Fast Food Friday - For Professional Photographers

Missed any past Fast Food Friday's? They're all just a click away.

by Skip Cohen
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Fast Food Fridays are always about things you can do to fine-tune your marketing and business skills. They're not always short and easy to implement, but they are ALWAYS essential to help you build a stronger business and presence.

I started this series because, except for doctors, photographers are the second worst business group on the planet. Relax, it's not because you don't care, it's because most of you are right-brain creative types. Your passion is in the capture and creation of the image, not in the operational side of running a business.

So, it's been over a year ago, and every time I think I'm out of things to write about, something new comes up. This week I stumbled into a series of my own mistakes in a blog post that could have been easily avoided. Then, I was reading a post from a good friend on Facebook with so many errors it made me look like a Rhodes Scholar!

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Tools to Look Smarter Than You Really Are!

© soupstock

I had a challenge this week that left me feeling like the old style shot of a kid in a dunce hat in school. Obviously, that doesn't happen anymore, but maybe for a few of us, it should! 

Here's my short backstory: I published a post and then went back over it for the next two days as people found typos I missed. At the same time this was going on, a good friend published a lengthy post on Facebook that had so many mistakes, it was almost unreadable.

I write all day every day. It's my job, so it's even more embarrassing when I make easy to avoid mistakes. However, most of you are NOT writers, so while I've touched on some of this in past posts, it's time to hit the topic again. Here are some things to help you get through the challenges of writing when you'd rather be behind the camera than your computer!

• Use Spellcheck! But, remember, it won't catch everything, especially if you're using the wrong word.
• Grammarly.com - Grammarly often makes us look smarter than we deserve. It corrects punctuation, repeats of the same word, spelling, and suggestions for replacement words. However, just like Spellcheck, it doesn't catch everything. For example, it keeps asking me if I want to change the word "great" to "high." The word "high" in the context I'm typically using the word "great" doesn't apply. So, read each suggested change out loud to see if it makes sense.
• Read everything out loud at least twice. 
• Depending on what you're sharing and how often you're writing, have a friend, family member or associate read what you're about to publish.
• If you hate to write, but you have to write a lot, hire a writer. Relax, I'm not talking about a screenwriter from Hollywood! Visit the high school in your area and speak with an English teacher. You're looking for an "A" student to bring on part-time or pay them per published piece. You might even find the English teach willing to do a little moonlighting for you. This can be especially effective if you're trying to keep your blog filled consistently.
• If you're writing about somebody, make sure you've spelled their name right. One of my issues was messing up the name of a photographer, and once in the document, it populated the wrong spelling throughout. 
• We're all used to the challenges of auto-correct when texting, and that's always forgivable. I'm talking about mistakes in things you're publishing on your website, blog, social media posts, brochures, etc. So many of us are moving so fast, especially when responding to something in social media that our brains write things phonetically and it can be embarrassing. 
• Stay away from writing explosive opinions in battles with trolls on Facebook. It's hard not to make mistakes when there's smoke coming out of your ears, and you're angry. So, if you're attempting to cut somebody down to size at the very least wait 24 hours before publishing. That gives you time to read what you're about to send and things always look different when you've cooled down.

And remember - there are no erasers on the Internet! Never publish anything you don't want the whole world to read!

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