What Happens When Social Media Goes Down

Do you rely on social media platforms only for your business?

Yesterday was a day for many to take a break from social media. Unless you have a Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn or whatever else you use to communicate.

I get messages via FB Messenger and I have explained time and time again to please use my website contact page instead.

Many have used built in Messenger services for a long time now, not realizing that for us business owners, emails offer us a better archive and timeline of communication between us and our clients. And for my many clients who have my cellphone number, using that to call or text me is another more reliable way to get in touch as well.

Sure it’s easier to just click Share and choosing to use Messengers or tagging. But if yesterday was any indication of what could happen again….well there’s your answer.

Which brings me to this: if you’re a business who uses Facebook or Instagram as your only way of getting the word out about your business, may this be a lesson to you.

For years, I’ve said over and over to not rely on these social media platforms but instead use a dedicated website. Social media platforms are just one of the many tools to show the world what you do and offer. Many people do not have a Facebook or Instagram account. Therefore if that’s the only thing you use, then they cannot access your information or anything that you may be offering. I see this all the time still!

Before the pandemic, I attended networking events, and have been a guest speaker regarding the importance of good quality branding photos and having a dedicated website for businesses. I think the time has come to do a live video of this presentation.

Yes I’m a little awkward here, I’m working on my video presence LOL!

Testing, Testing, 1,2,3, DIY LED Lights

So I’m always looking to expand and find new and different ways to photograph my clients other than the standard headshot on a white or grey background with a strobe set up. I’ve been wanting a Kino Flo set up a few years, but, hey. Those things are uber expensive, but I understand why. They’ve been used by the tv and film industry for a long time, I know because my husband is an editor, and also he’s uber handy. Did I use the word uber again?

Okay, so Kino Flo is actually a company based in Burbank, CA, which is close to where we used to live and they started around 1987. They’re main lighting are fluorescent tube lighting that don’t flicker because of a high-frequency ballast tubes, and which contained a number of special phosphors designed to eliminate tints in the magenta-green spectrum which are present in most domestic fluorescent lights. So basically they are daylight balanced lights that are lightweight, and easy to carry around that are perfectly suited for filming. If you go on a tv set, you’ll see them hanging.

Now, LED lighting is all over the place, they last longer, and aren’t made of glass. So, David, the handy guy I married, made one panel of LED “Kino Flo” lights that have a high-frequency ballast type of system. I don’t know too much of all the work he did with it, or the technical details,  but he and I are pretty happy with the results we got. We still need to tweak the system a little, but here are some test shots:

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