This past weekend I was strolling the upper East Side of Manhattan under chilly, dark and drizzly skies when down a side street I caught a whiff of fresh baked bread. “Mmmm, gotta have it”, I said and paused spinning in 360 motion to find my target escape from the rain. It was a bakery that I’ve never seen before in all my years trodding these NY streets. Orwasher’s bakery has been around since 1916 … and it was about to get a new customer.
I selected a couple of loaves of fresh baked artisan bread from smiling employees and headed home to try it. A couple of rips, tears and bites in, I was hooked and declared, “This is awesome stuff- best bread in New York!”
After my bread sampling I immediately headed to my laptop to look up Orwasher’s online. I’m a pretty heavy social user, so rather than heading to Google, Yahoo! or some other such likely web search source, I pulled up Twitter and searched for “Orwasher’s Bakery”. While there wasn’t too much tweeting going on yet about this wonderful bakery, I did find that they have an account on Twitter. As a social media user I couldn’t help but appreciate that just as much as the bread they so lovingly and rightly just baked. I was now an empowered brand loyalist, like I could connect with the ownership and the experience. I followed them and now I felt like I became an “insider” with Orwasher’s. I was ready to spread the good word!
1. Twitter
I immediately tweeted to my audience of nearly 800 twitter followers that this is one of the best breads I’ve ever tasted.
2. Website
I then clicked on their main website URL from twitter and discover they had a really nice, simple website.
3. StumbleUpon
One more bite of the Pumpernickle inspired me “thumb up” their main website and write a brief review in StumbleUpon, thus exposing them to tens of thousands of foodies channel surfing on StumbleUpon; not to mention the nearly 10 million general members of StumbleUpon who may search for “food” releated websites.
4. Delicious
A crunchy corner of the Miche Chardonnay slice lead my social media fingers to my Delicious (no pun intended) to bookmark the main website with relevant keyword tags.
5. Facebook
After I cleaned up the slew of crumbs around my plate I turned to my Facebook account and posted to my wall that I simply love this bread. Approximately 100 or so of my 400 Facebook friends are from the New York City area and there’s a good chance they’ll go there as a result of my recommendation – or I’ll end up taking them to Orwasher’s when they visit me.
6. SMS Text
As the vestiges of the fresh bread smell started to leave my home, I made one last social media outreach to express my love for this new-found bread. I picked up by blackberry and texted my brother, my father and 2 other friends to give them the trusted good word of mouth.
Other social users have obviously contributed to Orwasher’s great and deep information at Yelp and this is fantastic for web search. I’m personally not a heavy user of Yelp, but that would be a logical step for others as well.
Orwasher’s bakery doesn’t have a huge social media presence; but they did have a presence and that’s what counts. I didn’t even check to see if they have a Facebook page; Twitter was enough to set me off spreading word. This previously “undiscovered” (in bookmarking sites) business and website are now found and have positive information, tags and reviews online all because they provided a remarkable product, service with a smile and made the effort to set up a twitter account. Their presence on Twitter alone inspired me as a social media user to go one step further saying “these guys rock” and tweet, bookmark them and share it with my audience, thus further spreading the positive word of mouth about their business. It’s no wonder they’ve been around for 94 years!
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It seems the jury is split on whether Google Product logos are good corporate branding or just a bit too boring and predictable. I am not going to try and convince you either way nor go into any deep analysis of the designs, but I will help you take a look at a few of these logos and showcase what product they represent. All of these product logos appear in clean, simple blue lowercase type alongside the Google logo.
Google Buzz
Google Buzz is the newest social networking tool that rolled out in February. Buzz allows users to share updates, photos, videos, and more. Buzz is integrated with your Gmail inbox and connects you to all your contacts immediately. It can also recommend interesting posts and removes ones you’re likely to skip. Buzz can import your stuff from Twitter, Picasa, Flickr, and Google Reader.
When viewing the logo I was immediately reminded of the AVG Internet Security logo look.
Google Maps
Google Maps was launched in July 2005. It is a web mapping tool that powers many map-based services.
Google News
Google News launched January 2006 and is an automated news aggregator.
Google Docs
Google Docs was made available on February 2007, it allows users to create and edit documents online while collaborating in real-time with other users.
Google Chrome
Google Chrome is a free web browser that was released in December 2008.
Google Alerts
Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.
Google Blogs
Google Blogs let you find blogs on your favorite topics.
Google Books
Google Books allows users to search the full text of books.
Google Earth
Google Earth lets you fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings, from galaxies in outer space to the canyons of the ocean. You can explore rich geographical content, save your toured places, and share with others.
Google Images
Google Images is a tool that I use all the time to find images online. I love the refined search options.
Gmail
Gmail is fast, searchable email with less spam.
Google Reader
Google Reader lets you get all your blogs and news feeds fast and in one location.
Google Talk
Google Talk lets you IM and call your friends through your computer.
Google Translate
Google Translate makes viewing web pages in other languages simple.
Google Checkout
Google Checkout is a faster, safer and more convenient way to shop online.
Blogger
Blogger lets you share your life online with a blog – it’s quick, easy and free.
Google Desktop
Google Desktop allows users to search and personalize your computer right from your desktop.
Google Finance
Google Finance is all about business info, news and interactive charts.
Google Calendar
Google Calender lets users organize their schedules and share events with friends.
Google Labs
Explore Google’s technology playground at Google Labs.
Come See ‘Social Media Marketing for Your Business’ at SXSW
Mar 11, 2010 by Chris Winfield | Conferences and EventsOn March 12th (Friday) I’m presenting on a great panel called ‘Social Media Marketing for your Business‘ at the annual South by Southwest conference in Austin, TX. I’ll be joined by my good friend Tony Adam (former Yahoo! guy, former PayPal guy, current BillShrinker) and we are dedicated to giving the audience some real actionable advice on how to use social media to really help your business. Here’s the quick rundown of the panel:
Learn to look further than Twitter and Facebook when it comes to using social media to help your business succeed on the web. Learn solid strategies, how to measure success, and all the tools you need to succeed in the fastest growing marketing medium on the web.
When: Friday, March 12 at 02:00 PM
Where: Hilton D
Who Will Be There? Hopefully YOU!
Check out the full session information here.
Follow me on Twitter for lots of updates right here.
The March ‘10 Social Media Hot Topic List
Mar 10, 2010 by Greg Finn | Link Building, Social Media Marketing, UncategorizedWelcome to this belated March hot topic list! This list contains hot topics for the month that could do very well on social sites, and seeing that it is about a week later than usual, it is a great reason to get working on these today! Ideally you could use this to help aid in linkbait and content creation for social media. Hopefully these ideas can help you harness the momentum of a current hot topic and get more traction. Here’s what will be hot this March in social media!
- March Madness
This is hands down the biggest event of the month. Productivity drops across the country when the NCAA tournament is on. CBS has been streaming all games live over the web and there are so many angles to take with your linkbait on this topic. - The Pacific
Tom Hanks is producing this HBO WWII miniseries that premieres Sunday March 14th. This is a great opportunity to tie in with WWII linkbait, timelines, history and anything that is educational about WWII and “The Pacific” series. - Hot Tub Time Machine
A new movie that is in theatres on March 26th is called “Hot Tub Time Machine” and features some crazed party animals in an absurd premise. The film features John Cusack, Craig Robinson and other cult stars like Chevy Chase. There are many topics that can be related to this movie like” Worst Ideas for a Movie” “Stupidest Movie Premises [Where the Movie was Actually Good]“ “Time Machines in Movies – The Master Guide” .. the possibilities are endless. - Spring
March is the month where snow-dwellers see a glimpse of hope for better weather to come. Dropping Spring related linkbait will be quite timely and well-received by users. Putting facts and information on the wonderfully melty world of Spring is sure to perform well! - NFL Free Agency
Free agency just began, and there is a world of content that will appeal to NFL fanatics across the country. Breaking down the best/worst moves , ideal matches for free agents still available are prime topics for social users. Report cards, breakdowns and the winners/losers are always great angles to take. - Brackets & Gambling In General
These days it is hard to find an office without a NCAA bracket pool. This is by far the largest gambling event of the year in America. Last year even President Obama filled out his bracket. Any analysis of gambling that ties in brackets will perform extremely well. Also, stats around brackets, previous winners, best ways to choose ..etc will be hot topics in March. - Taxes
If there ever was a time that people would be receptive to tax information, March is that time! Show how much people pay, the average return, how to save $$ and other tips and tricks as people definitely have taxes on their minds this month. - Hockey
On the heels of the Canada/US game, people are paying attention to hockey again. Creating interesting lists that play off of Olympic athletes should be well received this month. Comparing Crosby to Gretzky, breaking down the best goaltending of the season, doing follow-up on how the Americans NHL teams fared vs the Canadians teams – there are many possibilities to revisit this formerly frozen topic.
Happy March linkbaiting!
Have any other hot topics for the month of March? Feel free to share examples below, and don’t forget to follow 10e20 on Twitter and subscribe to our RSS feed.
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How to Interact Within Your Target Communities (Without Being a Jerk)
Mar 8, 2010 by Stephanie Weingart | Social Media Marketing, Social NetworksEvery smart marketer knows the importance of community. Interacting with your audience without being “that guy or girl” is a delicate skill. Many times a community can be infiltrated “below the line” by using poor methods of engagement. Other times this might be the dedicated job of a brand or community manager. Leaving it in the hands of these people and making it their job to know the Ins and Outs and the language of the community and the way they interact can be extremely important to how your brand is viewed within that network.
Rules of thumb:
- Brand / Community manager should know EVERYTHING about the brand and or be a huge fan them-self.
- Community language and slang should be used.
- Brand should be transparent about being involved within the community.
- Off brand subjects and conversation is a must.
- Supply links when relevant to product pages or content pages on site but try not to overburden the user with links unless necessary.
- Don’t just share links to your own pages (be a good resource).
Here are some examples of niche communities and how to engage within them.
Fashion Communities
- StyleMob – Answer Style Advice Questions, Comment on user fashion, Post images, use forum to ask Brand Related Questions and receive consumer feedback.
- Fashionising – Heavy discussion about designers, fashion tips and style recommendations, and comment on blog posts.
- The Fashion Spot – Wide spread topics on forums, comment on fashion tips and include products and links back to site,
Male Related Communities
- Uncrate - Answer community allows users to post question and answers about products. “Real Advice from Real Men”.
- MadeMan – Young Men interacting about humor, sports, gear, “grub”, and women. Post comments and join in conversations about related topics.
- Art of Manliness - This community requires member profile allows connection hub for men to brand. Community supplies member birthdays, events, and forums. This gives the brand multiple levels of potential conversation.
Parenting Communities
- Cafe Mom - Thousands of conversations discussing multiple baby & children brand products to engage in, supply links within, and comment on. Comment on pictures that use products. Join and host groups to supply more content to curious users. Write a daily journal, being transparent and clear. The community manager here should be a real mother or father.
- iVillage Parenting – Message board based community that offers thousands of threads and open ended conversations. Brand manager should be a transparent parent and communicative. This community requires active conversationalists who will stay on topic and be insightful. There are many opportunities to supply other users with links and brand related content.
Not leveraging communities that tie into your brand niche is a waste of many opportunities that are available online. There are thousands upon thousands of communities dedicated to certain niches. These communities and networks are stimulated on a daily and hourly basis by consumers who are actively seeking out information, posting thoughts and reviews of their own, or just stopping by to read up on new content. By engaging with these users in a space that they are most commonly not marketed to, yet in a friendly, one-on-one level could help to create new customers and brand evangelists.
Follow Stephanie on Twitter here. Get more 10e20 goodness by subscribing to our RSS feed here.
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Greg and I are out in (usually) sunny California this week for the annual SMX West conference. The whole crew at Third Door Media always puts on an amazing conference and this one looks to be no different so far!
Greg and I will each be speaking on a panel on Day 2’s ‘Social Media Track’. We’re going to bring some secrets and some simple things that you can do to help succeed more in social media marketing – so you won’t want to miss either session!
Greg is up first on at 1:30pm (March 3rd) on this panel:
Free Ways To Market On Facebook:
Your Facebook pages – your wall, groups and fan pages — are a parallel universe to your public web pages. Just as you implement search engine optimization tactics to improve web page rankings, Facebook features many opportunities to enhance your visibility. Viral distribution via Facebook’s social tools is an example, but there are many, many others. Expert SEOs on this panel will share field-proven tactics that reveal how to leverage the power of Facebook.
Moderator: Danny Sullivan, Editor-in-Chief, Search Engine Land
Q&A Moderator: Will Scott, President, Search Influence
Speakers:
Greg Finn, Director of Internet Marketing, 10e20
Jon Fougner, Associate, Ads Product Marketing, Facebook
Bill Parkes, EVP / Chief Digital Officer, nFusion
Tony Wright, CEO/Founder, WrightIMC
I will then be speaking at 4:45pm (March 3rd) on this excellent session:
60 Minutes Per Day For Social Media Success:
Got a small staff? Just don’t have a lot of time? This session looks at how to succeed with social media marketing by spending an hour per day — or less! Tools and techniques to keep you from feeling swamped in the social media quagmire.
Moderator: Jennifer Laycock, Social Media Strategist & Editor-in-Chief, Search Engine Guide
Q&A Moderator: Will Scott, President, Search Influence
Speakers:
Jennifer Laycock, Social Media Strategist & Editor-in-Chief, Search Engine Guide
Matt Siltala, President, Dream Systems Media
Chris Winfield, President, 10e20
I hope to see you at BOTH sessions, you’ll be glad you made it.
A couple of other quick notes.
- If you aren’t able to attend the show this year, I would highly recommend following Lisa Barone’s coverage on Outspoken Media, it’s simply excellent. I usually wind up missing most sessions due to meetings so she even keeps me up to date.
- As always, mention this post to me and I’ll buy you a drink of your choice
Have a great week!
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YouTube Puts Another Nail in the Coffin of IE6
Feb 25, 2010 by Victor Murygin | News, Web DevelopmentMany developers are familiar with problems of making a perfectly standard website display properly in Internet Explorer 6 browser. Usually a development process would consist of testing the site in Firefox or another standard compliant browser. Then, after opening it up in IE6, one would need to figure out why in the world it’s not displaying properly; trying to adjust the HTML/CSS code or applying some IE6-specific hacks to the code that have been known to work.
In years past, the most difficult part was to try to explain to a client why one should not use IE6. You would be lucky to find a client who is somewhat technically sound and would listen to you. But most of the time, they don’t really know or care what “W3C standard compliance” means for them, or what a browser is, in the first place. Microsoft made a genius marketing decision by putting the word “Internet” in their browser name, and to most non-technical people “Internet Explorer” is Internet.
Most importantly, the clients cared that IE has been the most popular web browser, and thus could not be ignored. At the end of the day this just meant extra time and headache for web developers (some horror stories have people spending up to 30% of their development time on IE6 fixes and adjustments).
Google has recently announced that it is dropping support for the Internet Explorer 6 browser on March 13. If you visit youtube.com in the IE6 browser you will now see a big exclamation message in red: “Your browser will be unsupported soon. Please upgrade to a modern browser.”, along with links to a few browsers to upgrade to. This is following a previous announcement of Google Docs and other Apps dropping support for IE6 on March 1st.
In the recent years, since the release of IE7 and IE8 there has been a push from the internet community to at least make the public upgrade their Internet Explorer browsers (if not switch from IE altogether), which included even tricking the visitors to upgrade their browsers.
Over the last two years the usage of IE6 has been dwindling down. But it still consists of 10-20% of the web usage depending on which resource you trust. So recently the problem has been getting better, but once in a while you still run into a client who is using IE6 and it is usually not a pleasant discussion.
Since now the developers have upgraded, and test the site in IE8, most don’t even care about IE6 anymore, until they run into a client who is using one; at which point the discussion begins of why the client is seeing weird things, and then eventually leads to developers trying to convince the client to drop the IE6 requirement. Some, after having learned their lesson, are even putting ‘No IE6 support’ in the initial proposal, to insure that no extra time will be spent on it after the development is over.
One of the biggest users of IE6 (besides old people) are many company employees who do not have permissions to upgrade their browsers at their work. This is a job for their IT department, and often times an IT upgrade of any kind for a company means spending money. In this case one really needs to push the ‘non-security’ aspect of IE6 to an employee hoping that it will get to the top. After all, no company wants to deal with viruses or potential data leaks. There is a speculation that the most recent hacking of Google by Chinese Government came from the security vulnerability of IE6. Thus Google’s recent announcements to drop support for IE6, does not seem like a mere coincidence.
So how does YouTube’s dropping support for IE6 help you and your developers? Well for one, it should be easier for you to convince the clients (or your bosses) to forget about IE6 and upgrade, if they still use it. Google and many other huge websites dropping IE6 really makes it legitimate. Before, it was just your word against theirs. Now you can cite examples of other companies dropping IE6 with Google being the biggest of them all. Another good stat to share is to show them how the usage of IE6 has been decreasing over the recent years.
During these discussions it is also a good idea to mention that they should always try to upgrade their browsers (especially Internet Explorer) to newest versions to avoid being outdated. People usually upgrade the things in their daily lives often, such as cell phones, gadgets, and even cars. Why should a browser be any different. Educating them to stay away from Internet Explorer in general may also be a good idea. IE7 has some problems with CSS rendering, especially with CSS dropdown menus (although not as many problems as IE6). Also, the fact that none of the IE browsers support HTML5 or CSS3 functionalities, really makes out IE to be the big anchor holding back the innovation on the web. After all, developers cannot fully build websites with new HTML5 or CSS3, if IE doesn’t support them and people are still using IE.
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Breaking Down Design & Art Related Social Networking Sites
Feb 24, 2010 by Patrick Winfield | Design, Social NetworksSome niche social networking sites can seem tough to break into and become a part of the community. One of the best ways to get involved is to study what people in the community are doing and simply join in! Sometimes just hanging around and observing will give you a taste of the language or formalities that are normal for a specific niche or community.
For this post I looked for some specific design and art related social sites and tried to dissect what each site is all about, how they may be beneficial to use and how to become a contributing member with the community.
deviantART
deviantArt aims to provide a place for any artist to exhibit and discuss works. Works are organized in a comprehensive category structure, including photography, digital art, traditional art, literature, Flash, filmmaking, skins for applications, Furry and others. DA also has extensive downloadable resources such as tutorials and stock photography. Member submissions are known as “deviations.” The goal of the site is to allow artists and art lovers to interact in a variety of ways, ranging from the submission of art to conversations on a number of topics.
This site is a thriving community. The best way to get noticed and to have the community interacting with your work is to comment, comment and comment some more! Post replies and threads in the forums. Comment on peoples artwork and user pages, use the chat room and the shout box. Give out good and constructive comments, to stand out – many people will like to return the favor. You don’t get anything out of it if you don’t put something into it. In other words, you reap what you sow.
Although all the reviews and comments about deviantART are not favorable. Encyclopedia Dramatica has this to say about the community, “If the art community as a whole had cancer, then deviantART would be the biggest malignant tumor of them all.”
Concept Art.org
A lot of the members from deviantART migrate to ConceptArt.org if their work is of a certain caliber. There is drama here just like in deviantART and most of it seems to come from deviantART members that can’t take constructive critiques.
I like the layout of the site and how they feature certain artists and thumbnails of various artworks. The forums are pretty similar to DA and the heavier threads pertain to critiques and art technique suggestions and ideas.
Flickr
Flickr is a HUGE online photo and video hosting website as well as online community. There is an overwhelming amount of amazing photography and art to view. They have a great search feature and also offer users the ability to either release their images under certain common usage licenses or label them as “all rights reserved”. The licensing options primarily include the Creative Commons 2.0 attribution-based and minor content-control licenses – although jurisdiction and version-specific licenses cannot be selected. As with “tags”, the site allows easy searching of only those images that fall under a specific license.
Flickr groups are a great way to post your photos and get a specific audience. They even have local groups. There are groups for a variety of topics, velvet art is your thing? There is a group for that! Learn about other great ways to market on Flickr.
Flickr has entered into partnerships with third parties to offer printing of various forms of merchandise, including business cards, photo books, stationery, personalized credit cards, and large-size prints, from companies such as Moo, Blurb, Tiny Prints, Capital One, Imagekind, and QOOP. In addition, Flickr has partnered with Getty Images to sell stock photos from some users.
Flickr asks photo submitters to organize images using tags (a form of metadata), which enable searchers to find images related to particular topics, such as place names or subject matter. Flickr was also an early website to implement tag clouds, which provide access to images tagged with the most popular keywords. Because of its support for tags, Flickr has been cited as a prime example of effective use of folksonomy.
Coroflot
Coroflot is the creative world at work. It has grown to host over 1.4 million images of creative work, from the portfolios of over 150,000 creative professionals and students from nearly every country on earth. Coroflot users are industrial, graphic, fashion, interior, textile and interaction designers; 3D modeling and rendering specialists; architects, illustrators, art directors, design managers, and dozens of other disciplines.
There are no membership requirements, application processes, or invites. If you’re a designer or someone who avidly follows creative work, they want you. If your work is good, it will find its way to the surface; if you need inspiration or advice, the world’s most active professional creative community can show you what’s what.
Vimeo
Vimeo, which had the original HD internet video, is a respected community of creative’s that are passionate about the videos they make. Vimeo’s groups allow you to create communities within Vimeo around the things you like. Share and discuss videos, photos, music, and events with other people that enjoy the same stuff. The more you interact with the community, the more interest in your work there will be. Get involved and you will enjoy the rewarding experience that Vimeo can provide.
COLOURlovers
COLOURlovers is an international community of designers and artists of all kinds who visit the site to get color inspiration, ideas and feedback for both their professional and personal projects. COLOURlovers’ loyal members create colors, palettes and patterns to nurture their ongoing love affair with color. They join color-inspired groups and forums and share the love by commenting on their favorite creations.
This community is very passionate about its… color or colour, whatever way you spell it. A lot of niche sites in design and art have a tight community feel already because of the content, that holds true with COLOURlovers. The few times that I joined a forum conversation I was overwhelmed at the amount of support it’s members gave. You can jump right in on the conversation at the forums by asking questions about specific colors or giving advice on already posted questions. If you need some simple color inspiration this is your spot, these people like LOVE color!
Art and design related social networking sites can at first seem foreign, but once you spend some time and get familiar with the language used and the correct way to get the most out of it – you are set. What are some social art/design related sites that have helped you?
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Identify Target Blogs, Networks and Communities in 5 Easy Steps
Feb 22, 2010 by Stephanie Weingart | Social Media MarketingRight now, as you are reading this, there is a blog being born.
There is a community about Fly Fishing with five hundred users and a “Work from Home Daddy” Blog Network with over forty-seven active blogs that have thousands and thousands of unique viewers. Say you run an online ‘Bait and Tackle’ company, wouldn’t this be very valuable information?
Here are 5 easy steps that will help you learn where and how to start finding these magic portals of consumer engagement and information.
1. Search questions, not terms – this is the easy part.
If you haven’t already, search all of the brand terms and sayings that are a part of your business and trade. You might be surprised what you find when you search for a question instead of a product name. By searching for “How To’s…” and action terms like; “Fishing in the summer” you will find a plethora of blogs and networks of people actively discussing your niche.
2. Social Network Searches – Analyze the competition and what your audience might be doing online.
Search your chosen terms and questions on Search.Twitter.com and http://www.facebook.com/search/ .
You are now able to search Facebook users status updates. This will help you to pinpoint who is an active audience and who you might want to target. Take some time and research the audience. What other networks are they a part of? How do they prefer to communicate? This will help you when you decide what Social platform to participate the most in.
3. Blogsearch – http://blogsearch.google.com/
By Searching Google’s Blog search engine you will be able to find sites that are hooked up to an RSS feed that match your query. You can set date range, specific searches and can omit spam blogs identified by Google.
4. Alltop – Alltop is a current list of Blogs/Networks/ Websites that are respected and popular.
All lists are broken down by category. This reference point makes it easy to find any possible types of blogs there are…. Even Fishing Blogs! New features of Alltop allow the user to login and make favorite searches and recommendations.
5. Social Search – Joongel.com
Using a Social Media search engine such as Joongel.com will pinpoint sites that are community based and social. The site is broken down searches based on the type of social site you are looking for; shopping sites, blogs, social voting and bookmarking sites, gossip sites, questions and answer sites, and more. It comes with a Web Browser Toolbar and is extremely helpful.
While searching these sites, create your list of sites, networks, blogs, and communities. After you have finished all 5 Steps, you will walk away with a few, if not hundreds of sites that pertain to your business. Hopefully this will expand your horizons and open up communities that your brand will be benefit from in multiple ways.
What are some simple ways that you identify your targets online?
By the way, you can follow the 10e20 Twitter account here.
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When your stock photography just isn’t cutting it and you need to bust out the camera and take some actual photos yourself, you will want those pics to look the best they can. Not everyone has a tool chest full of studio strobe lights, ring flashes or expensive lenses, but quality photos for use online can be obtained with minimal hardware and time. Taking better digital pictures takes practice and a little knowledge of the camera. For this example the subject to photograph will be flat artwork or posters too large to scan.
Tripod
A simple to use, cheap tripod can drastically improve your photographs. A tripod can cut down on and even eliminate shaking of the camera during shutter release. By using a remote trigger to trip the shutter you get rid of shake.
If you do not have a tripod you can get creative and set up some books on a chair or step ladder. To get an angle you can use towels or soft material to tilt the camera.
Lighting
Depending on what your subject is that your shooting your lighting requirements will be different. If you are shooting artwork at home sunlight or natural light is best, when possible. Whether you are shooting photos outdoors or in a room filled with natural light through a window, this is the best choice for capturing most artwork.
When natural light isn’t an option setting up some directional lighting will be necessary. If you have 2 lights of somewhat equal brightness or strength set them up on opposite sides of the artwork to be photographed. The light is best when it is not directly on the artwork but bouncing off of something like a wall or ceiling first.
If you are shooting a 3 dimensional object then strong directional lighting works best. Try playing with the various angles of the lighting. Have one come from behind it and another softer and at another angle, the best option will reveal itself when you are experimenting.
This is a simple lighting setup I created using normal everyday lights:
Flash
Avoid using a flash to photograph your artwork. The flash can cause overexposure from the reflection and create white spots on the final image.
If your lighting just isn’t cutting it and a flash is needed then play with the flash options on your camera to get the best effect for your situation.
Sometimes taping a soft white paper towel overthe flash bulb can diffuse the light just enough to remove any glare from reflections on your subject.
Background
If you are photographing something other than flat 2 dimensional artwork, like a sculpture or a piece of jewelery, a background will be a good way to make the image unified. A neutral or grey background will be optimal to not distract from the subject. Pay attention to backgrounds. Walls are pretty boring; cluttered backgrounds distract. Images that contain many different colors and lots of small detail suffer most when compressed for use online. Plain backgrounds, especially behind faces, help an image reduce well without becoming confusing.
Here is an example of a clean white background versus a more busier looking background:
Simplicity
One of the best tips is to keep it simple! You can almost always improve your digital pictures by zooming in and cutting out all distractions and excess clutter. Also it is better to take lots of pictures than too few. With digital cameras, unwanted photos can easily be deleted.
Save for Web
After the shots are saved and loaded on your computer you may want to go into Photoshop or any image editing software and make some minor image adjustments. May you want to make the shadows darker or crop a photo tighter.
After your image looks good you want to save it for the web. In Photoshop this is an option under the File menu. This compresses the image and saves it at a resolution of 72 ppi for the screen. You can alter the settings to find the best compromise between image quality and file size.
