deviant art

Deviant Login Shop  Join deviantART for FREE Take the Tour
[x]
more ▶

Featured in Groups:

Details

July 19, 2011
Link
Thumb

Statistics

Comments: 34
Favourites: 1 [who?]

Views: 561 (0 today)
[x]
So there has been a TON of talk lately within the photography community about social networks, photo sharing websites ect... Most of this is coming from the launch of Google+... I'm a member of most of these sites and I figured I'd weigh in here with my thoughts for anyone who's trying to decide what sites to join and are feeling overwhelmed...

This won't require much reading either :)

Facebook - Unbeatable in terms of potential exposure, important to someone like me who is looking to market work to those who AREN'T photographers.

Twitter - Extremely useful marketing tool, and a great source for the most up to date information on pretty much anything.

DeviantArt - First place I ever shared a photograph online and I will always continue posting here. I don't know of any other site where a photo of mine could get 30,000 favs. On most sites, 30,000 views is unthinkable. This is the biggest online art sharing site in the world. Fun place to be.

RedBubble - Good if you want to send people there to buy your work. For me it's useless and clunky and I got bored with it pretty much right away.

500px - The best site out there for sharing and viewing others photos hands down. The bar is set high over there, and the photographers who are using it are a testament to that. Someone finally got it right.

Google+ - Only been on there a few days but so far with the exception of "circles" it seems like a clunkier less intuitive version of Facebook. Photos do look good on there though. Don't think its going to be the Facebook/Twitter killer people are making it out to be. There are a million other photographers on there already so it's great if you like playing the "keep up with all the other photographers" game, but I've never really cared about that. It's still in beta and I haven't used it much so this could be a horribly misleading review! There have been a lot of rumors about googles terms of service being wrong, but in all honesty it's not much different than any other sites TOS.... with that said. I still think google is going to become an evil self aware corporation that will become our leader in just a few short years, so I HEAVILY watermarked all of my photos I posted on there.



Thank you for reading my incredibly in depth reviews of some of the more popular social networking/art sharing sites.
  • Mood: Artistic
Add a Comment:
 
:icondracoflameus:
*DracoFlameus Jul 25, 2011  Hobbyist Digital Artist
Thanks for the review! I didn't even know what half of those sites were until you explained. ^^;
Reply
:iconfoxboyprower:
Interesting reviews. Dully noted.
Reply
:icondabbyl67:
Alright...Seems the general consensus is that Google Plus is not liked...Well here is my opinions on it, some pros and cons:

The cons are as mentioned. It's new, everyone already has a facebook, and it seems like just ANOTHER social networking site. I'll agree to that, it does seem like great, just one more thing to keep up with. But i think Google Plus brings a lot of valuable items to the table that some don't know about or simply have overlooked.

Pros. Have you heard about hangouts? If you have a webcam and a mic (most laptops nowadays automatically come with them) You can talk face to face with people you don't see every day. I have family that lives nowhere near me and i'm pretty excited to use this feature. Also, it's not only one on one - you can face to face chat with multiple people simultaneously!

Circles are a huge pro for a guy like me. I can see how a large name photographer like yourself would find it clunky, as most of your friends are fans. For me, I have different groups of people. Facebook is mostly all or nothing - you post it, EVERYONE sees it. If you have family on your facebook and you want to post a picture of something you're doing with your friends, they see it also. Google gets rid of that in one easy step - circles. You can post to only your friends, or only your family by just selecting circles. Privacy is a lot easier to keep control of. If you do however want to post to all circles, you don't have to individually select every single one - you can select to post to all circles!

I've only had Google Plus for maybe three days so that is only a glimpse of what i find useful so far - and keep in mind that it's still in beta stage. It's also nice that it's integrated with google mail, which is what a lot of people use nowadays. I understand that the main issue here is it being just another social networking site, but for the common person like myself who does not like an all or nothing site like Facebook, I like what Google is bringing to the table. It's new - I would kindly suggest that people give it a chance to at least give it a chance to get out of beta :)
Reply
:iconsmerle:
!SMerle Jul 20, 2011  Professional Photographer
thanks so much for the review. Great to know for sure. :hug:
Reply
:iconpurplehope:
~PurpleHope Jul 20, 2011  Hobbyist Traditional Artist
Thanks for sharing ! :)
Reply
:iconnate-zeman:
~Nate-Zeman Nov 7, 2011  Professional Photographer
thank you!
Reply
:iconpurplehope:
~PurpleHope Dec 9, 2011  Hobbyist Traditional Artist
You're welcome!
Reply
:iconla-vita-a-bella:
*La-Vita-a-Bella Jul 20, 2011  Professional Photographer
Question: do you have separate Facebook accounts for your photography and for your family/friends? Currently I have my Facebook account locked down nice and tight with only family members able to see and I'd like to keep it that way. Then again, I make more money from stock photography than prints so I don't really need to "network" for stock.
Reply
:iconnate-zeman:
~Nate-Zeman Jul 20, 2011  Professional Photographer
yes i have a super duper top secret personal facebook page along with my fan page :)
Reply
:iconla-vita-a-bella:
*La-Vita-a-Bella Jul 21, 2011  Professional Photographer
;) But does your family also watch your professional page? I know mine would make comments and stuff and I'd love to keep it all separate.
BTW, I just joined Google+ - it looks almost identical to FB (IMO).
Reply
Add a Comment: