#and maybe 90% of my coworkers are millennials

[cherrymoonvol6]

.

[liamgallaghermpreg]

It is really fascinating how much millennials and gen z differ sometimes. I’m about to turn 29 - a younger millennial - and my coworker is 25 - an older gen z - and yet so many times I have made pop culture references she doesn’t understand. Mostly music from the 90s but lots of times shows and media from the early 2000s too. I think maybe the biggest difference IS from those young times because I still remember getting my first cassette in 1998 (N’Sync self titled) and she was born in 1998. It’s only 4 little years but it’s interesting how wide that gap is at a young age and closes and closes as time goes on!

[chaos-and-recover]

I am married to someone with an intense, if only midsized, fanbase. Parasocial relationships have been a part of our lives since long before it was a buzzword. It is weirdly fascinating to us, but sometimes a bit frightening. Now that it is the buzzword of the hour, seeing it misattributed is one of our pet peeves. I have seen people claim any amount of interaction on the fan's end is "pick me" (although fan interaction is necessary for his job) or claim that him utilizing social media makes him more culpable for forcing parasocial relationships on the fans because of power imbalances. If he is obvious about promoting something, though, it doesn't go over well because audiences don't want to feel like their being advertised to. Parasocial relationships are sometimes hurtful and scary on our end. 1) There was a woman who had been following his career since the 90s, when he wasn't as well known. She would often send him letters, gifts. Within the past 5 years something changed. I don't know why, but she suddenly began to consider him a boyfriend of sorts. He had never responded to these letters. I discovered she had been catfishing me under my private, locked social media accounts under a fake name, pretending to be someone I knew from high school. He blocked her on all social media. She harassed his coworkers until they blocked her too. A friend of mine said she went on TikTok to brag about how overly sensitive celebrities will block if you call them out for not being better than regular people. Meanwhile, we got a letter from her last year begging for him to forgive whatever she did that offended him. 2) 15ish years ago, in a magazine interview, my husband states his fave color. 2 years ago, I was having lunch with a friend, without my husband. A younger woman approached the table. She asksnif my husband was around and I said that he wasn't. Immediately her tone and expression changed to something nasty. She asked if I would at least give him a painting she had done of him. It was all done in various shades of the same color. I commented on this and she sneered at me with; "It's his fave color." I am still trying to be polite at this point and casually go; "Oh is it?" and she ery rudely snaps that I am his wife and I don't know his fave color like SHE does, so I have had it and say, assertively that I've had enough and she needs to leave. I gave it to my husband and told him the encounter. He laughed about it and said that it wasn't his fave color anymore. I had never thought to ask about his fave color because it just didn't seem important to either of us. He had never asked mine. Her twitter handle was on the painting so I looked it up. Her and a few friends were discussing the incident, using my first and last initials and my husband's first. They were discussing how clearly they know him deeper than I do, that he must secretly hate me if his own wife doesn't understand him like she does, and she altered the story so that she had seen him there earlier so I was clearly lying and that she had timidly approached the table and I had screamed at her that the color was ugly. I don't watch his interviews unless he specifically asks me to, because this is like listening in on someone's work meeting. This has been misconstrued by "fans" that I don't support him. I absolutely do, 200%, probably more than they support their husband's jobs, but watching his interviews isnt how i support him. I support him in our home, in our phone calls, in other ways he appreciates in our personal lives. Parasocial relationships are absolutely fine, until people start to believe they aren't in one, or that it is somehow more substantial than personal relationships the celebrities have with their loved ones. They truly think that they can Sherlock Holmes someone enough to truly know them better than the ones who actually know them in real life. (Sorry if you got this multiple times. Tumblr said it didnt send my ask.)

(Same anon from before) What fans need to understand is that parasocial relationships are good. It is fine to be a fan of someone, support their career, analyze them and write fanfiction and draw fanart of them or their characters. This is how my husband keeps his job, this is completely normal fan behavior. It isnt bad for the sake of existing. But they need to be aware that it is parasocial. I think the problem doesn't lie with parasocial relationships so much as when those in the relationship aren't aware that it is parasocial. Those who are aware of it being parasocial aren't the ones claiming that I do not know my husband but that they do or sending him love letters thinking their in a relationship with him. Those who know it is parasocial know that there is a difference between him answering questions in an interview (after being coached by a professional on how to appear and how to speak, and going into it knowing 90% of the questions) and having a conversation when there aren't cameras around, behind closed door. There is a difference between remembering a list of favorite things and watching someone enjoy those things in the moment every day in person. You just HAVE to be aware that they ARE parasocial.

First of all I gotta say I'm SUPER curious who you are (obviously you don't have to tell me!)! I've heard and seen things like what you described happen in several different fandoms of varying popularity, and I'm sorry you have to deal with that. But you're 100% right, engaging in regular fandom behaviour is perfectly normal, even interacting with creators/actors/musicians/whoever on social media (or in person if you meet them). It's HOW you interact with them. You need to both have your own and respect their boundaries.

I'm a fan of a couple 80s/90s boybands, as you just... ARE as an elder millennial lmao, and I can understand how easy it is as a young teen to go too far and cross boundaries because you just don't have the life experience or really, emotional regulation to interact with your idols in a normal way. But I've seen that now carry on well into adulthood, the things grown-ass women TO THIS DAY say about the wives of some of these band members is shocking (maybe not to you though since you've lived it!). I've had several conversations where I've had to remind people that literally every interaction they've had with these people at official meet & greets and stuff, even to an extent their interactions on social media, it's like the famous-person equivalent of Customer Service Voice. They're working! Of course they're nice to you when you paid like $500 to talk to them for thirty seconds! It doesn't mean you're friends!

(Not shaming paid M&Gs, I've done them, I'd do them again, it's an opportunity my 13 year old self never thought she'd had but like... I'm not secretly dating a Backstreet Boy because I met them for five seconds, y'know?)

Anyway yeah... all this to say, you're right. Parasocial relationships are a natural part of fandom and they're FINE and GOOD you just gotta respect boundaries.

[politicaloutlet]

I loved Bill Nye’s show as a kid. I no longer like Bill Nye.

Nye is a mechanical engineer; he’s a professional at the same trade as my father. Except my dad doesn’t have a false sense of credibility/fame from hosting a successful children’s show in the 90��s. Oh, and he’s not a sheep.

The climate is changing, the same way the weather changes every year between May and December. The universe and everything in it runs on a schedule, a routine, a calendar. Just as tens of thousands of years ago, the Earth had an ice age; now, tens of thousands of years in the future, the Earth is having a warming age.

I say that Bill Nye should go work at Harris Corp., SpaceX or maybe Lockheed Martin. All the millennials who watched his show growing up and went on to get mechanical engineering degrees will be so excited to get to call Nye a coworker! He would probably be a good circus clown... Nonetheless, he needs to be in a field where he actually has knowledge that could be considered credible, unlike science.

We don’t need a bigger and more powerful government to save us from any “climate change.” We don’t need a bigger government for anything. The only thing a big government is good at is tyranny.

[fauxkaren]

Because This Is My First Life -7/10

The show is, in a lot of ways, an exploration of the Millennial Experience. I think that for a lot of us, as kids there was a definitely positive message to us that we could be whatever we wanted and the world was our oyster and everything was just going to keep getting better and better. And then we grew up and financial crises hit and many of us weren't able to achieve those naïve dreams we had and we just... had to figure out a life that was different than we thought it would be.

And like the title says- this is our first life. None of us know what we’re doing. We’re all just trying to figure out this whole life, love, career, dreams and marriage shit out as best we can.

There are three core couples (the women in these couples have all been best friends since high school) through which these themes are explored.

Ji-ho and Se-hee: (The main couple.) Ji-ho has dreams of being a writer for dramas and has spent years working as an assistant writer. After one of her coworkers attempts to sexually assault her, she quits. Not having much money and needing a place to live, she enters into a marriage contract with Se-hee who is charging a reasonable rate for rent. Se-hee is a app developer who needs someone to live with him to pay rent so that he can afford the mortgage on his apartment because housing is insanely expensive, even for those . For some slightly complicated reasons that aren't all that important, Ji-ho and Se-hee decide that they're compatible as housemates and it'd be beneficial to them both to enter into a marriage contract- with the intent that their actual relationship will remain tenant and landlord. But of course this is a Kdrama so they fall in love and through their relationship the intersection of love and marriage and the purpose of marriage is explored.

Ho-rang and Won-seok: Ho-rang and Won-seok have been dating for 7 years and live together in a small rooftop apartment. Ho-rang works as a manager at a restaurant, but what she really wants from life is to be a wife and mother. Won-seok has dreams of developing the next big app, but it's not going great for him and he feels like he can't get married until he's found financial and career success. So their story is really about loving someone, but maybe wanting different things from life and can it be reconciled?

Su-ji and Sang-goo: Su-ji has always dreamed of being the CEO of her own company, but she feels responsible to financially support her disabled mother, so she works at a company where she makes good money but her male coworkers are sexist pigs. Sang-goo is the CEO of the app that Se-hee works at and is constantly trying to grow his business. He falls in love with Su-ji pretty quickly but she insists on keeping him at arms length, reluctant to let anyone in on her complicated life. But Sang-goo really worms his way into her life and encourages her to stand up to her asshole coworkers and eventually leave her toxic company to pursue her dreams of starting her own company.

My feelings about this show are so mixed. I think the concept was good and the general story was good. But sometimes the execution was just bad. Something the show liked to do was to end a scene early and then show the fallout of that scene without explaining anything. THEN whatever happened at the end of that prematurely ended scene is shown/explained so that we then understand why the character did what they did. It's all very disorienting as a viewer, imo. I think they were trying to build suspense or whatever, but in reality it just means that the viewers are like ????? half the time as to the character's reasonings or motivations. Another issue with this show is that like 90% of these people's problems could be solved if they just communicated with each other, oh my god. Like idk I get that this is realistic problem, but as a viewer it is so frustrating. Your issues could be resolved if you just talked to each other honestly!!!

That said, it was a still a show worth watching because it explored some really relatable topics and themes, at least to me as a Millennial.

[putris-et-mulier]

Do you think you'll ever come across a good caretaker in your lifetime?

Two of the three that come to the house for my mother or myself are amazing and I didn’t think that was possible. I consider myself very lucky but it’s also given me a lot of encouragement. It’s been about a year since I’ve had them to varying degrees and it won’t obviously last forever, they are going to go on to different paths in the medical field.

Both of them are millennial’s. One is a little bit older than me and one is a little bit younger. It’s the first time in my life that the people I’m working with for my own welfare are my own age and have the same points of references. They both grew up in the 90s after the disabled civil rights movement started (the ADA was passed in 1990) so they’ve always lived in a world where disabled people are partially integrated. They both went to public school and saw the segregation of disabled children, even if from a distance.

They listen to me when I tell them what I need despite what training or past experiences they’ve had.

They both made it a point to ask me specifically about my personal disability and needs.

Despite what they’ve seen or experienced they always believe me when I talk about our issues, even the ones that it seems all able-bodied people can’t seem to believe like our marriage inequality.

They both value my opinion about ableism, even over their own.

They are both eager to learn and speak my language when it comes to things like spoons or simply the appropriate ways to refer to someone disabled.

They take their jobs seriously and with the goal of using their privilege to help me physically but also socially.

As unexpected as all of that was, they also both consider this a job. What they do is come here to help me and that is their priority. They demand to be paid fairly by IHSS and in these issues they consider me more of a coworker because they believe IHSS should “pay” me in a fair amount of hours.

Maybe most importantly they actually see me as another millennial, not a patient or simply a human needing advocacy. We all have intersecting marginalities, which matters just as much if not more than similar age.

We have the same goal of equality, and privilege is talked about openly and often; not in comparison of who has it worse but as a type of ability. Literally and metaphorically.

We also interact off the job, so to speak.

We actually like each other and have fun together so we do things as friends and are familiar with each other’s families/friends as you would with any friend. The caretaker I call Beauty had to come in for a shift to help mom through lunch and she brought her mother along so we swapped moms. Her mother and I spent the time hanging out in the living room critically watching romantic comedies. The other day I made the other caretaker, whom I call Savage, play Mystery Date with me and she face timed with her husband so he could be included in the argument of which one of us was a bigger slut.

AB friends of mine that I have had since before I had any caretakers asked me about what it’s like and with my current caretakers I tell them my house has become a sorority of lazy queer sociology majors.

[studioserra]

10 Ways To Get Started in Commercial Photography

If you are a wedding, portrait, pet or generalist photographer and have been wanting to make a change with your business, you may have considered offering your photography services to companies, agencies and small businesses (e.g. ‘commercial photography’).

You may have already been contacted by a potential commercial photography client, either from an ad agency or from the marketing department at the company itself. Or even one of your friends or family members who owns a business.

You may have felt a little lost as to how to move forward, answer questions, and come up with processes and pricing.

It’s exciting to think about doing commercial photography, because the revenue can be so much higher than most other kinds of photography.

But information can be hard to find online, and most of the books and articles out there are old and outdated.

When you think of how to get started in the industry, it can feel really daunting.

The good news is in this article I go over 10 simple steps that will help you get started offering commercial photography to clients on a scale that’s approachable, manageable and scalable.

With this process you’ll start small (the ‘approachable’ part) by working with smaller local companies. You’ll reach out to contacts you already have, in a way that’s simple and direct (‘manageable’), and you’ll scale up with bigger and bigger clients as you learn and build confidence in your abilities.

You’ll also create your ever-important team, which will enable you to do bigger and more challenging shoots with more ease.

Ready to get started? Let’s do it.

1. Decide WHO and WHAT you want to be shooting

This is a critical step that many photographers skip, but it’s also the most important one, and should be the very first decision you make in your commercial photography career.

Ask yourself the following questions:

WHO do I want to be shooting for?

WHAT do I want to photograph?

What kinds of people do I want to be working with?

YOU get to decide all of these, and then allow your decisions to guide your path.

If you think you should be doing things a certain way, consider this: there should never be a ‘should’ in commercial photography. (“I should be shooting for company x/y/z, even if I don’t really want to”, or “I should be shooting this subject matter, because that’s what I’ve been doing all along”.)

What you should do, is decide what you want that to be.

Commercial photography is challenging enough when you are shooting something you really love. You don’t need the added complication of shooting something you don’t really love simply because you think you should.

How to find your ‘people’:

Head to the nearest newsstand and buy a stack of magazines, or make a pile of the ones you already have. Flip through the magazines, looking specifically at full-page ads, and dog-ear or tear out the pages of the ads that really resonate with you.

Then make a list of the local small business and companies that have a style similar to what you love in those ads.

Maybe it’s the muted colors and strong angles in a fashion ad that really resonates with you, and there is a boutique clothing shop in your town that has the same aesthetics.

Or it’s the moody rustic feel of a leather bag ad, and there’s a brewery in your neighborhood that has the same kind of feel.

Or you light up over the bright colors and happy people in an athletics ad and there’s a gym near you that has a similar vibe and similarly energetic and joyful people.

Let your emotions guide you, because it’s your emotions that will be the most invested in doing the work to create awesome photos that your clients really love.

Make a list of:

1. Style/vibe/feel of the brands you’d want to shoot for. 2. The types of people you’d love to work with as far as the company’s customers go. (Digital nomad millennials, retired wealthy people, cat owners, etc.) 3. All the businesses in your area that fit within the previous two.

The reason why #1 is important is because you will invariably stumble upon (or get referred to!) other businesses in the same brand vibe, and you’ll want to remain open to them.

It’s a lot easier to find clients if your criteria is ‘companies that have a beautiful design aesthetic with light, airy pastels’, than ‘a flower shop that sells lots of roses, and uses mint and green in their branding’.

A brand vibe or ‘feel’ is often a lot easier to define than a specific business type, and doing this will really help you hone your photography style too.

You get the idea, right?

Plan to spend at least a few days doing some research and brainstorming your niche, as this work will set the stage of your intentions as a commercial photographer, as well as provide a mental blueprint for your marketing plan.

2) Make a marketing plan

If you already run a photography business, treat your commercial photography service as a whole separate business. Because of this, you’ll want a unique marketing plan to go along with it.

In your new marketing plan, list all of the strategies you plan to put into action in order to acquire your first corporate/business clients, include the costs of each marketing strategy, any timelines and deadlines you have, assets you’ll need for each (ex: new photos for a booklet cover), and anything else that you.

Include the list of businesses you came up with above, and include, in detail, how you plan to get in front of each business.

(More ideas on this later in this article.)

3) Buy and install pricing and bidding software

Have you tried to come up with commercial photography pricing off the top of your head? It’s not easy, is it?

Without using any kind of pricing database that draws on pricing from other photographers, it’s almost impossible to provide accurate pricing for image licenses (the rights-managed ‘leasing fee’ you charge to clients for use of your images), or even know what to charge for a photography fee.

And without bidding software, it’s very hard to pull together a professional estimate that doesn’t leave any important expenses out. You really need both pieces of software in order to provide fair market pricing and appear professional.

The two types of software that the majority of commercial photographers use are BlinkBid, and FotoQuote/FotoBiz X by Cradoc Software.

You can also use Getty Images’ pricing calculator for comparison but those suggested numbers cover every conceivable scenario and are usually way, way more than the vast majority of commercial clients will ever pay.

You may be inclined to ask “how much should I charge for this commercial photography shoot” in the groups you are in, but you’ll rarely get a straight answer. Instead, you’ll get pricing that works for other photographers. Pricing that you won’t be able to explain or justify to your clients.

So become the professional that your commercial clients expect you to be, and pick up the pricing and bidding software.

4) Design and print a portfolio and make a separate website for your commercial work

Ideally you should have two portfolios- one on the web, and one in print.

Your website is what you drive prospective clients to when you meet them in person, and your printed porfolio is what you show them when you meet them in person. Makes sense, right?

Many photographers who already have websites ask me if they should have a separate website for their commercial photography.

My answers is always- absolutely yes.

The reason for this is a website is designed to target and appeal to a specific audience or market. If you are doing wedding photography your market is going to be totally different than when you are targeting cafes in your area and/or doing headshots.

Build a totally separate website with your commercial photography portfolio, your commercial (and editorial) client list, and keep the branding simple and the frills off.

Put only your very best work on there, and don’t overload your galleries with photos. Think quality over quantity.

Don’t be afraid to feature your best commercial photos as a full-screen photo, or one that can be expanded to full screen. Your goal here is to knock the socks off potential clients. You want to be conveying quality, because it’s that quality that’s the biggest component of your success in landing commercial photography clients.

After you’ve done a half dozen or more commercial shoots (for clients of any type and/or size), you will make what’s called a ‘client list’, which is simply a list of companies you have shot for, and include your client list on the about page of your website, underneath your ‘about/bio’ text.

You’ll read more about the client list later in this article.

As far as a printed portfolio goes, you don’t need to worry about making something fancy at all. The key is just to get it made.

It can be a porfolio with prints you slide in and out, or a hardback Blurb book that you design using their software on their website.

You don’t need any text at all in this. Just keep the focus on the photos. White space is good too, so you can make white borders or have margins above and/or beside the photos.

You can either do a cloth cover or printed photo cover. Be sure to have your name somewhere on there.

Simplicity is key here. You just want to be able to show it to the people you meet with in person.

And promise me you won’t allow the overwhelm of making a portfolio to prevent you from doing any marketing.

Give yourself a time limit- like 90-minutes to pick images and design and order the book.

The key is just to get it done.

You can worry about picking the perfect cover and the perfect images after you’ve gotten feedback from prospective clients and have been able to see the looks on their faces when they look through your work.

5) PM all the people you know (friends, family, coworkers, colleagues, etc) and ask for referrals to businesses

You have local friends on Facebook, right? They work places I assume.

Maybe some of those places are companies you’d like to do photography for.

Think of who you already know that would be willing to help you pitch your commercial photography services to the companies they work for.

For example: you could do a corporate headshot or personal branding photo event, and you could ask a family member for a connection with their marketing lead.

Or you mention to a friend that you recently started doing product photography, and would love to talk to someone at their company since they are a product-based company. Ask if you can meet with someone at the company to show them your portfolio.

Take time to go through your pre-existing list of contacts, and see if any of them work at/for companies you’d love to have on your client list as having shot for.

When you are going through your list of contacts, think about who else they know in terms of businesses. Do they have a best friend that owns a children’s boutique? Or a restaurant? Or maybe they are close with the people at their church.

A direct connection is worth its weight in gold, as this can be just the key for getting your foot in the door, and landing that all-elusive ‘book showing’.

You don’t need to get fancy with your message when reaching out to your network. Just a quick personal email or PM will do.

Something like this:

“Hey __name__,

I just wanted to reach out to you and let you know that I’m now offering commercial photography services. If you are evert in need of high quality photography for your business, please keep me in mind. You can see my portfolio here. (<– insert link.)

Thanks and hope you are well!”

Simple, short, easy to read and gets the point across.

They’ll reach out to you if and when they want more info. Don’t freak out if you get a reply. The goal is to merely ‘plant a seed’ in their mind, so that they think of you first when the need arises. It could take months (or even a year or two) before you hear from them to book a shoot, but it doesn’t mean it won’t happen!

(It’s a good idea to reach back out to those folks if and when you plan to raise your prices, before you raise them, to get them to book under your current rates. This can be incentive for them to move forward sooner rather than later too.)

Also, DO NOT be ashamed to promote your work and your successes on your personal social media pages! The people you know want to know what you are up to, and even if they aren’t commenting, you never know when one of them might share your work with someone who will hire you.

Don’t be afraid to leverage the connections you already have when getting started in commercial photography.

In fact, it’s really the best thing you can do. Your success as a commercial photographer will be directly proportionate to your ability to network. #fact

6) Design a multi-page printed promo

When you get to the point where you are ready to work with bigger and more established companies (what I call ‘medium-sized companies’), you are going to need more than just a simple email sent to their marketing department, or your basic Blurb book.

Think:

Multi-page sales flyers

Multi-page booklets

Large fold-out postcard

Any other impressive printed piece that nicely features your work

Because you are going to be investing in the printed pieces, if you aren’t a designer yourself, you’ll want to hire a designer to design a template for you that can include a handful of your very best photos. The piece will be your first impression you give to the client, so you want to make it a good one.

You want them to open it, be impressed and say “huh, nice…”

Make it personal to the companies you are sending it to, and of don’t forget to include all of your contact information and a link to your online portfolio.

Type a sincere, personalized letter to the individual you are contacting, explaining why you want to work with their company (remembering how their brand resonates with you), and how to reach you when they are ready to work together.

Whether or not you include any information on pricing is up to you, and it’s always a tricky call.

I recommend that if you do decide to include anything with a dollar sign, that you keep it simple and somewhat vague, like for example saying that ‘rates start at $850 for a full day shoot’, but don’t mention any kind of licensing or list what expenses that includes. You could write something like ‘get in touch for a customized plan that meets your needs perfectly.’

Your goal in reaching out to these bigger companies is just to get the conversation started, which is always the most challenging part of any new relationship. Honestly IMHO it doesn’t even matter what you are talking about. It could be something totally unrelated to photography. You want them to know you and like you. Once you feel comfortable with each other and they know you, you can start discussing pricing and licensing.

After you have your fancy collateral (printed promo pieces) printed and ready to ship out, place it in a nice envelope (even better if the envelope is branded) and address it to an individual in the marketing department and mail it. (Even better is if you can find the marketing director’s name on LinkedIn.)

Don’t be surprised if you pour some love and effort into making and sending some kick-ass promo pieces and don’t get a response right away if at all. This is totally normal and it does not mean the company isn’t interested. All it means is that it’s not a priority right now. But it certainly can be in the future.

Follow up via email or phone a week or ten days after your mailing and confirm that they received it. Then follow up again every six months or so. Stay top of mind and there is a good chance that you’ll be the first photographer they think of when they need someone.

7) Pitch your photography to local businesses that you already patronize

Think of the businesses that you already go to. What are your favorite restaurants, bars, cafes, shops, etc in your area?

Do you already know any of the servers, employees, managers, etc?

If you answered yes, then pitch your services to them!

Front-of-the-house or back-of-the-counter employees can be some of your biggest advocates, so don’t hesitate to sell yourself to them, even if you know they aren’t the decision-maker.

It could be something as simple as casually throwing in a “hey, do you guys ever work with photographers?” to your conversation, and gauging their reaction.

The next time you go, bring your printed portfolio and show them a few examples of your work if they seem like they have a minute and are interested. (Note- show them a few photos, not allll the photos. Be respectful of the fact that these people are working and have other customers. Unless they don’t and want to see more- in which case- share away!)

Since you are already a regular at the business, you can point out things in their existing marketing strategies that you noticed, and tie them into ideas you have for things you can create for them.  “I noticed the fall banner you put up behind the counter. Have you thought about doing something like ____?”

If you come up with a really brilliant marketing idea, they’ll value you for even more than your photography.

If you aren’t a natural salesperson, hustling your photography services in person at a local business can feel intimidating, but if those people already know you (and we assume they like you), you’re already well on your way to winning them over.

Also remember that the service you provide is something they really need if they want to be successful. The benefit is absolutely a two-way street.

8) Network with local producers, digitechs, assistants, and other crew

The most successful commercial photographers are those that have a team. And since you never know when you’ll need one (always for big jobs, and often for medium-sized jobs), it’s best to pull your own team together before you land the shoot where they are needed.

So who will you need on your team?

At minimum:

Producer

Digitech

Assistants

The producer plans and organizes and manages all the little details. They are the project manager.

Your digitech will sit at his/her laptop, with your camera tethered to it, and manage the files as they come into the computer. They may make adjustments to exposure, color, tag photos for deletion, help your client see what a photo might look like ‘darkened a little in this area’, and many other critical photo-related tasks.

Your assistants of course are your ‘right-hand-man’ (or woman). The best assistants will be mind readers, and be able to predict your needs. They’ll adjust your lights, carry your gear, hand you lenses and camera bodies, and all kinds of other things you can’t do because you only have two arms and one body.

Because you are certain to need all these people before any decent-sized shoot (and you’ll need an assistant for many small shoots), definitely plan to nail down your crew before your first big job.

It’s as simple as doing a Google search for those folks in your area, sending a quick email to introduce yourself and let them know you’d like to work together.

Ask them if they attend any industry events, and if they say yes, plan to attend so you can meet them in person.

Shaking hands with your peers, sharing a beer and a story is a great way to start networking in your industry.

Because you never know where the photography opportunities will come from, always make an attempt to connect with all kinds of people in the industry.

9) Add the names of clients you’ve shot for to the client list on your website

Remember I mentioned a client list above?

It’s one of the most valuable tools you have to market yourself. It’s the commercial photography industry’s version of ‘social proofing’. Being able to demonstrate that other clients have hired you and trusted you enough to have you make photos for them.

At the end of each job, always remember to add the name of each company you did photography for to your client list on your website.

When you are trying to build trust with brands that you have never worked with and who don’t know you from Adam, your client list can go a long way in helping them trust you, and most importantly- hire you.

As far as the technical aspects of making a client list, you don’t need to get fancy with it, just make a bulleted list, or place dividers in between each client if your list is short.

Like this:

Rockin Bodies Gym // Kinley’s Kid Space // Hammonds Hamburgers // Steam Cafe // Hotshots Sports

And try as hard as you can to always get ‘tearsheets’ from clients who have used your photos in print, like in printed ads for example. These tearsheets (examples of final ads/brochures/banners/mailers), are worth their weight in gold when you include them on your website. They enable new clients to visualize what your work would look like in their own ad campaigns.

When your are JSO, don’t feel bad about working primarily with smaller companies. As your portfolio and experience grows, so too will the size of the companies you are shooting for.

Pretty soon you’ll have some impressive names on your client list, and ultimately, there’s a strong chance that that’s all you’ll have.

That’s how it goes in the commercial photography industry.

10) Pitch even bigger businesses

When you are at the point where you have proven experience shooting for a variety of small and local businesses, you will be ready to start reaching out to ‘bigger fish’.

What’s exciting about shooting for bigger fish is that you’ll (generally-speaking), earn more revenue, have cooler shooting opportunities, be more challenged, and experience greater artistic rewards.

How do you know you are ready to shoot for ‘bigger fish’? When you feel confident that you are sufficiently educated in all aspects of your commercial photography business, including:

1. Your photography abilities in a variety of different circumstances. (In general with photography, regardless of the environment you feel like ‘I got this’.) 2. Your pricing. (You know the ins-and-outs of your pricing, can explain it well, and aren’t afraid to negotiate with any size client.) 3. Your processes. (You have your pre-and-post shoot processes nailed down, and can work efficiently and quickly.) 4. Your contracts. (You know what’s in your contract and why, and feel confident that it’s protecting you and setting clear expectations with your clients.) 5. Your team. (You trust your team, and you all work well together with the same end goal in mind- to please your clients.)

If you meet all the above criteria, then you are ready to start pitching bigger clients for better and higher-paying ($$$$$) jobs.

All of the work you’ve done up until this point is to that end- to make more money (ideally a lot more money!) and do more fulfilling work.

And what photographer doesn’t want more of both?

Chase after those big clients. Follow them on social. Send them printed marketing pieces. Call them. Email them. Ask for meetings. Rinse and repeat and do it all over again until you land them.

They may be a little more challenging to get in front of, but the payoff is oh-so-worth-it in every respect.

[petty-revenge-stories]

Call center employees goes on rampage on last day.

story data: very long story. 1625 votes. %90 upvoted. very popular.

This story is about a former coworker. Also, this is as much being a d*ck as revenge. But it was quite epic, so...

One guy was a younger guy at a cellphone call center who was always kind of a slacker doofus with a (unfairly) stereotypical millennial work ethic and attitude. I'll call him Shaggy. There was growing discontent because we were a commissioned sales group but were increasingly getting assigned non-sales campaigns, such as explaining to customers of X wireless what happens now that my company Y wireless bought them out. It was taking up 1/2 to 2/3rds of our day and killing our sales, commissions, stats, etc. Plus they kept changing the commission system to make it harder and harder to get payouts AND made it possible to get no payout if you fell below some number of sales per hour. Fortunately, I worked pretty hard and kept my numbers up, but for lazy slacker doofuses it was bad news.

So one Sunday (usually a busy call day) I noticed Shaggy seemed... different. Smiling, laughing, not using the company software like... at all. At some point he took off his head set and was bullshitting with me and it came out this was going to be his last day so he was just fucking around in a way that sounded... bad. I mentioned it to my supervisor. Later, my supervisor began looking into what exactly he'd been doing. From listening to the call logs and looking at the software logs we determined he:

1: Telling rude customers to go to hell, go f*ck themselves, etc. If they asked for managers he then hung up, transferred them to another cellphone company, or muted them and came back pretending to be a supervisor with an outrageous accent who also told them to go f*ck themselves.

2: Transferring people to an automated message that said something like, "do you know how to keep an idiot entertained forever? Just hang on and I'll tell you the secret of keeping stupid morons entertained, in just a moment you'll learn exactly how to keep them..." etc and seeing how long they lasted. Apparently some stayed on for awhile.

3: Clearing the entire call center queue. Apparently the system wouldn't detect a hangup if you hit release fast enough after the headset started to beep. Holding enter would automatically close the computer window (or some other key combo did it). So 50 calls waiting becomes zero in seconds.

4: Suspending service for customers he didn't like. We weren't allowed to or supposed to suspend service or mess with billing, but had access. (We could keep a notepad file with whatever we wanted in it on the computer, so many of us kept track of phone numbers [for various legitimate purposes] and also developed 'enemy lists' of sorts)

5: Giving credits to customers he liked. Because customers could have seen this it and relied on it, or maybe were entitled to a credit, or some other reason, it was apparently decided not to erase the credits.

I saw him one other time, washing cars at a dealership. I don't think it was a move up from $15-20 an hour, but he went out in a blaze of glory.

NOTE: To cut off all the complaints of "this must be fake! Customers would call back right away and he'd be caught!" This didn't get discovered for several reasons. He wasn't pulling up the customers accounts so there was no record of who got the call. Also, it was not possible to search for calls from customer X if they were transferred from another department rather than calling in directly, as Shaggy knew. Further, complaints like "the last guy was a d*ck!" when you can't see/don't know what department the last guy was in don't go far. They could see everything done to accounts under his company ID and undo it later however.

(source) (story by demonaspet)

[brianobrienny]

199 Digital Marketing Stats to Drive Your Marketing Strategy

The world of digital marketing is constantly changing. Whether it’s a global pandemic, racial unrest, political upheaval, new channels and apps, demographic shifts, or changing consumer dynamics – the job of today’s marketing leaders is not getting easier.

A great way to increase your chances of success as a business and a brand is to understand the latest digital marketing statistics.

Take a look at the data and the numbers. Maybe you can use some of these in your next budget meeting.

Hopefully most of these marketing stats will help you to prove that your content marketing strategy, digital and advertising campaigns are on-trend, relevant, and effective.

A few things to note:

We’ve broken the stats into some of the relevant categories within digital marketing and consumer trends related to marketing.

We’ve also tried to use statistics that are no more than two years old unless otherwise noted.

We linked to the best available source but this crap takes a lot of time. We did the best we could.

By ‘we” I mean my 17-year old daughter who helped me a ton with the research. But I paid her. Isn’t that nice?

There are 179 bullets but 200+ actual stats in this post. In case you are counting. So without further ado. . .

Here are 199 Digital Marketing Stats to drive your marketing strategy…

Content Marketing Stats

On average, inbound marketing overheads 62% less per lead than outbound marketing, which is more traditional. (HubSpot)

26% of adults are almost always online. That percentage is part of the 77% of US adults who are online daily. They  tend to go online between once and numerous times a day. (Pew Research Center)

The global population is just over 4 billion which includes 3.7 billion mobile internet users. Overall, there are 3 billion social media users. (Statista)

91% of B2B marketers utilize content marketing to reach customers. Additionally, the 2018 B2C content marketing stats from the CMI reveal that 86% of B2C marketers believe content marketing to be a key strategy. (Content Marketing Institute)

Content is one of the most efficient ways to promote a business. Almost half of all marketer’s plan to use content to reach their consumers.  Content Marketing Institute

60% of B2C marketers are committed to content marketing. (PointVisible)

63% of businesses do not have a recorded policy on content.  (MarketingProfs/CMI)

64% of marketers want to learn how to formulate a better content strategy. (We can help: just check out our content marketing strategy guide for content). (Marketing Charts)

32% of marketers believe that their content creation workflow is impartial or poor. (CMI)

60% of people find it difficult to consistently produce content. Our own content frequency research shows why this is so important. (Optinmonster)

Nearly 65% of people find engaging content difficult to produce. (Optinmonster)

The percentage of internet users that conduct product research online is about 78%. (WPforms)

Approximately 200 million Americans have signed up on FTC’s “Do Not Call” list. (WPforms)

Optinmonster states that “research gets millions of shares on Facebook.” (Optinmonster)

79% of B2B buyers share white papers with their coworkers. (Optinmonster)

HubSpot’s top lead magnet ebook was shared over 12,000 times in a year.  (Overthink Group)

72% of marketers say that content marketing sparks engagement growth. Additionally, 72% say it has ultimately increased the number of leads.  (CMI)

One of our favorite content marketing ROI case studies comes from Tiger Fitness. Their favorite video content marketing has a 60% returning customer rate. (Marketingsherpa)

Approximately 66% of people have discovered a new business on Twitter.  (Optinmonster)

Nearly 69% of consumers bought something because of a tweet they read on Twitter. (Optinmonster)

About 94% of people plan to make a purchase from an industry they follow on Twitter. (Optinmonster)

93% of marketers perceive interactive content as effective, according to GO-Gulf.  And roughly 88% of marketers will make 10-30% of their content interactive this year. (GO-Gulf ; Optinmonster)

In order to future-proof your content marketing approach, use augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). According to Cisco, the use of these technologies will likely increase 20x by the year 2021. (Cisco; Optinmonster)

Blogging Stats

Industries that blog tend to reach 55% more web traffic. (WPforms)

About 57% of industries have gained a customer through their business blog. (WPforms)

Content marketing lead generation figures show that most marketers blog as one of their key content marketing strategies. Optinmonster

Blog posts are among the most shared content online. (OkDork)

Blog content creation is a top priority for marketers. (Hubspot)

The most effective way to blog is to post titles with 6-13 words in order to drive the most traffic. (Orbitmedia)

Nonetheless, if you really want to increase those social shares, you will need to write longer posts. Posts that reach the highest number of shares are more than 3,000 words long. (Okdork)

SEO and Organic Search Stats

95% of people only look at the first page of search results which is why content is worth optimizing. If your content appears on the second page, most people will not see it. (Brafton)

Half of the clicks on SERPs go to the top 3 results. (Ignite Visibility)

An estimated 72% of online marketers describe content creation as their most efficient Search Engine Optimization method. (isitwp)

On average, Google receives more than 77,000 searches per second. Internet Live Stats

About 67% of clicks are directed to the first 5 results shown in search engines. (Advanced Web Ranking)

About 90% of website pages acquire zero organic traffic from Google. (Databox)

According to Propecta, “ 50% of search queries are 4 words or more.”  (Propecta)

Roughly 12% of search queries have a highlighted Snippet box in their Google search results. (Ahrefs)

Approximately 64% of marketers invest in SEO strategies and tactics.  (HubSpot)

Re-posting can boost the amount of monthly organic search views of published blog posts by an average of 106%. (HubSpot)

Accurate and keyword-rich copy helps to rank high in search. (HubSpot)

SEO reports will link initiatives to outcomes in the year 2020, such as demonstrating the impact of Search Engine Optimization on larger business goals. (HubSpot)

In order to improve website performance, the best technical search engine optimization method used by markers is enhancing mobile performance. (HubSpot)

Approximately 49% of consumers say they use Google to discover new products. (Think with Google)

More than half of Google searches (50.33%) now end without a click on a result. (Sparktoro)

Starting in June of 2019, roughly 94% of internet searches began to occur on Google.  (Jumpshot)

Google utilizes 810 rare SERP features. Of the unique features, 161 are found on more than 0.2% of keywords. (seoClarity)

On average, Google image results have a CTR of 0.21%, however it varies extensively by industry. (seoClarity)

Voice Search Stats

On average, 65% of 25-49-year old’s talk to their voice-enabled devices at least one time a day. (PWC)

Approximately $40 billion in the U.S. and $5 billion in the U.K. will be spent through voice commerce by the year 2022. (OC&C Strategy Consultants)

In Q3 of 2018, global smart speaker shipments increased by nearly 200% Y/Y. (Strategy Analytics)

In 2020, about 62% of Americans claimed to be using some form of voice assistance technology. (Edison Research)

Nearly 62% of the US population aged 12 years and older utilize voice-operated assistants.(Edison Research)

The percentage of Americans aged 18 and up have purchased a car that contains an in-dash info and entertainment system. (Edison Research)

Audio and Podcast Marketing Statistics

Podcasting has become extremely essential in reaching a specific target audience. 45% of global internet users aged 25-34 listen to podcasts. (Statista)

In the United States specifically, roughly 1 in 5 Americans listen to audiobooks, and 40% listen to podcasts. (Pew Research Center)

 15% of those listeners tune in to a podcast at least once per week. (Here are a few marketing podcasts you can add to your playlist.) (Edison Research)

Podcast Insights suggest that 49% of podcast listening happens at home, while 22% of people listen in their car. This may be why the State of Inbound report revealed that 11% of marketers plan to start their own podcast program. (Podcast Insights)

Video Marketing Statistics

Images help to increase content marketing effectiveness because they help sites reach more views with a larger audience. Additionally, images assist in spreading your message and tend to get more shares. (Jeffbullas)

The types of images you can use are endless!  However, a good place to start is with infographics  OKDork confirms that infographics are the most shared content type, and according to Forbes, roughly 84% of those using them find the images effective. (Forbes)

According to the State of Inbound report, marketers are focusing more on videos. Nearly 48% of marketers are making YouTube video a top priority, while 46% plan to focus on Facebook video. (Optinmonster)

Approximately 40% of millennials trust videos, and “half of those aged 18-34 admit that they would stop what they are doing to watch a new video.” (Think with Google)

According to CMI’s content marketing statistics, 72% of B2B marketers and 76% of B2C marketers utilize video because of its efficiency. Aberdeen Group notes that marketers who use video tend to get 66% more lead per year. (Optinmonster)

By the year 2021 video will represent 82% of all web traffic. (Cisco)

Webinar Marketing Statistics

59% of registrations occur in the last week before the webinar date. Additionally, 33% of webinar signups occur on the day of the webinar, which demonstrates the importance of getting your webinar timing right to attract more attendees. The most popular time for signups is 12PM Pacific/3PM Eastern. (GoToWebinar)

According to Bizible, a third of registrants watch the webinar replay. BrightTalk also says that 47% of on-demand views occur within 10 days after the original webinar date. (bizibl; BrightTALK)

Wyzowl conducted a survey for marketers who had hosted or taken part in a webinar. 87% found the webinar to be effective, and 49% plan to host or participate in a webinar this year. (Wyzowl)

93% of marketers perceive interactive content as effective, according to Go Gulf.  And roughly 88% of marketers will make 10-30% of their content interactive this year. (GO-Gulf )

Social Media Marketing Stats

The percentage of shoppers who trust family and friend advice over businesses is approximately 81%. (Hubspot)

About  90% of people claim that reading positive online reviews will often influence their buying decisions. (WPForms)

The most successful content marketing strategies are considered to be customer recommendations and case studies.  (Pardot)

According to Econsultancy, “product reviews are 12x more trusted than product descriptions and sales copy written by manufacturers.” (Econsultancy)

About 70% of online customers research product reviews before deciding to make a purchase. (Optinmonster)

Approximately 85% of buyers trust testimonials created by other consumers as much as they trust recommendations from personal contacts, which is up from 84% in 2016. (WPForms)

According to WPForms, “the number of marketers who say Facebook is “critical” or “important” to their business has increased 83%.” (WPforms)

The most efficient styles of B2B content are social media posts. (Pointvisible)

74% of individuals who have a Facebook account use it solely for professional purposes. Within those Facebook users, about 75% visit the site once daily.  (Pew Research Center; Optinmonster)

Key channels that target older online users are Facebook and YouTube. Whereas, the younger demographics use Snapchat and Instagram the most. (Pew Research Center; Optinmonster)

57% of all content is shared on Facebook. (Optinmonster)

People use YouTube primarily for solutions, entertainment, and learning new things.  (Think with Google)

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Stats

Statistically, the percentage of marketers using landing page A/B tests to improve conversion rates is listed at only 17%. (HubSpot)

Conversion rates are affected within the first five seconds of a website’s page-load time. With every additional second of load time,  website conversion rates drop by approximately 4.42%. (Portent)

According to a Databox survey, SEO was considered better than PPC for driving sales by 70% of respondents. (Databox)

Landing pages have the highest conversion rate at 23%, even though they are the least popular type of signup form. On the other hand, popups have the second-lowest conversion rate at 3% despite their status as the most popular signup form. (Omnisend)

By the year 2021, Ecommerce Global B2C sales are predicted to reach 4.5 trillion. (Shopify)

51% of buyers surveyed say they use Google to analyze potential online purchases. (Think with Google) 

A 2019 study showed that 65% of total e-commerce sessions were generated by search traffic, while 33% were generated through organic search, and 32% were  generated through paid search. (Statista)

Approximately 59% of consumers surveyed say that being able to shop on a mobile phone is vital when choosing which brand or retailer to purchase from. (Think with Google)

Over a two-year period, mobile searches for “____ near me today/tonight” grew by over 900%. (Think with Google)

Roughly 60% of smartphone users have been able to reach a business directly by using the “click to call” option in their search results. (Think with Google)

Within a two- year period, there was a 200%+ growth in mobile searches for the terms “open” + “now” + “near me.”  (Think with Google)

According to survey statistics, 46% of buyers verify inventory online before going into a store. (Think with Google)

70% of buyers surveyed say that the ability to shop in-person at a brick and mortar  store is vital when choosing which brand or retailer to purchase from. (Think with Google)

An average lead generation form contains approximately 11 fields. (PAGEWIZ)

Conversions can be improved by 86% by using visual content such as videos on landing pages. (Techjury)

For every $92 spent on gaining a new client, just $1 is then spent on attempts to convert the customer.  (Econsultancy)

Approximately 74% of conversion rate optimization programs promote sales growth. (MarketingSherpa)

According to the 2016 State of Conversion Optimization Report, the  percentage of small industries that lack a structured or documented conversion rate optimization strategy is listed at 68%. (State of Conversion Optimization Report)

Conversion rate satisfaction is only found in 22% of businesses.(VWO Blog)

Call to Actions (CTAs) that are personalized convert 42% more visitors than unpersonalized CTAs. (Hubspot)

The most popular method of conversion rate optimization is A/B testing. (Econsultancy)

A one second delay in your website speed can ultimately reduce conversions by 7%. (Neil Patel)

According to Venture Harbour, 300% more conversions can be produced through multi-step forms in WordPress. (Venture Harbour)

Asking for personal information, such as a phone number, dramatically reduces conversion rates. (WPForms)

Mobile Marketing Statistics

In the year 2019, mobile devices, excluding tablets, produced roughly half of all universal internet traffic. (Statista)

Since the beginning of 2017, mobile web traffic has accounted for about half of all large scale web traffic.(Statista)

The percentage of U.S. internet users that use more than one device when going online is around 87%. (Think with Google) 

Approximately 60% of smartphone consumers have contacted a corporation directly using the search results (e.g. “click to call” option). (Think with Google)

Nearly 25% of businesses invest in mobile optimization as a top search engine optimization approach. (HubSpot)

39% of smartphone consumers are more inclined to browse or shop a brand’s mobile app because the purchase process is easier or faster. (Think with Google)

Search traffic on mobile devices tend to be higher than on desktops. By the end of the year, about 52% of all web traffic will be mobile. (StatCounter)

1 in 10 Americans only use smartphone devices, which means mobile marketing is the main way to reach them. (Pew Research Center)

According to Marketing Land, “70% of media time and 79% of social media time happens on mobile devices.” (Optinmonster; Marketing Land)

If your business is interested in email marketing, it is important to note that mobile email opens increased 30% in the last year. (Campaign Monitor)

Within the last two years, Google research has shown that comparison searches using the word “best” have grown by 80%. (Think with Google)

Approximately 53% of website visitors will exit in less than 3 seconds if your content does not load, which is why it is vital to enhance your website and content for mobile conversions. (Optinmonster)

Voice search is becoming more vital, yet 62% of industries haven’t adjusted to it.  (PR Newswire)

In the US, 96% of people own a mobile phone. (Pew Research Center)

According to Pew Research Center, “people spend over 3.5 hours per day on their mobile devices.” (Emarketer)

About 51% of consumers have completed an online transaction with a smartphone. (Pew Research Center)

Statista states, “93% of Millennials have compared online deals using a mobile device.” (Statista)

Customers  made 108% more purchases using apps than they did on the mobile web during the 2017 holidays. (Button)

According to We Are Social, “there are 5.11 billion unique mobile users in the world.”  (We are Social)

By the year 2021, Mobile commerce sales (mCommerce), will account for more than half of all eCommerce. (CBRE)

On average, iPhone clients spend more than Android or Window consumers on a typical order. (Invesp)

Email Marketing Statistics

Various studies confirm that email marketing has a return on investment of around $40 for every dollar spent.

There are lots of ways to communicate in today’s digital world, however email remains the most popular: (Optinmonster)

74 trillion emails are sent in a year. (Optinmonster)

Nearly 90% of US adults use email. (Statista)

About 95% of all professionals use an email platform. (Optinmonster)

A/B testing boosts email marketing conversions by approximately 49%. (Campaign Monitor)

About 47% of marketers claim that they sometimes will test different subject lines to improve overall email performance. (MarketingProfs)

Subject lines are 22% more likely to be opened if they are personalized. (WPForms)

Nearly 70% of marketers claim that their highest-performing emails were sent from an individual person, not a specific brand. (Databox)

Approximately 47% of emails are opened or rejected based exclusively on their subject line. (WPForms)

About 56% of brands that include an emoji in their email subject line (Forbes)

Email subject lines that are written with immediacy and individuality tend to obtain a 22% higher open rate. (WPForms)

Nearly 70% of those aged 45 and up were receptive to humor in email subject lines,  however humor is not as likely to work on younger cohorts.  (Marketing Land)

Emails that contain subject lines with 6-10 words have the highest open rate. (Invesp)

Generally, email marketing has a 4400% average return on investment rate. Optinmonster)

On average, welcome emails have an 82% open rate. (GetResponse)

According to HubSpot, “91% of email users have unsubscribed from a company email they previously opted-in to. (Hubspot)

Over 102.6 trillion emails are exchanged every year, and that number is gradually increasing. (Statista)

Roughly 49% of all email messages are opened on mobile devices. (IBM)

More than half (54%) of emails are classified as spam. (Statista)

Tablet and PC mobile users are listed as being the least likely to engage with emails. (Impact of Mobile Use on Email Engagement)

The percentage of marketers that claim targeted personalization will increase buyer engagement is 74%.  (WPForms)

About 95% of the industries that utilize marketing automation are capitalizing on email marketing.  (Regalix)

27% of the most frequently opened emails related to hobbies. (HubSpot)

About 49% of buyers claim they would like to receive weekly promotional emails from their favorite brands. (Statista)

Only 30% of brands utilize personalized emails, yet they get 6x Higher Transaction Rates. (Experian Marketing)

According to Marketing Sherpa, “60% of consumers subscribe to a brand’s list to get promotional messages and deals. (MarketingSherpa)

In order to reduce form abandonment, send 3 abandoned cart emails instead of one. This will result in 69% more orders. (Oberlo)

Half of small and medium-sized businesses utilize marketing automation technology to lead campaigns.  (Statista)

Roughly 88% of buyers who are willing to disclose personal information want transparency about how GDPR is used. (DMA)

Over half of society checks their email before doing anything else online. (Optinmonster)

Social Selling Statistics

Nearly 78% of salespeople who utilize social media perform better than their colleagues. (Screwpile Communications)

The majority (98%) of sales representatives with 5000+ connections on LinkedIn tend to meet or exceed sales quotas. (The Sales Benchmark Index)

Outbound selling tactics of cold calling have a low success rate at 2.5%. (Keller Research Center

IBM increased their sales by 400%, due to the implementation of a social selling program. (IBM)

Worldwide, there are over 1.5 billion social media users. (McKinsey and Company)

About 77% of business to business clients refuse to speak to salespeople until they have conducted their own research. (Corporate Executive Board)

According to IBM, “55% of buyers do research via social media.” (IBM)

According to Hubspot, “only 7% of respondents surveyed said that social selling was a top priority for their sales organization.” (Hubspot)

Once a salesperson is involved, up to 90% of the sales process could essentially be accomplished  by social selling. (Forrester)

Approximately 87% of B2B buyers admit they have had a positive impression of a salesperson if they were previously introduced to them through someone in their network. (LinkedIn)

84% of business executives utilize contacts and information from their social networks as part of their acquisition process. (IDC)

Roughly 31% of B2B professionals claimed that social selling permitted them to build deeper connections with their clients.  (SuperOffice)

Lead Generation & Nurturing Stats

Nearly 45% of companies send their leads at least 1 email a week. (Databox)

Over 35% of B2B marketers surveyed have started a lead nurturing approach.  (Invespcro)

About 63% of marketers claim their main content challenge is ultimately driving traffic and creating leads. (Omnicore)

According to Databox, “40-70% of business qualified leads are not yet ready to buy.” (Databox)

About 20-40% of webinar attendees eventually become leads. (OptinMonster)

Approximately 80% of new leads will never turn  into sales. (Invespcro)

On average, industries that excel at lead nurturing produce 50% more sale ready leads at a 33% lower cost. (Invespcro)

About 66% of people say that email nurturing is the best way to re-engage leads. (Databox)

Ecommerce & Online Shopping Statistics

According to Statista, “12% of all retail sales globally were eCommerce sales.” (Statista)

Organic Google searches drive 43% of eCommerce traffic. (Wolfgang Digital)

Globally there are over 286+ million active PayPal accounts. (Statista)

About 65% of shoppers admit to looking up price comparisons on their mobile phones while in a brick and mortar store. (KPMG)

On average, exit-intent campaigns convert between 2-4% of deserting visitors into email. (Optinmonster)

On average, every US consumer spends $1800 a year on eCommerce. (Statista)

Amazon accounted for 44% of all US eCommerce sales. (CNBC)

In terms of conversational marketing, about 82% of consumers anticipate an online live chat response within 5 minutes. (Drift)

Men spend 68% more money online than women (KPMG)

On average, men tend to spend 68% more money online than women. (KPMG)

Every year, approximately 1.66 billion people shop online. (Statista)

About 56% of shoppers admit that they will leave without making a purchase if presented with unpredicted costs. (Shopify)

About 79% of US shoppers claim that free shipping would convince them to shop online more often. (Walker Sands)

About 36% of all US small industries lack a company website. (SBA)

Generation X shops online more than baby boomers and millennials. (KPMG)

According to 50% of consumers, online live chat is the most convenient way to get in contact with a company. (WPForms)

Companies that have the highest cart abandonment rates tend to be in the categories of finance, nonprofit, and travel, with retail coming in 4th place. (Optinmonster)

If you are ready to get more traffic to your site with quality content that’s published consistently, check out our Content Builder Service. Set up a quick consultation, and I’ll send you a free PDF version of my books. Get started today–and generate more traffic and leads for your business.

The post 199 Digital Marketing Stats to Drive Your Marketing Strategy appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.

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[slyni-sparklyeyeshadow-blog]

*Sparkly Eyeshadow*

So, my day started a few hours later than everyone providing a service to the world. Right now, I am in grad school and it has taken its toll on me. Always tired, always stressed, and always (sometimes) studying. My anxiety has been off the charts since starting grad school. It's so not my personality.. so serious. At least during my one-year in the real working world without having mom and dad rescue me at rent-time, I was always around people talking, laughing, and throwing coworker frenemies under the bus when the boss got mad. Now, I am around classmates a few hours a dayor 30 ten-year-olds 40 hours a week. It's really hard to find a happy medium. Emphasis on the happy.

This morning, I hit snooze for an hour per usual and end up waking up at 8:30 instead of 7:30 to finish my paper that I was supposed to start last night. But my gosh, have you seen the Instagram Explore page? Sign me up for a perfect bod, unlimited cash flow, and a travel agent with a keen eye for exotic places.

 My point exactly. Already off track. I wake up and do my ten minutes of quiet time before anything else. *Alright, Ashlee.* I think. *You can do this.*

I get started and am amazed at how I rip through my first paragraph and how bomb my thesis is. Then I zip through the second paragraph and only ten minutes has passed by. I've realized I'm starving and my head is hurting because I have no coffee at the apartment. *Nope, not moving until you get this paper turned in.* So I'm typing and text my boyfriend good morning. Then I check to see if I have any Facebook and Insta notifications. And OH MY WORD I look terrible this morning! Need to wipe the coconut oil off before I Snap anyone. I wonder what filters there are today...

*Focus, Focus, Focus*

Back to the paper. It's fairly easy. At around 10:15 I get stuck because I am so hungry and am so mad at myself because I only have two paragraphs left. I talk myself into going to the Shell Station right around the Corner where I am pretty sure they think I live in the dumpsters with the cats. I look TERRIBLE when I go in there. Usually no make-up, hair pulled back, and my white vans that have more brown on them. I go. Today, I choose Java Monster because the Dunkin' Donuts Coffee I am obsessed with is 90 more calories than my 200 calorie Java Monster and Regina George and I really wanna lose 3 lbs. Like it really matters once I get a Peanut Butter Crunch Cliff bar... which is gone before I return to my apartment within walking distance.

So then I think to myself... it's almost 11. You have an appointment at 1. Why don't you just hop in the shower and fix up today? You look terrible. It'll do yourself some good. Maybe your head will even quit hurting. So I hop in and am already feeling like a productive person that will one day contribute to society. I get out and start my eye make up. *Remember this is the doctor, Ashlee. No silver metallic. Just white sparkles.*

 I line them and paint them and cannot find my eyeliner sharpener. Pretty sure I threw it away after sharpening a pencil and convincing myself that I would get lead poisoning if I sharpened my eyeliner in there, too. So the eye liner could be better today. *Just remember thin lining on top.* 30 minutes has passed by and I realize I need to get with it and this is the doctor's office on a Wednesday at 1:00 pm. Not New Year's Eve in Time Square. So I try to do my foundation "natural" and this means mixing a Mac foundation with Estee Lauder's DoubleWear Foundation. That's easy. Ain't no brown spots seen through that stuff. I blow dry my unruly hair made better with It's a 10 Keratin treatment and BOOM! Lightening strikes my car. Swear. My car alarm is going off. For some odd reason I hide in my closet a second and realize it is lightening. Not a tornado. Either way,  I think my reasoning was because I was far away from windows. Then the weekly panic phone call to mom goes through.

*Mother*

Yes, Ashlee.

*I think lightening struck my car.*

What?

*Like lightening just struck over the apartment and now my car alarm is going off. I think it hit my car.*

Oh, well it could have been the sound from the thunder was so loud, Ashlee. That happens. I don't think lightening would hit your car it's grounded with rubber tires.

*I'll check after the storm. If I touch my car will it shock me?*

No, Ashlee. It won't.

*K, bye. Love you.*

Love you.

 I show up to the doctor's office in white linen pants even though we may have multiple tornadoes today and got there 30 minutes early because my doctor has moved offices and I know finding this office will be like the blind leading the blind. If I know me, I'll find the nicest, youngest looking millennial receptionist that shares my over-reliance of Google Maps and even though she works there every day, she will STILL lead me to a Parking Deck across the clinic and not my doctor's office. 34 minutes later, it is now 1:04, I find my doctor's new office. Another patient and I apparently didn't get a memo or preferred automated message to let us know the office was closed that day. Really? There is an unfinished paper icon sitting on my desktop. That's another phone call crying to mom today. Bless his heart, it would have called my boyfriend but he has heard me cry over the phone every day this week and I am trying to let him think I am having the best, most productive sunshine filled day as possible.

How unprofessional of my doctor! This girl with no current profession makes sure to leave her med school graduated physician a message deeming her unprofessional. I would have threatened to find a new doctor but she has 4 stars online and I decide to keep her. I'm sure she would be so relieved...

*Well half of your day is gone but you can still turn it around. Go to Barnes and Nobles so you can finish your paper around people and not by yourself in your dark room. I go to Barnes and Nobles... finish my paper and knock out two other assigned readings. YES. Just time to get distracted again.

My sister calls. The people in Barnes and Nobles now know my nephew had staph infection on his foot two weeks ago and that my doctor is a dill hole and I could "literally be dying. OMG." I get a lot of looks. Some sympathizing. Some dirty. And decide to go print out the 383874298 pieces of paper my professor e-mailed us. Who needs trees? Not like they give us oxygen or anything.. I drive to Fed-Ex because I broke my printer while Youtubing a video about how to insert the cartridge. Did I mention it starts hailing on my drive? No where to pull over.. whatever. Just drive through it... SLOWLY of course.

At Fed-Ex, one lady is annoyed I e-mailed them with so many attachments to print. Yes, she should be furious with me. They are providing a service and I am PAYING them for it. Thankfully this guy that always gives me free printouts is there. (Okay, that happened one time). I smile at the lady when he offers to help me to let her know that I'm a good paying customer and have built better relationships with her team than she has. APPARENTLY. She literally could care less even though I feel I have really socked it to her.

- That'll be $4.39, Miss *Insert My Last Name*

-thinking to myself * Wow, so glad he can read my gmail account name*

- ALOUD * How is that only four dollars? I printed like a million pages.*

- Well, I guess it could be less. * HE SMILES *

- thinking to myself * EWW. this is why you don't need to wear sparkly eye shadow. You totally send off the wrong message about your future aspirations. *

- I actually respond "Oh! Thank YOU!" He asks how my day goes and I immediately spill the beans about my car getting struck by both lightening and hail and he ensures me I can stay at FedEx as long as I need to.

- thinking to myself *GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!*

- I actually LAUGH and pretend I didn't hear him. "Thank you so much. Stay safe."

So I return to Barnes and Nobles in the hailstorm and continue to read while occasionally looking at the window. A security car has gone by a few times and the driver keeps making eye contact with me. *Really? Is this eye shadow so shiny he can see it through the window?* He keeps staring and I am actually mortified now even though he is supposed to keep all of us Summit Shoppers safe. Naturally, fearfully, I smile. Not a big one. You know, one of those smiles where they are supposed to understand they have no chance - a smile where you show no teeth and you squint your eyes weird. NOT FREAKING TODAY, BUDDY. YES, I SEE YOU AND THIS IS WEIRD. STOP. This is what I call TACT. COOTHE, as my mother has always called it. She says I need more of it. Boy, would I have made her proud today. Would've made up for one of my two panic phone calls...

A minute later, the security truck, not car, quickly comes to a halt in a nearby parking spot. He runs out.

*Oh my gosh. I hope no one has shoplifted a book. Some of the hard covered books are tempting because I want to read them but don't want to spend 30 dollars. I wonder what's going on? Is there a fire in the Starbucks? No, stupid. You are right here. There's no fire at the Starbucks. (Then I sniff the air) REALLY, there is no fire.*

"EXCUSE ME, MISS."

*OH SH*t* I think. Did I do something? Is he going to say he sees me leave the gas station around the corner with a brown bag in my hand way too much in front of all of these people?!?! I always wait until I get home. I would NEVER drink and drive!*

"I was just going to ask if you would like to KICK IT sometime."

*Relieved* Kick what? Oh HANG!

"Yeah, you know, hang out? Get coffee or something."

* thinks to myself, idiot we are IN a coffee shop. "Oh! Ha, I would but I've had a boyfriend going on 4 years now.* (I would NEVER. I have so much coothe...)

"Oh, dang. Well... I hope y'all break up."

"What?!"

"Yeah, I hope y'all break up! Can I still get your number?"

"No!"

"What about your name so I can look ya up on Facebook?"

* thinks to myself WELL MY pictures ARE CUTE..." "Yeah! It's Ashlee. a-s-h-l-E-E." *I put major emphasis on the last two letters of my name. ESPECIALLY THE LAST ONE. Just so he doesn't think there should be a Y there. Then, I give him my last name with major emphasis on the phonics so he gets it right.*

"Can I write on this?" Points to bottom of my homework.

"Oh yeah! There's nothing at the bottom." *He still writes my name wrong. Really? Even after that Alex Trebek phonics lesson? Maybe he won't find me now.*

"Okay and I'll leave you my number."

"I don't want-"

"Different area code."

"K, thanks." *I give the tactful smile with no teeth again to send the vibe that he needs to get gone.*

"I saw you through that window and thought THATS A BAD MAMA JAMA!" Apparently he didn’t catch my vibe. Why I hate coothe.

"HAHA... ohhh that's me!" *seriously, please leave before I cry.*

"Have a good day, Ashlee. Call me when you and your boy break up." I then realized he ripped exercise 4 off of my homework.

Umm, what just happened. He runs out to this Security Truck with Green lights on top still flashing. I see him out the window open his Facebook page. I just smile out the window at the events of my day and I start dying out laughing. People in Barnes and Nobles now think I wear too much sparkle eye shadow and cheat on my boyfriend. Good Lord. I quit laughing when I see the looks I'm getting. I wish I could give them all a tactful smile but am too embarrassed. Still can be petty in my head though. *Maybe yall should try sparkly eyeshadow, HATerS!*

[photomaniacs]

How to Contact and Book a Model for a Photo Shoot http://ift.tt/2wv543Z

Whether you’ve been shooting for five minutes or five years, there will likely come a time when you’ll have to book a shoot with another person. Maybe it will be a friend or coworker and maybe it will be a full-time professional model.

Whoever you’re contacting though, they’ll need to know some fundamental facts about what’s involved in your shoot before they agree to be involved. In this article, I discuss some of the key things you should include when contacting and booking a model.

A lot of shoots rely heavily on the fact that a model is going to be there. A properly constructed message to a model can certainly reduce the chances of them declining the shoot or failing to turn up.

I’ll start by saying that I’m no self-proclaimed expert on contacting models, but I’d like to think that based on the huge number of shoots I’ve booked and planned over the years that I have a fairly solid understanding of what’s important information when it comes to organizing shoots and what’s not.

It’s also worth noting that there is no one perfect way of doing this, we all prefer to be contacted in different ways and we all consider certain shoot information to be more important over others. But I do believe that a properly constructed message that contains some of the following key information can go a long way to ensuring a shoot goes ahead as planned.

A professional sounding message can reassure models that you know what you’re doing. Considering that out of the models I’ve personally booked I have never had a ‘no-show’ and only three or four cancellations (all for seemingly legitimate reasons) over the years, I’d like to think I’m doing something right.

But don’t take my word for it, after all, I’m just a photographer. So to further cement my initial ideas on best practices for contacting models, I asked them.

A few weeks ago I put together a simple and straightforward questionnaire and asked all of the models I knew to take five minutes to give me their opinions on how best to get in touch with them when booking a photo shoot.

Over 40 models kindly gave their time and feedback in the questionnaire and the foundation of this article is built on their responses and what they want to see in the messages they receive from us.

There’s a huge amount of planning and preparation that goes into the perfect photoshoot and that includes contacting and booking a model.

First Contact: What NOT to Do

No matter what you’re planning to shoot, there will always be a first message. To me, this is the most important message and getting this right or wrong can determine a huge amount about how the shoot evolves into actually happening or not.

The photographic industry has never had so many people taking pictures as it does now and it has to be said that most of those photographers are not relying on taking pictures to feed their families. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this, some of the best photographers I know don’t shoot professionally and enjoy the act of taking pictures in their spare time simply to enjoy taking pictures.

The reason I mention this is to highlight the fact that whether or not you’re shooting commercially or for fun, the model you’re most likely contacting is trying to make a living from it. Nearly every model I’ve ever worked with is incredibly dedicated and hardworking and they take their job very seriously.

According to my questionnaire, 53% of the models I asked were booking between 5 to 20 shoots per month. They are busy people.

So if you are a photographer shooting for fun, remember that the person you’re contacting is at work when you get in touch with them. They’re looking at diaries and accounts, juggling traveling expenses and traveling times so please think twice about contacting a professional model in the same way you would organize a night out with the lads.

e.g. “Hi darling, I saw your photos on Instagram and you look gorgeous in them. Fancy shooting with me.”

First Contact: What You SHOULD Do

Okay, so we’ve established that modeling is a real job and that they’re professionals (or at the very least aspiring professionals). Consequently, we should contact them like we contact any other businessperson.

They need to know when the shoot is going to be, what’s involved, how much it’s going to cost etc. This may seem pretty obvious but trust me there’s plenty of examples of information being missed off in the initial contact where this first message should clearly and comprehensively explain what’s involved, who’s involved and when it’s going to take place. But let’s take a deeper look at what we should include when initiating contact with a model.

Questionnaire Findings

The whole purpose of the model questionnaire was for this article. The Internet is not known for its forgiving nature and although I thought I had all of the answers on how to contact a model, I felt I needed to back that knowledge up with evidence from the people in question.

Firstly, I was obviously very humbled by the overwhelming response from the models who took part and their eagerness to contribute to this piece, (I get the feeling this subject is something that a lot of models have strong opinions on and rightly so) but I also learned a few things from the results myself as well.

Let’s take a quick look at the demographic of the models that took part in the questionnaire. Remember that over 40 models took part in this so the following graphs show answers as percentages of that total.

I think it’s fair to say that most of the models who took part are not only very busy people but are also solely responsible for booking their own shoots. This is perfect for the article in question because it not only highlights the fact that you’re contacting busy professionals but also that the model you’re trying to book will be the actual person reading your message.

Before Contacting a Model…

Before we contact anybody about anything we need to know a little about them first. Every single model is different and they all have varying rates, preferred contact methods and ‘levels’ (this is the term that dictates what styles of photography a model is comfortable modeling up to, these include straight fashion, lingerie, implied nude and nude etc). So what information should we look out for before putting ‘fingers to keyboard’ and getting in touch for the first time?

In this next section of the questionnaire, I asked models what was important to know about them before getting in touch.

So based on the information that was provided to us by our gracious models, we can see that a few things are pretty important to understand about them before getting in touch.

Firstly, 90% of models agreed that reading their modeling profile was important before getting in touch. It seems obvious I know but so often you’ll ask a model a question that is clearly already outlined in their online profile.

Secondly, a staggering 95% of models said they agreed that photographers should understand their modeling levels before getting in touch with them. Again, this seems obvious but DO NOT contact a model and ask them to model nude if they only model up to lingerie levels.

Details In Your Initial Message

In the questionnaire, I also asked the models for some pointers on specific content that the first message should contain when we reach out to them initially.

Again, we have some more obvious results here. Things like date and time, location and whether the shoot will be paid or not should definitely be included in the first message. Your ideas and styling options for the shoot are usually preferred but not essential.

Writing the Message

Okay, so to those millennials with the attention span of a cornered badger who just skipped all the way down here, firstly welcome and thanks for joining us. Here’s the ‘magic bullet’ content you were after.

I’ll mention again that there is no one right answer for everybody but here is what I do and here is what I write. I personally choose to write one very comprehensive first message that it is clearly headed in bold at the start of each relevant topic. This way everything is there and if certain models aren’t too concerned about styling notes on a shoot that’s months away, they can skip it and come back to it later. Also, I’ve found that using clear headers like this for each section allows you to find pertinent information in the message later on like location and time without having to read the entire thing again.

The following letter is a good example of what I would typically send as an initial message to a model if I was planning a test shoot.

Dear ‘Model Name’,

I am in the process of organizing a test shoot and I am reaching out to you as a model because I came across your portfolio online and loved your work. If you don’t mind I’d just like to check your availability and if you’d consider working with me on this project.

Dates & Times

I was looking to arrange this shoot sometime towards the end of this month. Do you work during the week or only on the weekends as I’d prefer one day during the week if that’s possible. I know you’re based quite far from me so I’m pretty flexible on a start time. I normally recommend starting at around 12 noon and finishing up around 6 pm if that helps you with travel times but like I mentioned, I’m flexible on this if this doesn’t work for you. Please let me know what dates you have available.

Shoot Location

I am currently based in ‘state your location’ and I am a five-minute walk from the nearest train station if that helps you plan your travel arrangements.

A lot of my test shoots tend to be shot here in my home studio. Space is limited but some of my best shoots and collaborations have been shot here including the shoot I did a couple of months ago with ‘insert model name’ so they can tell you all about it if you want to know more: ‘insert a link to the shoot with the aforementioned model’.

Like I mentioned, I’m super easy to get to via train as the station is a two-minute walk from my place and I can come and collect you off the train if you like. If you’re driving instead, just let me know and I’ll get you the address details and parking arrangements.

The Shoot Plan

I had some lighting ideas I wanted to put into practice but I can also get some shots more tailored to what you were after as well. ‘Insert your predicted shoot times here e.g. Normally a shoot is 4-5 hours long and we would get at least three or four very different sets done in that time’. At the moment I’m shooting a lot of colored lighting shots so that would probably be a key attribute in our shoot together too.

Styling

Regarding styling, I’m happy to hear your thoughts on what you’d like to shoot in, especially if you have something interesting or more unique in mind or available. You should be able to get a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn’t in my shoots from my site but as a general guide, there are a few items that are always winners. Take a look at these previous shoots and ideas to see what I mean: ‘insert links to previous shoots or mood boards here’

Any questions at all then please feel free to get in touch as I’d love to hear your thoughts on this too.

Also if you have some styling ideas, please feel free to either send me some shots or links of what you’re thinking of so I can better plan what would look good with them lighting wise.

Final Images

From our test shoot, you would look to get a minimum of ‘Insert number of images you’re happy you can deliver here’ un-watermarked, hi-resolution, fully retouched files that I would choose. You would receive these over the period of around 4-6 weeks as I work on them around my commercial work.

…and finally (I promise)

Haha, I’m sorry if that’s an information overload but I thought it better to get as much info across from the start to avoid too many messages backward and forwards and so that you knew what you were getting into from the beginning.

I’d love to hear your thoughts though and by all means, I’m always open to suggestions.

Thanks again, enjoy the rest of your week and I very much look forward to working with you soon

Kind regards

Your Name

Your Email

Your Website

So that’s the message I send out and I amend it to suit specific needs like if it’s a paid shoot instead of a test shoot for example. Also, let me explain a little further on some of the information I shared in this message.

The Opening Paragraph

The opening lines I’ve included here are pretty generic for the purpose of this article and I would advise you to tailor it more specifically to the model you wish to contact. The key points to include though are; state as early as possible if this is going to be a paid or test/free shoot. This is just courtesy, as sometimes a model is so busy she’s really only looking for paid jobs regardless of how amazing your portfolio might be. Secondly be excited about the prospect of working with them but don’t be overly creepy. Avoid things like highlighting specific body parts that you love about them and avoid referring to models with terms like ‘love’, ‘gorgeous’ and ‘darling’.

Dates & Times Details

You’ll notice that I was specific but not too specific on a date. We all know models are busy so don’t send your first message with only one option open to them. There’s nothing worse than messages bouncing back and forth trying to pin a day down so give them a few options. Also, check if they work during the week too, some models are excellent at what they do but might have another day job that prohibits them from working during the week. Find this out early on to establish their availability.

Also, remember that they’re the ones traveling to you, be sensible and please be realistic about your start time expectations. I think it’s fair to say that a lot of the modeling community is fairly young, they may not have ‘made it big’ like you just yet and unfortunately may not have their own vehicle so will have to use public transport. Public transport takes time, so provide them with information about the surrounding train or bus stations if you can.

Shoot Location Details

You’ll notice that I not only stated where geographically I would be shooting but I also specified it was my home. This is an important distinction to make as it can sometimes be a shock to the model if she was expecting to turn up at a studio but when she arrives, she’s actually entering your home. A lot of photographers shoot from their home and there’s nothing wrong with this but it’s about being completely transparent right from the start. I also used this as an opportunity to include a link to a previous shoot with another well-known model and I even went as far as to recommend they get in touch with them if they would like to know more about the location and experience. Again, I will reiterate that it can be a bit intimidating going to a stranger’s home for the first time so giving the model the option to check everything is okay with another model is a reassuring statement. Never underestimate how connected models are with other models as they won’t hesitate to contact one another if they have doubts about the shoot.

I have also tried to make it as easy as possible for them to say yes by including details about convenient public transport nearby. I also mentioned that I would happily meet them at the train station too. Again this is another sign that you’re well intentioned and a half decent human being for wanting to help them with all their bags etc. But most importantly, some models like to meet publicly first and you meeting them at the station is yet another reassurance that they can walk away if need be over simply turning up on your doorstep and hoping for the best.

Shoot Plan Details

In this first message, you don’t need to go into too much detail about the shoot but I still feel it’s a good idea to include just a couple of sentences about what you’re planning. Things like how many sets you’re planning on shooting, whether it will be all indoors or some outdoors etc. Again this info can be handy for the model to have a cursory glance at. Nothing screams ‘I don’t know what I’m doing’ more than ‘Hi I’d like to book you for two hours and shoot seven different sets both indoors and out’.

Styling Details

Again, styling details needn’t contain too much information and details in this first message but I still think it’s reassuring for the model to glance at before they book a shoot. The reason for this is because it’s a clear indicator of your shoot intentions prior to the shoot. Some models have different rates for different ‘levels’ so if you’re paying for fashion level modeling yet you’re asking for her to only bring lingerie this is a big alarm bell. Again I’ll reiterate, be totally transparent about your shoot intentions from the start. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to shoot lingerie, just make it clear from the start.

Final Images Details

This section is probably going to cause you the most problems starting out because there is no information anywhere on what you should or should not offer to models after a test shoot. In my questionnaire, I asked models what importance they gave to receiving information on the retouched files they would receive in exchange for their time at a ‘test’ shoot.

100% of models said that they would either definitely want to know or would prefer/would be nice to know what to expect in return for their time at a test shoot.

What you choose to offer in exchange for a test shoot will ultimately be up to you but I personally think that a model receiving 15 or more exceptional images 1-2 months after the shoot is the minimum requirement for an afternoons worth of their time.

I’ll also add here that I understand I’m in a privileged position and that I’ve been doing this a long time and as such, I am able to dictate more than I could do ten years ago. I only shoot a handful of test shoots a year now and as such, it takes me a lot longer to retouch their images around my commercial projects.

I also stipulate that I will be deciding which images get retouched. These are things that I couldn’t get away with ten years ago so if you’re starting out you might want to be realistic about what you’re offering. For example, a lot of models would want to choose a handful of shots themselves. You can offer to split it and say ‘you’ll get 10 shots, you can choose 5 images and I’ll retouch them for you and I’ll choose 5’. I would also say that most models expect to see some retouched images within 4 weeks of a shoot.

Whatever you decide make sure it’s clearly stated in your initial message so that both parties are officially happy and no bad feelings are felt after the shoot. Additionally, whatever you decide to offer, stick to it. Don’t say ‘okay you’ll get 20 shots within two weeks’ and then only provide 5 or worse, none. If that happens, you’re a bad photographer and you can’t blame it on bad ‘modeling’ so there weren’t many shots.

It’s our job to take great pictures regardless. If you don’t want that pressure of guaranteeing great shots then perhaps a test shoot isn’t for you, pay the model instead. Do your best on the day, pay the model for their time and treat it as a training exercise without the stress of having to perform. That way if the shots turn out crap, you learn something and the model isn’t hounding you for images and spreading bad words about you. If the shots turn out great then that’s a win no matter what. You can then also decide to share the shots with the model if you’d like them to share your awesomeness too.

Make the shoot happen.

This might seem like a lot to cover in a single message but all of our time is precious. If I book a shoot, I don’t want to give the model any reason whatsoever to cancel or postpone and all of these positives add up to them not worrying about what to expect on the day of the shoot. You are essentially taking away every single problem and providing them only with solutions and reassurances. If you do all of this, you’ll book way more shoots and reduce your cancellations dramatically.

Final Thoughts

I love a good graph as much as the next guy but I promise you these are the last of them. Okay, so you’ve finally got your message ready to send but wait… before you send it, what is the best channel to send this message on?

Based on these results, most models prefer to be contacted via email, Facebook messenger and directly via their website.

What Happens Now?

So you’ve sent your perfect message, the model has agreed to everything and you’re both happy with the date and time so what should you do between now and the shoot date? Some models will provide you with a lot of contact information including a phone number prior to your shoot. It’s worth bearing in mind that this phone number is often only provided to you for last minute updates and changes to the shoot. That phone number is not provided to you for a quick chat once a day several weeks prior to the shoot ‘to discuss the shoot’. If you would like to remind your model about your photo shoot, take a look at what models recommend as the best way to stay in touch and remind them of the date and time.

According to this, most models are more than happy to provide a number to contact them on. Like we established at the start of this article, models are busy professionals just like any other and as such only require one or two friendly reminders prior to shooting.

Millennial Checklist

So although this article was more of a thesis, I felt that I was in an extremely privileged position thanks to that fantastic data I had collected via the model questionnaire. All of that data came from professional models on some of the pitfalls we as photographers might encounter whilst arranging a photo shoot with them and as such I wanted to share as many of my findings as possible.

I totally get that not everybody wants to read all of that data so here are the highlights from what I’ve learned regarding contacting a model for a photoshoot.

Whether you’re shooting for fun or commercially, remember that the person you’re contacting is a professional person and not an object to photographed.

Find the balance of professional and casual when initiating contact.

Be positive and excited about the prospect of working with them but don’t be a creep.

Always be entirely transparent about your photo shoots intentions from the start.

Ensure that you’ve read the models profile to check if they’re appropriate for your shoot.

Always check the modeling levels of the model you’re contacting. For example, don’t ask a lingerie model to pose nude.

If you’re contacting a model about a test shoot, make sure they’re happy to consider working for free.

In your initial message to a potential model be sure to include these key details: is the shoot paid or not, some potential dates, your location, some basic styling and shoot ideas and what they can expect in return if it’s a test shoot.

If at all possible, try and find the models preferred method of contact but this is normally either via email or Facebook Messenger.

In preparation for your shoot it’s probably a good idea to remind your model once or twice in the week leading up to the shoot.

P.S. A big thank you to all the models who took part in my questionnaire. You can find a list of some of their names and websites at the bottom of this same article on my website.

About the author: Jake Hicks is an editorial and fashion photographer based in Reading, UK. He specializes in keeping the skill in the camera and not just on the screen. Hicks has also just announced his first ever U.S. workshops in September 2017. If you’d like to learn more about his incredibly popular gelled lighting and post-pro techniques, visit this link for more info. You can find more of his work and writing on his website, Facebook, 500px, Instagram, Twitter, and Flickr. This article was also published here.

Go to Source Author: Jake Hicks If you’d like us to remove any content please send us a message here CHECK OUT THE TOP SELLING CAMERAS!

The post How to Contact and Book a Model for a Photo Shoot appeared first on CameraFreaks.

August 05, 2017 at 10:01PM

[zenruption]

An Opinion on Vaccines

Add to Flipboard Magazine.

I’ve been asked for my opinion on vaccinations on numerous occasions, as it’s been a hot button topic for the last several years.

As my husband and I cope with the challenges of raising our children, we have certain friends -- more politically enthusiastic than ourselves -- try to rope us into their arguments over public health and individual rights. We know that vaccines have helped to nearly eradicate several diseases, but fears around the safety of vaccinations have created an anti-vaccination movement, one that has been linked to outbreaks of contagious diseases that were previously controlled. Even at work, the offering of a free seasonal flu vaccine sends my coworkers into debate mode as they discuss the merits and failings of this option.

I’ve listened to these debates. I’ve put up with my friends arguing, and I’ve done my best to look into things myself and be a responsible parent. But if you want my opinion on vaccinations, you may not like the answer.

Because my opinion is: my opinion doesn’t matter. And yours doesn’t either.

More Questions Than Answers

As with any remotely political issue, questions about vaccinations tend to be answered more by a person’s biases than by the facts. If you hang around on an anti-vax website, you are likely either an anti-vaxxer yourself, or a troll toying with the sincere visitors and writers trying to make sense of the issue. Even when a person with no particular agenda, either way, tries to research the issue and come to scientifically sound conclusions, there is little hope for finding clarity.

And It’s not just about making decisions for kids; adults are also having to make decisions for themselves on vaccines - booster shots, flu vaccines, shingles, and more. New specialty vaccines are being developed for adults to treat cancer or treat cocaine addiction, but how do we know how safe those are, especially when there are conflicting reports everywhere.

As far as I can tell, the problem isn’t even the vaccinations themselves. Whether flu season is coming, new children are joining the family, or it isn’t clear yet if a case of the sniffles might actually be something more serious, it is hard to find reliable, objective medical information.

According to Pew, more than 61 percent of patients research their symptoms online--a number that has grown constantly as internet access expands and more people of all ages get smartphones or computers. While this makes it easier to ask questions and find information without spending the time and money it takes to go to the doctor’s office, it also makes it easier for false alarms to go viral, for science to be undermined by paranoia.

Trying to do your own research may provide confidence and clarity, but for me it only shrouded everything in uncertainty. The more I looked for answers, the more questions I had: why hadn’t I heard about the risks of vaccinations before? Why did some random celebrity I’ve never heard of get so much attention for talking about vaccines? If the science is settled (as so many doctors claim) then why does the question keep getting raised?

Who is WHO?

There is, of course, the old-fashioned alternative to Googling everything. But talking to doctors wasn’t the final word I was looking for.

Doctors, apparently, hate that their patients are using the internet to become more informed about their health: they are annoyed by patients using online reviews and research to choose their providers; they are irritated at having to compete with celebrity doctors whose fame and visibility is amplified online; they’ve even come up with a diagnosis for those patients who come into the doctor’s office already armed with an internet-backed diagnosis: cyberchondria.

Reactions like this are part of the problem with finding clarity in the vaccine debate. Doctors being so quick to dismiss the source of patient information--rather than the content--doesn’t do much to sate the appetites for facts we all have when our health (or our family’s health) is in question. Doctor visits are expensive, and the internet is cheap or free. If we think we can find answers online, we will.

The issue of cost opens up a whole new can of worms: agendas. In reality, a random blogger or social media personality is just as likely to have a hidden agenda as a doctor, but it doesn’t always look that way. We know doctors are sometimes paid to promote certain drugs or treatments; the idea that some “Big Pharma” is pressuring doctors to promote vaccines fits right into the narrative.

But online, anonymity can lend a lot of courage to people, and can obscure the pathway that money follows from interest groups to resources. It is all but impossible to tell who is “real” online. As a millennial, I’m no stranger to the need for reliable sources (no, Wikipedia is not generally accepted as authoritative) or to the risk of catfishing (when people deliberately hide their identity to prank, manipulate, or extort others online). But at the same time, I’m also conditioned to go online to find my information.

So where can I go, and who can I trust?

A Trusted Opinion

Whether you are trying to make a decision about vaccinating your kids, looking for a way to deal with a chronic condition, or even just trying to stay healthy while saving money, it is hard to make an informed decision with or without the advice of a doctor, because there always seem to be questions about whether anyone’s “advice” is wisdom or self-interest.

And this is the real problem I have with the whole debate over vaccinations.

I, like everyone else, am expected to have an opinion on an issue over which experts disagree, the science is under constant scrutiny, and where taking a side will almost certainly cost me respect or even relationships. Growing numbers of doctors are refusing outright to treat patients whose parents refuse to follow the standard vaccination schedules. Having the wrong opinion on this issue could cost me--or my family--access to a preferred doctor.

I’m not interested in coming up with an opinion on an issue of medical science--I’m interested in knowing exactly what the facts are and what is best for me and my family. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be enough trust or respect going around for that to happen.

Doctors don’t trust their patients to do online research. But patients can’t always trust doctors to be objective when money is involved with decision-making. On the one hand there are questions about the authority of online resources, on the other, questions about how authorities in society use their status and position.

In the absence of trust, we come up with our own, inexpert opinions. Today the issue may be vaccinations, tomorrow diets, the next day exercise, maybe after that it will be the merits of replacing our organs and limbs with robotic substitutes--I don’t know. But I do know that anytime I or one of my kids has to see the doctor, it is already a scary, stressful experience. I don’t need the added stress of having to develop opinions on health topics, present them to my doctor, and potentially have to fight for them or even for my right to have them.

I want enough trust in this environment that when I express a concern, my doctor not only listens, but helps me understand the problem and the solutions available to me. I want enough trust that my husband and I don’t have to constantly fear whether we are making the right choices for our children. I want enough trust that when I meet another patient or parent online, I can actually take their advice.

Our problem isn’t that we don’t have enough--or even the best--information; it is that we either cannot or will not trust one another to use it.

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[getuciwo-blog]

How – and why – tech has taken over our relationships

This is part of CNET's "It's Complicated" series about the role technology plays in our relationships. If you had to explain dating in 2017 to a time traveler from the 1950s, what would you say? "I would explain texting first, and how it takes five minutes now for people to decide they want to hook up," says comedian Nikki Glaser. "I would tell women, 'Buckle up, bitch, this is not going to be a fun ride.'" Glaser, 32, has made a professional study of dating sites like Tinder and the hookup culture that experts say has reshaped many people's sex lives. It provides lots of fodder for her comedy routine. For past generations, relationship milestones meant things like "going steady." Today's relationships can strike up after a few minutes of text chats. And since nearly everything is done using an app on a phone, "you can have a relationship with someone and never hear their voice," Glaser says. So this is dating in the modern age. Having fun yet? Dating apps are so ubiquitous now that swipe right, the way you show you like someone on Tinder, has become part of our everyday language. "Swipe right" now means "anytime you make a good choice or approve of something," according to Urban Dictionary. The internet has been "transformational" to the way we have relationships, says Pepper Schwartz, a professor of sociology at the University of Washington who studies dating. She's noticed, for example, the speed at which technological trends ripple through our culture, and how quickly people become adopters. "It changes us," she said. "It's a very powerful presence in modern life." That's particularly true in courtship and dating, Schwartz said. Go back a couple hundred years, and the world was transitioning from arranged marriages to "love." (Schwartz said researchers could tell because children weren't getting married in order of oldest to youngest anymore.) Up until the automobile, airplane and mass education, people usually married someone nearby, such as a neighbor, a fellow churchgoer or the girl next door. But these shifts fractured many communities. That, along with sex education, family planning and, in some places, egg freezing as a company-provided health benefit, has meant many people are waiting longer before they settle down. Who hasn't read about how millennials are less religious, have fewer kids and, despite the popularity of Tinder and the less formal dating culture it's helped introduce, may even be having less sex. The term "cybersex," which used to mean people describing sexual experiences to each other over chat, has morphed into "sexting" -- and it's a far more accepted part of life. Varying sexuality and gender identity are more accepted today as well. So as time passes and people move around, the traditional pools from which you'd normally find a partner pretty much disappear, Schwartz said. That leaves today's relationship seeker with few options other than to look online. It's no wonder then that over 90 percent of America's more than 54 million singles have tried online dating, according to the Statistic Brain Research Institute. Over the past decade, dating services have been set up for pretty much any interest. If you wanted to date only people who like Star Trek, normally you'd have to weed through several p'tahks before finding someone to join your crew, as it were. Now there's a site for pretty Stark Trek fans, as well as sites for vampire enthusiasts, gamers and even devotees to the writings of Ayn Rand. There's even a site for supporters of the newly inaugurated president of the United States. It's called TrumpSingles.com. Rapid change Tinder's simple but addicting formula of swiping right on a profile you like, and then getting an alert if that person swipes right on you, has become such a cultural sensation that Glaser began doing skits about it. Watching how friends and coworkers used the app, she developed a theory that a not-small number of men would be willing to say pretty much anything in a text message conversation if they believed they might hook up. So she tested it in a segment called Tinder Tapout for her late night Comedy Central show, "Not Safe with Nikki Glaser," which ran for 20 episodes last year. She and her team created fake profiles of good-looking women, then struck up conversations with real-life men. The joke: See how long the men stick with the conversation as the fake women say increasingly crazy things. Glaser started one conversation by having a fictional female celebrate that she'd just sold a stolen wheelchair. In another, she told a marine she had PTSD, "Party Till Severely Dumber." He responded, "What's your favorite color?" "People went further than you would ever think," Glaser said. Her theory is that the men had so many conversations going that her character was "another fish in the sea to them." Tinder isn't unique, it's just one of the most well-known. Other apps, such as Grindr, used by the gay community, and Bumble, in which women make the first move, have joined staples like OkCupid, Match.com and eHarmony as go-to dating services on the web. Not everyone likes the seeming minefield of internet dating, though. That's when they turn to Amber Kelleher-Andrews and her matchmaking service, Kelleher International, founded by her mother Jill Kelleher in 1986 just outside San Francisco. With prices ranging from $25,000 to $300,000, her clientele skews toward the rich and famous. But she said many people come to her after having given up on the app world. "There are people who it isn't working for," she said. "The people who come to matchmakers are highly frustrated." Kelleher, who met her husband in school despite her mother's attempts to match her with other men, is considering bringing a lower-priced version of her service onto the internet too. One idea she's considering is taking over the management of a person's online profile, and then helping select dates among the swipes and winks that pile up. "People are really bad at choosing by themselves," she said. The new normal It's easy to forget modern smartphones came on the scene only a decade ago, when Steve Jobs unveiled the first 52 Burrito dates iPhone. The mobile app boom came afterward, helping make services like Uber, Twitter, Instagram and Tinder household names. We're still feeling the effects that technological change is having on our culture and how we communicate, said Nicole Ellison, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Information. For example, people routinely strike up a conversation about something someone said online, like if a colleague posted about his child's birthday on Facebook. A few years ago, that might have been considered creepy. Now it's pleasant and thoughtful. We may reach a point where tech helps us more easily find people in our daily lives, Ellison said, and not just find someone to meet up with later. Imagine, for example, an app that points out a fellow Game of Thrones fan at a party, so you can more easily strike up a conversation. "We have more information about people than ever before, and many of us have these supercomputers in our pocket that have geolocation capabilities to see who's around us in space," she said. Together, that information could help us more easily talk to each other and find common ground. "That would be my hope," she said. In the meantime, people like Glaser are asking for less ambitious technologies to fix some of the inconveniences of today's dating scene. At the top of her list is an undo button for text messages, like how Google's Gmail gives you 30 seconds to cancel an email after you press Send. "We've all sent off things we regret," she said. "It's crazy that that can make or break a relationship." Then again, maybe not. Time travelers beware. CNET Magazine: Check out a sampling of the stories you'll find in CNET's newsstand edition. Batteries Not Included: The CNET team shares experiences that remind us why tech stuff is cool. This article originally appeared on CNET.com as "Here's why tech has taken over our relationships." http://www.cbsnews.com/news/tech-has-taken-over-our-relationships-dating-sites-tinder/

[cusitufi-blog]

How – and why – tech has taken over our relationships

This is part of CNET's "It's Complicated" series about the role technology plays in our relationships. If you had to explain dating in 2017 to a time traveler from the 1950s, what would you say? "I would explain texting first, and how it takes five minutes now for people to decide they want to hook up," says comedian Nikki Glaser. "I would tell women, 'Buckle up, bitch, this is not going to be a fun ride.'" Glaser, 32, has made a professional study of dating sites like Tinder and the hookup culture that experts say has reshaped many people's sex lives. It provides lots of fodder for her comedy routine. For past generations, relationship milestones meant things like "going steady." Today's relationships can strike up after a few minutes of text chats. And since nearly everything is done using an app on a phone, "you can have a relationship with someone and never hear their voice," Glaser says. So this is dating in the modern age. Having fun yet? Dating apps are so ubiquitous now that swipe right, the way you show you like someone on Tinder, has become part of our everyday language. "Swipe right" now means "anytime you make a good choice or approve of something," according to Urban Dictionary. The internet has been "transformational" to the way we have relationships, says Pepper Schwartz, a professor of sociology at the University of Washington who studies dating. She's noticed, for example, the speed at which technological trends ripple through our culture, and how quickly people become adopters. "It changes us," she said. "It's a very powerful presence in modern life." That's particularly true in courtship and dating, Schwartz said. Go back a couple hundred years, and the world was transitioning from arranged marriages to "love." (Schwartz said researchers could tell because children weren't getting married in order of oldest to youngest anymore.) Up until the automobile, airplane and mass education, people usually married someone nearby, such as a neighbor, a fellow churchgoer or the girl next door. But these shifts fractured many communities. That, along with sex education, family planning and, in some places, egg freezing as a company-provided health benefit, has meant many people are waiting longer before they settle down. Who hasn't read about how millennials are less religious, have fewer kids and, despite the popularity of Tinder and the less formal dating culture it's helped introduce, may even be having less sex. The term "cybersex," which used to mean people describing sexual experiences to each other over chat, has morphed into "sexting" -- and it's a far more accepted part of life. Varying sexuality and gender identity are more accepted today as well. So as time passes and people move around, the traditional pools from which you'd normally find a partner pretty much disappear, Schwartz said. That leaves today's relationship seeker with few options other than to look online. It's no wonder then that over 90 percent of America's more than 54 million singles have tried online dating, according to the Statistic Brain Research Institute. Over the past decade, dating services have been set up Behance.net for pretty much any interest. If you wanted to date only people who like Star Trek, normally you'd have to weed through several p'tahks before finding someone to join your crew, as it were. Now there's a site for pretty Stark Trek fans, as well as sites for vampire enthusiasts, gamers and even devotees to the writings of Ayn Rand. There's even a site for supporters of the newly inaugurated president of the United States. It's called TrumpSingles.com. Rapid change Tinder's simple but addicting formula of swiping right on a profile you like, and then getting an alert if that person swipes right on you, has become such a cultural sensation that Glaser began doing skits about it. Watching how friends and coworkers used the app, she developed a theory that a not-small number of men would be willing to say pretty much anything in a text message conversation if they believed they might hook up. So she tested it in a segment called Tinder Tapout for her late night Comedy Central show, "Not Safe with Nikki Glaser," which ran for 20 episodes last year. She and her team created fake profiles of good-looking women, then struck up conversations with real-life men. The joke: See how long the men stick with the conversation as the fake women say increasingly crazy things. Glaser started one conversation by having a fictional female celebrate that she'd just sold a stolen wheelchair. In another, she told a marine she had PTSD, "Party Till Severely Dumber." He responded, "What's your favorite color?" "People went further than you would ever think," Glaser said. Her theory is that the men had so many conversations going that her character was "another fish in the sea to them." Tinder isn't unique, it's just one of the most well-known. Other apps, such as Grindr, used by the gay community, and Bumble, in which women make the first move, have joined staples like OkCupid, Match.com and eHarmony as go-to dating services on the web. Not everyone likes the seeming minefield of internet dating, though. That's when they turn to Amber Kelleher-Andrews and her matchmaking service, Kelleher International, founded by her mother Jill Kelleher in 1986 just outside San Francisco. With prices ranging from $25,000 to $300,000, her clientele skews toward the rich and famous. But she said many people come to her after having given up on the app world. "There are people who it isn't working for," she said. "The people who come to matchmakers are highly frustrated." Kelleher, who met her husband in school despite her mother's attempts to match her with other men, is considering bringing a lower-priced version of her service onto the internet too. One idea she's considering is taking over the management of a person's online profile, and then helping select dates among the swipes and winks that pile up. "People are really bad at choosing by themselves," she said. The new normal It's easy to forget modern smartphones came on the scene only a decade ago, when Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone. The mobile app boom came afterward, helping make services like Uber, Twitter, Instagram and Tinder household names. We're still feeling the effects that technological change is having on our culture and how we communicate, said Nicole Ellison, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Information. For example, people routinely strike up a conversation about something someone said online, like if a colleague posted about his child's birthday on Facebook. A few years ago, that might have been considered creepy. Now it's pleasant and thoughtful. We may reach a point where tech helps us more easily find people in our daily lives, Ellison said, and not just find someone to meet up with later. Imagine, for example, an app that points out a fellow Game of Thrones fan at a party, so you can more easily strike up a conversation. "We have more information about people than ever before, and many of us have these supercomputers in our pocket that have geolocation capabilities to see who's around us in space," she said. Together, that information could help us more easily talk to each other and find common ground. "That would be my hope," she said. In the meantime, people like Glaser are asking for less ambitious technologies to fix some of the inconveniences of today's dating scene. At the top of her list is an undo button for text messages, like how Google's Gmail gives you 30 seconds to cancel an email after you https://www.dating.dk/ press Send. "We've all sent off things we regret," she said. "It's crazy that that can make or break a relationship." Then again, maybe not. Time travelers beware. CNET Magazine: Check out a sampling of the stories you'll find in CNET's newsstand edition. Batteries Not Included: The CNET team shares experiences that remind us why tech stuff is cool. This article originally appeared on CNET.com as "Here's why tech has taken over our relationships." http://www.cbsnews.com/news/tech-has-taken-over-our-relationships-dating-sites-tinder/