Rasmus Rasmussen dot com

Signing up on social networking sites is not the same as using them. They all have potential but also require a certain amount of dedication, focus and time. As more and more of these sites piled on top of each other, I decided to try and bring a little order to the chaos.

First step was to drop services I no longer had any interest in using. MySpace had to go, because I don’t feel it appeals to or attracts the audience I want to reach. In fact, I associate MySpace with mostly negative things, so I took steps to have a couple of old profiles removed. Profiles I hadn’t updated in ages anyway. I have other dust-collecting profiles here and there, all of which I’ll be trimming away as I remember them.

These days of course, it’s all about Facebook, and I already had a “business page” there. One that was starting to gather dust too. But since Facebook is still growing (I have many, many more old friends, family members etc. there than any other site), I decided that this was a venue worth pursuing. It was either that or deleting it, so I started by adding some content and began promoting it on Twitter, which happens to be the second major tool, I am using. It didn’t take long before people started signing up as “fans”.

Twitter was in fact the service that finally kicked me into gear. I had been experimenting with it, trying everything from polling followers on which book to read next to giving away music to those who specifically requested it. And though I’m not one of those people who have thousands of followers, I still got enough nice responses, almost instantly, to inspire me.

I use Twitter as a fast and mostly uncensored outlet. A place where I can ramble and converse, joke around and try out things. Not necessarily the best way to introduce myself to new potential clients or partners, but still a very useful and entertaining tool.

So the idea is to keep Twitter as my “chatterbox”, while Facebook becomes a filtered, cleaner outlet. Here’s how I see the Facebook page being used:

• As a place to list filtered news.
• A way to reach an interested audience.
• Discussion boards for feedback, ideas and critique.
• A showcase for my work.

On top of these two, there’s Flickr, this blog and my official site. Flickr serves primarily as my personal online photo album. I have used it to network in the past, when I was new in Seattle and was trying to meet new people. Through the local Flickr meetup group, I built a network face-to-face. I believe this spill-over into the real world is necessary, if you want to turn the sort of flimsy nature of online networks into something more solid. I don’t attend a lot of these meetups nowadays, but I do stay in touch with many of the people I met there.

The blog serves a purpose. Not everything can be said in 140 characters or less, and we all know that sooner or later, Facebook will be replaced by the Next Big Thing, or they might change the way they do things. The point is that since the web is constantly evolving, it’s a good thing to have my own outlet. A place where I have total control.

My official site is mostly an online business card right now (actually a little embarrassing). It works for giving brand new contacts a quick view of my photography though, which is important. I fear that immediate exposure to, say, my tweets, would be somewhat overwhelming. Eventually, the plan is to somehow integrate all of the above and turn theprint.dk into a sort of personal brand portal. In this time of RSS-feeds and whatnot, the possibilities are plenty.

This setup is not perfect. I still have several different outlets that all require time and effort. The difference from before is, that I have given each of my tools a purpose. And I have evolved an idea of how to channel both content and contacts. Will it work as intended? Undoubtedly, I will have to tweak it as I go. The thing to remember is that I’m looking to forge lasting relationships with whomever I work with or for. I’m not looking for the quick sale. Had that been the case, there are much faster ways to get a decent return on investment. But I’m in it for the long haul. And hopefully the long tail as well.

Illustration: Cofkocof

Related Posts

• 10 Photographers to Follow on Twitter
• Help Expand the Microstock Photographer’s Guide
• Looking for Photographic Poetry
• Challenging Myself All Year Long