This is Aaron Hockley's third guest blog post. Aaron is a professional photographer and writer who tweets too much and blogs a few times each week. His professional work finds him working with businesses for events, publicity, and editorial work; he also creates abstract and travel photos for leisure. In addition to photography for clients Aaron often works with other photographers to help them understand and refine their online and social media presence. Read Aaron's first blog post here. And, his second post here.

How's your social media life today?

Have you Tweeted? Pinned? Instagrammed?

What about LinkedIn? Facebook? Flickr?

Feeling overwhelmed? You're not alone. There are a lot of social networks and social media outlets that compete for our time as photographers. One could probably easily fill an eight-hour workday with nothing but online social media activities. That wouldn't leave time for actually making or editing any photos!

How do you decide where to spend your effort with social networking? I think you can make those decisions based on three factors, and one of them is a bit of a cheat.

1) Where Are Your Clients (or Fans)?

When we look at social media marketing or social networking from the aspect of trying to grow one's photography business, the online world is no different than the offline world. If you're engaged in offline advertising, mailers, networking, or other marketing efforts, you're (hopefully) targeting your audience. If you're trying to sell your senior portrait services, you're targeting high school juniors and seniors rather than sending a mass-mailer to everyone in your city. The same principles should apply online.

Identify your ideal clients. We already mentioned high school seniors if that's what you do. If you photograph weddings, you're looking for brides and can make some generalizations about their age and, depending on your positioning, income levels. How many wedding planning boards are there on Pinterest? Thousands? Millions? If I shot weddings I'd be all over that. Do you make fine art landscape images? Odds are that you know something about your typical buyer. If you're a commercial shooter, you probably want to connect with marketing folks, agencies, art directors, and the like.

Figure out where those clients live online. For high school seniors, right now the buzz is that Twitter and Instagram are the most popular networks. Corporate types are found on LinkedIn and increasingly on Twitter. If you want to find brides, Facebook is a good place to be and to connect with others in that segment. I'm seeing a fair amount of discussion on Google+ that involves folks willing to buy fine art prints and books.

2) Where Are Industry Connections?

Building relationships with clients (both existing and potential) is one aspect of social networking, but the other big area that can benefit photographers is connecting with industry professionals. Developing connections with other photographers, manufacturers of photo equipment, and vendor partners can have various benefits to your photography. In some cases, “it's who you know” can lead to referrals. Perhaps getting to know other industry folks can lead to publicity or an “in” with a gear manufacturer. Maybe you just want to bounce ideas or problems off of someone who has been in a similar situation.

Right now, I'm making the most connections with other photographers and industry folks on Google+.

3) Do You Just Want to Have Fun?

If your purpose in social networking is purely to have fun, then heck, do whatever you want … but don't complain that you're not getting business results if you're not making social media choices based on business criteria.

So … Where Do You Go?

There's not a single right answer. I've given you some ideas above, but ultimately you need to look at your business and figure out what makes sense for you. You don't have to be everywhere, on every social media channel. You can't be everywhere. It's okay to ignore a social network that isn't relevant for your business or area of interest. Trying to reach retail photographer customers? They're not likely to book you via LinkedIn. You probably won't pick up a corporate job via your Instagram images. Look at what you do, where you want to be, and where your clients and partners are hanging out. Be there, and don't feel bad about about ignoring other places.

Scott Wyden Kivowitz is a New Jersey Photographer and the Community & Blog Wrangler at Photocrati, NextGEN Gallery and the Photographers SEO Community, teaching other photographers on how to increase business with their website.

These days, websites are so important for photography businesses. They can be used as a marketing tools, a sales tool and even an accounting tool if so desired.

WordPress is the most popular website platform among the industry, and most industries for that matter. After picking from WordPress photography themes, many photographers are looking for advice on what to do or where to go next. With WordPress being such a flexible platform for websites, it is understandable that someone can be overwhelmed at first.

This is where a new eBook comes into the picture. (pun intended) 10 Tips To Supercharge Your Photography Website contains advice from ten photographers who have done the legwork of figuring out some secrets to website success.

For example, Jamie Swanson of The Modern Tog talks about local marketing and SEO by using a website. Justin Balog, of HOSSedia, talks about using your blog as an education resource to attract clients. Brian Matiash, of onOne Software, talks about using social media to further promote your work.

Photographers in the eBook:

• Jamie Swanson
• Andrew Funderburg
• Angela Pointon
• C.C. Chapman
• Zach Prez
• Brian Matiash
• Chris Frailey
• Justin Balog
• Rosh Sillars
• Jodi Friedman

Even with the three examples and the tips from seven photographers, Photocrati has added their own advice to the mix.

“Choosing a WordPress theme is very personal, even when choosing for a business. As photographers, we are visual people and tend to lean towards more visual themes, which completely makes sense. Of course, you can pick between free and premium (paid) themes, but premium themes provide a lot of advantages.”

So as you can see there is a lot to be learned in the ebook. Did I mention it's free?

Aaron Hockley is a photographer (and speaker) in Vancouver, Washington. He downloaded a copy of the photography website eBook and sent me an email saying:

“Great tips for photographers of all sorts – whether you shoot people, artwork, or landscapes, these website strategies will apply to your site.”

So with that, I urge you to visit the eBook page and download your free copy, because it's only a few clicks away.

This is Russ Klettke's interview with Brian Dilg, who is Chair of Photography at the Photography School at the New York Film Academy. In addition to 20 years of professional teaching experience around the world, Dilg's work has been published in The New York Times, Time Out, Village Voice and covers of books published by Simon and Schuster, Random House and Hyperion. He has also worked in post-production for major fashion houses, consumer products manufacturers and media organizations. He also has won awards as a filmmaker and worked as a director, cinematographer and editor of narrative, documentary, music video and commercial films.

Q: What do you tell photography students about careers in the industry?

As an instructor at a New York-based school of photography (The Photography School at the New York Film Academy), I regularly provide advice to student commercial photographers and photojournalists about the kinds of careers they may achieve. It is hugely beneficial for them to envision the heights to which they can aspire – we are is New York, after all, where you can become the best of the best in almost every endeavor – but it is also essential to consider the entry point at which one can enter the profession.

I have a quick way of summarizing what a career in photography likely will entail. In your first job, you probably will be someone’s assistant, and a lot of your time will not involve taking pictures. Across the later arc of your career, you are likely to be self-employed and therefore must have business skills – in addition to your acumen and artistry as a photographer.

Q: So, they are to start from the ground up – but does that mean actually taking photos?

Let’s discuss first things first. The role of the photographer’s assistant, or someone who works in the administrative and support side of photography, is not just about paying dues. You will learn vital parts of what makes a photographer valuable to his or her clients and their craft. Between what you shoot and what is ultimately used in print editorial, multimedia advertising or online publications there is a lot of editing, organizing, legal documentation, processing and selling. Long-term, every photographer has to know how this works and how to manage it.

Q: We suppose this varies, depending on the type of photographer the student hopes to be one day, yes?

The specific path you wish to take – smaller-scale commercial (including weddings), larger-scale commercial (fashion and advertising photography), and photojournalism – would likely involve these entry level positions:

Smaller-scale commercial – Most established photographers need assistants to help with lighting, equipment, on-location support and administrative tasks. Work with a pro and learn to be a pro. Often, the assistant will price out a job (some use contract templates found on Blinkbid.com) and handle client contact to some extent.

Larger-scale commercial – The digitech assistant on advertising, high-end fashion and other large-budget commercial shoots may appear to be the most popular person in the production. As they work on the computer tethered to the camera, clients and talent might be clustered around them as they identify whether or not the shoot is getting them what is intended – in real time. The work doesn’t end there, as a lot of organizing and file backup is required post-production, along the path that selected images take to become a final product.

Photojournalism – While the budgets for photojournalists are shrinking for print media, rare is the project where the assistant can travel with the photographer to newsworthy locales – unfortunately. But there is plenty for the photojournalist’s assistant to do in the office: editing, cropping, backing up files, processing prints and communicating and invoicing are all in their role. This person gets a first-hand look at what clients (media) want and need, and the value they place on good images.

Of course, assistants in each category need to be working on developing their own skills and portfolio, even when that is not their full-time responsibility. For example, the photojournalist should seek out local media assignments, enough to develop credits and tear sheets. Commercial photographers-in-training should jump at any opportunity to work with smaller clients.

Q: Is it essential for the photographer to also be a businessperson?

Concurrent with developing a portfolio, the photographer needs to become comfortable with the business imperatives of a photography career. Indeed, the first job for photographers is to get to know the business. In addition to the skills development mentioned above, the future independent photographer needs to understand the importance of selling in their career. By selling, we mean relationship development. You’re only as good as you hope to be and working as much as you want when clients know you and trust you. That boils down to a personal style, your professionalism, how fun you are to work with and your ability to establish reasonable expectations on the part of your clients – on top of providing top-quality photography.

Do you agree that the first job for photographers who are either professionals or want to go pro should be to get to know the business? Sound off below in the comments section. Your voice counts!