Last night we participated in a panel discussion of new media and new and old ways of marketing yourself as a photographer hosted by Rob Haggart aka A Photo Editor. We have never done anything like that and it was really a lot of fun. We spoke a couple of years ago at Semi-Permanent in Australia but that was different because it was all about us and how we got to where we are in our careers etc, plus it was in front of 3000+ people and for some reason was less nerve-wracking because it made us feel like rock stars.

The difference with last night is that it was a much smaller group (estimated 150?) and they were all people really looking for answers of what they should do to in the new media world we live in. There were a lot of questions like “should I use Flickr?”, “what kind of blog should I use?”, “should I still send postcards?”, and “are emails even worth sending when it will probably annoy the recipient?”. We chimed in a bit when we thought we had something to add to the conversation but honestly there is so more more we all could have talked about.

Our simple answer is do everything but more on that in a second. One big point I wish we made or got brought up is the importance of having a constantly updated website and one that is easy enough to use that you can update it constantly. At very least so even if you don’t have new work you can rearrange things to make it look new so when these people that you are trying to market to come back it looks different than the last time you sent them there. There was so much concern with Facebook pages and Twitter accounts (I admitted that most of my Twittering is rants about the refs during Laker games and car nerd talk) but all people are using them for is to try and direct traffic to a site that hasn’t changed in months. Here’s my chance to plug a company that has made things easy for us in the changing shite around department that we add new photos and whole new sections every chance we get. Take a look at East of Western when you get a chance. It’s not a template site so you aren’t limited with the design and they will even set up your blog for you. Enough plugging, back to last night.

I think what people were and do get hung up on is trying to figure out the magic formula for what’s going to work. I see emails all the time of “What art buyers want” and “How to get your work seen”. My simple answer is do everything because who knows what’s going to work and what catches the attention of one person will get overlooked by 20 others. Send out emails, make postcards, make little photo books, have a flickr/tumblr/twitter/facebook/whateverthenextthingwillbe, take meetings to show your book or iPad portfolio (which got brought up last night too), shoot for as many magazines as you can and don’t worry too much if they are paying you fairly. If it’s a fun job and you get good experience and great photos from it are you really going to remember if they paid you $200 or $1000? You are going to remember the time and the photos. Most importantly, meet and talk with as many people as you possibly can and don’t be scared to ask questions. Especially from us. We may not have the best advice but we love to pretend we do.

Thanks to Rob, the other panelists, and especially MOPLA for giving us the opportunity to try and help people figure some stuff out.

PS. Here’s our Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. :).

PPS. The photo above has nothing to do with this post but it’s a new photo from a Spring ad campaign we can finally show and got excited.