Advertising 101

I have known for a long time that I am not an advertiser. 

I'm just not the type to put up a billboard for myself.

Long before I decided I might want to become a professional photographer [back when I was just shooting for fun - for myself] I read photography blogs. Lots of them. I read them to look at the pretty pictures. I read them to soak in the cool stories. I read them to learn. And I still read them. All I can say is, thank God for Google Reader or else I'd be really lost :P

And while I was reading, I was also sub-consciously learning bits and pieces about running a photography business. And it seemed like over and over these super successful photographers said the same thing: we don't advertise in the traditional sense.

What? How can you get clients if you don't advertise? That didn't make any sense to me.

But then they would always go on to explain.

Their clients WERE their billboards. When their clients got through their wedding, or family photoshoot, or whatever and walked away with a positive feeling about the whole thing - there's a win. And when they get their photos back and are blown out of the water? That's when that couple or family or individual becomes a billboard. Because they are going to tell people about it.

And so, I adopted that as my philosophy for advertising.

Sure, if you would like my business card, I'll give it to you. But you aren't going to book me simply because I have awesome business cards. You're either going to book me because you've seen my photos on my blog and you like my style - or [most likely] because someone heard you were looking for a photographer and they said "Hey! There's this really awesome girl named Kara who is AMAZING"

Word of mouth is the most powerful advertising.

But as an online presence, I have my blog-site [you know where that is, you're here!]

I also have a Twitter account [you can find my tweets here : @karaleeabbey]

And now, I upon a few people's suggestions, I now have a Facebook page for my photography too !!

I know a lot of my friends have already "liked" my page - but in case you haven't, you can find it here : KarAbbey Photography Facebook

I haven't really decided how much stuff I'm going to push through my Facebook page - but for right now, I know I will always at least post whenever I post a new blog - so that's a cool heads up if you like to read my ramblings :) And I'm sure as time goes on, I'll post more information and photos and things too. And the cool thing about having a Facebook page for my photography is: I can upload photos to my album and then tag YOU in them, and then people will see my awesome photos on YOUR Facebook page - and it saves you all the trouble of uploading them yourself :D Plus it will drive people back to my page which means more people will be aware of me :)

See? This Facebook thing is turning out to be pretty cool :)

[and because no blog post is complete without a photo, here's my vicious puppy who just chewed the head off of her monkey toy. oh and that was after she decided it would be cool to stick her nose in our bucket of ashes that sits next to our wood-burner? and dig out some chunks of wood to chew up. yeahh - that's not going to fly. i mean its better than chewing on our furniture, but is equally a huge mess.]