Book Review: The Linked Photographers’ Guide to Online Marketing and Social Media

Since I’m all about the photography and the social media, I was looking forward to the publication of The Linked Photographers’ Guide to Online Marketing and Social Media by Lindsay Adler and Rosh Sillars. Rosh has been writing and speaking about social media for a while, and Lindsay has built a very successful business with social media as one of her key marketing strategies.

The book is presented in four major sections: an introduction to social networking, a section on social media basics, information for several of the major social media websites, and a collection of case studies and real-world stories. The introduction, consisting of three chapters, is a good foundation that talks about why social networking has become popular, the basics of how it works, and several ways in which one might participate in (and gain from) social networking. I will admit I was a bit disturbed to see this at the beginning of Chapter 2:

The term social media expert has become a bit of a cliche; most of the folks out there advertising themselves as such, aren’t. You’re not going to become an expert by reading this book, nor do you need to be.

The second portion of the book talks about branding, your website, and your blog, along with an introduction to search engine optimization and Google’s AdWords. Again, the information was accurate although sometimes the presentation seemed a bit choppy. As an example the blogging chapter doesn’t have much continuous flow; it’s a series of lists and bullet points. While mostly good information, someone who is new might want a bit more guidance or direction in getting the blog running, full of content, and helping them bring more business. I was surprised to see the authors list Blogger as the first recommended blogging platform even though it doesn’t allow one to use their own domain name or integrate the blog with other portions of a website.

The third portion of the book looks at Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, and other social networks, providing tips for how photographers can use these platforms to establish their brand and network with others. I found myself agreeing with most of the strategies and tips presented,

The remainder of the book is a series of case studies and interviews with successful photographers who are using social media. I picked up a few nuggets of wisdom from the examples and found the last section to be a very quick read.

Overall The Linked Photographers’ Guide to Online Marketing and Social Media is a good book that would be useful for photographers who are new to the social media scene. If you’ve been blogging and tweeting and using Flickr for more than a year or two, you won’t find too many surprises inside but even a social media veteran will likely pick up a couple bits of new information. Because social media marketing (like any marketing) success depends on a variety of factors, it’s hard to say that reading this book will guarantee success. That said, doing nothing is likely to guarantee failure, and if one wants a decent introduction to social media for photographers, the book will get someone headed in the right direction.

Order the book from Amazon.com:

These other posts might be of interest to you:

1. Book Review: Digital Workflow for Photographers by Trey Ratcliff
2. iPad: The Missing Manual – Book Review
3. How’s Your Whuffie? Read the Book

Tagged as: books, lindsay adler, linked photographer, reviews, rosh sillars