Twit..

Twitter! That's what's on my mind today! I'm just 11 'Follows' short of 1,000 .. and I'm determined to hit four figures before the week is out! Why? I don't know! I should say it's because I want to build a valuable, profitable online presence, but really I'm just a saddo who fancies the geeky, plastic idea of hitting that magical figure! But never mind that! Help a poor boy out, here! Follow me now! You too can be a recipient of my never-ending stream of witty, intelligent chit-chat! There's even a bribe in there. The 1,000th 'Follower' will receive an A4 print of one of my images they like! Lucky you!..

Online presence! Hmmmm! I've just spent another whole day working on the website for Manchester Wedding Photography. I decided to change the font this time! Made it less BOLD! More feminine! More modern! I hope it bloody works..

And now I must go! I need to tweet this blog ..

Flummoxed: Bewildered or perplexed!..

I admit it! That's me! Flummoxed! I just do not know the best way to promote my work anymore! On the face of it I seem to be doing everything right, at least as far as 'Social Media' is concerned. Blog? Check! (Obviously!) Facebook? Check! Twitter? Check! LinkedIn? Check .. and so on .. BUT .. none of it seems to be bringing in any work! So, yesterday, I decided I'd run a Google Adwords campaign - a small run of online advertising designed to point people to my website. I began it on Monday morning, and spent the day logging back on - with a desperate paranoid compulsion - to see if anybody had looked at the ad! Well, by last night, over 2,000 people had! (As I write, it stands at 2,408 views!) Nearly two and a half thousand views! Amazing!..

Except .. of those 2,408 people, a mere FIVE clicked through to my website! Five! I mean, I don't know .. was that a good click-through rate? Was I doing really well with that figure? The phone rang as I stared at the screen. It was a friend of mine - another Wedding photographer! "Martin .." she said "I'm flummoxed!" (She didn't actually use that word but let's leave it in there for good effect!) "I just don't know the best way to promote my work anymore!.." she wailed "I've not had a booking in absolutely ages! I'm going to start a blog and do Facebook and Twitter like you do!" "Why?.." I said, gulping audibly "What do you now?" "Google Adwords.." she said "I've run an ad for the last six months. Haven't had a thing from it..."

Waiter, another shot of bourbon....

©Martin O'Neill 2014   

Where it's @ ..

I've taken to tweeting, with a vengeance! I'll admit I've not given Twitter the attention it's needed in the past, bogged down as I am with SEO and Flickr, Tumblr and Pinterest (..and to think, I used to be a photographer!) but now I'm hitting the keyboards hard and 'following' as many relevant people as I can find! Unfortunately, that means I'm also now being 'followed' by quite a few irrelevant people, too .. many of whom seem to need me to know from their profiles how many cats/kids/snowboards they've got, and one who urges me to "Close my eyes and see.."! (Doesn't work for me, that one!)

So, for the first time ever I've had new business cards made with my Twitter details on, and now no longer can I sit and watch tv or eat a meal in peace! Oh no, now I'm constantly, feverishly, checking my phone as it bleeps and twinkles and oinks at me when I get new followers or retweets. I can only hope - as many people tell me - that it does actually work as a way to increase business or her indoors'll have me out on my ear at this rate!

PS: Sorry about the seagull picture! Not being a bird-spotter I don't exactly have many images of our feathery friends, so that'll have to do! Jeez, seagulls don't even tweet! Unlike me, ho ho ..

#weddingphotography

©Martin O'Neill 2013

Do you blog?..

Further to my ramblings about the Google ranking system and how to get yourself up it, I was chatting to a new chap at badminton last night who turned out to be a 'senior IT consultant'  (That was handy!) I asked him if he knew anything about SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) "A little .. " he said, self-effacingly, so I asked him if he knew how I could get my website higher up the search pages. "What is it you do?" he asked. "Photography!.." I said. "Ah, ok.." he nodded "So do you change the pictures on your site very often.." "Oh, yes.." I said "In fact, I just changed the front page this very day..."


He thought for a moment... "Do you actually submit the site to search engines?"
"I do, indeed" I said "And I use Google Adwords, albeit at a very low budget"
"And are you on Facebook?"
"Oh, yes, of course.." I said "I have a specific Facebook page for StudioFiveFour"
"And Pinterest, Flickr, etc...?"
"Yes, I use all of those.." I said "and Tumblr"
"And you Tweet?"
"I tweet"
He scratched his cheek and twirled his badminton racket as we waited for our turn on the court. "Ah, well..." he said, breaking into a smile "What you need to do is to write a blog!.."

Oh, bugger....