Building a Stronger Business in 2022 - Are You Giving Back?

We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give!
Sir Winston Churchill

by Skip Cohen

​In another life, at least twenty-five years ago, I attended PPA's M&M Conference. Jay Conrad Levinson, the father of Guerilla Marketing, was the guest speaker. In the top 100 things, he talked about marketers needing to stand out was giving back to their community. Why? Because people like buying products from companies they perceive as giving back.

How many of you do so little in your community so often surprises me. Remember, this is about being out there, with or without your camera. Everything you do doesn't have to involve photography. Even supporting a high school's booster committee and filling ketchup and mustard bottles at a Friday night game shows you care and are involved.

From United Way campaigns to non-profit walks for the fight against Alzheimer's, breast cancer, hunger, child abuse - anything that matches your passion for helping with a recipient cause will help increase your brand awareness.

Here are some ideas:

• Chamber of Commerce events in your community.
• Support to the Schools: Find out who the teacher is in the role of advisor for the yearbook and school newsletter if there is one. Your skillset is perfect for helping student photographers raise the bar on their images.
• PTA: What fund-raising events is the PTA scheduling this year? Whether helping on the events themselves or spreading the word - they always need help.
• United Way Events: Here's your chance to be a volunteer and at the same time use your blog to help spread the word.
• Events Calendar: On your blog, build an events calendar of non-profit programs each month in the community. This will also help you position yourself as a community ambassador.
• Career Day: Every school system is short on funding. Volunteer to be a guest speaker and share your photography, business, and storytelling knowledge.
• Alumni Associations: Whether high school or college doesn't matter. They always need help and volunteers for virtually every aspect of keeping in touch.
• Adult Education Classes: If there's a formal program in your community, see what it takes to be involved. If not, start one of your own.
• Your Old Gear: Everybody has equipment they no longer use. From DSLRs down to point and shoots - find out who's teaching photography in the school system and donate that gear that's just collecting dust. You never know how much impact you might have on a future young artist.
• Print and Sitting Donations: I know there are a lot of conflicting opinions on this one, but the idea is to donate a portrait session or print to a non-profit fund-raiser. I love the idea but find too many artists don't fully capitalize on the involvement. The donation is one piece, but you also need to follow it up on social media, your Facebook page, and your blog. Then, follow-up again with a short post about the recipient when they come to "collect."
• National and Local Organizations: From NILMDTS to Heart to Heart to Watts of Love to HeartsApart and hundreds more, there are so many ways you can give back and be involved with your skillset as a photographer.
• Cause-Related Marketing: Most of you will be launching some sort of special promotional offer in the months ahead. Take the sting off of just being another retailer and commit a portion of what you're offering to a non-profit you believe in. You can also rotate the proceeds to another non-profit with the following promotion as you build up awareness.
• Special Events: Make it a point to attend as many of your community's events as possible. Here's where your camera comes in. Capture images from the events, then share them on social media. Last but not least, offer your images to the associations hosting the events. All you're asking them to do is use your by-line whenever they share the photographs.
• Senior Centers: It's one of my favorites, especially over the last couple of years. Dignity in aging, combined with the loneliness of having to hunker down through the pandemic, has taken its toll—Check-in with your local senior center. So many of them offer activities throughout the week, and they're always looking for volunteers.

This list is hardly all-inclusive - but I'm making a simple point. You need to be involved in your community. It's not important who you know as much as it is, who knows you! Build a reputation for being somebody who's always out there and a part of the community. Use social media, whether it's through your blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest - how ever you enjoy sharing make it a point to demonstrate how much you appreciate your target audience!

When you do nothing you feel overwhelmed and powerless.
But when you get involved you feel the sense of hope and accomplishment
that comes from knowing you are working to make things better.
Maya Angelou