Things I Learned When I Went Viral 4 Times in 6 Months
Its been a crazy 9 months for my business! I went full time 9 months ago and went Viral not once, not twice, but three times in 5 months! And then, after writing this blog, I went viral AGAIN!
First were my Hurricane Newborn Photos that I just hoped would bring some hope and positivity to those from my area who weren't sure if they had homes to come back to after evacuating Hurricane Matthew. Everything coming out of our area was bad news and I wanted to prove that there was as a silver lining on even the darkest of storm clouds. I'm one of those annoying people who sees beauty in everything and every situation. Including hurricanes and fallen oak trees. I also wanted to do something special for those moms who had to endure the stress of evacuating while 9 months pregnant and giving birth while displaced.
Next, a regular Monday morning shooting Fresh 48 Sessions became a whirlwind when babies named Romeo and Juliet were born just hours apart to different parents and I thought it would be cute to photograph them together. I just thought that my hospital's marketing director might like to post it on the Hospital's Facebook page and I thought that MAYBE the local news station might mention it if it was a slow news day. I actually missed it being aired on the local news because it had already gone viral and every electronic device I owned was blowing up.
Once that began to die down and my poor phone battery finally caught a break, I did a Romeo and Juliet themed session for those sweet little star crossed babies after our Inside Edition Live Interview and those images went viral starting the roller coaster ALL OVER AGAIN! (My phone still hasn't recuperated.)
Then a few months later, I decided to celebrate the little miracles that resulted from Hurricane Matthew with a Maternity shoot for 8 women who conceived while evacuated from the storm. See, every storm does have a silver lining.
During all four of those experiences, I learned a thing or two about riding the viral wave without drowning (while also getting the most out of it) and it was such an exhausting experience so I am writing them all down for next time before I forget and I thought I might as well share them with Y'all! If you see someone starting to go viral send them this blog so they can get the most out of the adventure they are about to go on.
1. BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE: Put these images ON YOUR WEBSITE! If they are on your website first, you will get a boost in SEO. If not, and you put them on your website later, your SEO will take a hit.
2. CHARGE YOUR PHONE - No for real. This one is important. Charge it and keep it charged. Trust me. You will thank me for this one later. This goes for your laptop too!
3. It may already be too late for this but instead of posting directly to your page, CREATE AN ALBUM. This way you can add photos to the original post later if you need to! If you do a regular post, you are more limited in your capability to edit it later. (I forgot this one the second time around!)
4. Create a canned email of your licensing terms in your email and facebook.
You are about to get 1,409,8442,760,174 emails and facebook messages all asking to use your photos. And twice as many will just take and post without your permission but that's a whole 'nother issue and we will get to that later. Save your sanity (and the feeling in your fingers) and type up a pre-written email that you can send with one click. Also, wake up early and check your emails and messages. A lot of producers email late at night and need an answer before they broadcast first thing in the morning.
5. Don't be afraid to set strict Terms of Use. These are YOUR IMAGES and you decide how they get used.
Here is what I sent to all the early photo requests: (Feel free to copy this)
On behalf of all photographers, Thank you for respecting my copyright and asking for permission.
You have my permission to use the photos with the following guidelines:
DO NOT alter the images or crop or remove watermarks.
When posting online, please use the watermarked web-sized files rather than downloading from Facebook and reuploading as this destroys the quality of the photo.
When using in print or broadcast, please use the High Resolution watermarked images.
Unwatermarked images can be purchased for PRINT OR BROADCAST USE ONLY. Please inquire to purchase unwatermarked images.
Cassie Clayshulte Photography must be mentioned in any posts and in the story or article. My facebook and instagram pages must be tagged on social media. (Links) My website must be linked when posted on any websites. www.CassieClayshultePhotography.com
This license may not be extended with any third party without written permission. These images cannot be sold.
Please send me a link to any posts and I will share them with my followers!
Thank you for sharing and have an amazing day!
Download link: <Gallery Link>
Hard copies of print items can be mailed to:
Cassie Clayshulte Photography
123 My Address
Viral, USA 12345
6. Set up a download gallery (Like Shoot Proof) for the media to easily retrieve your images for three reasons. One: This will cut down on the number of times your Facebook photos are downloaded and reuploaded and degraded. Two: This will SAVE YOU SO MUCH TIME! Emailing the photos to 1 bajillion media outlets is going to drive you nuts! Three: This was you will be able to keep track of who downloads them and when. Make sure your terms are also in this gallery along with the following clause: Downloading of these images serves as full knowledge and acceptance of the following terms.
7. Many outlets will want to make a video slide show of your images. Make one yourself as soon as you start posting. Youtube will count the compiled views and may even pay you for advertising!
8. FORMALLY COPYRIGHT YOUR IMAGES - This article will help you with that: https://petapixel.com/2015/08/05/how-to-officially-register-your-photographs-with-the-us-copyright-office/
9. DO NOT Give away ANY unwatermarked images for Web use because they WILL GET STOLEN. IF they want to use your images, they will agree to your terms. I did an interview with a large TV show and they tried bullying me into handing over unwatermarked images and even threatened to pull our interview minutes before our interview after re-arranging my schedule to accommodate them. I told them that they could not have them and pretty much told them where they could shove my watermarked images and suddenly the watermarked images were fine after she told me they legally could not use my watermarked images on air.... Funny how that works. I played a lot of hard ball and won. You are in control of your images until you give them away. If they want them, they will use your terms.
10. Don't be afraid to charge for your images. After a certain point, it's not going to matter if your images go "More" Viral.... At some point you will lose track on how many outlets have shared it and how many people have shared it viewed it, and commented on it. After 18 strait days of viral star crossed mayhem, I stopped letting people use my photos for free thanks to the advice from a local media producer. Small beans media outlets like your local news may not have much of a budget for photography but BIG outlets absolutely do! But they aren't going to tell you that up front. That didn't stop people from stealing them and some people weren't willing to pay, but I did end up with some extra money in my bank account. (Remember you are a business and not a charity) A few amazing companies who paid me include Guideposts, Republican, and Women's Day Magazine! When you are ready to start charging for image licenses, set up a special price sheet in shoot proof or pixieset and just apply your prices to them. Make sure to set up a new canned email with an invoice link to pay too! *Note: For most large broadcast companies, the producer/journalist who is contacting you will have to send your invoice to the corporate billing department for payment. In a lot of cases, I was paid months later. Some I had to chase down. But late payment is better than no payment in this case.
11. Once you are ready to start charging, don't let anyone pay you in "exposure." Chances are you a local photography business. So your photos being "exposed" to a million people in China isn't going to bring you any more business in your tiny town in South Caroina. In fact going viral is more hurtful to your business than anything. My target market is local pregnant women not randoms who live in another hemisphere.....Chances are it's going to screw up your SEO (Unless you follow Tip #1) and it's going to DESTROY the local reach on your Facebook page (But tip #15 may help). People are also going to assume you are busy and not book with you. True story. I have heard it a million times from people who didn't book with me for that reason.... meanwhile the month following the Star Crossed Babies madness was my slowest month since going full time.
12. Give your local media outlets special treatment (if you want to). This is the exposure that counts! It still doesn't put food on the table but it does get your name out there to your local market. Just make sure they stick to your terms. And use the opportunity to network with local media outlets!
13. Let your clients know to direct any inquiries to YOU and remind them that they cannot grant permission to use the photos to anyone. It's also important to make sure they don't upload any unwatermarked photos for a while. Several outlets tried to get free permission from my clients after being told no by me.
14. News outlets may want quotes from your clients. Do NOT give out their contact info. Instead help them get in touch with outlets who want a quote from them. Especially if your viral photos are from a Newborn Session. Protect your clients and their precious, sleep deprived time with their newborns.
15. Once the viral wave has died down, you will notice the local reach on your facebook page has gone to crap. Do a give away, contest, or something similar to get locals interacting with your page again! Just make sure to follow Facebooks contest rules.
16. DON'T READ THE COMMENTS. ....Unless your skin is niiiiiiiice and thick. Trolls of the interwebs can find something to bitch about no matter what the subject matter. With Romeo and Juliet, I got anti-suicide (Although who isn't anti-suicide?) protesters claiming I was glorifying suicide, people claiming I was exploiting my clients (not true, I had actually spent 100% of my time protecting them from trolls and vulturous producers) people who thought that my photos of cute babies were a great place to post their political bullshit, and best of all idiots accusing me of violating "HIPPA". I'm pretty sure they all meant HIPAA and since they had no idea what they were talking about made it pretty easy to take them down. (Note no HIPAA violations occurred) With my Hurricane Maternity Shoot, people were posting crass assumptions that these women were sluts which was heartbreaking as many of these women had dealt with infertility. It seems like a lot of uneducated people assumed that Hurricanes were more like tornadoes that pop up out of no where instead of storms that give us a week or so of notice and these women were out doing dirty things with random strangers in their front yard during the storm instead of hanging out board in a hotel room with their husband for a week. Make sure to patrol you own page (and maybe enlist someone to make an admin who can help) but beware when reading the comments on the big pages.
17. Last but not least, going viral does not make you famous. Most people remember that babies named Romeo and Juliet were born and broke the internet harder than Kim Kardashian's butt and that some photographer put some babies in buckets after a storm, but most people either don't live within 10,000 miles of you or don't even remember that photographer's name. It honestly can hurt your business more than it helps it. The month after breaking the internet was my slowest month to date since going full time and I'm still working to get my local reach back to where it used to be but it is worth it to share your work with the world.
-The Professional Baby Holder
(Cassie Clayshulte)
