blog sized image from my desktop. I then make a few final tweaks (like creating the image thumbnail, adding categories, adding post tags and a ‘read more’ section) to make the post look right on my blog and then I hit “Publish.”
As soon as the post goes live on my blog, it’s then automagically sent out to my personal Facebook page, my business Facebook page and Twitter all at once. This is done through a site called Networked Blogs. Networked Blogs takes my RSS feed on my website and syndicates it to Facebook and Twitter so I don’t have to! This couldn’t be easier. You simply sign up for an account, add your blogs RSS feed address, then log into Facebook and Twitter to allow access, click a few boxes and done.
So this isn’t really a step anymore once it’s set up, it just happens in the background without you lifting even a finger. No tweaks to make or anything like that.
So that’s it. Post to Google+, make a few quick tweaks in wordpress, publish and done. You’ve just killed 4 birds with like…1 and 1/4 stones . There are a couple of downsides to this method. If you have the time to post to each individual social media outlet, then by all means do. Having Networked Blogs do it means that the post is really just a link to my blog, instead of posting the image to Facebook and including the story there. But you have to decide what you’re after. I would rather have people jump over to my blog and read something there instead of having them read it and leave comments on Facebook. Twitter is the same way and with there character limit and no images a link is a must anyways. Once this process was set up, it easily shaved my time by more than half. Let me know what you think in the comments below!
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Short On Time? Learn To Post To Google+, Your Blog, Facebook, and Twitter Simultaneously
A Guest Post by Yana Locke from Headshot London Photography.
London is an incredible city: vibrant, modern and fizzing with life. But at every turn, London’s past is also very much in evidence, from the glorious historic architecture of its heritage sites to tiny details like a stretch of cobbled road, place names like Pudding Lane or Eel Pie Island and, of course, the ubiquitous blue plaques that commemorate notable people and events all over the city.
So, faced with the challenge of taking a series of pictures that sum up London, where do you start? Covering 600 square miles and with a population of 7.8 million, there’s an awful lot to choose from. Add to that that 2012 is the year of the Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympics…
Although a city may be characterised by the people who live in it, visually it is the cityscape that is most instantly recognisable – whether that’s because of the presence of a famous landmark or due simply to characteristic architecture, street styling or the presence of, say, a London bus, taxi cab or policeman. But, of course, we’ve all seen a thousand pictures of the Houses of Parliament and just as many of the London Eye, the Beefeaters and red telephone boxes. How is your work going to stand out from the crowd?
Taking a photograph of a cityscape or building might seem straightforward – stand in front of the building, square it up in your viewfinder and click – but in fact, to a achieve an image with real impact and interest is anything but. Unless you’re taking the picture for an estate agent’s details, you’ll need to put a bit more thought into what you’re doing. After all, you’re be converting a three-dimensional space into two dimensions. From a physical point of view, you want to capture a sense of size, space, texture, contrast, light and shadows… But are you looking to say a bit more? Something about the building’s function, context, history; the juxtaposition of old with new. Will your picture encompass a whole skyline or will one small detail of one building – a gargoyle, a doorway, a chimney pot – suffice?
Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament, St Paul’s, Tower Bridge – London has plenty of iconic landmarks that everyone knows. But if you want to take a photograph of a building or site that’s very familiar, try to shoot it from a different angle or pick out an unexpected detail. It may not be easy to achieve, but what about a shot from above? Or from behind? Reflected in a nearby window, at dusk or during a storm? Would your picture be better with or without people – a deserted building, cold and empty, like Battersea Power Station, or a busy skyscraper, like the Gherkin, with people streaming in and out like ants…
But buildings are not the only landmarks that make London special. The River Thames will afford plenty of wonderful, if perhaps a little obvious, photo opportunities. Other waterways are less well known – the surviving dock bowls in east London or Victorian leftovers such as the Regents Canal. London’s open spaces also lend themselves to spectacular photography, from the horticultural brilliance of the Chelsea Physic Garden or Kew to herds of deer roaming wild in Richmond Park.
Whether you’re a Londoner born-and-bred or a first-time visitor to the capital, what will make your pictures most interesting is your interpretation of the city. Steer clear of the obvious tourist shots that grace a million postcards and show people what you really feel about this great metropolis.
If you live in London, think about the area in which you live. How would you sum it up? What can you see here that the tourists or casual visitor might miss? How can you bring out London’s character in your pictures? Do you want to highlight the architectural patterns in a row of Victorian terraces houses or is your style gritty reportage shining a light on poverty and deprivation in one of the world’s wealthiest cities?
If you’re visiting London for the first time, what do you see? Look beyond the clichés and take a picture of something you weren’t expecting to see, something maybe that surprised you, shocked you or made you laugh. Explore a little off the beaten track and be ready with your camera to capture every arresting image that confronts you.
London is so much more than the sum of all her buildings. London is about people, history, commerce, art, politics, fashion, music, food, culture and much more – all of it waiting to be captured on film. Ultimately, you need to think about what London means to you. A scattergun approach will never result in a coherent portrait of the capital, so choose favourite part of London to focus on, pick a theme to explore in depth or a strand that can unify diverse images of the city.
Show people the London that belongs to you.
Headshot London Photography – is one of the leading London photography studios specialising in Portraits, Corporate, Fashion, Family and Advertising Photography. For more information please visit the website.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Shooting London – Big City Photography