PhotoShelter Joins Google+

PhotoShelter Joins Google+

When Google+ hit the scene this year and we saw PhotoShelter photographers create substantial G+ communities, we couldn’t wait to join the conversation. So when Google announced in early November they were launching Google+ company pages, we jumped right on board.

Today we present our brand spanking new Google+ page to help you stay connected with what we’re up to. We’ll be sharing PhotoShelter news, how-to videos, posting photos from PhotoShelter photographers, and a whole lot more.

Join PhotoShelter on Google+

Photographers Tell Us Why G+ Works For Them
While putting together our own page, we reached out to some successful PhotoShelter G+ users to learn their secrets for making the system work for them. Here’s what they had to say:

Switzerland-based nature and landscape photographer Johan Peijnenburg has 18,352 followers on Google+. He also started the PhotoShelter User Group (#PhotoShelterUG).

On his G+ workflow, Johan says:

“I try to post 2 or 3 times a week, usually at the end of my morning in Europe to catch as many followers as possible. The number of likes and comments has a great influence on how often a post pops up at the top of the G+ Stream. To make a post more interesting, I usually try to combine an image with something like an anecdote, an interesting quote, info on how an image was created or simply a request for input. There has to be something interesting to get people to come back.”

Fine art photographer Matt Suess who we recently profiled  in our guide to Selling Fine Art Photography, has 14,108 followers on G+. But as he will tell you, it’s not a numbers game – especially in the beginning:

“If you’re just starting out on G+ (and even if you have been on it for a while) you shouldn’t be be too concerned with your follower count. If you engage your audience with meaningful content people will find you on G+ and your follower count will increase. But it really isn’t about the numbers – it’s about the interaction.”

Matt also has a strategy when it comes to what he posts:

“The vast majority of my posts are about my photography and other tech/photo related news and other tidbits I feel my followers may have an interest in. Approximately 10% of my posts are marketing related such as announcing photo workshops I teach and art festivals I am exhibiting my work at.”

Landscape, travel and conservation photographer Shane Srogi has 12,989 followers on Google+ and uses the platform to host a daily blog called “The Photographer’s Daily Topic” which receives about 3,000 reads a day. Every day, he’ll pose a photo-related question to his community asking their opinions on things like watermarking images, slideshows, or when they realized their passion for photography. Shane will often get 10+ responses.

But when Shane shares a topic, he’s very conscious of when he posts and the words he uses:

“It’s important to remember that Google+ is an international social network.  I have time zones set up on my iPhone and post accordingly because  I regularly talk with people from Europe, Asia and Australia.   And sometimes getting responses back depends on the way you ask a question. The only daily topic that fell flat for me was on the topic of “branding.” I decided to reword the question and instead asked “How do you set your website apart? which got a lot more responses.”

Shane adds:

“Google + has the best photo community on the internet, I learn from and am introduced to photographers every single day.”

Check out PhotoShelter on Google+

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There are 9 comments for this article
  1. Shane Srogi at 3:05 pm

    Thanks so much for the inclusion in the blog, Deborah. I enjoyed the interview! Good luck with the page launch on Google +. The photo community there is very engaged and shares a good bit of information…..something PhotoShelter has been doing for years now.

    -Shane Srogi

  2. James A. B. at 7:16 pm

    This is wonderful, I was wondering when PS was gonna jump on the action G+ has to offer.

    So is there a timelline or possibility of linking the two PS and G+ or at the very least a 1+ button on our images inside our websites as well as galleries???

    thanks for joining the G+ crowd and interacting with us!

  3. Sergio Burani at 2:20 pm

    Now that PhotoShelter has learned the virtues of Google+, can we get a simple button to post directly from PhotoShelter to G+, just like we can do for Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn?
    As you can see from the above commetns, your customers are demanding this.
    I asked Tech Support and they told me that there is NO TIMELINE for this project. Sad!

  4. Nick Dunmur at 3:42 pm

    Just to add in support of Don Schaefer’s comments. The stripping of metadata from images on Google+ effectively creates a bunch of orphan works for all that are uploading photographs there. Given that at some point in the near future, there will be legislation both in Europe (including the UK) and the States that addresses the orphan works issue, do we really want to be bowling headlong into this without any pause for thought?

    In addition, what about Google’s proposed file format, WebP, which doesn’t allow for any metadata whatsoever? This seems a worrying development unless we aim to rely solely on reverse image search technology like Tineye or Picscout to find our ‘orphans’ and reclaim them before someone else does. But that puts a great deal of onus on us and requires a great deal of additional time too.

    Photoshelter has empowered so many of us to sell more effectively where once libraries did so. We need to remain in control of our own work in order to make a living that is sustainable not just for us, but for others who want to follow us into the industry.

  5. Pingback: Suess Fine Art Photography | Photo Workshops | Online Webinars | HDR Photography | +PhotoShelter – the company that hosts my online photo galleries – has just shared…
  6. Gordon C Harrison at 7:44 am

    I’m extremely sorry to see Photoshelter seemingly promote the use of Google+ by photographers. By all means use Google+, if you must, but don’t post any images on it. G+ deletes the photographers’ copyright metadata from all the images it displays.

    It is unconscionable that when a photographer embeds within the image the copyright status, the copyright owner, and contact information for licensing enquiries, that Google should simply delete this from displayed images.

    When challenged about this, Brian Rose, the Google+ Photo Communities Manager simply said the displayed images are “optimised images for consumption”. That’s a revealing remark and an indication of how Google views your creativity, ‘for consumption’, i.e. unimportant. Is that really why they delete all the copyright metadata photographers place in their images?

    I’m astonished that Photoshelter are not making their photographers aware of this serious problem. For full details read the article here –

    http://artists-bill-of-rights.org/news/campaign-news/google%2b-deletes-copyright-metadata/

    Please Photoshelter, can we have some comment from you on this issue?

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