If you photograph businesses, company events, retail openings, parties, or the like, are you keeping those photos under lock and key or are you encouraging your clients to share? Hopefully you’re encouraging some sharing. If you don’t allow (and even encourage) folks to share your work, you’re probably going to be replaced by a photographer who will… or even replaced by the amateur snapshots or cell phone photos of the business’ customers.
I’m not advocating that you give away all of your work for free; take sharing into consideration as you price a job. Will the company want to use your work on its Facebook page? The answer is yes, they should. Are they going to use the pictures on their blog? On their Flickr stream?
How about something even less traditional? What if you license the photos such that the organization not only uses the images on their social networking presences, but allows and encourages their fans to take the images and use them on their own blogs, Facebook pages, or the like?
Sharing is hot. Social media and social networking are all the rage at the moment, and a lot of businesses and other organizations are struggling with how they can “be social.” As a photographer, you can help them. When you license your work, include sharing. Help your clients to help themselves.
Photo by *Sally M*, used under Creative Commons licensing
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