Social Media Week Rotterdam 2014

This week it's Social Media Week in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. I offered to tutor my Mindfulness with Photography Workshop, so I did yesterday and will do tomorrow again. It was a lot of fun!

The key word for social media now seems te be 'ambassador', as this is what your clients / fans / reposters / likers are.

Isabel Mosk of Think! spoke about destination marketing and how to use your (city) ambassadors, have them create stories. Storytelling was another key word of the #smw14 

To look at someone's travel pics makes you want to go to that destination, did you know the most stories on Facebook are about travel (stories) and that people admit when seeing a friend's holiday pictures it inspires them to go to that destination.

The Destination Experience - like Bristol's taxis were hospitality trained and now also function as tourist info points.

When she showed the video Canada explored by Canadians I immediately thought that even though residents (amateurs) created all footage, you really need a team editing those shots into one flashing, cool video. Professional image makers know how to.

Remarkable stories are shared. Make sharing accessible - cities who provide free wifi have more online (free) content - I immediately had to think of my own city Breda. A few years ago there was a city marketing campaign, but now not so much. Breda Next only just started ('city making') and I thought why not think of a good # for Breda and free wifi will do the rest.

We are the city of image culture, and I learned at MOTI image culture is all around us. Breda should be remarkable. Rovaniemi, Lapland - home of Santa -  does a really good job! Use passionate niches.

Two of my photos on the wall

Michele Boccamazzo talked about Philips' Instagram campain: 

people who follow you want to know about your experience. Again: storytelling. 

Q: How can Philips design an experience on Instagram? As a start they just reposted content, not creating new content. Then the #led story of a lady going to work in city was introduced - as street lights change the city - from yellow to white. People started a conversation online when noticing the difference.

Latest campaign #lightislife is slightly different, Philips took the concept light as start - Philips being the light company - but also without light there is no photography and 'light is also hope'. Philips wants to inspire people in another way instead of selling the product. Inspiration by storytelling but not only by photographs. 

Influencers are not photographers, it's not just about pictures.

Now I ask myself: What do we need to be then? We ARE image makers, making image culture. But: 

A photo says more than a 1000 words. We must never forget - as #beeldinflatie (image inflation) is here now.

How do you to choose the right content?? By hiring an image maker as advisor, not so much as content creator, more like an editor!