Facebook lets you buy ads that show on the right side of a user’s main page in Facebook. They don’t cost much, and are easy to target to specific audiences. For example, you could create an ad that targets only 20-30 year old women in your zip code.

If you’ve considering buying ads on Facebook, you may be interested in a recent study by the Nielsen Group. They looked at ads by 70 different companies and discovered that ads that include social advocacy are 2-4 times more likely to be clicked on, recalled or to lead toward a purchase.

What does this mean to you?

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If you use LabPrints Album Builder, you can now select JD Photo as the album manufacturer, then select either a Diamond, Romanco or Timeless album when creating a new album order. This lets you:

• Select from a list of album sizes JD stocks / prints (saves mistakes).
• Makes your pano page layouts truly WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) and puts them in proper page order
• Makes it easier to use the album builder and slide show as part of an in-studio sales presentation

To use this new feature, follow these simple steps:

1. Create your new album in LabPrints
2. Select JD Photo as album company and your favorite album design and size.
3. Complete your album order and send it to JD.

Diamond Album users - Instead of writing down your album details in the notes field, after you receive your order confirmation email from the lab, go to our new online album details page at http://www.jdlab.com/albums/ . Here, you can quickly check a few boxes to send us your album details like cover design, gilding, etc. (not only is this faster, but you won’t miss any of the available album cover options).

Romanco / Timeless Album users - For now, continue to add any extra album details in the notes field.

MyDigitalProductsOnline.com is an “unbranded” website hosted by JD that displays all the press-printed graphic layouts available in ROES. Use it to quickly view all our card styles on a single page:

• Graduations, Weddings, Holidays, Baby Announcements
• Dozens of horizontal and vertical Slimline card styles
• Folding cards with optional sentiments
• Always adding more

Since JD is never mentioned anywhere on the site, you can show the website to your customers at your studio when selecting card styles. You could even call a client and have them pick a card style while you’re talking on the phone!

If you use ROES, bookmark MyDigitalProductsOnline.com and check back often. New card designs are constantly being added.

The challenge of social media (blogs, twitter, Facebook, etc.) is that at first glance it seems like a free and relatively easy way to connect to potential customers, but as Jim Smith at yChange.com explains:

If as a small business you are trying to use social media to get the word out to your customers and prospects about how great your product/service is then you are frankly wasting your time walking down a blind alley. If however, you are using social media to listen to your customer and learn what his/her problem or pain is and what value your business can bring to the table then you are on the right path.

Social media today is for listening. It is not a mike or a megaphone to be used to drown the customer out.

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I was walking through the lab this morning and something caught my eye: a 16×20″ metal print of a high-contrast senior portrait. Tom Kaza from Hicks Studio in Flint created the image, and the finished print was awesome. Which made me think of two things:

1. Until this is in ROES (working on it right now) no one is going to know we offer it.
2. Even after it is in ROES, most folks still won’t know we offer it.

I’m just like you - and your customers. I can look at an advertisement for a product a dozen times, but it won’t catch my attention until I’m ready to order. Every day, someone calls the lab and says, “I didn’t know JD made that.”

So here’s my challenge to you.

The next time you’re sitting in the studio thinking,

• “I wonder if JD can make a…”
• “This image would look great as a…”
• “I wonder if there is software to make a…”

give us a call. 888-858-8084. I don’t care how wild it is. At JD, we love a challenge.

Robbin Stieff at LunaMetrics wrote an interesting article that lists the 8 Worst SEO Mistakes companies make when they redesign their website.

For photographers and studios, “The Flash Problem” is the worst. Here’s why:

1. Photographers are visually stimulated, so it makes sense they would be drawn to great looking websites based on photography. People who design websites for photographers know this, so they frequently replace keyword-rich sites that Google likes with gorgeous flash-based sites that Google will ignore.
2. Google depends on plain vanilla text inside your website to tell it what your website is about. A Flash website has almost no text on the homepage - it is designed to load and play the Flash “movie”. Learn why adding a description tag or some keywords doesn’t solve the problem.
3. Some flash-based sites only have a single URL — the homepage. When you click on a different page on the site, you are taken to a different part of the Flash movie. These pages are hidden from search engines, users can’t bookmark them, link to them, or share them on Facebook.

How to solve the problem

Create a text-based website, then include a window with Flash inside. This gives you the stunning photography you need, but still allows text on the homepage. That’s what we did on the JDPI homepage.

A few weeks ago I wrote an article entitled What is Your Studio’s Lagniappe? Basically it described the little unexpected gift you give a customer as a “thank you” for their business.

As you can see here, I think I’ve found a great one. These little photo key chains can be purchased on Amazon . The best rated Tao sells for less than 10 dollars.

After a bride has purchased thousands of dollars of photography from you, imagine her surprise when she comes to pick up the albums and you present this little key chain with 10-15 of the best shots from the album pre-installed. I’m guessing she’ll show it to so many friends, it will virtually pay for itself.

Here’s the trick - make the last image a jpg with your studio logo, website, and phone number.

Pick up a couple of these to give to your next high-dollar clients, and I guarantee you’ll generate some buzz.

Michelle Bogre, a photographer, college professor and lawyer, has started an excellent website called TheCopyrightCorner.org. In it she plainly and simply spells out the rules of copyright for professional photographers. My favorite page on the site answers the question “I am a photographer, so if I own copyright in my photograph, can I do anything with my photograph?”

You should check out the answer. Interesting reading.

Other topics she covers:

• Basics - what copyright is
• Getting Started - get it, keep it
• Register Your Stuff - Reasons and Rationale
• Fair Use - the guidelines

It will take you about 15 minutes to read them all, but you will be much more educated about copyright issues in the end.

I was reading an article entitled the Top 10 Trends for Weddings in 2010, and the item about videographers caught my eye:

Professional grade still photo cameras like the Canon 5D Mark II DSLR are being released with HD video capabilities included. It is recommended to have both a videographer and a photographer at your wedding to capture every moment of the big day. Tech-savvy brides looking for a new experience, may like to experiment with a visual professional (videographer or photographer) who has this technology. In the future, you will begin to see an emergence of two-in-one companies. Companies like Engaging Films and Video Keepsakes of Beverly Hills in Los Angeles will shoot video and take stills, but use only one piece of technology.

For years, many pro photographers have “given away” the videography business. Brides wanted albums first, and videos second. But with the new generation of cameras, this no longer has to apply. With a push of a button, you can be both a photographer and a videographer - or as the article describes - a visual professional.

If you aren’t taking advantage of this technology, someone else in your market will soon be. Look for visual professionals who promise to take care of every aspect of recording an event: from portraits to albums to videos combined with still photography.

You can shoot your own video or hire a videographer. But if you choose to ignore this trend, I believe you’re going to see it effect your wedding photography sales.

Are you already shooting video or working with a videographer? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts on the subject.