#which is fine because that's all relevant to the average fan reading the interview when it's published but NOT FOR ME RN

[smolsleepyfox]

Reading interviews for my thesis and I love Matthew but either the (German) interviewers catch his tone in a weird way or he is just REALLY good at giving non-answers. Babygirl I just want to know more about your concept of the werewolf as a symbol of boundary-crossing in the religious imagery of your band.

[nuestnewsletter]

[OP-ED] Boosting NU’EST News: Understanding Simple Media Statistics

Hello everyone! Today’s op-ed is something a little different. Even in the K-pop sphere, news reporting remains utmost relevant and even more so to the general public. Media statistics like higher clicks, low bounce-rates and shares are constantly monitored by media outlets themselves, as well as relevant news authorities, and are used not only as a measurement of a group’s popularity but the news-site’s outreach. 

So today, we are going to understand more about media statistics to help boost NU’EST-related news in the long-run. 

1. Why is this important?

As mentioned, news outlets constantly monitors the fluctuations and pouring comments and views for each piece. In some cases, certain reporters might be required to reach a certain amount of views per article as part of their Key Performance Indicator (KPI). This is particularly important to smaller, growing websites, which seeks continuous trends for content. It is important to note that while news seek to inform, news outlets survive by needing to hit a target number of subscribers, viral content pieces and clicks. The higher the views and pool of audience, the better they are able to market themselves to advertisers, which brings in the revenue.

For groups, the higher the views means the more likely the media outlet would want to feature you. This means more exclusive interviews, photoshoots (cover of the magazine) and related content. 

To sum it up:

high views/trending = high demand = ↑ opportunities for the group 

2. Understanding simple media terms

There’s a lot of different statistics that is being monitored across different media outlets according to their own KPI. For some it’s the views, for some it’s the average, but for Google (or any search engines and trending systems), the major indicators bow down to (1) clicks, (2) bounce and exit rates and (3) sharing on social media

*Other indicators such as number of outbound links, and where your traffic comes from etc are not discussed in this editorial.

CLICKS: 

This is the simplest statistic that everyone know. Also known as the number of views, clicks are commonly used as a simple basis in news monitoring. Each click into the article adds a view, and the views could be unlimited. If a user clicked in 10 times, 10 views will be registered. The idea is that the higher the number, the more people have read the article, which may or may not be the case.

Thus, it is also important to view the unique clicks: the number of clicks per IP, registered only once. This is a more valuable indicator, as this showed the unique audience clicking into article. With this, it is also easier to find out if the article has ‘reread value’ (mostly for evergreen articles, where an article is being revisited or ‘bookmarked’ because of its interest value), or to find out if anyone is manipulating the view counts.

BOUNCE & EXIT RATE: 

These are determined by how long a user stay on a website and on each page. Now, the two are very similar, but are essentially not the same. In fact, bounce rates are considered a sub-set of an exit rate. To put it very simply and loosely: bounce rate = percentage of users who engage in a single session; exit rate = percentage of users who engage across the website.

A bounce happens when a reader enters the page, but leaves without much engagement, be it only reading for a short amount of time before they loose interest (10s), not sharing nor commenting and more. An exit happens when the user leaves the website fully.

The idea is that the lower the bounce & exit rates, the more interesting or valuable your content is to the readers. i.e: people actually read your content, and want more. In fact, we theorize that one of the reasons behind having so many photo articles on the same event in one site was to lower the exit rates, as such articles usually have fans jumping from one page to another before leaving the site altogether.

Thus, a high bounce rate can actually hurt the article’s ranking, as the article is viewed as less than satisfactory or undesirable, and thus pushed further down in the listing.

SOCIAL MEDIA SHARING:

SNS is a largely sought after platform that most media sites want to conquer. Honestly, this section is a little tricky - due to the fact that each platform has their standalone community and administrating team (well, not all, but you get the point), it is not easy to track social media sharing on news articles. This is further aggravated by the fact that fans share links by copy and pasting the urls into their tweets or FB post, instead of using the share function, which is pretty much the only way to add direction into the statistics.

As far as experimenting goes, this was what we observed: [-] when connecting the website to the SNS (such as Tumblr to your Twitter handle), each RT and FB Share/Like will be added to the statistics.  [-] each share using the SNS buttons on the article will be added to the statistics [-] copy and pasting urls will not add to the statistics [-] quote RT will not add to the statistics directly

And even this could be faulty due to the plugin. Nonetheless, it’s always best to share directly from the source!

3. So, what is the success formula to trending?

We have no idea - after all, there are no cheat codes as google, and presumably other search engines, constantly updates their ranking system - in fact, they make changes every single day. However, google does take views, bounce & exit rates into consideration when curating the rankings.

Look at this simply:

if the article have high views, and high bounce rates, Google sees it as relevant content but not good content. So while it appears in the search, the search engine puts it at a lower ranking because it thinks that people are just not interested. “It’s there, read if you want, but it won’t be the first thing you see.”

4. What should we do then?

Read a lot.

If you don’t understand Korean, it’s totally fine as well! There are a lot of NU’EST-related content on international K-pop sites such as Soompi, where you can get your fix of NU’EST News. This helps with bounce and exit rates. 

Tip: many thanks to the translators we have on Twitter-sphere, should you see an article you thoroughly enjoyed, click in to the source article and run through it for at least 15s to show your appreciation.

Engage a lot.

This means to share and comment on the site pages as much as you can. Login to Naver to like a comment, or RT the news on Twitter. Each time you engage, not only will more LOVEs get to read about the latest NU’EST updates, it would also help with the boys’ ‘branding’ within the news site.

Who knows, if the media outlet decides that there’s enough of an audience, they might request to do an exclusive with them - and more updates of them is a huge win for us!

Quality over Quantity.

Just like high views mean little if the bounce/exit rates are high, comments and more are highly reliant on quality as well. A quality piece is determined by search engine analytics over a series of indicators, but one way to encourage engagement is also by putting positive and good comments to each piece. Never be afraid to share some of your positive energy or thoughts in the comments section, or join in on discussions! Remember never to spam the same thing over and over again, however, so the best is to simply write what comes from your heart.

Ultimately, there are many, many factors that contribute to rankings and what makes for a “good article”. This op-ed is only a very brief introduction to the world of site metrics, but ultimately, we hope that you would better understand why each click, each dwell time and more is valuable to every site.

Feel free to share with us more if you have thoughts!

Article written by: Alia Disclaimer: Please do not repost on Tumblr; take out with full credits. Do contact us if you’ve done a translation, we’d love to link to the translations on the article as well. 

[manoharis]

A Year in Review: Telugu Movies!

You can’t pay me to watch these (aka watch me roast them in 10 words or less)

Dictator - a Bala Krishna movie without animals in the title!

Krishnashtami - wyd Sunil.

Terror - the title aptly describes my feelings about this movie.

Guntur Talkies - lets just not. more like gun-to-ur head after watching this.

Attack - this wins for having a director and actor that Idc about!

Edo Raakam Ado Raakam - edho raakamaina torture.

Thikka - ee cinema choosaka vacchedi adhe

Jaguar -  just when you’ve thought twood’s exhausted the possible feline comparisions

I really really dont care:  Savitri, Raja Cheyyi Vesthe, Abbayitho Ammayi, Killing Veerappan, Express Raja, Naruda Donoruda, Hyper, Speedunodu, Garam, Nayaki

Nenu Sailaja -I had a lot of expectations for this movie because it was said to be “fresh” but there was really nothing new here. I loved Ram’s look, some of the comedy and most of the songs. Worth a watch but nothing ground-breaking. 

Nannaku Prematho -  A for effort? I just couldn’t connect to the film because I felt like the emotion was kind of artificial and didn’t really pull me in. I couldn’t get behind a lot of the “logic” in this film. Also there disruptive bgm in every scene which made it really hard to focus on the film. 

Soggade Chinni Nayana - I feel like this movie was targeted towards middle aged aunties lol. I love Nagarjuna and Ramya Krishna but there were one too many scenes where I was hiding my face from embarrassment. On the plus side, all the sarees in the movie were gorgeous !

Lacchimdeviki O Lekkundi - messy because of all the back and forth plot twists. Horror comedy is literally my least favorite genre so I didn’t like this.

Seethamma Andalu Ramaya Sutralu - below average; I don’t have much to say about this. If I hadn’t watched it, this would belong in the ‘I really don’t care’ list.

Krishnagadi Veera Prema Gaadha - I think I was drowsy when watching this (not because of the movie) so I honestly don’t remember anything but the beginning portion which was really funny. I need to rewatch this.

Malupu - I always love a good thriller but it could’ve been better. Aadhi Pinnisetty’s voice tho !!

Kshanam - FAVE !!! This was so good! again always down for a good thriller. Super gripping and just the right pace. I loved how in this the love story was relevant to the script. It was very well written, acted, and taken as well in terms of technicalities. I can definitely see it getting awards next year.

Kalyana Vaibhogame - The first half was loud and messy which made me almost stop watching it. With a premise like this, the story is extremely predictable, as in you knew the lead pair would fall in love eventually, it was just a matter of when. I thought the second half was pretty cute though.

Shourya – I know this is biased of me but I can’t remember the last movie of the Manchu brothers that I’ve seen because the kind of movies they make are just so not my type. However, when this movie came out I did hear some positive talk for it on twitter. But then it wasn’t talked about at all after like a week? So I’m not exactly sure how successful it was. I may watch it eventually but I’m not dying to see it lol

Run- This was the remake of Neram by Sundeep Kishan (side note: I really like Sundeep, so I was annoyed that he was doing a remake). I didn’t hear much about this either after the first week so I don’t think it did that well. However, I do want to watch it because I’ve been trying to watch Neram since forever but I could never find it with subtitles so I guess this is my chance to watch it, but a lesser version ofc. Although one of the main reasons I wanted to watch was for Nivin and Nazriya so this doesn’t really do much more me lmao

Oopiri – I haven’t seen the original so I really liked this! S/o to Nagarjuna for realizing fairly quickly that its time for him to more age appropriate roles (take notes @ chiranjeevi). This is why the Akkineni’s are my fave! (my bias is showing so much in this post but do I really care). anyways, I loved the chemistry between Karthi and Nagarjuna cause lbr their bromance was the real love story in this. Shriya’s appearance made the childhood shipper in me super happy. Overall, an enjoyable film with some great performances. 

Sardaar Gabbar Singh – The amount of hype this movie had, jfc. Tbh I don’t have anything major against Pawan Kalyan. He’s just not one of my favorites, and ngl I liked him in the early 2000s phase (i.e. before Gabbar Singh which is when his fans went to piccha peaks). His fan base is literally one of the worst. I just think they’re super extra and very disrespectful, esp at audio launches. So yes, I was happy that it flopped because one it put the pk fans in their place who were hyping this to no end. Also he wrote the story and screenplay for this and reading some reviews about that gave me life lmao. If you want to hear something good about this movie, Kajal looks stunning in all her princess-y clothes and a few of the songs are pretty good. 

Sarrainodu – I actually haven’t seen this yet but I do want to. Here I go being biased again lol. If this starred anyone I didn’t care for, I would have no interest in this movie but because it’s the fave, Allu Arjun, I have to watch it. I like a lot of the video songs and the music actually grew on me when I was forced to listen to it A LOT in India over the summer. Also he looks hella good, I’m sold, bye. 

Supreme – Ok this movie was huge in India over the summer. Everyone loved it and ngl I used the phrase “its amazing zing zing” about a thousand times among my cousins without even having seen it. I tried watching it once I got back and it was just too much loud comedy for me to handle and I never finished it. 

Brahmotsavam – oh lord. TOO SOON. Jk, I’m over it. Easily the biggest disappointment of 2016 in terms of what was promised and what was delivered. I literally followed this movie since it was even rumored to be happening because Mahesh and Sreekanth Addala. Then Mickey J Meyer was brought on and then Samantha and I was just so hyped. I think the fact that I was dying to watch this in theaters and then I didn’t even want to watch it once it was online, says a lot. I was just really shocked that everyone, fans and non-fans alike panned it especially when it involved sooo many people. The second hand embarrassment is too real. But I did eventually watch it and what the actual hell. There was literally no story, no coherence, and way too many irrelevant characters. Mahesh has a pattern of delivering blockbusters after massive flops so here’s hoping the best for his next!

A…Aa: I have so many feelings about this movie. Trivikram is one of my most favorite directors/writers and has been for a long time. With Attarintiki Daredi, I was pretty disappointed that he went full on commercial and I thought he lost some of his touch. That changed a bit with Son of Satyamurthy (but I feel like a majority of the reason that I liked that movie is bc of Allu Arjun lol). But yeah anyway, A…Aa is still a very commercial movie, its not in any way niche. However, I think Trivikram finally struck the balance of substance and commerciality which made it an entertaining movie while also leaving you with something to think about. The story was actually very simple and something that’s definitely been done before, but the screenplay had Trivikram’s name all over it. It was apparent in every single dialogue. He also pulled out some spectacular performances that were subdued but well done. I remember Samantha saying in an interview that because this is Trivikram’s third movie with her, he knows when she’s reusing an expression which forced her to improve her performance. When the movie was announced, I was kind of disappointed that Nithiin was in it because he’s never been a favorite of mine but I fell in love with him after this. I think in a lot of his movies he tries to do the typical commercial hero act and its obvious that he borrows heavily from Pawan Kalyan’s style. But in this his characterization was very subdued and painted him as  a common guy which made him a lot more likable. It was also easier to ship the lead pair because the star aura tends to overshadow the chemistry but here I was really able to see the characters instead of the actors behind them. I just wished the story was more unique but otherwise a really good movie!

Okka Ammayi Thappa - Sundeep really needs to promote his movies more because they always seem to go under the radar. I was actually really excited for this because Sundeep & Nithya as the lead pair. I’m pretty sure its one of those movies that takes place in the span of a single day which I love bc if you can stretch a day into a full film, its gotta be one hell of a day. Not sure if this was a hit or not but I definitely want to check it out once its online.

Gentleman – (Spoiler Free). This was pretty good! A nice balance of romance and suspense. The story was intriguing and the performances were well done. I didn’t like the comedy though. The situational humor was fine but I hated the comedy track and I felt like it made the movie so much slower than it needed to be.

Oka Manasu - I was so hyped for this cause I love Naga Shourya and Niharika but apparently this was very slow and boring. I hope this doesn’t discourage Niharika from doing more movies because tollywood really needs some actual telugu actresses. (Side Note: Allu Arjun’s speech at this movie’s audio launch !! He basically called out the PK fans in a long 10 mins lecture and it gave me lifeee)

Pelli Choopulu - FAVE!!! Truly a new age rom com. I watched this in a theater in India and I loved it! The story was fresh, engaging, and hilarious. I loved how the characters were very realistic and reflective of actual youth and not hero-like at all. Also s/o for the strong female characterization !! You go Chitra! I think it did an amazing job of combining comedy, romance, social issues, and emotion into a very believable and enjoyable film. And not to forget the music which is so so good. Also, I’m gonna quote this movie in my grave. 

Manamantha - I looove movies that have multiple inter-related stories. The four characters and their respective stories were written well with each character tackling a unique situation. Overall, I liked it, but it definitely could have been better.

Srirasthu Subhamastu - I watched this in India and it was nice to see it on the big screen because the best part of this movie was the grandeur of production. Starring in a movie produced by your father clearly has its perks. I don’t really care about Allu Sirish but he’s still pretty new so to be fair he was pretty good in this. The story is very very routine and predictable but I remember liking the dialogues

Babu Bangaram - I don’t think this was a hit? But fiiinally, Venky in a movie that’s not a remake, which ofc didn’t last long cause his next is a remake smh. 

Janatha Garage - This movie was apparently the biggest hit of 2016 in terms of box office and imo its not deserving. The trailer for this movie made it seem really good but it was a disappointment in the end. The thing with Koratala Siva’s movies is that he always has a good social message but then commercializes it way too much. I understand what he’s trying to do but I wish he’d cut down on the violence and focus on the actual issue. This couldve been a really amazing movie about environmentalism but it turned into something really routine. Im also annoyed that a stellar cast of NTR, Mohanlal, Samantha, and Nithya was wasted on such a mediocre movie.

Jo Achyutananda - This was pretty good. As per the director’s style, it was very simple with life-like characters. The story was very interesting but I thought it was pretty anti-climactic and definitely could have been taken to another level. S/o for Nani’s cameo towards the end which sadly was the only male eye candy (sorrynotsorry).

Majnu -  Even though this is Nani’s movie and I usually have high expectations for his movies, I didn’t expect much from this. The movie didn’t offer anything spectacular. The plot started off pretty interesting but then went the routine rom- com path. It gets a fair share of laughs and the music is fabulous but otherwise underwhelming.

Abhinetri - I haven’t seen this yet and I don’t really care tbh but I’ll probably watch it eventually.

Mana Oori Ramayanam - This seems really interesting from the trailer. Definitely a niche film and I don’t think it did well commercially but I want to see it.

Premam - What do I say about this that won’t get me hate lmao. I haven’t seen this yet but it received pretty good reviews as well as commercial success. I don’t support remakes ofc but I know I’ll end up watching this eventually. I’m glad that Naga Chaitanya is back on track again ?

Saahasam Swasaga Saagipo - I really want to watch this because romance + thriller is my faaave. I don’t think this was that big of a hit but Im still excited to see it. The album is amazing and I assume the bgm will be as well. Also s/o for Naga Chaitanya’s look in this movie which is his best yet imo. Is it just me or has he become so much more attractive now that he’s unavaible lol.

Ekkadiki Pothavu Chinnavada - I haven’t seen this yet, but heard that it was really good! Seems like another Karthikeya-type movie? Who would’ve guessed that Nikhil would be most successful actor from the Happy Days gang (besides tamanna ofc).

Jayammbu Nishchayambu Raa - same as above ^, haven’t seen, heard it was good.Other than that, I’m glad a small film got acclaim.

Dhruva - How much credit can you give to a remake ? I haven’t seen this or the original but I know I’ll probably like it. 

Overall I think 2016 was a pretty good year for movies with many of the successes coming from small budget films which seems to be an increasing trend in Tollywood. The fact that Sardaar Gabbar Singh and Brahmotsavam were total box office disasters even though they starred arguably the two biggest stars in TFI shows that the majority of audiences crave content over star power which I’m all here for! 

[mado-science]

Quite a fun and interesting read. Really a thought-provoker. A lot of people are hating on this book, and it tends to be people who are either highly opinionated, went in exacting some revolutionary read, or are allegedly more educated than the author. Go to Amazon

The Music in Our Lives In his book, ‘This is Your Brain on Music’ the author Daniel Levitin asks intriguing questions which we rarely think about , e.g. what is music? The simple answer is of course, music is organized sound. But behind the word organized are a variety of queries which in themselves need clarifications. Go to Amazon

A fine, readable intro to music and the brain. This is sn excellent, well-written book on a topic that deserves more attention—the interaction between human brains and music, as informed by science. This is the most current book on this topic as I write. The second-most-recent book is 20 years older, and at the present rate of advance in brain science, that is a long time. Other reviewers have complained that the author drops too many names. I disagree. His first career, before he went back to school and got his Ph.D, was as a recording engineer. It is not name-dropping when you know famed singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell on a first-name basis, have discussed musical details of recording her while doing it, and then have later interviewed her about relevant topics in this book. This is by no means the only such useful example this unusual writer provides. The book does have an uneven feel to it in some spots, because it slows down to take you, like a fly on the wall, to unexpected places, but these are worth going to. I happen to know the science of some of what Levitin discusses, as I worked in computer speech recognition for five years, built two labs, and have a couple of published papers from that work. On what I know, Levitin is spot-on accurate. He also provides thorough notes and references if you want to dig deeper. But he also is a very good explainer, which I really appreciated when he discussed music. All in all this is a fine introduction. If it has any weakness, it is that he does not try to organize and categorize as much as he could have, but he WILL keep you reading! Go to Amazon

Five Stars My husband is a huge music fan with quite a ... M usic Music is being human Did not connect with this book Where there are not a lot of choices it's wonderful to have such a good one Sometimes gets a little too detailed for the average reader. Some parts were interesting but I don't feel the information was that beneficial. Excellent book for anyone interested in human emotion, cognition, musicians, or the concept of talent. It's in the music It was extremely nice to have played examples on the audio version

[seeingisnotbelieving-blog1]

PDP Task 5

Demonstrate your research and engagement with self promotion materials used by other photographers and to evidence the planning and production of your own. 

Research 

One of the most useful books I have read on self promotion is Maria Piscopo’s The Photographer’s Guide to Marketing and Self-Promotion. This book is in it’s fifth edition and published last year. Although it’s written from an American perspective, I found the information easily equated to the UKs photographic industry, the interviews with professional photographers were inspiring and helpful. 

So what have I learnt?

Lots of photographers who are self employed really fall down on self-promotion and marketing, even the word self promotion can be off-putting to some. However, if you don’t do it, who will? Another aspect to consider is, are you showing what your clients actually want to see? I talked to Architectural photographer Keith Cooper at the Derby Photofair, about this issue. He said in reality he photographs some “bloody ugly industrial buildings” so whilst it could be a good photograph, it will only appeal to a small number of clients. Therefore, balancing your promotional images whether by portfolios or online, “try to target the level you want to work at, not what you are working at.” This is such good advice and something I had considered before, it’s made me reflect and reexamine what work I would show potential clients. 

What is my message and who do I want it to reach, is a question I have asked myself. Having a great website that is current, relevant and easy to navigate, is a crucial part of self promotion and marketing. I really like the website of Architectural photographer Simon Kennedy www.simonkennedy.net 

His home page is simple and clear, the main image scrolls using the navigation arrows. The feature that I liked the most was in the section “projects” there were numerous image options to click on, when you chose one it gave you information about the project with the option to view it further. Not overwhelming your audience with multiple images and providing them with a choice to view specific work, is a great design feature. 

MY WEBSITE 

In the second year at Uni we had to design and build a website, this wasn’t a particularly successful project for me. At the time my main interest was dance and performance photography, so I styled my website based around that. Although it didn’t feel particularly authentic my rational was that as someone unsure about my identity as photographer, it was better to show one genre I was good at, than a few that I was average at. My website looked so bad although tried really hard to make it look personal. In doing this, it just resulted in looking very amateurish, not something I want to share with the world online. 

Having researched other photographers websites extensively it’s clear to me that with my limited computer skills I am just not able to create a website that looks or functions professionally. As I have mentioned before with post production editing, website design is a stand alone profession (I’m working hard to get better at photography, I don’t want to, or need to learn to build websites). Therefore I have asked a company called simpleandfunctional to build my new website for me. I still own the domain name www.daniellebather.com which I can continue to use. I chose simpleandfunctional as they manage two websites for architectural photographers that I think are visually striking, designed beautifully and function really well. I have requested that a link is created on my main site that takes the viewer to my fine art work. I saw this on Simon Kenndy’s website and thought it was a brilliant idea. It doesn’t confuse his commercial identity as an architecture and interior photographer or overwhelm his audience by presenting his fine art work. 

A recent study in France concluded if people are searching for someone to commission, your website will be viewed on average for forty seven seconds, therefore precise and well presented work is vital. Giving the viewer the option by providing a link to other work and a way to purchase it but don’t bombard people,as they will simply leave your website and look elsewhere. 

I asked Luca if he would consider looking at the images I have chosen to use on my website, he was very helpful in encouraging me to have them presented in groupings that were project based, rather than interiors/exteriors. This might seem obvious, but initially when I was considering work to include, I felt I didn’t have enough “projects” to include. He thought it be better to have fewer that are coherent, than more that are a mixture of work. 

BUSINESS CARDS

I redesigned by business cards to better reflect who I am as a photographer or so I thought......

On the backs I have included a variety of architectural images. I did show this to my tutor, who said it would be better just saying “photographer”, as I do practice other sorts of photography. I think what I will do, is both and depending on who I am giving my cards to I will give either the generic version or the specific one, best of both worlds. 

PRINT PORTFOLIO

From the research I have done on architectural and interior photographers, the vast majority of them have a printed portfolio. When I interviewed  Luca Piffaretti and asked him how he started his business he said “I walked all over London showing Architects/designers my work” People want to see your prints even if you have your work available to to view online. No more than 12 images are necessary, people stop looking after a while, especially if you are one of many portfolios they have to review. Some photographers have book portfolios printed, I think this is appropriate for other genres of photography, for architectural photography, it’s not a great option as it’s important to be able to keep your work updated. Architects and designers are visual people, they are very focused on design and want to see images being beautifully presented, this is really important as it shows that you take care in your work. 

There are many leather bound portfolios that are available to buy can be embossed with your name and or logo, as a vegetarian I’m not a fan of leather. I found a company who make wooden portfolios. I chose wood because it Environmentally sustainable, it’s durable. I chose A3 size in landscape orientation and post hinges internally, as I think they look more professional than a ring binder hinge, my work can be added to and removed as necessary. I chose to have the darker tone of wood of the two options because I think it looks more luxurious than the paler colour and have my name embossed on the front, as is simple and classical and ties in well with my website and busnisness cards. 

DISASTER! MY PORTFOLIO ARRIVED AND MY NAME HAD BEEN SPELT INCORRECTLY, IT SAID DANIEL BATHER. THEY ARE MAKING ME MAKE A NEW VERSION. THIS IS THE SECOND TIME A COMPANY WHO DOES PERSONALISED PRODUCTS, HAS MADE AN ERROR WITH MY NAME. MY PERSONALISED DIGITAL NAME FOR MY IMAGES SAID DANIELLA. COMPANIES SHOULD LEARN TO PROOF READ MORE EFFECTIVELY. 

SOCIAL MEDIA

The internet is full of articles about how vital social media campaigns are, from the research I have undertaken, I think its a mistake to position social media activity as your marketing campaign, when it should only be part of your business message. I do have social media platforms Facebook, Twitter and Instagram that I have used for sharing my work and as a self promotional tool, which has generated work for me in the past. Unfortunately due to a legal situation, that is beyond my control, I am not currently permitted to use any social media accounts.

FACEBOOK

This is an example of a advert that I ran on my Facebook photography page, it was free and ran for a week. I got 14 enquiries for baby portraits. Some people were not local, but I did secure three shoots locally as a result of this advert, so it was worth it. However, I wouldn’t prioritise social media promotion for acrchitectural work, I really haven’t seen any professionals do this. In the future will continue to run adverts for family portraiture and fine art, it is a way to reach a targeted audience for this genre. 

INSTAGRAM AND TWITTER

When I was able to use these social media platforms and was starting to think of myself as a brand, I did amend and change the way I was using them, this was really important as they were tied online to my professional work. My only Instagram page is called daniellebatherphotography, but it really was a general page. I decided to change the way I used the platform, I started by only posting images that have been taken on a camera (not my phone), I don’t include any personal photos of my family or friends and I post at least once a week to keep people interested. I don’t think I have had any work as a result of my instagram page, but I have certainly networked with photographers through it, which has helped with my studies and hopefully will beyond. Perviously on my twitter account, I noticed I had retweeted a lot about the NHS being in financial crisis, important yes, relevant to photography, not really. I now only share my own photographic work, and retweet relevant articles ect. There are so many interesting things going on in the world photographically that have wider implications politically, socially and ethically, which is important to me to include. I think it’s an honest reflection of me as a person, as well as a photographer. Again, I haven’t got work as a result of my twitter posts, however I think sharing exhibition information for example on Twitter is a way for reaching a wider audience. Keeping people informed about my photographic practice, I believe will lead to opportunities in the future, once I can use social media again.