Today’s post is by Guest Blogger – Michael Shilling (because I have no idea about Google Wave and Michael knows a lot) – Enjoy
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It may be still in beta and there are defiantly a few bugs which need to be worked out but Google Wave is a wonderful tool to have at your disposal.
It does seem a little easier to use if you’re using Google Chrome (unsurprisingly)especially if you want to add photos to your Waves. In time there will of course be lots more improvements and extensions. Already you have realtime video conferencing and many other collaboration tools such as maps and easy file sharing.
To get an idea of how big Google Wave is already consider this. In September 2009 sent out 100,000 preview invites, each of the invitees have 8 invites and so on.
But how can the photographer use Google Wave to improve their business? There are three areas I’m going to look at.
Connecting with clients
FACT: Some of your current or future clients are using Google Wave right now.
Every client is different and likes to connect in different ways. By increasing the ways in which a client can connect with you then quite simply you’re increasing your potential client base.
I use Facebook but that doesn’t mean I’m only conversing with clients there. If they don’t use a type of social media then I’m not going to force it on them. If however, a client asks “are you on Wave yet?” the last thing I want to say no!
It’s a bit like asking for someone’s web address, today every photography business has a website but 10 years ago that percentage was much smaller.
Click to enlarge
Personally I really like Google Buzz for client previews but Wave certainly has the potential for viral marketing. Even if a wave begins as a private message your clients can add who they like into the Wave. That my friends is not only data collection but free advertising.
Today’s internet culture is built around instant and real time results and Wave is about as real time as it gets!
Think about what you do when you meet with a prospective client.
If meeting in person is not possible then imagine being able to still be able to talk to them face to face whilst showing them your latest work, share maps to possible shoot locations, transfer contracts, share contacts and even include them in the conversation……..exciting isn’t it?
Collaborative projects or businesses
By it’s very nature Google Wave is built for collaboration. Chances are that as a photographer you work on your own but there’s certainly projects that I’ve worked on where people are not CC’d or emails are lost.
Collaborative projects often start small and grow. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could catch up on past meeting notes or emails if they were all in the same place?
For my own business I have 2 other business partners so conference calls and meetings are extremely frequent. Ideas are constantly thrown round and sometimes forgotten. I’ve certainly found have different Waves for ‘ideas’ or ‘enquires’ extremely useful.
For the studio owner it’s a great way to communicate with your staff and to keep tabs what’s happening and what needs to be dealt with. In the past I’ve got staff to write an end of day email (which was much better than leaving a post-it on the desk). Having a set of waves dealing with the day to day running of the studio could easily replace this and be much more effective.
Social networking
It is possible to make your Waves public and searchable. To do this add public@a.gwave.com to your contacts and to each Wave you want to make public.
To search public Wave type in with:public then what whatever subject you want into the search box.
You can post polls or just join in a conversation.
It’s a great way to create your very own mini forum as you have all the features (and more) that you’d want including private messaging, photo sharing and easy link sharing.
How effective a social marketing tool this will be only time will tell. I think there is a good chance that a lot of the ‘good’ information will be lost in the ‘noise’.
There’s also the worry that by publicly posting Waves you’ll be inundated with spam. It’ll be interesting to see how Google deals with this.
To summarize, Google Wave is like any other new media. If you’re not riding the wave then the boat will sail without you.
If you’d like to join the adventure with me then you’ll find me at photocreative365@googlewave.com
Michael
Part of the Google Wave trials before the beta version was circulated more prolifically was to look at suitable spell and grammar checkers and dyslexia friendly ways of completing documents. They have done their homework and their claim that they’re still fine tuning it, probably means that many of the gremlins will be short term hopefully (whatever they are). The opportunity to have several people editing the same document like a Wiki is of great interest to me with the many other things I do in addition to the photography. I learnt of Wave from Michael Shilling, the rising star of UK photography.
As a hard core dyslexic I do like these sort of features. Kinda glad you can turn the see as you type thing off though.
I’m going to be on Wave all day tomorrow Tim so I’ll see you there???