Hi Gang: Just wanted to share a few quick things to follow-up on my post from last week (link) about why I love Google+.
Seeing your photos on G+
One of the views you can choose is right at the top of this post—this is the grid view of my Football Portfolio when I look at it on Google+ (I just posted it this weekend). You can see how many people commented on each image (the small number in the corner of the images show if anybody did comment, and how many), which is helpful for you in determining which images are resounding with your viewers.
How others see your photos
If you saw my post, and clicked on one of the photos, here’s how they’re displayed (above), with the black border and the comments running alongside.
Getting the EXIF Data on the photos is one click away
If you click and hold on the Actions button under the bottom right corner of the photos, you can choose Photo Details, and then you get the screen above with the EXIF data. Pretty handy. :)
My progress on Google+
Last week I mentioned that in just two months on G+ I had just passed the number of people who follow me on Facebook. Well, in the week since then, I’ve already now more than doubled the number (of course, much of that is because Google is now letting the public have accounts, too). I have 18,000+ folks following me on Facebook. By the time you read this, my Google+ number will over 43,000. I’m stunned.
Are your potential clients on Google+?
I saw a number of comments saying basically, “Scott, I think it’s cool that all these photographers are on Google+, but I need to find clients, not other photographers.” I totally agree, and at this point a lot more of your potential clients are on Facebook, and I don’t want you to think I’m trying to talk you out of using Facebook (I couldn’t if I tried, and I’m not going to stop using Facebook either). Here’s the good news: In the last week, more than 10 million people joined Google+ and they’re not all photographers. A lot are your potential customers. It might be easier to stand out here at this point, than it is among the 800 million people on Facebook. :-)
Anyway, just thought I’d do a little follow-up
So, that’s my thoughts on G+ as it stands today, but it’s moving and growing so fast, it’s hard to keep up, so I expect I’ll have more to report soon.
Today I’m up in Philly doing my “Light it, Shoot it, Retouch it” Tour for nearly 400 photographers (photo above from my Cologne, Germany stop, by Calvin Hollywood). My next stops are: Houston on Oct. 5th and Lansing, Michigan on Oct. 7th. Here’s the link if you want to spend the day with me. Hope I’ll see you there! (Hey, I hope I see you today in Philly!). :)
Holy cow, now that calls for a CAKB if I ever saw one! Way to go Scott!
Very CAKB, Scott! 50,000 isn’t too far away!
–John
Google doesn’t list a good definition of CAKB. What does it mean?
Cool And Kick Butt..an abbreviation I came up with after someone complained about extensive use on this blog of “cool” and “kick butt”! :-)
Thanks Ken for explaining the origin of it. :-)
Yes Scott, I’ll agree with Ken that this does call for a Cool And Kick Butt :) If I’ve Ever seen it.
See ya,
Mike
Thanks Mike!
Scott,
Maybe you could work up a post soon about your approach to all these sites – your blog, 500px, Facebook, Google+, Twitter, etc.
Along the lines of whether you’re writing unique content for each, repackaging content, cross posting, etc. Also some commentary on how much time you’re devoting to social media – posting and reading and what proportion of your day that is.
I’m sure I could spend all day surfing social media and get nothing done in the process. Would love for you to share your approach to all this.
Looking forward to meeting you at the Houston seminar!
What Richard said … That seems to be the pitfall … FB, Twitter, G+, et al … Are great resources … But it is so easy to get bogged down, spreading yourself to thin maintaining all those places and still have ample time for other factors of conducting business.
Google+ is something in which I have had a profile for sometime and have added tons of people to my circles….but all I really do with it right now is add links to blog posts and what not. I can’t seem to get as engaged as I do with twitter and facebook. Hopefully that’ll change….great post!
Scott,
I’d love to attend your Lansing, MI show, but I have a prior commitment. What a bummer. I’ll have to look forward to your next stop in MI, whenever that may be.
…I can stalk you and Terry White at the same time, eh?
How’s that for your creepy internet comment for the day? ;)
I am sitting in your LSR tour event in Philly right now, what a great event. For anyone who has not attended you have no idea what you are missing.
You are quite the popular one on G+. Love your work.
G+ presents its photos very prettily, but I have some major problems with it:
1) Exif data is stripped out of presented jpegs–yes, you can see the metadata by clicking a few links, but the actual jpgs that G+ serves up do NOT have your metadata embedded. Pngs, for whatever reason, keep their metadata, but Photoshop, for whatever reason, won’t write metadata to pngs, even though Bridge will.
2) Comments are squished into a little column at one edge of your image. It’s a horrible way to read and view comments, and it’s a distraction from the image itself. I would much rather have comments at the bottom–more room for the pictures and more room for the comments.
3) Captions are limited to a single line and do not allow for hyperlinking. I like to explain my photos and link to wallpaper sized versions of my pictures.
4) Comments you post along with your photos are not preserved in your photo album. They’re in your stream alone.
5) You can’t navigate through images you post to your stream unless you go to the “Images from posts” stream.
6) You can’t comment on or caption albums as a whole.
G+ is a cool idea, and its photo presentation system is very pretty, but I happen to think it’s broken. Badly.
Scott it was a great seminar yesterday in Philly! Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
Scott, your LSR seminar in Philly yesterday kicked ass!!!!!!!! I can definitely say I got a lot more out of it than I thought, which is amazing for a $99 seminar. I find it amazing that you, an amazing photographer/photoshop expert can get on a level where even beginners can understand what your talking about is an art in itself, especially with a lot of the technical parts of shooting and retouching. I know I got a lot out of your seminar because I walked out that door feeling more confident as a photographer, and I think I speak for everyone when I say that. You bring down things that are so technical and make them so simple which is why I swear by your trilogy books because that’s how I learned the functions on my camera 2 years ago. Oh and by the way, your funny as hell, no wonder all your models are so relaxed hahaha hope to see you again soon.
Scott, I just want to say what a great experience it was in Philadelphia at the seminar. I went into the day with no off camera flash experience and never felt lost by your teaching method. It took away all my concern about shooting with studio lights. I can’t wait to get some gear and start shooting portraits. Thanks for making your self available during the breaks, it was a pleasure to speak with you, and good luck shooting those hockey games we discussed, I’m anxious to see how you do.
The thing I like about Facebook is the ability to upload my photos right out Lightroom. Do you know if Adobe is working on a similar plug-in for Google+?