Post Bad Stuff

https://youtu.be/9y8pDplgZkU (Check out my video on YouTube!)

Post bad stuff. Risk letting other people see where you’re at in your understanding of your field and where you are currently at in your ability to execute an idea.

Sometimes your posts, articles, videos, etc. will suck. That’s the part of changing your talent “set point” in being able to grow. If you keep taking down your “bad” posts you’ll never be able to move past what you think is good into being able to produce great content.

As I have been posting over the last several weeks, I see things that I could have changed about posts. No, I’m not talking about captions. Those I always edit and update. Pictures and videos are a whole different animal. I have been doing my best to leave them be. Sometimes I am successful, others not.

Learn, improve, accept criticism, AND RISK.

Find my business account on Instagram to see current posts:

@momentanalytics

Until next time,

D and C

 

No Content. No Problem.

No really: problem. Semi problem, I am out of good content and have used up the last of my stash to finish my posts on Instagram and this blog.

I actually have no visual to post tonight. Unless I dredge something up between typing this post and pushing publish…or finding something to post and republishing the post after I publish because you all know I LOVE doing that. Lesson learned as previously stated in my last post, I should have done one of two things:

1. Gathered more content on my day off to get me through the rest of this week and the weekend
2. Spread out the content that I did take on Tuesday to make sure that I could make it to next Tuesday with content

There is no use crying over spilled milk. Just over here with no content to post. I am probably just going to stay late tomorrow night to gather more content.

You may be asking yourself, why don’t you just go in early if you don’t have to be at work until 10:00 am. I have an appointment that I am not going to change and I am writing the blog post from College Station, TX just having finished watching my cousin graduate from TAMU. That mental jump you’re about to make is correct: I am staying the night in College Station before returning to Waco in the morning.

My goal number of followers that I am looking to collect for my non-existent clients is such that my I ma not be able to execute the next installment of practicing my theory:

1. Genuine interact with people on Instagram and other social media to grow the interest in my and other business accounts I will manage.

In this case, genuine interaction means that I am going to be interacting with accounts more than once. I know in one of my earlier posts I had said that I needed to find genuine accounts that I liked and within those, posts that I could like without compromising my integrity. BUT, to take that thought a step further, I propose that genuine interaction with accounts means engaging those accounts weekly.

Be intentional. Or find a company to be intentional for you. But if growing your sphere of influence online means that you have to engage the services of a company like the one I am trying to build, let me STRONGLY recommend something: study enough of what a business like mine is going to provide to you to make sure that you are getting what you pay for. Figure out what works on Instagram or Snap Chat or Facebook or YouTube and make sure that the output reflects the mission statement of your company and the growth that you are looking for as a business.

Most employers wish that the people they employ are going to work as hard and care as much as they do when it comes to the health and growth of their company. That is far from the case, in my limited experience, as I am sure a lot of you have encountered. Whether you are employed or the employers, work ethic in combination with the execution of an elite product or service are invaluable. Understanding what to look for and what you need as a company are some key factors that I have observed in this process.

Having no credentials (i.e. followers and subscribers) to offer any advice in growing your business online, take what I write here with a grain of salt. Be hungry for excellence and have goals for the impact of your business face-to-face and your online presence. If you’re missing out or feel that you’re missing out, ask the hard questions of the people who are in place to help you succeed OR get someone to help you in areas that you want greater growth.

In the course of the jobs I have worked, I have found that I expect people who are my “teammates” to want to run the race as hard as I do. There have been those great moments in life where you sync up and are able to run with someone who has the same intensity and drive for excellence that you do.

And sometimes you don’t.

Set your business, work and yourself up for success by putting systems and structures in place to safeguard that velocity of growth that you’re currently experiencing or wanting. Maybe you are the only one who cares. As an employer, sometimes that means putting new people in place to build or strengthen the structure of your sphere of influence online and in person. As an employee, sometimes that means getting a new job or even starting your own business.

If you didn’t really believe that I was shooting in a plastic container with clamp lights from Lowes, make your own decisions based on the photo evidence.

I am going to be buying some more clamp lights next week. I do not have time to purchase more before I am going to be taking pictures tomorrow evening. Some improvements that I am looking to add are:

1. Increasing the quality of the individual product shots
2. Working on stylized incorporation of products within a setting (staged home, etc.)
3. Working to get some people to include in my posts. (not sure that is going to happen anytime soon (in the next week) but it is something that I find very valuable
4. I definitely need to invest in some more poster board so that I will be able to turn my plastic container on it’s side to get higher objects

I guess overall, I didn’t necessarily want to post these pictures because I personally couldn’t find something interesting to say about them. The products themselves are fine but I found a hard time connecting with them personally and that was a challenge. I posted them anyways because I needed to post something. I think that as my experience grows, being able to post will get easier.

Until next time and inevitably an edit and a republish in the near future,

D and C

 

 

Taking pretty pictures isn’t enough

I am in the middle…or maybe at the beginning of learning what works for product photography and what doesn’t. Pretty pictures don’t mean anything if people don’t want to or don’t look at them.

I’m not sure what to do in order to increase the number of people that look at product posts. Yes, I am reading and studying on how to do this organically. Here are things that I don’t want to get sucked up in:

1. Following accounts that I am not interested in just to gain viewership for my clients
2. Liking pictures that I am not interested in just to gain viewership for my clients
3. Writing about things that I’m not interested in just to gain viewership for my clients

Oh, and let’s just clear one thing up right now: I do not have any real clients at this point in time. I’m taking pictures and posting pictures for free on my own time and dime to hopefully create something that interests a base of viewership who would be meaningful for potential future clients.

Ideally, I would like to create moments of opportunity for my clients to grow their business, hone the thesis of their business, and help potential customers see the beauty and value in what my clients are producing.

My goals for next week are to get my videos up and running. At first I am going to be shooting for one video every one-two weeks. I hope the frequency of videography increases as my ability to gain and edit meaningful content improves.

As I have been roaming Instagram and Facebook, the most dynamic accounts that I have really delved into and gone back to time after time have a story and a dynamic character that I connect with. What does that mean for businesses trying to increase their presence online? I’m not exactly sure yet because I am still working my way into the field. My instincts tell me that the products are not the only meaningful thing that I need to focus on. The products in the context of your story is what engages viewership.

Again, I’m not exactly sure how to go about increasing social media viewership for businesses. And honestly, I’m not just looking for a number but for subscribers of my content who want to and keep coming back for me. I guess most business are looking for that type of participation.  If not just to track the trial and error of my efforts, I hope this blog will help people not make the same mistakes I will and already have throughout this process.

I think I posted on my business Instagram too much the first night that I created it. I am, currently, unable to tag businesses in my pictures. I really don’t like tagging businesses in the comment section but that is what I am having to do currently (along with geotagging the photo…which I still would have done even if I could tag businesses in the photographs). Any recommendations for me?

Until next time,

D and C

Just as a side note: since I am only able to get product photography one day during the week, I need to learn how to take better pictures faster to collect more content to last throughout the week. I have almost exhausted my content in the first couple of days of posting. I know better for next time but I am going to have to spend some time gathering more photos to get me through until next Tuesday.

 

Fuzzier Product Photography at Spice Village

Today was my day off from my full time gig at my job in Waco. With all of the free time I had, I ended up putting my Lowes Home Improvement store light box together. This consisted of:

1. ​A large plastic container
2. Two clamp lights
3. ​Two natural daylight light bulbs
4. ​A white poster board

Okay, so if you’re going to be legalistic about it, I did have to borrow some packing tape to attach the poster board to the plastic container…and I may or may not have also borrowed an extension cord for the lights.

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​After a day of shooting, this is what my list should have looked like this morning:

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1. ​A larger plastic container
2. ​Four clamp lights
3. ​Four natural daylight light bulbs
4. ​Two – three white poster boards.
5. ​Packing tap
6. ​Extension cord
7. ​Tripod (I’ve been meaning to purchase one but that hasn’t happened yet. It should have happened before the shoot happened today. Although, I wouldn’t say it would have been necessary to create a more successful photo day).

I was only able to shoot one way in the container because I only purchased one white poster board this morning. Some of the products would have been easier to photograph if I would have been able to turn the large plastic container vertically instead of horizontally.

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​So far, my Moment wide angle lens has been amazing. I think I am going to invest in the macro lens to take pictures with more detail at a closer length. I know the color wasn’t perfect on these pictures. Overall, I am happy with the quality that I achieved today and I think that my results will only improve from here on out.

​All of the products photographed are located in Spice Village in Waco, TX. The specific areas within Spice Village that these products can be located in are: Vintage Hippie, Hinge, and Bee Angels.

Until next time,

D and C

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Connecting with the Interweb

Hello. That’s Caspian. He’s a FURanha and lesser known as an Alaskan Klee Kai. Yes. That thought skipping through your mind of, “hey, he kind of looks like a small Husky,” wouldn’t be far off the mark and not to dull any intellectual property blades splitting hairs: yes. Small Husky. Some of AKK owners out there MAY have a fit, but that’s okay. I know he’s an AKK and so do other AKK owners…and now you do too.

He may not look it but he’s sixteen pounds of mostly fur and licks. He can eat his weight in dog food, table scraps and has a seemingly never-ending supply of energy best used to wear out new puppies and annoy really old hound dogs.

I’ve recently started interacting with the AKK community more on Instagram. As you will read below, I have compiled a small list of what my “goals” are for this account and other business accounts I will manage:

1. Take time to connect with people who have shared interests.
2. Do not like pictures or follow accounts just to get followers.
3. Produce and provide dynamic content in my fields of focus.

Glad to have you along for the ride! I’ll be posting appropriate text and limited photo content here on this WordPress account. All of my content on all of my platforms will be produced with budget friendly equipment that will not sacrifice quality of content.

My husband is currently in law school here in Texas and we have a limited budget for “extras.” That may change in the future and that may not. At this time, my photos will be shot on my iPhone 6s plus with different lenses from Moment. Currently, I have only purchased the wide angle lens photo kit on Amazon (at the time in late April 2017 it was only $99.99 even for a wide angle lens, lens cap, and Bluetooth case that works with the lens).

Until next time,

-D and C

Instagram: @theFuzziestLife