Senior Rep Cards {Kaye Photo}

The seniors who are senior representatives for KAYE photo here in Clarksville, TN will be handing out these gorgeous little cards to their friends... I can't wait to get these in the mail, I just ordered them tonight!

(I purposely kept the photos small to give you a sense of the actual size)

A picture of the great metal case they come in:

B just rolls his eyes... {KAYE photo marketing}

The following is my husband's *most* favorite part of me owning a business (wink, wink). He thinks I'm a HUGE dork. This may be true... but you can't pass up an opportunity to advertise, right? Ha!



He likes it even better when I stick this on his car. ;-)


PS These were taken on my Droid. Not bad for a camera phone!

June Special! {Clarksville TN Photographer}

Quick reminder: I'm still running my FANTASTIC portrait special until June 30th. If you schedule your portrait session before the end of the month, the session fee is completely on ME! Doesn't get much better than that :-) Prints/files/packages for purchase after the session.

I'm doing this for a super limited time to introduce myself to Clarksville TN... so take advantage of my time and talent. Check out my website to see more of my work and how I take care of each of my photo clients.

906.370.5293 -- kaye@kayephoto.com -- http://www.kayephoto.com

My social experiments.

I think I'm becoming a social media addict. There's just so many different options! I'm really, really putting my nerdiness out on a platter here (don't judge):

I use Google Reader to follow all of my favorite blogs (I'm up to over 40, I think). From there, I can share my favorite blog posts on my Google Profile which links to this blog. On this blog, my Twitter posts are fed into the sidebar. There links to my personal facebook page as well as my business facebook page. Which, by the way, this blog post will be fed directly into.

Follow that? I'm not sure I do either...

-Kaye, the geek

my 2cents on RSS feeds

RSS has gotten a lot of press... it is one of the new tools that is available for managing and enjoying social media; namely, blogs and news stories. I finally decided to try it out, and this was my experience so far:

The gist: through a 3rd party program (I use Google Reader, which I like), all of your blog updates are delivered to one place to be read by you. It looks and works a lot like an e-mail inbox.

Google Reader:

(Reader photo)

Pros: Saves time checking blogs to see if they’ve updated since the last time you checked. If you read a lot of blogs, you save time navigating from blog to blog. You can check news stories as they come in and stay uber-informed. You don’t have to be on your own computer with your bookmarks to check out the blogs/websites… they are all located on the reader.

Cons: Sometimes (depending on the blog), the photos or the whole post don’t show up on the RSS feed. Considering 85% of the blogs I read is for the photos, this is hugely detrimental for me. If I have to click through to see the good part, RSS is creating an EXTRA step for me, not saving time. You lose some of the experience of reading the post in context, on the web page. This is much more minor, but I kind of like the experience of visiting the web page and seeing the logo and links down the side and such. I might just be weird about this! :-)

I've been using the RSS feeds for about a week now… I’ll probably continue to use it for the pros, but I’m not as impressed as I thought I would be. Have you used it? If so, what do you think?

Twitter

You might have noticed the Twitter updates on the right hand side of my blog...

I’m still undecided about Twitter. On one hand, I like the idea – it gives readers an update into your life at the moment, and keeps you connected to your readers on a frequent basis. The way that I use it is pretty much identical to Facebook’s status update (you can even sync the two, but I keep them separate since I have different readers here and on FB).

On the other hand, I don’t think I am getting the full potential out of it. Considering none of my friends use Twitter, I don’t use the “follow” feature. Essentially, if you are following someone (from what I understand, I haven’t tried it yet) you can view their updates online (same as FB, boring) or you can have them sent to your phone as a text message. I could see the latter being much more interesting and entertaining… it would basically be a mass text to the people who want to know what you are up to.

After some more exploring, I found this youTube video that explains Twitter “in plain English.”



Interesting… but too similar to FB to get any real use from me, I think, beyond this blog.

What do you think? Would you use it?

love!

Etsy-liscious

When I first heard about Etsy, I dismissed the idea – I was told it was a bunch of independent artists who put their work on a common website to sell their art/products. To be honest, it sounded a bit hippie dippy and green earthy to me. Don’t get me wrong, I try to do my part to be good to our environment, but wearing hemp clothing and flow-y skirts really isn’t my style.

Boy was I wrong!

I heard about Etsy a few more times, this time through the wedding blogs that I read, and there are some GORGEOUS products available through Etsy that you could never find any where else. There are the hemp clothing and organic products there as well, but the beauty of Etsy is the huge range of the artists’ styles.

Let me show you:

Citizen Fox Jewelry: cool, kitschy, unique jewelry. Almost reminds me of forever21 or Urban Outfitters, except nobody else would have the same necklace as you.

One that I liked, in honor of my B:



girl by Aileen: gorgeous, modern, patterned clutches. Not super cheap (they run from like $25-$45) but not super expensive by any means, considering they are hand made.

This one caught my eye:




Made by Michelle Brusegaard: BEAUTIFUL paper and textile products. I love the colors and graphics that she uses. With all of the e-mail and texting now a days, sending a hand written note is SO special. I need to get better at doing this. Maybe if I buy some beautiful stationary I’ll be inspired! Oh, and she makes scarves too!!

Thank you cards:




Jeneri Jewelry: feminine jewelry…simply gorgeous. This one is more window shopping for me… I haven’t quite justified spending the money for one of her pieces. Not as a poor college student, anyway! But this hasn’t stopped me from drooling over them…

Fresh and feminine necklace:



There are sooooo many more things available on the website. Home décor, paintings, clothing, furniture, journals… etc, etc, etc. The other VERY COOL thing about the website is you can talk to the artists directly and have a custom piece done exactly how you want it. I haven't explored this yet, but I could totally see myself using the website for invitations, custom stationary, or personalized wall decor...

Happy shopping!

love!

Crackberry

It’s not just a phone… it’s a lifestyle.

Seriously.

I have used my phone to: get directions, find a restaurant, check my flight status, check my e-mail, look at Facebook, check my balance in my checking account (that’s never fun), post on my blog, priced a product online, take pictures…

All of that, and I feel like it integrated smoothly into my life. It’s not an addiction – it’s just so darn convenient to be able to look up something wherever I am, whenever I want.

It’s such a sign of the times… I am constantly connected to information and people – I wonder if we actually get things done faster now, or if we are so caught up in technology for the sake of technology?



love!

a few of my favorite online places

No, not my own… If you have some time to kill, check out one (or more) of these FABULOUSLY entertaining blogs:

Jessica Claire - Photographer:
Get ready for some serious eye candy. Omigoodness, her photos are SO beautiful. Gorgeous color, composition, light…. Definitely one of my top 5 favorite photographers.

Seth’s Blog:
A great marketing blog... Great advice and interesting reads.

The Superficial – Because You’re Ugly:
The online equivalent to the trashy celebrity mags like US weekly and OK.

Snippet and Ink – Daily Wedding Inspiration:
I know, I’m a huge sap… but I have a HUGE blog-crush on this one. Gorgeous layouts and color palettes and products for weddings and events… (by the way, there is a great list of other blogs down the left-hand side of the page to lead you to discover more lovely things online!)

A $10,000 Wedding:
Another wedding blog, dedicated to diy and budget wedding ideas, while still being incredibly chic and fabulous. Love.

With this ring:
one LAST wedding blog! I just rediscovered this one... a girl after my design heart. LOVE all of her posts.

Decor8:
Interior design, travel, and other beautiful things.


All of these blogs do SUCH a good job of serving the purpose that they intend to... they are not trying to do everything at once, and it gives them such personality and utility; I visit the different blogs based on what I want to read. Let me know what you think of them!

My Mom is on Facebook

:) Not kidding.

What originally began as a college-only, student oriented, social networking site has evolved into sooo much more.


(Facebook logo)

For those unfamiliar, Facebook is a website where you create a profile, link to your friends and acquaintances profiles, post pictures, broadcast events, goof around, and generally keep up with the lives of your friends.

A lot of talk has been centered on using the new social mediums to advertise – and I think that can be done successfully to a point, but I think Facebook is MOST useful for marketing YOURSELF. Like advertisements, if you keep you profile updated with what you are doing, planning on, photos, etc, you can network more easily with your widest social circle.

My favorite parts of Facebook:

Photos/Albums that people post. Its fun to see what people are up to … a picture is worth a 1,000 words, right?

The status updates. These give you a quick blurb from your friends who are actively using Facebook. You can talk about upcoming plans, express feelings, or simply a witty remark that gets people to notice you and see your name again.


(Status photo)

Relationship status. I am terrible at keeping up with the gossip, so its great to know when someone’s status changes. This gives you a way to congratulate people in a timely manner when they get engaged, avoid the awkward conversation that happens when you didn’t realize a couple broke up, and generally keeps you up to date with your wider social circle.


(Relationship photo)

Personal marketing. One of my favorite photographers, Becker, has mastered the art of mixing business with his personal life. He actively uses Facebook, his blog, and Twitter to market to brides and other photographers. He posts bits of his personal life (like trips and events) so that people get to know him through his online presence and are excited to do business with him. Genius.


(Becker photo)
[b]'s blog: http://beckersblog.com/

There’s a ton of other applications and features you can use to connect with friends through Facebook… what do you use it for? What’s your favorite part about Facebook?


P.S. Not trying to pick on you, Mom! :)