Using Facebook Pages to

Organize your Professional Communications

     Facebook Business Pages can often be a source of non-professional social engagement.  They can also provide a platform to feed one’s personal vanity too.  But, FB Pages can also be used by a business to organize followers with similar interests into segments of their overall professional community of followers.  A business can use these different pages representing these segments of followers to communicate very different and relevant messages to them. 

     This relevant communication will help a professional to increase follower retention and engagement over time.  This can translate into a positive outcome for both your business, and for your followers too.  But, what happens when they are many, conflicting and sometimes incompatible messages to communicate to different segments of your followers.

     My business often to communicates to different geographic segments of the industry.  For instance, I tend to offer events that usually have a regional appeal.  Sometimes, I need send different and specific messages to only a part of my following, usually segmented by differing geographic regions.  I’ve been running my outdoor photography business for 22+ years, and I find that using Facebook pages helps me to organize and communicate my messages clearly throughout the different segments of the outdoor photography community I operate in, which is the landscape and wildlife photography communities.

     After 22+ years I’m still as completely charged up to go to work everyday as I was when I started.  I love getting out to photograph the beautiful outdoor World we live in.  Staying organized in business helps me to find the time to get back to the roots of my inspiration, photography outside, in the field.

My complicated business

     I am truly a “dyed in the wool” outdoor photographer that has a limited amount of time each day, like everybody else I suppose.  I organize and host numerous tours and workshops every year around the World through my outdoor photography business.  But, I’m also the president of the International Landscape Photographers’ Association, ILPA, organizing and hosting their annual landscape and wildlife photography conferences since 2015, The ILPA Summits.  AND, I curate and publish The ILPA Landscape and Wildlife Photography Weekly newsletter.  

     And, there’s one more, or, there’s 34 more things.  I administer 34 regional landscape and wildlife photography facebook groups around the globe.  Sometimes when I step back to take a 30,000 foot aerial view of what I get dizzy trying to make sense of it all.  The key to accomplishing so much efficiently is having a good advisory team to help guide me, and a stringent sense of time management that provides enough clarity for me to say no to new projects with confidence if I simply cannot fit it in my schedule.

And, there’s more on my professional plate…

     To round out my professional obligations, I tirelessly work alongside the ILPA Board of Advisors creating a place to unite outdoor photographers into one collective voice via the International Landscape Photographers’ Association.  This is a difficult task.  Our artistic pursuit, outdoor photography, is often looked upon by practitioners as a peaceful source of zen like solitude that we use to “get away from it all”.  Many outdoor photographers became outdoor photographers to escape “obligations and organizations”. 

     But, the ILPA Board of Advisors believes that sometimes we need to have a collective voice.  We need to let our opinions be known as needed.  The proverbial “shot from the dark” could significantly affect the World that we as outdoor photographers play in.  We need to have an organized voice ready to be voiced in opposition to these unknown obstacles.

     Managing all of these tasks is a balancing act.  But with more than 22 years of professional experience in the industry, along with the guidance from the ILPA Board of Advisors, I believe that we do a good job finding the balance.  I believe that we’ve created an important organization ready to represent outdoor photographers, as needed.   

Hummm, overall that’s a lot of different hats to wear. 

     But, that’s my job.  And, Facebook Pages, and Facebook Groups, helps the ILPA Board and I to organize our professional priorities into a manageable cohesive unit.  In the framework that we’ve built each arm of “Brian Merry Photography” business operations, along with the ILPA professional obligations, can be managed effectively.  Let me explain.

The majority of facebook pages can be lumped into two broad categories:

     1/  Personal or part time business pages

     2/  Full time professional small business and organizational pages

How I use Facebook Pages to manage my Professional obligations, ie:  My secret to success:

     I’ve found that all of the professional initiatives that I participate in require me to have three different FB pages.  Each page also has one or more groups associated with it.  These groups help organize, represent and to communicate effectively with the different page followers:

     1/  My photography business page, Brian Merry Photography, is for my personal business activities.  I use it to engage with photographers like you to provide inspiration.  I also use this page to promote my workshops, tours and other community building initiatives. 

     2/  A page for the International landscape Photographer’ Association for the overall operations and communications from ILPA.  Professional Photographer members of ILPA and ILPA Industry Partners may sometimes have their events promoted on this page as well.  

     3/  A Conference page to represent the conference that ILPA produces, The ILPA Summit.  This page, along with the website, is the principle source of information about upcoming ILPA Summits.

But, what does this all mean for you?

     The summary above is the way that I use facebook pages to organize different aspects of my professional life.  I know that the organizational processes that I outline here are specific to my professional obligations.  They include my responsibilities to my outdoor photography business and the obligations I have administering the International landscape Photographers’ Association.  However, I do believe that by using the framework of Facebook Pages and Facebook groups that I’ve built I can effectively manage all of my professional obligations.  I hope that the organizational structure I use through facebook provides some insight into how you can use Facebook to organize your own personal and/or professional obligations too.