Below are the slides for a talk I’ll be giving at @Photoshelter‘s Austin Photo Seminar “Thriving in Uncertain Photographic Times” in Austin on March 13th, and I’d love to get your thoughts and feedback so that I can improve before the talk this coming Saturday.

Updated March 23: thanks for the input via the comments and email, appreciate everyone’s thoughts and help. The presentation below is now the updated version. And the talk rocked, if I don’t say so myself.

Fred Wilson often publishes the slides of his talks to the web before the events to solicit feedback and input from the many great minds on the web; I did it for a presentation as part of a panel at PDN Photo Plus Expo last October and loved the process, and I wanted to do it again for a talk I’m giving at Photoshelter‘s Austin Photo Seminar “Thriving in Uncertain Photographic Times” in Austin on March 13th.

Feedback, questions? Leave them in the comments below or email me.

Liked this post? Subscribe to this blog by RSS or email, check out more about my consulting services for photographers at NARRATIVELY, and follow me at @tdavidson on Twitter.

Announcing I’m open for business, consulting on online marketing, social media and digital business strategies for individual photographers and photography-services companies, helping people adapt to the shifting economic structure of the photography industry.

Go to this page to hire me. Email me at tdavidson@taylordavidson.com if you have any questions.

Free Advice to Start

Start with this range of free advice about shifting business models in photography, marketing, website development and social media:

• Taylor Davidson, 34 Posts on Evolving Business Models in the Photography Industry. Start with the Five Lessons series for the best introduction to the conversation.
• Taylor Davidson, How to use Twitter to market your photography, a presentation from a panel about Twitter and Photography at PDN PhotoPlus Expo in NYC in October 2009.
• Photoshelter, Google Analytics for Photographers – Free Download, a free guide to understand how to use Google’s tools to monitor website traffic and make informed business decisions.
• Photoshelter, SEO for Photography Websites: Free Toolkit, a free guide to understanding website design and search engine optimization.
• Photoshelter, Social Media for Photographers, a free guide on how to grow your photo business with social media.

Consulting to Leap Forward

While the free guides are full of great information, they also require some time for you to understand and use. If you want to up your learning curve and work with me to develop strategies and tactics specifically for your business, I provide consulting services for:

• Online Marketing and Social Media: Review your current online marketing strategy and social media plan (including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, YouTube, etc.) and develop integrated online and offline marketing plans tied to your business and product goals. Review your website content and website analytics to create online and social media marketing strategies.
• Business and product strategy: Review your current business strategies, review your ideas for growth and create new strategies and tactics.

How does it work?

• Price: New Client: $49 for first 30 minutes, $125 per hour afterward. Existing Client: $125 per hour.
• Process: Go to this page to schedule and pay for a consulting session. Once payment has been received and a day and time has been selected, I’ll confirm by email. Our consulting session will through a conversation over the phone, and after the session I’ll email you a document summarizing our conversation, the links we discussed and we’ll determine next steps.

Speaking

I’m also available to speak at select conferences about the photography industry, social media and marketing. Over the last year I’ve spoken at SXSW 2009, PDN PhotoPlus Expo 2009, TribeCon 2009 and IgniteNOLA, and I’ll be speaking at SXSW 2010, Photoshelter’s Austin Photo Seminar, CEPIC New Media Conference and more events through the rest of 2010. Click here to check out my schedule for 2010.

Connecting

I love connecting with the range of great people on the web; I’m easy to reach via Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and, of course, good ‘ol email at tdavidson@taylordavidson.com. If you aren’t interested in my one-on-one consulting, you’ll still be interested in following the thoughts and analysis on my blog. Follow the blog by RSS or by email.

Quoting myself from part one of an interview I did with Ellen Boughn about photography, business models, social media, and how to “be a hub”. Part two is about how photographers can market authentically by creating stories and “embedding humanity” into their businesses.

From Part 1 of an interview I did with Ellen Boughn about photography, business models and social media, “Be a Hub” – Taylor Davidson:

“The economics of new technologies gave anyone the tools to create, but didn’t guarantee that they would profit from creating. While the activity is in the long tail, profits flow to the aggregators [of] the tail.”

… Taylor points out that the economics of the hub have been changed by many factors, one of which is social media. He explains that electronic word of mouth has given power to smaller hubs. By being a specialty destination, your website/blog can become the hub for that subject or story. You can operate in smaller niches but you MUST be the hub in the niche. You must be really good at (your niche). You must be the top choice in the subject.

“Being a hub” is a grand idea, but how can one create a hub? Start by telling stories and creating conversations to connect people:

“I have a strong belief that successful businesses need to be more like people. Individuals want to connect to the people behind a business.” He suggests that a photographer that only shows photos on his/her website is missing opportunities to connect with their audience. “People want to see more than a series of images. Photographers should use all the tools available to them to tell a story. Be a hub of information about not just yourself and your work but about a story that you have created.”

On that note, I’m a huge fan of efforts like Help-Portrait (led by Jeremy Cowart) and Images Without Borders. But more on that later.

While it’s important to focus your time, energy, passion to create stories, experiences and assets that build on each other, it’s important to test and learn as you build:

“Don’t put yourself in a situation where the only experiments you try are the ones that could wipe you out. Try little experiments. Try one a day, one a week even if the burden of mid-career responsibilities keep you focused on getting through the demands of running an established business. These small experiences will sometimes create opportunities. (But don’t expect them all to.)”

Part two of the interview was posted March 22nd, focusing on how photographers can market themselves and their work authentically by creating stories and “embedding humanity” into their businesses.

More? Dip into the deep end of posts about the evolving business models in the photography industry.

Released: in partnership with Jim Goldstein, the results of the Social Media Photography Survey 2009.

As Jim explains in the announcement of the results of the Social Media Photography Survey 2009:

I decided to run a survey on the subject [the value in social media] as I was preparing to present on a Twitter Revolution panel at Photo Plus Expo. The (2) two goals of this survey were to:

1. Answer many of the basic questions I was receiving not just with my professional opinion, but the cold hard reality of what other photographers were reporting in relation to their marketing & business efforts.
2. Capture a historical snapshot of early business adoption of social media in the photography industry.

In less than a month I was blown away to have nearly 550 photographers take part in the survey. With the skillful help of friend, photographer and business designer Taylor Davidson the survey data was combed through to provide meaningful patterns and trends. After several weeks of review the results are summarized in the slide deck below along with some high level analysis to provide greater clarity on the subject. I hope this proves to be of great value to you and I invite you to share these survey results with your peers, trade organizations and others who have questions about Social Media.

(If you are viewing this in RSS, click here to view the embedded presentation)

Also: my presentation from the Twitter Revolution Panel, How to use Twitter to market your photography.