8 Ways To Use Photos To Promote Your Business - and best of all, most of them are FREE or LOW COST!
I didn't start out as a photographer, and I still wouldn't consider my photos "professional quality" although I see marked improvement each day. Since I've been in real estate, and especially since I started blogging, I have found that I really enjoy taking pictures of my community, events, and of course, of our listings. And, over the past two years, I have accumulated quite a collection of local photos on my computer which have been extremely useful for our marketing.
I take my camera everywhere I go and even have a small digital camera that I carry in my purse so I'm always ready when the "right shot" presents itself. Our whole family enjoys photography so it's become a great family activity.
Here's some of the ways we use photos in promoting our business:
1.) Help Sell Your Listings - The most obvious of course, is to help sell our listings. Most buyers are starting their search on the Internet and they want to see photos and virtual tours of your listings - the more the better. They say a good photo is worth a thousand words, and that is definitely the case in real estate. One thing that made a big difference for us was investing in a wide-angle lens which helps photograph small spaces.
2.) Improve Your Blog Posts - Blog posts are more interesting to readers when they have appropriate photos. Developing your own collection of photos will help improve your blog and can save you money if you don't have to buy stock photos or clip art.
I subscribe to Gerry Khatchikian from Red Lodge, MT on ActiveRain, he is able to use his photography skills to create a lot of interest in his area and his blog! He even has some photo quizzes that are fun. Check out Gerry's blog for some great examples of using photos for blogging.
3.) Get Into Video - You can create a local video with your digital still photos in a matter of minutes. We like Real Estate Shows but there are other great sites out there that will help turn your photos into a short video. We also use a Flip video camera for some videos but still like to use digital stills. Once you create a local video, Real Estate Shows will upload it directly to your You Tube account, or you can save the video to your computer and create CD's or upload to other websites or blog posts.
4.) Create a Photo Blog of your local area and post a new photo on a regular interval. We started the photo blog I Love Missoulaa few months ago and have seen a huge increase in traffic to the site, which also links to our real estate site. If you tag your photos and use key-word rich titles, it will help optimize your search engine results.
We allow people in the community to submit their photos to us by email for possible use on the website. We are starting to get community photos and always give the sender credit, thanking them on the site.
5.) Post to Facebook - it's easy to create a photo album on your Facebook profile, so how about creating one of your local area? We have a photo album on Missoula, Missoula Nightlife, and Montana Living.
Another creative way to use your photos on Facebook is to create a Fan Page for your local area. You can post local photos and videos to your Fan Page OR submit a link to a great photo on your photo blog or regular blog. Fan Pages are easy to set up, and the best part - they're FREE!
Here's one of our Facebook Fan Pages - we have over 4500 fans in a short amount of time:
6.) Set up a Flickr Account - Flickr does an amazing job with search engines, and is a great way to showcase your photos. One important note however is to make sure you understand Flickr's Terms of Service - before you create an account - or you may end up disappointed. Flickr does not like the use of its site for commercial purposes. Make sure to read Matt's post, and understand what is and is not allowed on Flickr:
On Flickr, you are able to Geo Tag your photos so they will be even more likely to show up on Google when someone searches for that area or location. Groups are also helpful to join for networking and to gain exposure for your photos.
We have contacted local photographers on Flickr and asked for their permission to include one of their photos on our Photo Blog with a link back to them and have had success. Many times, people are flatttered by the request and it also helps to build community for your photo blog.
7.) Upload Photos of Local Businesses & Food to rating sites such as Yelp.com. We use this as an opportunity to try new restaurants and just take a few quick snapshots on our visit. You can rate your experience at the restaurant or business and upload your photos to help people in the community get a feel for the location.
The photos can also make a great blog post down the road - I love photos that I can multi-purpose! We've turned this into a bit of a game and use it as an excuse to order a great dessert occasionally or a special drink.
8.) Twitpic your photos or post them to Posterous - People love to look at photos and I'm still amazed at how many people click on photos when I send them across Twitter. Kevin uses Twitpic but I use a Posterous site that I set up - Missoula Real Estate.
Posterous tracks how many people view your photos and allows you to set it up so you can email a photo from your phone or computer to the site. Posterous can then automatically post your photo to your Posterous Blog, Twitter, Facebook and Flickr accounts - I told you, I LOVE TO MULTI-PURPOSE MY PICTURES! :) Posterous is a great way to automate posting to some of your sites.
It's fun to be creative in your marketing with the use of photos, and there are so many possibilities!
How do you use photos to promote your business? I'd love to hear what others are doing as well!
I was just in the process of writing a blog post about photos and how you could use them to help promote your business...kind of a follow up to the guerrilla marketing post I did a little while ago...
Monica, this was a terrific post about everything you need to know about photos and video with blogging. It is like a thousand words of course and very much holds your interest with the words and links.
Monica- Very good tips and those have all been on my list for a long time LOL! I do a bit here and there but I do go all out on the photos for our blog and listings. Congrats on the gold star:)
Thanks for the great tips. I always knew that I liked and read more blog posts when they had pictures. I have started to do more due to Bob's last two challenges to post more local content and the business reviews. I found it was more fun and I was more involved with my story when I captured a good picture. Thank you for your take on this and you do nice work!
Thanks for an interesting post. My daughters generation (20-30) take pictures of everything they do and everywhere they go to post. I guess we need to catch up.
Monica,
Congrats on being featured. I enjoyed your post. It was very informative and well written. I may have to take more photos for my posts. I will check out posterious as well.
Good list to give our photos exposure (pun intended) across a number of social media channels. I need to work on a photo blog and using TwitPic more often.
Hi Kevin & Monica ~ It's great to hear how you're leveraging your photos - which are beautiful by the way. On the Posterous site (which I want to check out) are you taking those photos with your Blackberry? If so I'm really impressed by the quality.
Great stuff here and congratulations on a well deserved gold star.
The photo quizzes are fun and I just realized with the last one that they seem to generate lots of interest. I am not sure how it started but living in a State like Montana sure got me trigger happy. I got a backlog of photos wanting to appear on my blog. :-)
Despite having caught the shutter bug, I still have to check into getting a Flickr account and would like to get and post some videos in my posts in the future.
Great ideas! We need to take pictures of EVERYTHING! I have seen the most interesting photos on Facebook from a guy who takes photos of things you wouldn't think of photographing.
Kevin & Monica ~ I actually read your wonderful blog post today when Jason Crouch was kind enough to share it on his Facebook profile. Now that I've read it again here on AR it's even better! I especially thank you for the info on Flickr as I have an account yet haven't quite learned how to utilize it properly for my business. In terms of quick photos, it's amazing what an iPhone is capable of! I agree with Jennifer above - Thanks for the inspiration! Awesome job.
Wow ! What a great blog post filled with great info and tips to maximize all the things one can do to improve their business with photos. I love what you have done with FB. I also really need to look into Yelp and be more active in Flickr as well. Is an amazing world out there !
Excellent info! I wrote a tutorial of HOW to take real estate photos a while back that would go along well with your #1. I see alot of bad photos out there in the MLS system. It's a shame.
Thanks for the info. I do some of these but haven't had the need to have a Flickr account. I keep hearing good things about so I just need to go check it out.
Good info. But I don't know when Realtors will learn. I wrote "a picture is worth thousands of $$$" post on my blog just few days ago. If you dont take good photos, how can you sell that house online.
Bookmarked for future reference. I have been concerned about Flickr because a couple of folks have had their accounts and photos deleted recently, which really messed up their blogs. Also, what about watermarking your photos when you submit to so many sites so they aren't copied all over the internet or do you care about that?
This is a lot of useful information.. and some that I was NOT aware of. I'm going out to a local restaurant for lunch.. guess what I'm bringing... my camera.
Kevin and Monica - I keep preaching to agents about the importance of photos and videos... Thanks for the solid support via your blog post. This will be forwarded...
What a great way to introduce yourself to new clients, as well. As a new agent, this was one of the most helpful things I've read to date re: increasing one's business w/o spending lots of money. Thank you!!!
Congratulations on having your post featured and thanks so much for the wealth of information you've shared with everyone. I am bookmarking this so that I can utilize your suggestions a step at a time.
Thank you for all the great ideas and tips on how to completed them! Ive posted a link to this in my LinkedIn Group REALTORS 50+, we have a discussion going on about photos! I think the group will find this very helpful!
That was such a GREAT, informative post! I like to use photos too. I have a few questions that maybe you or somebody else on AR can answer:
1. Do you use your highest resolution setting when you take the photo and re-size later for sites that require a lower resolution? Or do you start out with a lower resolution so you don't have to re-size?
2. How do you get text to wrap around photos in your blog? Is there a tutorial somewhere on AR?
This is a great help. I have recently been researching ways to promote and also offer some great information. You gave me even more ways. Just bookmarked and printed. Thanks!
I have recently invested in a new SLR camera and the difference in what I can do in all categories of photography is amazing. I just received a my new 70-300mm yesterday and it is awesome. With an 18-55, 70-300 and a new wide angle on order, I have the spectrum covered pretty well. With all the guidelines you have provided and ways to use the photos, I feel like I could become a photo journalist just about any time now. With passion for my real estate career, being able to express that with professional quality photography, gives me a wonderful new way to enlighten and entertain consumers. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Kevin and Monica~ Wow, what awesome tips in the blog! I remember relocating to a different city and using all sort of methods for searching for information..there weren't too many photos or videos. If I had found an agent that does the above there would be no question whom I would contact. thanks!
Whats funny is I just went on a "photo" walk a couple days ago with a well known local photographer & one thing she banged on about is how lousy agents pictures are & how they could sell the place a lot faster with better pics.
I used to shoot a lot of film when I was younger & my HS didnt have a camera club, so I dropped it in my 20s & just picked it back up when I turned 40. Just got a great D-SLR this past Xmas & am using it to shoot our listings so some of these ideas are great. Plus the youtube thing gives me an idea of what to get for this year, heheh.
But those are some good ideas, the food & whatnot I had not even thought of & I am a big "foodie", heheh.
Thanks
I wasn't much into photography until we had to start taking photos for real estate (when I started there was only one exterior photo of a property and that was taken by our MLS). I've learned a lot and thank goodness for digital cameras! I remember literally having real photos that I would paste onto flyers. We've come such a long way.
Karen and Monica, have you checked out Animoto.com? You can present your photos in a professionally edited slide show with music (yours or theirs). You can do unlimited 30 second slide shows for FREE!
Great post, but you should not say that photos with background music are videos. They are slide shows and should be called this way. Unfortunately many real estate agents are stilll using term "Videos" for slide shows, which is not right!
Kevin & Monica, This is wonderful information! I take so many photos and post them here and an occasional one on Facebook but i don't take advantage of the other sites to do that. I'll have to actually study this post more, I could get more use out of those photos I am always taking....Thank you!
Great post! I really need to start taking and using more photos for my blog. I just got the iPhone so I've even been thinking about posting real time blogs when I'm out at properties with either photos or video.
Thanks for your great post. I especially liked your idea of shooting pics of linch entrees. I use my Flip camera to shoot videos of sunsets over the Blue Ridge Mts in VA where I live. Ever changing ever beautiful and post them on Facebook & Youtube.
Thanks for the information. Love the idea about photgraphing meals out! Great way to network with other local busiensses.
Brenda Swigert, e-PRO
ReMax Unlimited West Chester, OH
www.BrendaSwigert.com
Thanks for the tips. It is a great idea to keep a camera in your car at all times....especially for things like wildlife shots (yes, even the cities have their own type of "wildlife"!
It is also great to blog about great services you have used. ie: take a photo of your pest control guy and do a little on line "thank you" highlighting his business.
The internet is turning into such a visual interface that having photos and/or moving video will defenately give you and edge. Great post and I highly recommend picassa. Al of my photo albums..including listing photos and more are on my on-line gallery: http://picasaweb.google.com/AzusaRotarian and I always share them on Facebook as you stated. www.facebook.com/monrovian21
Thanks for the blog post. It was great.
Thanks for all the tips. My to do list has just grown. I use Picasa to post pictures. Is there an advantage to using Flickr over Picasa? Do you take your pics with your iphone and then load them up directly from there?
I started reading this post an hour ago. After following links and watching videos and filling out forms, I've got a lot of great new ideas. But now I need a nap!
This is right on!! Facebook pics or videos are so easy to pass around and ITS FREE. I love the onetruemedia site -- it makes it really easy and it looks good
Excellent ideas. I had the picture stiching and the tour builder software for a long time with no idea waht to do with them. I can now put it to some use.
I love taking photos and these are some REALLY great tips on how to use them to promote yourself as the 'local expert'. I have bookmarked this page for future reference. Thanks for sharing!
Very good ideas. I have a lot of expensive but old SLR cameras that use film. I just kind of lost interest when digital took over. I need to get a good digital SLR and get started again.
I started a Facebook page for my town, Port Washington, NY, and the response to photos is always tremendous. I wish I had thought of it sooner. The comment about the wide-angle lens is well-taken also.
Wonderful ideas, Kevin and Monica! Thanks for summarizing them in a list...I've bookmarked this page and I'm sure I'll refer back to it step-by-step. :)
Very good tips. For listings, WEB-APPEAL is as important as curb-appeal, maybe more-so since first impressions are so important, you never get a second chance to make first impressions. Photos in listings should be good. Composition, framing, lighting... all are key. Get some good photos and put them online, on CraigsList, Virtual Tours, Single-property mini-websites such as:
Thanks, I'm a neophyte to this whole blogging and social networking thing and found your info very helpful. I am going to make you an associate because I want to learn more from you.
Really good information. I really like how you come up with ideas that provide "value added service." I strongly believe those are the kinds of things Realtors need to do today to set themselves apart from the competition. Thanks!
I have been trying to figure out how to create a fan page on Facebook for a few weeks now. Can you share a little more about that? The article was great and I got a lot of tips.
This is a great tool to enhance our business without spending lot of money. I think I need to get familiar with flicker account and take advantage of it. This post is a great help. Thank you so much!
One of the most requested services I do for real estate agents and brokers is to work with their listing photos...posting them to varying sites, creating virtual tours, writing blogs and using those photos on community blogs. I hadn't heard of yelp but I'll be sure to check that one out. Another excuse for dessert is always welcome.
Great post, tips and information! I've found the comments to be as useful as the actual blog! Thanks everybody. Now if there were only more hours in the day...
Good afternoon. Great information ! If the 1st photo isn't any good, they aren't going to read the text I've written and will just click 'next' property.
I bookmarked this a while ago and just re-read your post. I must have missed the photo blog for your market area before but that is an awesome idea- I am going to follow your lead on that as it creates so much opportunity- wow you have really got the wheels spinning in my head...thanks so much for sharing.
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8 Ways To Use Photos To Promote Your Business - and best of all, most of them are FREE or LOW COST!
3.) Get Into Video - You can create a local video with your digital still photos in a matter of minutes. We like Real Estate Shows but there are other great sites out there that will help turn your photos into a short video. We also use a Flip video camera for some videos but still like to use digital stills. Once you create a local video, Real Estate Shows will upload it directly to your You Tube account, or you can save the video to your computer and create CD's or upload to other websites or blog posts.
5.) Post to Facebook - it's easy to create a photo album on your Facebook profile, so how about creating one of your local area? We have a photo album on Missoula, Missoula Nightlife, and Montana Living.
7.) Upload Photos of Local Businesses & Food to rating sites such as 
8.) Twitpic your photos or post them to Posterous - People love to look at photos and I'm still amazed at how many people click on photos when I send them across Twitter. Kevin uses Twitpic but I use a Posterous site that I set up - 
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Thank you that was helpful.