Interview with Diane Wallace, Snapfactory
By Steven MacDonald, Founder of Practical Social Media
If you are looking for inspiration in the world of social media for business, then look no further. Diane’s story is amazing, not only for the success it created with her photography studio, but also for the way she approaches social media.
Being that Diane is involved in the highly creative world of studio photography, you wouldn’t guess that her success comes from a very traditional, business-standard approach. It all started to make sense a little later in our interview when I learned that she has a degree in marketing. I should have guessed when she started our interview out by saying, “Even Shakespeare wrote for money”. Diane’s balance of creativity and business savvy is as eloquently balanced in her photography studio as it is in her social media efforts.
Diane talked about her social media efforts not in terms of all of her activities, but with complete focus on building a foundation by clearly defining her target audience. She also pointed out that she is always representing her brand and thus needs to consistently add value mixed in with a splash of her own personality.
She stressed creating personal connections since people want to do business with other people, not companies. Social media is clearly a business activity that she is passionate about because through her efforts, she is sharing her passion with others. She did make sure to stop and pause in the middle of the interview to say, “If there’s no ROI, then it’s a waste of my time, unless it’s purely social”.
So how does Diane use social media? First, we have to understand her objectives. She wants to sell more of her instructional courses on studio lighting. And she wants to broaden her pool of prospects beyond the greater Phoenix area. So she takes key elements of her studio lighting instruction courses and puts them online with YouTube. She has also defined a very niche market (studio lighting), and thus her keyword use and optimization within activities like her video submittals and blog are working really hard for her.
The videos become very viral within her targeted niche, getting picked up frequently and placed on other industry websites and blogs. This type of exposure got her company into some interesting opportunities, such as being interviewed for a podcast heard by over 40,000.
However, the best opportunity came when the marketing department for the manufacturer of most of her high-end equipment noticed her online videos. After seeing what a great job her company was doing within the videos, and knowing that they, the manufacturer, were behind the social media times, they approached Snapfactory with partnership opportunities. The next thing you know, Diane’s company is being featured in the manufacturers newsletter in front of 88,000 highly qualified prospects for her instructional courses, right next to a feature on Annie Liebovitz. Not bad for a local photography studio!
They now receive emails, tweets, and phone calls from around the world, and people are flying into town to take her classes. Her company is also taking the next step towards the goal of being more than a regional player, and is hosting their first instructional classes in New York City in May.
Diane says that the social media benefits to her company, beyond new clients, are tremendous:
- They help us fine tune our classes based on feedback from the videos
- We have a better understanding of the experience level of our audience
- This in turn ensures that we are teaching the right subject matter
- And it’s the best marketing research that I can imagine
- We are so much more efficient
But there is more to this story. Diane and her husband spend quite a bit of time crafting their videos (since studio lighting is their business) to make sure that they look polished and professional. Diane says, “The videos absolutely represent the quality of our instruction.” And they never worry about how much information they are giving away.
Her philosophy is to expect more when you actually make an honest investment first yourself. That is how she sees all that she and her husband do in social media. The investment doesn’t have to be money, it can be your time as well. And she is quick to point out that not every medium online is going to work for every business. She tends to make really great use of video based on the fact that their photography business is very visually oriented.
