St. Louis Portrait Photographer : Weddings, Dogs, Newborns » A Journal by Holly McCaig

I will admit, social media has taken over the world. We see it in our tv shows, movies, and every day lives. I’m a HUGE fan of it. As a business person, it’s a way to network for no cost (other than my cost of Internet or cell service). And, it’s a way to meet new, and amazing people. Social media has connected with me with some of my best friends in the world. If you’re fighting it, you shouldn’t. Give it a try. You might like it!

Facebook } I was leary about the whole Facebook thing a few years ago. I have a MySpace page that I’m ready to delete. I haven’t logged in since March. Facebook, I love the privacy, groupings of friends, and how I’m able to connect with not just my close friends, but people I haven’t seen in ages. With Facebook, I also have the ability to connect to my fans in both the photography world and scrapbooking world.

For those that are unaware, my time in the paper scrapbooking world has come to an end. I chose to not re-sign a contract with Pink Paislee when that ended in March. While I enjoyed very much being a part of that world, it no longer fit into my grand plan. With that, I’m very grateful to everyone that was part of my life in the paper world. The creations made with my designs always brought joy to me. I’ll certainly miss that part the most. So, you will no longer see updates about Pink Paislee designs in my Facebook stream or Fan Page. But, I continue to design digital scrapbooking products and digital products for professional photographers when I have the opportunity. My digital scrapbooking products  are available at Two Peas in a Bucket, where I am also a Garden Girl. I have an Advanced Photo Editing class there as well that you can sign up for any time – it’s always available to anyone when they want to follow it.

If you want to friend me on Facebook, you can do so at facebook.com/hollymccaig and then, you can be a fan of my company at facebook.com/hollymccaigdesigns – Here, I have it linked to my blog feed, update fans on sales and new products available at Pink Ink Studios (where I sell digital products for photographers), as well as at Two Peas in a Bucket.

Twitter } I admit it. I’m a Twitter-holic. I can’t help it. I love staying connected with people. Especially my local tweeps! I hear the latest news here – way before I hear it on CNN! Follow @BreakingNews if you’re on Twitter and you’ll not regret it! I’m a little more open and honest on Twitter. I prefer to engage with people there and don’t get offended when people unfollow me for something I say. Twitter is just simple, and to the point. It’s one of those things where people are very opinionated, but you are free to not read, or unfollow. I tend to stay connected to more people on Facebook because it’s easier to filter out the differences in opinion vs. on Twitter. Hopefully I don’t upset people when I unfollow on Twitter. I mean no harm. It’s just a more fast-paced way of sharing and communicating. And, sometimes, it’s too much to handle. I have connected with amazing businesses on Twitter locally. I recommend if you’re in business and you Twitter, engage. Sadly, a lot of popular photographers and crafters don’t do this. I don’t follow them for that reason. They have a massive amount of followers, but don’t care to think of everyone else. I don’t follow everyone back that follows me, obviously, but usually if you @ (reply) to me, I tend to follow back because I think you care to engage. It’s just how I do things. If you’re looking for a great way to manage your Twitter, look into SocialToo.com – I have it set up so I can automatically unfollow people that unfollow me. It helps me declutter my stream and make it easier to follow. On Twitter, I’m @hollymccaig – I think the Fail Whale is a humorous way of saying, SLOW DOWN – our servers can’t keep up!

If you’re looking for some great Twitter backgrounds, I’ve made a few:

Purchase this one at 2Peas in a Bucket.

This one is at Pink Ink Studios.

ShareThis }

It’s for ShareThis – it’s a way for you to share with other social media sites something you just read. It’s below all my posts on this blog. I encourage it! And, I love that I can put it up in my toolbar in Firefox and click it when I see something great that I want to share with my friends on Twitter or Facebook.

Feeds & Comments on Blogs}

When you comment on blog posts, you do help with search engine placement. But, sometimes, people don’t. I know I’m guilty of reading and not commenting. So, we should all do a better part. One of my pet peeves is when someone doesn’t have their FULL blog post in their feed. I use Google Reader to input all my blogs that I read. This way, I have the opportunity to read them all in one place. I know this doesn’t help with site hits, but honestly, it lets me decide if I want to comment faster and keep my busy schedule together. If you’re a Firefox user, get Greasemonkey and then find some awesome scripts. Like, commenting in Google Reader! HELLO! Awesome! I love that I can comment by a click of a button rather than going to the blog and then commenting there. Saves me time! And, all those people that refuse to put just truncated posts in their feeds…you can see the ENTIRE post with this script! AMEN!

I’m not social media expert (I hate those self-titles), but I like to think I have a little bit of experience in what works for me. Hopefully my insights can help others in business. Keep your blogs fresh, keep up with social media and keep people updated consistently, it helps! I promise!