I had the great pleasure and distinct honor to give a talk to about 200 students of photography a couple of weeks ago — out in Turner’s Falls at the Hallmark Institute of Photography.
I was invited by an old friend, John Nordell, who is an artist and photojournalist, and also an instructor at Hallmark. He writes a great blog on the creative process, called Create Look Enjoy, and you can see a great variety of his work at JohnNordell.com.
My purpose was to impress upon these budding entrepreneurs (most will be going into business on their own, others joining established pros as assistants) why the outbound marketing era is over; the importance of embracing the techniques of inbound marketing; and to get “unbound” — to begin NOW to get their brand-building efforts going.
What a great time… and what an amazingly gratifying set of responses from the students!
During my talk (a link to the slides is below), I told some stories from my own experience with social media. How I got my first really big consulting gig through my blog and Facebook within about ten days, how one of my amateur photos is on exhibit at Arizona State University thanks to Flickr. I wonder if Woody Allen knew how much marketing and the media would change when he wrote, “80 percent of success is showing up.”
What a thrill to hear from Tanisha Stephens, who shared the following on Facebook after my talk:
Yesterday @ school we had a guest lecturer by the name of Tim Dempsey, who talked about the importance of social media and the positive impact it can have on your business. Today we had a class(w/ John Nordell) on social media in relation to gaining business exposure through sites like FaceBook, Twitter, & Flickr. Because I believed every word of what they said, I now have this FaceBook account !
Tanisha started her Facebook page… Tanisha Stephens Photography… the very next day.
But she didn’t stop there. She started reaching out to build her network, and posted an offer to kick start her business when she graduates this Spring: Here’s her promotion piece, which was featured only on her Facebook page:
Tanisha's Promo Piece
Hi Tim, I didn’t get a chance to speak to you personally after you spoke, but I want to say thank you. Since you were here, I have really taken advantage of the benefits of social media. I’ve planned a photo shoot in my hometown in Alabama for the end of this month & without any advertising other than facebook and I booked all 32 of the appointments I had available in less than a week. I printed flyers that my parents were supposed to put around town for people who aren’t on facebook, but at this point there is no need for that, because I already have a waiting list. I went from about 200 friends when you were here to over 700 friends today. I started a fan page and have 400+ fans. You were 100% on point and I thank you so much for coming and sharing this knowledge.
There’s not much more rewarding than having this kind of impact on a young entrepreneur!
Here are the slides… and don’t hesitate to contact me if you’d like me to speak to YOUR group of budding businesspeople.
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