Category Archives: social media

Yes it’s been a while since I’ve posted a rant! Let’s do this….

Twitter Stickers

You may have seen Twitter’s recent announcement about the new “stickers” feature which allows you to add emojis and other things to your photos. Fortune points out the obvious play on Twitter’s part to keep up with Snapchat with a headline that gives the new feature a positive spin. Meanwhile the Wall Street Journal is completely and inexplicably oblivious to the chasing of snapchat with a slightly-less-than-flattering headline about Twitter…. Note in particular the second paragraph in the WSJ article about the other “communication” apps with stickers. C’mon…. Really? ZERO mention of Snapchat there? That’s amazing. I’m not totally sure how I feel about stickers yet since I haven’t used them but I have plenty of thoughts and you can look at this from a few different perspectives which we’ll get to.

A Couple Thoughts On Social Photography…

Meanwhile as photographers the ongoing debate of whether iPhone pics and the ease of entry is “ruining” the industry is an interesting one to us. This article on Popular Photography while not overtly addressing the big picture in that regard seems to come from that mindset, claiming that using Twitter stickers is a way to “completely ruin your photos”. I always find these types of opinions a little troubling. We’ve always embraced the idea that the more people appreciate everyday photography the more they will appreciate professional photography. We’ve always looked at Snapchat and Instagram as opportunities to have fun just like everyone else and we actually use them to highlight aspects of what we do at Frameable Faces. To call attention to stickers being a way to ruin pictures is silly to me. If you take a picture you don’t want to ruin with a sticker, then DON’T ADD A STICKER…… duh. Right? Maybe the fun you can have with stickers can help you build community to draw people in to see the stuff that is meant to stand on its own without the stickers. We actually covered this topic today on our photography show “The Photo Shop” on @ParachuteTV1 on Periscope if you’re interested in taking a look.

Social Media Apps chasing Other Social Media Apps…

So while the photography studio owner in me doesn’t have a problem with stickers, the social media guy in me might. Here’s what bugs me a little about them – keep in mind that I have not used them yet. This is an overall statement about social media platforms that I think applies here, even though I may be admitting soon that stickers are the greatest thing to happen to twitter (although I doubt it). I have no problem admitting when I’m wrong…

Here’s my issue. Each time a unique social media platform adds a feature to chase and become like another platform, it blurs the lines between platforms that make them cool. I like the different uses for each platform. I like the different etiquette and the different cultures of the different apps. Here are three other examples I thought were somewhere between silly and annoying when they rolled out and still do:

Facebook hashtags Good try Facebook but you are NOT twitter. Hashtags totally flopped on Facebook – they just really don’t belong there in my opinion.
Instagram video I believe Instagram did this as a reaction to Vine at the time. I can’t stand videos on Instagram. There was nothing “insta” about pausing while scrolling though the pics in the feed to watch a 15 second video and now the videos can be up to 60 seconds – good grief. I know not everyone agrees with me on this but it is my rant…
Periscope sketch Rolling out the ability to sketch on the screen while you’re broadcasting was, well…sketchy. I can only conclude that this was a way to chase Snapchat (?) even though the two are completely apples and oranges. Sonia Figueroa is the only scoper I’ve seen who consistently makes me smile when she draws hearts on the screen to “give them back” to her viewers (she’s one of my faves), but at a time when everyone was waiting for other more practical features this was a bit of an annoyance.

So there it is… had to do it. Thoughts? Are you using Twitter stickers? Can you think of other app fails from apps chasing apps? Please comment, share your thoughts, and share this post!

Nine MORE Types of Periscope Chatters! Survival Tips For Scopers!

July 8, 2015

13 Types Of Periscope Chatters – A Survival Guide For Scopers!

For those of you who saw our previous Periscope “survival guide” blog posts and corresponding broadcasts, if you have been on Periscope since you probably know that there are way more than 13 or 14 types of chatters and scopers…

We here in the Frameable Faces research department have identified NINE more types of chatters and we broadcasted our findings live to a bloodthirsty (and nervous) Periscope audience. We now bring you the YouTube replay of that broadcast along with a list of the chatters we covered. Here is the replay…

Nine More Types Of Chatters…

The Hijacker – the hijacker will try to take the controls of your broadcast and steer it to a destination of their own choosing. Often shouting in ALL CAPS they will try to promote their website / blog / dog – whatever. Very spammy and potentially blockworthy if they refuse to back off… In a promote-your-scope type of broadcast it’s okay but that’s the only place where it’s appropriate. Side chatters can sometimes combine to unknowingly tread into this dangerous territory.
The Brown Noser – somewhat self explanatory… the scoper who the brown noser is brown nosing is a GENIUS and every point they make is revelatory…… to the brown noser. Yes it’s okay to be a fan and thank your favorite scopers for their insights, but sheesh – sometimes it’s like Beatles fans on the Ed Sullivan show…
The Security Guard – the security guard is there to keep potential trolls in line in your scope. They will put smackdowns on inappropriate comments and alert you to whom you should block if you missed it. The security guard can actually be a welcome chatter in your room as long as they aren’t too aggressive and start scaring the other chatters.
The Aggressive Gamer – often the aggressive gamer is secretly using an external keyboard for faster typing giving them a huge advantage in Periscope games where the first correct answer is the winner. Often these chatters will just start throwing random answers up on the screen as soon as a category is announced before the question is even asked. Thankfully most Perigame show hosts are on to this and won’t award a win until they at least ask the question…
The Cryptic Chatter – the cryptic chatter can cause chaos on a broadcast by confusing the heck out of the scoper with comments that usually relate to something said at least 30 seconds before and they put zero context in their comment like “Oh yeah sometimes for sure” or “Exactly – I HATE that”. You must call out the cryptic chatter with a passive aggressive remark to let them know not-so-subtly that you have no idea what the heck they are talking about. The problem as a scoper is the extra second you take to decipher the cryptic comment keeps you a half step behind the next comment that actually contributes to the conversation.
The Brand Newbie – we hug the brand newbie, we embrace the brand newbie. The Periscope community is a welcoming community of early adopters and when you see a brand newbie who tentatively enters a room with an egghead profile you should be nice to them.
The Eggspert – no one likes an eggspert. The problem with the eggspert is they have no credibility – they show up in a room and start commenting in an authoritative way like they have a ton of knowledge, and yet they can’t figure out one of the first rules and that is to get a profile avatar – a photo, a logo – something other than an egg. It is perfectly okay for all chatters in the room to shame the eggspert. NOTE: Credit goes to Periscope star @MalinMOcean who coined the term “eggspert” in our broadcast when we referred to this chatter as the “no-credibility chatter”.
The Spillover Commenter – this chatter breaks their comments up into multiple comment bubbles, often because they can’t boil it down to the three lines allowed in the app. This is usually a problem because the second part of the comment comes too long after the first part which can confuse the scoper and make the second part of the comment look like the work of a cryptic chatter.
The Fat Finger – autocorrect is the bane of the fat finger’s existence. Whether due to carelessness, hurried commenting, or actual fat fingers, the fat finger chatter is often put into embarrassing situations by comments gone horribly wrong… we’ve ALL been there.

So there you go – nine more types of chatters for you to be aware of! Here are the links to the previous posts, and there is at least one more to come!

13 Types Of Periscope Scopers – A Survival Guide For Chatters!

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Frameable Faces Photography
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Frameable Faces Photography is a small biz retail mom & pop shop of Doug&Ally Cohen located in the Orchard Mall in West Bloomfield, Michigan, United States Of America!
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Ally & Doug can be reached at the studio at tel:248-790-7317 or emailed at mailto:info@frameablefaces.com
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The 13 Types Of Periscope Scopers – A Survival Guide For Chatters!

June 23, 2015

You may have read our post about the 13 types of Periscope chatters and you may have seen the ensuing broadcast about it on Periscope which was an epic laughfest for all involved. For that one I wrote the article first and then we did the broadcast.

Ally and Doug probably being one of the 13…

Well the reception to that broadcast was so fantastic it inevitably required a sequel, and this time we did it in reverse. I made a few notes, put together a slide show and we did another broadcast once again with Ally providing the demonstrations. So now here is the companion blog post. Now that we exposed all the different types of chatters we encounter on Periscope, let’s turn the tables on the scopers! Here’s the actual broadcast and the breakdown of the 13 below.

The 13 Types Of Periscope Scopers…

The Too Close For Comfort Scoper – this scoper isn’t going to be satisfied until you have become completely acquainted with their nose hair, teeth and eyebrows – or as some chatters pointed out in the broadcast, the pores in their skin.
The Distracted By Comments Scoper – this scoper will literally try to start the same sentence 23 straight times and won’t be able to do it because they just can’t stop answering all the comments. Always a challenge since you want to be social and talk to your viewers, but sheesh – get on with it man!!! This scoper may also graduate to being a juggler – more on that later.
The Multitasker – in the scope I referred to this one as the “JUST Missed Your Comment Scoper” but I realized this scoper isn’t paying attention to the screen because they are multitasking. They often will ask a question and then get distracted by something else going on and then come back to the screen to catch your 3 line typed out question just as it’s fading into extinction and they’ll only get the first line before it’s gone…
The Bad Lighter – this scoper is scoping in the dark while asking you your opinion on something that’s impossible to see because, well, they’re scoping IN THE DARK.
The Earthquake – tons of turbulence here… in the broadcast you’ll see that everyone was getting dizzy and nauseous because the scoper is unaware of how important it is to try to steady their smartphone. Watch, I’ll end up feeling bad about this one if someone is scoping during an actual earthquake.
The Shy Scoper – curious that someone would download this app and start scoping if they don’t want to be seen, but some scopers are nervous and they scope the floor or the wall while talking to you… Or maybe they haven’t figured out how to double tap their screen yet.
The Thankful Scoper – these people are SO happy that people have showed up to their scope! They will gush and jump for joy when people show up, and sometimes a certain special scoper will pop in that will make them lose their mind completely.
The Beggar – a potentially annoying scoper to be sure, the beggar will campaign for hearts, shares, follows, tweets, and invites. They will find any number of creative ways to get you to tap your screen – they are completely addicted.
The Overscoper – as you can see a couple people got nervous when this slide popped up in the broadcast. Periscope can be addictive in nature, and overscoping can be dangerous to building a following especially for those chatters who haven’t changed their notification settings and have their iPhone doing that “hello” whistle at them courtesy of the overscoper 10-20 times per day…
The Unable To Gauge What’s Actually Exciting Scoper – as a side note I’m pretty disgusted with myself for misspelling “gauge” in the slide deck for the broadcast on this one… In any event, this scoper sees a squirrel in a park and thinks it’s going to be ratings gold. Most people have encountered squirrels. Seeing someone else encounter one by watching it happen on your iPhone isn’t quite that exciting. You don’t need to scope the squirrel.
The Off-Topic Scoper – pretty self explanatory. This scoper will entitle their scope “5 Things To Do In Detroit” and end up scoping about, well, a squirrel, or maybe Game Of Thrones. Sometimes this is partly the fault of the Off-Topic chatter who throws the scoper off-topic.
The Juggler – the juggler sometimes starts out as a “distracted by comments scoper”. The juggler tries to keep three or more separate conversations with three different chatters going at the same time. It never goes well and this inevitably can lead to injury.
The Long Goodbye Scoper – this scoper says they HAVE to go. They are signing off, but wait – they can’t leave while hearts are still flowing, comments are still going, and chatters are still showing. These people are often closet beggars. These goodbyes seem to go on forever and sometimes something is said that restarts and extends the scope which proves that the scoper really had nothing else to do in the first place.
The Unprepared Scoper – note the title indicates that there are 13 scopers for this post, but in order to demonstrate the importance of scope preparedness we snuck in this 14th scoper which proves the point. Prepare for your scope so you aren’t scrambling in the middle of a scope to find something else you meant to cover and can’t find. This can be uncomfortable for all involved.

So there you have it! The 13 Types of Periscope Scopers! There are plenty more where they came from and I’m sure this will be good for at least a couple more scopes of categories of chatters and scopers, so stay tuned….

The 13 Types Of Periscope Chatters – A Survival Guide For Scopers!

June 10, 2015

So Periscope comes along and it’s super cool. We all have visions of reaching an audience in an exciting new way and connecting with new friends, being entertained and seeing the world like we’ve never seen it before. We download the app, we start to follow some scopers, we tell our friends and we start scoping……..and then they show up. The scope chatters who tune in and, well…. make it interesting. Just to clarify for the purposes of this survival guide for scopers, the scopers are the people broadcasting, and the chatters are the folks tuning in to watch and “chat” (type comments to the scoper and each other).

Doug and Ally checking out Sock Cop and Cathy Hackl on Periscope

Scoping can be stressful, it can lead to post traumatic scope disorder, and it’s largely the fault of these 13 types of scope chatters (and here’s a clue – we’re all guilty of being at least one if not several of these at some point). So without further adieu I bring you:

the 13 types of chatters – a survival guide

The First Comment Chatter – the first comment chatter is quick on the draw and that’s their M.O. – when they see a scope notification they pounce and furiously start typing to get their comment in before the others start scrolling.
The Chatty Cathy – the Chatty Cathy is usually just so excited to be on a scope – their exuberance is often activated by a simple acknowledgement of the Chatty Cathy. If you say hi back to a Chatty Cathy the flood gates will open and they Won’t. Stop. Commenting. Relatively harmless because they are generally extremely happy people, but they can still make you a little crazy.
The Troll – yes this is obvious. Not new to social media by any stretch, the troll will usually ask a female scoper to see her boobs, or like my troll yesterday they may just stop by to tell you that they “just crapped their pants”. Trolls are not cool, but luckily there is a relatively easy remedy for handling trolls and that is to simply block them.
The Topic Trumper – the topic trumper loves the opportunity to show off their vast reservoir of knowledge by jumping into your room to spill the beans on the tip you are about to reveal. While this may allow the topic trumper a fleeting moment of self validation, it usually doesn’t make them look so good to the other viewers/chatters.
The Drop In Chatter – the drop in chatter is extremely busy. They have a ton going on and they are probably busy with multiple million dollar generating projects or maybe they just have 5 kids but they still find the time to drop in and say hello even if they can only stay for a minute. The drop in chatter can actually be a welcome guest, but habitual drop ins can lead to being classified as a scope hopper.
The Scope Hopper – the scope hopper is a mysterious character. Also known as “ghosting”, they like to hop around from one scope to the next, sometimes staying just long enough to make a hit and run comment. They may genuinely want to just see what is going on around Periscope or their motives may be more sinister – they may just want to be seen or make the scoper think they are interested in their scopes when they really aren’t. This can lead to the scope hop of shame. 6a. The Scope Hop Of Shame – just a footnote to the the scope hopper, this happens when two hoppers by coincidence hop into two consecutive scopes at the same time and discover that they are both indeed scope hopping. The best thing to do in this case if you are one of the busted hoppers is to form an alliance with the other hopper and swear this unfortunate incident to secrecy.
The Social Butterfly – the social butterfly loves to say hi to everybody in your room. Actually a welcome chatter, the social butterfly brings all the chatters together and fosters a sense of community in your scope. The only danger is when the social butterfly moves into the more serious and dangerous category of being a side chatter.
The Side Chatter – the side chatter will recognize a friend in the scope and start an entire unrelated side conversation that sometimes goes way too long. This can be very disruptive to the flow of comments that are actually on topic, can badly confuse the scoper, and might actually squeeze relevant comments off the screen too quickly for the scoper to respond. This is a borderline double troll result that can sink your scope and in extreme cases may even be a premeditated conspiracy to destroy your scope.
The Off-Topic Chatter – this chatter will come into your chat entitled “3 tips for sharing scopes on YouTube” and notice that you’re from New York and tell you about a restaurant they ate at in New York…. because they once lived in New Jersey about 90 minutes from…. New York so they didn’t get to New York too…. often but one time when they went they did go to said restaurant…. are you a Giant fan?
The Attention Seeker – this chatter usually gets stressed when the room is very crowded and will repeatedly use 30 emojis and/or ALL CAPS in their comments to get noticed. You may need to acknowledge the attention seeker to quiet them temporarily.
The Slightly Awkward Chatter – this chatter isn’t quite a troll but makes comments that make everyone feel just slightly uncomfortable – just not enough to warrant a block. No one has found an adequate solution yet for these people.
The Lurker – the lurker never comments. They kind of just sit in the corner and stare and their presence can be a bit unsettling. Don’t let them bother you.
The Interrupter – very often a scope begins with welcomes and introductions and even a little bit of chatting which is great. Hearts and engagement throughout are the hallmarks of a successful scope. But at some point the scoper might have some valuable information they want to get across. The interrupter doesn’t understand that. Just when the room goes quiet and the scoper gets on a roll the interrupter will ask a question that may have already been covered or they are jumping ahead. This is very stressful for the other chatters in the room and if left unchecked can extend a scope to unbearable lengths causing a chatter exodus. You can give the interrupter one free pass if you like, but it’s best just to ask them to DM you on twitter afterwards.

So there you have it! Be aware of these chatters, learn to recognize them and keep this survival guide close and you should be okay! Feel free to add to this list if there are any I’ve missed…

Doug’s Rant – Image Quality ISN’T Everything On Instagram (and more)

June 3, 2015

Yes it’s that time again… time to RANT. I have 4 basic topics to cover so let’s get to it.

Rosh Sillars tweeted the link to an article about Instagram this morning written by Andrew Hutchinson for Social Media Today which I thought was good. You should read it. Now while I do NOT disagree completely with the idea that image quality is everything for certain strategies on Instagram, I do disagree with this as an overall statement. So those of you who know me will know that I feel the need to respectfully present the counterpoint in the spirit of healthy debate.

Three reasons image quality isn’t required on instagram:

Think about the name of the app – INSTAgram. The “Insta” in Instagram implies an instant and spontaneous sharing of photos made right from your iPhone. Granted you can post images that aren’t taken with your iPhone but the app is clearly designed with that in mind with the basic camera and editing interface in the app. Many brands post professionally crafted and edited images on Instagram with a ton of attention to detail to the author’s point and it works for them. But sometimes when you capture something fun and immediate you might not have it set up for perfection, and that’s actually what can make an Instagram perfect. I would take it a step further and say that even as a photography studio our strategy on Instagram is typically not to show off our finished work here but to rather bring people behind the scenes and have fun, which leads me to number two…
NOT a professional photo!
Instagram is social. Perfect art might not always be. A collage or a funny incident can tell a story or start a conversation – an interesting one. A perfect photo can too I suppose, but when you go to an exhibition or art museum they don’t hang a white board with a marker under the display for people to engage and leave comments. Tell a story and have fun with your followers and don’t always worry about the quality of the photo. To borrow something that Mark Shaw (one of my favorite Periscopers) might say, it’s not Autogram – don’t just broadcast perfection at people to show top quality. Now don’t post total garbage either, but keep the focus on being fun and social.
There is a ceiling on how awesome your images can be for your following because of the platform. Many people are looking at these images on an iPhone. Is that really the best way to see a professional photo? It’s not a bad way per se, it’s just not the best way. An EZ Bake oven isn’t the best way to bake a top notch cake, but it could be the most fun cake of your life if you do it with a child. Our clients come to our studio to get images to hang as their centerpiece on a wall – not just to look at on their iPhone. So once again – don’t always worry about the quality. You typically can’t show off the very best of a quality photo on an iPhone.

Okay moving on…

Why I Don’t Like Email Lists

This is another one I go against the grain on. I do not like email lists. I’ve never sent out regular email newsletters or tried to build an email list of clients. I’m not saying they don’t work, I’m just not interested in sending emails to clients. Email has been around since well before social media existed, but it’s done on a computer or some other electronic device so it’s not as old school as say, junk mail, so let’s call it “post-old school”. I suspect it works largely as a numbers game – not because getting another email is sooooo awesome.

Will YouTube come back for brands?

I’ve been posting more video to YouTube since I started Periscoping. I like to repurpose some of my scopes and upload some of my tips to our YouTube channel. It has led me to hang out on YouTube with a renewed sense of purpose as a brand, and I’ve connected with people on Periscope who are doing the same. When I went back to the channels and brands I had subscribed to before I saw that many of them hadn’t posted anything in months, but I think this could change… Just my guess – this is one where I’m just wondering aloud. This is a whole other topic in itself on ways to effectively build your brand on YouTube which I’m exploring in new ways now. I’ll keep you posted. What are your thoughts on this? Do you subscribe to channels and organize your YouTube channel with playlists? As an individual? As a brand? Are you social there? Subscribe to our channel and let’s connect!

Yes I’m slightly addicted to Periscope

Of course it comes back to the game-changing monster that is Periscope. I wrote a post for MCP Actions about 5 very specific ways you can use Periscope for your photography studio… and I also wrote a post here about what you need to know about Periscope (so far) back in April. At this point I’m totally hooked – I’ve built some great relationships in ways I never did before on any other platform. I notice however that many people still don’t know what it is yet and haven’t given it a try, so I think I’ll be writing another post soon about what you can accomplish with Periscope. The people who aren’t early adopters might want to know what the “why” is… While I’m at it I may write one about who you should follow there.

That’s it for now – I’d love to hear your comments on this whether you agree or not. Thanks for reading and join me on Periscope where we can discuss these further!

What You Need To Know (So Far) About Periscope

April 13, 2015

For those of you who don’t follow social media news closely there has been a lot going on in the last couple weeks after what I thought was a relatively quiet period. Periscope was officially launched for the iPhone and it is going to change the world again in my opinion, much like Facebook, twitter and some of the others have. As usual things are moving fast and it’s exciting, so here is what you need to know (so far) about Periscope.

WHAT IS PERISCOPE?

Periscope is an app that allows you to broadcast live right from your iPhone (Android is coming soon) whenever you like. Your followers will get a notification that you are “live” on whatever topic you say and they can tune in on the spot. They can tap on their screen to show their approval with hearts, and make comments which you and the other viewers can see so you can answer questions and respond to the comments.

You may be familiar with Meerkat which launched before Periscope. Personally I haven’t used Meerkat, but I have read that Periscope’s quality is better and I just don’t think Meerkat will be the winner in this battle, and it IS a battle. The fact that twitter owns Periscope ensures its success and the integration with twitter makes it easier to set up and use if you are already tweeting.

The possibilities for where this platform will lead us are endless. I wrote an article recently for MCP Actions where I discussed 5 ways you can use Periscope to help your photography studio – all of the ideas apply to just about any small business in some way.

Meanwhile with the exception of #2 in that article at MCP Actions most of those ideas are for ways to use Periscope as a broadcaster, but even since I wrote that piece I’m seeing new parts of the world and finding inspiration from all over the place as a viewer.

Viewing Adventures On Periscope

I love that throughout my day I can tune in to things that are happening live if I want. Some of my faves:

I participated in a couple more discussions about social media marketing and photography at @RoshSillars who I mentioned in the MCP Actions article.
I met a hilarious pug named Rascal who lives in Vancouver and waits obediently for his food before he’s given the green light to dive in with his face deep in the bowl at @MrTommyCampbell.
I watched a demo of the Fj Westcott Ice Light (which we affectionately call the “Light Saber” light here at the studio) at a convention at @WestcottCo.
I went along on a virtual live tour of a vineyard in Washington State by the Cooper Wine Company at @CooperWine which was pretty neat.

This is all the type of content that was always readily available on the Internet. That’s not new. But the fact that it’s spontaneous and happening live on my iPhone where I can chime in and participate? That IS new, and whether it’s for educational purposes or just fun, I enjoy it. Now let’s get back to a little more on broadcasting for a minute…

Reusing and repurposing your broadcasts

The ability to reuse and repurpose the broadcasts may ultimately make this my iPhone video cam of choice for our studio and brings another layer to the potential of Periscope. This will be more effective when landscape mode is available which is coming soon. Right now the only way to broadcast effectively is portrait mode (vertically) which doesn’t look great in your typical widescreen formats. But in the meantime it’s nice that you can easily download your broadcast as a video to your device with the touch of a button in the app. We recently broadcasted parts of a high school senior spokesmodel session and we had viewers from Italy, Great Britain, and Paris. I downloaded the broadcast to use parts of it for a Vine since it’s easy to grab portrait footage in the square frame of Vine and crop it effectively. What was interesting was that the footage was raw – with no hearts or comments. So keep in mind you can make your broadcast available for replay for 24 hours with all the elements of the original broadcast (comments, hearts etc.) intact, but when you download it to your iPhone those elements are stripped away. This is different than Snapchat which keeps any added text or other animation in the video if you download it to your device. Here is the Vine I mentioned – the indoor part on the red background was pulled from our broadcast…

So much to discuss in this vine we can't even… LOVED @emma_rayee's session! ❤️ https://t.co/jdqVg4sHuY

— Frameable Faces (@FrameableFaces) April 12, 2015

As I’ve mentioned, Periscope is coming to Android soon and landscape interface for broadcasts are also coming. Here is an article that outlines the changes they’ve made already with version 1.0.2 and previews what is to come.

I hope this helps! Feedback is welcome and remember to download the app (it’s FREE) and follow us at @frameablefaces on Periscope!

Doug’s Rant – Why Is Social Media “So Quiet”?

January 31, 2015

Why is social media so quiet lately? It just doesn’t seem to me that there has been a lot going on. Let me explain. For a few solid years there it seemed like it was the “golden age” of major platforms – such as:

Facebook Pages switched over to “likes” from fans in April 2010 a month after we set up the Frameable Faces page.
Instagram launched on October 6th, 2010 and we joined it in May of 2012.
Pinterest launched in April of 2010
Snapchat launched in September of 2011 (more on that in a minute).
Google Plus pages for businesses launched in October of 2011 and they added Google My Business last June.
The major Twitter redesign launched in April 2011.
Vine launched in January of 2013 and at the time we had to wait until June for Android since T-Mobile didn’t have iPhones yet.

Since then……not a whole lot.

All of those platforms seem to still be thriving and growing as a general rule and it has now been two years by my count since a new “major” platform has made a splash.

Is a lull a good thing?

I can’t decide if I like the fact that it’s been a little quiet or not. The thought of feeling like I have to manage additional platforms can be stressful especially if we are only adding more and not dropping any, but the rush of starting out on a new one is exciting and a lot of fun. For example I was pretty excited about Pano Perfect which I thought might be the next big social photo sharing platform but that one has gone nowhere… I hear people talking about Swipe and sure there are others. We can debate all day about what a “major” platform is – I am not using any scientific criteria here… I’m just ranting after all. Feel free to jump in in the comments and add your two cents. What do you think is the next big thing? I want to know.

Meanwhile Snapchat is the one I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. Of the big ones I listed it’s the one that we don’t have an official Frameable Faces profile for, and after weighing it I don’t know if it’s right for us as a brand at least for the moment.

Edit* – A Curve Ball**

I wrote that last paragraph earlier today and one of our spokesmodels just happened to pop in to the studio and we were chatting about Snapchat since it was on my mind, and I think I just changed my mind again. She showed me a couple things that convinced me that it could be a good platform for us. For example I didn’t realize how it notifies you how many people have viewed your snapchat stories and which people viewed them. So look for it – my wheels are turning now!

So as it turns out I have Snapchat to work on. I started out wondering why it’s been so quiet in social media, but now that I’ve got another platform to play with I’m hoping things stay quiet for a bit!

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Frameable Faces Photography

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Frameable Faces Photography is a small biz retail mom & pop shop of Doug&Ally Cohen located in the Orchard Mall in West Bloomfield, Michigan, United States Of America!

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Ally & Doug can be reached at the studio at tel:248-790-7317 or emailed at mailto:info@frameablefaces.com

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Snapchat: http://snapchat.com/add/frameablefaces

Facebook: http://facebook.com/frameablefaces

Twitter: https://twitter.com/frameablefaces

YouTube: https://youtube.com/frameablefaces

Instagram: https://instagram.com/frameablefaces

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/frameablefaces

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Being “Frameable” is an attitude, a community, a way of life – a life you would want to celebrate and display on your walls for all to see! Tell us… ARE YOU FRAMEABLE?

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Doug’s Rant – Happy Birthday Instagram!

October 7, 2014

It’s been a while since I “ranted”. We have had a very busy summer photographing seniors and planning and celebrating our son’s bar mitzvah so all I have been really able to think about for blogging is keeping up with sharing our wonderful seniors of the class of 2015. There are plenty of seniors to come as we are just getting started with a whole new round of “fall color” seniors, and we will also be sharing some bar mitzvah photos too. However I saw yesterday that it was Instagram’s 4th birthday and decided I need to comment (maybe not rant) on it and say Happy Birthday Instagram!

Yes – that was our very first Instagram 119 weeks ago of our exterior sign! While many of our early Instagrams were not so stellar as we were trying to figure out where it fit for us, I actually still think that was not bad for the first one.

The Frameable Faces Instagram “philosophy”

We have become big fans of Instagram and we use it in a number of ways. As for the content we typically share, we post pretty much whatever strikes us as fun and valuable to our followers, and we have stayed away from posting videos – we use Vine for short videos. It’s also important to know the etiquette, such as being careful not to over post. As for the types of Instagrams we post, the behind-the-scenes collages of photo shoots for example are our favorites. It allows us to share a snapshot of our time spent with our peeps very quickly.

We started focusing on those because we weren’t sure that Instagram was the best platform to showcase our final images since people mostly look at them on such a small screen. Our work is best displayed as a 24×30 print or canvas on a wall…right? Well it turns out that our images look pretty darn good as wall portraits AND as Instagrams…

But here’s the thing. When we reveal the first sneak peeks here on the blog for a senior session for example, we pick the four we want to showcase and that’s fine – it’s our blog. But most of our seniors aren’t bloggers – they are Tweeters and Instagrammers. So for seniors we prefer to make these images available to them first here on the blog with a sampling, and then later in digital watermarked proofs so they can be the ones to share and show off their Frameable Faces pics – it gives them some control and ownership of it, and then we can join in the fun with comments.

Occasionally we’ll post our real work on Throwback Thursday of a senior alum, but we still refrain from posting current final images… at least for now.

Here is how we break down by the numbers:

119 – Weeks on Instagram

2.34 – Average number of Instagrams per week

278 – Total posts

120 – Behind the scenes Instagrams of senior sessions

24 – Selfies

12 – Pics of our peeps on random visits

4 – Instagrams of Reflecto

14 – Instagrams about our home the Orchard Mall

44 – Behind the scenes of family (and a few commercial) sessions

10 – Throwback Thursday seniors

50 – Various other stuff

So there it is! Happy Birthday to you Instagram! We hope you enjoyed your day as much as we enjoy you!

Doug’s Rant – Why You Should Care About “Google My Business”

June 21, 2014