Putting your website on Facebook

[ramage]

Hi there,Has anyone put some of the photos off there website on Facebook? I have just done this to see if it helps

push my website how have you got on with it? www.ramagephotoscotland.com is mine if anyone is on i would like to

know what you think of it Thanks Ewan

[jennifer_spencer]

<p>I believe you give up some of your rights to your work if you post there. </p>

<p>Specifically, from http://www.facebook.com/terms.php<br>

<em>For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos ("IP content"), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your <a href="http://www.facebook.com/privacy/">privacy</a> and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/editapps.php">application settings</a>: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook ("IP License"). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.</em><br>

<em><br /></em><br>

Personally, I don't want to give FB permission to use my work royalty-free worldwide for whatever reason they wish. I am very careful about the work I post there. </p>

[steve m smith]

<p>I think that just means that you are giving Facebook permission to show the images you upload both on your own page and the pages of others who choose to share your images. I can't see that they would want to use them for any commercial gain and even if they did, the likelihood is almost negligible - especially if the files you upload are only of sufficient resolution for web use.</p>

[gulfbeach47]

<p>I held off until recently. I changed my name to my photo business name on Facebook and put my website link up at Facebook but no photos yet except for the ones on my ad. No business or replies from it. It does not even show up at google or yahoo search.<br>

But my Smugmug links with my name show up at the top of the page on both yahoo and google when I search for john hill photography. I also kept getting ads from Manta to sign up for free with them, so I finally did two weeks ago. My ad with them shows up on first page of yahoo but no business from that yet. They do send me an email each week telling me how many hits I got. I used my ''other'' addy to sign up with Manta, just in case of spam.</p>

[photomark]

If you are using Facebook to promote a business, you might better off with a 'fan page.' There are both

advantages and disadvantages, but in the end it's probably better if you are acting as a business and

trying to interact with people you don't really know. Plus, I think facebook frowns on using a regular

account for anything other than a real person with their real name.

 

I've put some work into my facebook page; it generates a lot of traffic for my website and ranks pretty well

in google when searching my business name. If you are worried about uploading to Facebook there are

some ways around it. I've created a gallery on Facebook which pulls images and blog posts on the fly

from my own server and embeds them in the facebook page. Here's an example:

http://www.facebook.com/markmeyerphotography Since you are basically developing a facebook

application when you do this, there is a learning curve.

 

I looked at the link you posted to your website. It looks like you've put a like and share button on your

website, but I couldn't find a link to an actual facebook page. I'm not sure how successful that will be.

Also, it seems a little strange to have an entire page dedicated to both like and share buttons.

[mariosforsos]

<p>Actually, there have been instances where Facebook-posted images have been used by people for commercial purposes (the case of the supermarket in East Europe utilising a family snap from a family in the US to promote their cheeses or something comes to mind...). Once it's up in FB you cannot control what happens to it - AND you have AGREED to do that...so, be careful...</p>

[steve m smith]

<blockquote>

<p>Actually, there have been instances where Facebook-posted images have been used by people for commercial purposes</p>

</blockquote>

<p>That's by other people, not by Facebook.</p>

 

<blockquote>

<p>Once it's up in FB you cannot control what happens to it - AND you have AGREED to do that...so, be careful</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Your images are liable to being stolen in whatever form you put them onto the internet. A cheese company taking an image is breaking the law if it does not have permission. It doesn't matter if it takes the image from Facebook or your personal website. Facebook does not give others permission to use images it hosts.</p>

<p> </p>

[ramage]

Thanks for all the advice i think mine is a fanpage in saying that i dont have any yet maybe they dont like it much LOL.

[thesaltypeanut]

<p>I receive probably 75% of my business from my FB fanpage. I'm pretty active on it and update it constantly with teaser pics and different promos. It's a GREAT tool for networking and most everyone and their dad's brother's mailman is on FB. My clients are thrilled when I post teaser pics, which results in them forwarding it to their friends and family. I do WM all my photos too...</p>

[robert_k1]

<blockquote>

<p>I believe you give up some of your rights to your work if you post there.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Good thing to remember when posting your photos online, at any site:<br>

http://www.photo.net/casual-conversations-forum/00WBi0</p>

[robert_k1]

<p>Mark and Bobbi, agreed with your approach to draw viewers from FB, etc. to your sites. I'm no fan of these "social media" stuff. But their popularity can be used as a marketing device to your advantage. BTW, Flickr is probably the most active photo sharing site by a long shot, and a good place to plant your teasers.</p>

<p>I have two questions:<br>

Some personal sites have social media links back to FB, etc. Wouldn't that encourage viewers to leave your sites? What are the advantages of having those links?</p>

<p>http://www.photo-mark.com/<br>

http://www.photo.net/photodb/user?user_id=21555</p>

<p>Flickr requires a yahoo account, and viewers can only contact you by your yahoo e-mail address. If you have a different address at your personal site, is there a way to get around the yahoo address?</p>

[nikkimoore]

<p>My business is still in the startup phase, but I receive the majority of my website traffic from Facebook! It's a huge way to spread links, and when I tag someone in a photo, all their friends see it. It's a great way to get my name out there. I post whenever I write a new blog, have an announcement, or just fun stuff about shoots. it's easy to set one up and all my images are watermarked. It's a risk I'm more than willing to take, because of the great return. I've already gotten clients, and a ton of new interest. http://www.facebook.com/nikkimoorephotography<br>

I have links on my website to Facebook and Twitter and my stats show low exit rates for those (not many people clicking and leaving). But if they leave one of my pages to visit another, that's totally fine, especially if they end up following me on Twitter or becoming a fan on Facebook.</p>

[funcrunch]

<p>Robert K: You can add whatever e-mail address you like to your Flickr profile, so no worries there.</p>

<p>I have Facebook fan page and other social media links on my site so that people who are already using those services can see my content along that of their other friends. It's more likely they'll see my updates on Facebook than on my own site unless they make a point of visiting my site specifically on a regular basis, which is unlikely (at least until I make a name for myself).</p>

[robert_k1]

<p>Thanks for the answers.</p>

<p>Another question for those with a personal site and also on FB, Flickr, etc. What percentages of your photos are displayed at your own site, and at the social media sites? And why?</p>

<p>I'm interested in how you manage, coordinate, and make the most out of these sites.</p>

[funcrunch]

<p>Robert K - Only a select few of my pro photos are displayed on social media sites like Facebook, Flickr, and Myspace, and all have watermarks and links back to my main site. I direct people to come to my own web site to a) hire me and b) buy photos! I'm putting even fewer photos on social sites now as my strategy of tagging bands on MySpace to entice them to see more photos hasn't really resulted in more sales... </p>

[jeff_z.]

<p>Julie, That's really interesting- thanks for the good input. This subject holds a lot of interest for me, also, as I happen to have been involved in a fair amount of concert photography over the last year or so. Putting them on line has always intimidated me, though, for security reasons mostly. Do you follow any set personal guidelines as far as image size or the quality settings that you save them at for the respective sites (i.e. Facebook, MySpace, and your own site)? Any of your thoughts on music photography and attracting business through Facebook, etc. would be appreciated. I was on your site not long ago, and noticed some first rate images. Also, there's an established music photographer whose name escapes me right now, but she's done some great work all the way back to the 60's/70's; when I visited her site, the images were very small and soft looking- on purpose I'm sure...</p>

[funcrunch]

<p>Jeff Z - Thanks for the kudos on my pix! I don't have a fixed size in terms of length/width dimensions for posting on social sites, but it's always 72dpi and normally no longer than 800 pixels on the longest dimension. And always watermarked. In fact for most of the photos I'm actually selling I now put the watermark right through the center of the photo, because otherwise potential buyers will just take the lowres photos and post as-is, or sometimes with the watermark cropped out :-(</p>

<p>As far as attracting business through Facebook, I have my Funcrunch Photo fan page and add a lot of the people I've done shoots for as friends (but not all, as I use Facebook for personal reasons also), then I can invite them to my fan page and tag them in photos. I haven't gotten many referrals through FB yet, but I'm still in the early stages of my business. I also tried running a Facebook ad for about a month, but got no response. I've had much better luck with Craigslist, which is free, in that regard.</p>

<p>I also have a Funcrunch Photo twitter account, blog, mailing list, Yelp, and Google Places page, but haven't done much with any of those yet. My Facebook fan page currently gets the most attention, next to my own hosted and Zenfolio sites.</p>

[jeff_z.]

<p>Julie, Thanks so much! And of course, you're most welcome regarding the kudos- they are much deserved, and this is coming from one who looks at a lot of music imagery, and has been published a few times now. Really nice, relaxed compositions and use of color, and you so often get the expressions just right!</p>

<p>But as far as Facebook, this set-in-his-ways introvert has such a hard time adapting to that world... Security is just one of the issues for me; I can't imagine juggling all of those things. You do it so well, but I just want to run for the hills!: ) Somehow, though, I will have to get going on this, and I'll definitely be thinking hard about your helpful info. Thanks, Jeff</p>

[robert_k1]

<p>Julie, I have a similar strategy like yours in mind, i.e. show a handful of images at a few popular social media sites (sms) and hopefully draw viewers to my personal site where they will be able to view the full galleries.</p>

<p>But first, I have to draw attention to my page at each of the sms. Each site has its own way of promotion and I will need to figure that out.</p>

<p>If there are interested sms viewers, I would expect them to leave comments at those sites since that's easy to do. Responding at the sms would be easy for me as well, and would let other viewers see what I have to say. But if there should be inquiries about sales or services, I would prefer to communicate in private and use my personal site's e-mail address. How do you handle such a situation?</p>

[funcrunch]

<p>Robert K - On my Facebook fan page I have my contact e-mail address displayed both in the "blurb" area on the left sidebar and in the business information tab, so people can direct inquiries there. MySpace has a direct contact option as well. Twitter only allows you to send a personal "direct message" if you're friends with the tweeter, but if you have a link to your web site then hopefully your e-mail is displayed prominently there.</p>

<p>I have my e-mail address at the bottom of every web page on my pro site and also a Contact link displayed prominently near the top, so people browsing on a mobile device can see it more quickly. So if I can get people to that site they should be able to figure out how to contact me. (I list a phone number as well, though I personally prefer e-mail, especially for initial contact.)</p>

[donnabrunet]

<p>I never post any of my images on Facebook other than a tiny linked thumbnail. I create a page with the image on my website and then post a status update on my fan page that links to the page on my site. You can see an example at <a href="http://www.facebook.com/donnabrunet.1">http://www.facebook.com/donnabrunet.1</a> To get the thumbnail to show up on Facebook, make sure you use the complete path of the image (not a relative path) on your website.<br>

During my free trial at Lynda.com, I watched the videos on Facebook. The videos strongly suggest using a personal account with a fan page because Facebook doesn't allow using personal accounts for business. They gave an example of someone with hundreds of friends on a personal account used for business and when Facebook administrators noticed it, the account was deleted.</p>

[scott_patterson2]

<p>yeah... I draw a lot of business to my site treebirdphotography.com through face book...but I do not have a treebird photography face book page, I just use my personal facebook page to tell people that I have posted new images on my site.. I never post any images on facebook... just links to my site... not that there is anything wrong with posting images I suppose</p>

[brunomorez]

<p>Say you put up a link to your blog, containing your pictures, but don't post any actual pictures on FB, does that mean that FB can still use your work without your consent?</p>

[steve m smith]

<blockquote>

<p>does that mean that FB can still <strong>use</strong> your work without your consent?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>In what respect do you mean 'use' when referring to Facebook?</p>

[brunomorez]

<p>'Use' as in<br>

"<em>you grant us <strong>a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license</strong> to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook ("IP License"). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.'</em></p>