The importance of good Photography

It is without doubt that good photography is key when promoting your event or organisation through on and offline media. Whether a photo is being sent accompanying a piece of editorial to promote your event, to be included in an advert or as part of a competition, the power of good photography should never be underestimated.

When supplying editorial, it is imperative that good photography relates to the copy supplied. Without an image or with a photo that is either too low in resolution or simply badly taken, the chance of achieving any press coverage drops significantly as it is widely known that images are the first thing to either entice or turn away a reader.

Not only does the quality and type of image affect how powerful your message is and how many people will be enticed to go on and read the article but it also has an effect on how readers view the publication in which it appears – this again stresses the importance of high quality photography as picture editors make clear the difference the right image makes is key to all editorial decisions.

So what are picture editors looking for and how can you ensure that you are spending your budget wisely ensuring the photography you commission is right?

Originality is incredibly important for both successful campaigns, competitions and to achieve acceptance for editorial. When readers are confronted with images in magazines, papers and online, it is the images which capture attention that entices readership. Over-branded photos are definitely something to steer clear from – as tempting as it is to sell your brand or product; it is far less likely the image will be used. Try to sell the product or brand on the strength of the photo rather than emblazing your logo wherever possible.

Ensure your photos don’t fall into the ‘too busy’ category. Good photos concentrate on one central subject which correlates to the supporting editorial, if there are too many distractions; the photo will not draw in readers and will lack affectivity.

Make sure your photo speaks a thousand words. Photo captions are a must when supplying imagery to photo editors, however, the image must also be able to tell the story on its own as it will most likely appear in the media without a supporting caption.

Finally, when commissioning a photographer, make sure you request that all photos are shot both portrait and landscape. Some images may work better one way but depending on space in the relevant publication or website, offering images in both layouts could guarantee you coverage due to offering flexibility.

Using Twitter to Promote your Event

Twitter can be a useful tool for promoting your business or service; however with almost 100 million tweets pouring out of Twitter every day, it is difficult to know how use Twitter to get you and your event noticed. Here are some tips to get your tweets seen.

Firstly you need to identify your goals and whether Twitter is a suitable medium to promote your event. To do this, you need to consider what you want to do, who you want to reach and if Twitter can facilitate this. Be cautious not to disregard Twitter just because your attendee genre are not likely to be on there as there may be other influential users that you may want to reach, such as trade press.

If Twitter is a platform that you think will work then you will need to build a plan to get good quality and influential followers. On Twitter it is more important to have quality rather than quantity of followers. The more high quality followers you have the more credible your Twitter looks and people will follow you because they will see the worth of your other followers. Searching and following influential people talking about the same industry your event is in is instant way to get some attention from the right people. Don’t be shy at following people or asking people to tweet about your event – it is all relationship building. It is a good target to aim to have more followers then people you follow, all of this adds up to your Twitter looking like it’s worth following and that your content is good.

When you create your Twitter account it may also be beneficial to create a communications plan of what is going to be tweeted before, during and after your event. Key dates can be included in this, for example, when the online registration opens. It is important that you supply your followers with all of the information that they may need, and include URLs to further information where appropriate. Before your event you can use Twitter to generate interest and awareness around your event, during your event you can use Twitter to keep interest running and make non-attendees feeling like they are missing out. After the event you should ensure that you keep in touch with your followers to keep them interested, you can tweet about the success of the event and thank the attendees for coming; if any sessions were recorded then video links can be tweeted, as can visitor stats etc. After the follow up you should aim to tweet content that will interest your followers, especially if you plan to repeat the event again.

Hash-tagging will help promote your event and enable people to find you on Twitter. It is something that you should endeavour to do in every tweet where it is appropriate. Putting a ‘#’ in front of a particular word in your tweet will mean that your tweet can be more easily searched for, driving new readers to your profile. You should also hash-tag the name of your event so it is easier for people to follow any announcements. You need to bear in mind that the hash-tag needs to be one word, and you must check that it is not already being used for something else by searching for it. Once the hash-tag is set up, it will help create a buzz about your event, you can also use it during the event, giving followers real-time updates. Your hash-tag can be tracked using desktop applications such as TweetDeck or Seesmic, both of which are free to use.

Another Twitter application that you should explore is tweetmyevents.com, this application allows you to tweet a link to a detailed explanation of your events. You can also use this platform to publicise your event on Facebook and LinkedIn. One of the most beneficial parts of this tool is that it collates page view data, so you can check on page views in real-time.

As with all marketing activity, you will want to know some statistics on your efforts and there are many ways to get other statistics on your tweets. One of the most helpful websites is tweetburner.com, this will monitor your click though rate on URLs in your tweets. Using this will help you analyse what the most popular topics are that you tweet, and also the most successful time of day that you tweet. You should also examine your website statistics through google analytics or your regular web trend software.

Re-tweeting is another good way of getting noticed, and is an easy way of sending good content to your followers and showing that you’re aware of what people are talking about. If you do re-tweet, aim to add value to them. Instead of simply re-tweeting content, add a comment or opinion to the tweet. For example, instead of re-tweeting a newspaper article, re-tweet the article but also write what that could mean to your industry or how similar content will be covered at your event. This shows that your tweets are well thought out and will raise the profile of your event.

It is good etiquette to thank people that re-tweet your content. When you write your tweets you are limited to 140 characters; however you may want to take into consideration that long tweets can be lost if they are re-tweeted. If people re-tweet you then a “RT @yourtwittername” will come at the beginning of your tweet, and if you have already used all 140 characters then some of your tweet may be lost to make room for this.

Finally, you should avoid spamming your followers with your tweets. Sending out a high number of irrelevant tweets will cause followers to ignore your tweets or un-follow you. Instead, if you tweet high quality content then your tweets will become something that your followers specifically look out for.

With Twitter getting over 300,000 new users every day and 180 unique visits every month, Twitter is a powerful medium for getting your message out. Following these simple guidelines should help your tweets not only be seen, but be seen as credible, good quality content that your followers respect.