Since Social Media For Photographers Tutorial I got a few questions about how much time do I spend using social media because it looks like the system I describe takes a lot of time to maintain. I think this question is so popular because of the whole SM debate (how it eats up your time, how it forms your opinion for you). IMHO it’s just all about maintaining focus — you don’t need to watch or read everything that caught your eye and you don’t need to argue with every stranger on every forum who has a different opinion than yours
Here is a list of all my social media interactions on a typical day:
- Email 10a.m.-11a.m. and 4p.m.-4:30p.m. — the first one is for all planing of current photoshoots and developing following ones, approaching magazines, sharing final pictures, discussing mood-boards, second one is only for answering the messages that came during the day and can not be answered tomorrow (most can).
- All the other work conversations are happening via phone because chat is very inefficient for that.
- FB and IG posts take 10–15 min a day, Medium takes 15–20 min
- I don’t answer “hey how are you” messages, except from close friends— most of serious request are more detailed and go to my 10a.m. slot. I also don’t argue with people’s critique of my work unless they are top photographers/designers.
- The only time I chat on SM is while in public transport or having a quick coffee in the morning.
So to sum up, work related conversations are brief and more efficient because of the social media then they were before. Web presence take time to set up, but almost no time to maintain.