Last week photographer Rick Sammon released an iPhone app called “Rick Sammon’s Social Media Marketing for Photographers” (iTunes link) and I was able to work through and review the app this last weekend. The application is essentially a five part movie, with Rick narrating and presenting with a slide deck showing onscreen.
The application features five segments, with each ranging from eleven to eighteen minutes of instruction. The first segment is an introduction to social media along with a few general thoughts on the role of social media in the business of photography. Part two dives into a lot of strategy and planning, including how to decide where to spend one’s time. The third video is mostly about Twitter, with specific tips on using Twitter to drive photo product and service sales. Part four is a mixture of topics including affiliate programs, SEO, iPhone/iPad apps, and web/video/tweet analytics. The final segment consists of business and motivational advice.
Overall I feel that it’s a great introduction to social media for photographers. The information would be useful for someone just starting out with social media and trying to figure out where to spend their time and energy. If you’ve already dove headfirst into social media you might find the information to be a bit too basic. That said, one big thing that I loved about the app is that Rick spends a lot of time sharing his little motivational and business nuggets of wisdom. I’d say that close to half of the screen time is devoted to the business aspects of social media instead of simply focusing on the “how to” aspect.
The only faults I could find in the app were a couple minor bits of misinformation with regards to specific software/tools, and I’ve let Rick now about those. I can assume they’ll be resolved with an update to the app.
At $5.99, the app is reasonably priced for a beginner who wants to get started with social media, and even for someone with more experience I think it’s worth it to get Rick’s insights into social media. Buy the app via iTunes.
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