Although the snow has finally ended and the roads are clear again, today ended up being another stay-inside day, albeit one with enough activity to negate yesterday’s cabin fever.  Today was the day that I finally took the time to sit down and do many of the things that I’ve been saying I was going to do for, oh, months.

Today was the day that I embraced social media as a professional photographer!

(Proof, for the doubters, is in the image below:)

I’m now on Twitter (bpennphoto) and have a new Facebook Fan Page, and I’ve registered for more sites this morning than I can keep track of.  There’s Twitter, then the one that lets you load photos to Twitter, then the one that lets you manage all your social media from one portal – that’s HootSuite, which is actually very cool.  (Although I’d pay real money to see the HootSuite owl eat the Twitter bird.)

I even put together my own custom Twitter background image, which I’m rather proud of.

But more than just signing up and winging this, I’m taking instruction from Mandy; she works with this stuff every day and has become quite the guru.  It’s actually at her urging that I’ve finally done all this, and I have to give her due credit.

When social media first began to appear in daily life, I have to admit that I dismissed it.  Part of me simply considered it a fad that would pass (remember Pogs?) and to a great deal I simply didn’t understand why it was relevant.  I supported the classic argument of “why does the world care what I’m doing at any given moment?”

It took a good deal of time and an increasing exposure to all of it, through Mandy, for me to begin to understand what the point really was.  There are certainly people who use Twitter and Facebook to post about their daily lives, activities, etc, and nobody cares.  But there are many people who have figure this out and are using it to drive massive amounts of information.

As Mandy keeps saying, it’s all about forming “real connections with people.”  They call it networking for a reason – because the goal is to meet others with common interests and passions and exchange information with them.  ”Meaningful conversations” is another of her sayings that I happen to agree with.

The opportunity for that kind of networking excites me.  I genuinely want to connect with other photographers, models, artists, etc., I want to spread my own reputation and attract some more business.  I’d like to see that people are reading this blog and I’d like to engage those people in meaningful conversations.  (Basically I’d like to know that I’m not just on here talking to myself…)

So if you keep up with what I post, or even if you just drift in from time to time, I invite you to connect with me in these forums across the internet.  Feel free to ask questions and leave comments.  Help me engage!