About this time last week, I was launching my newest website, Maui by Photo. It’s sort of a photo blog that is aimed at other Maui fans and local residents alike to relive all their favorite memories of the Valley Isle and share them with everyone, using my photos as inspiration. I’ve already posted comments about the new site on my Maui blog and my photography blog, so I’m not going to re-type all that here as well. Eventually it will get added to the home page and my site portfolio here as well, but only when I’m not as super busy as I am right now (more on that some other time).
The blog here is supposed to be the stuff behind the scenes, and there are certainly a few things I’m doing differently with this new site that have me really excited. I’ll list a few below (call them teasers) and hope to dive into them each in more detail as the summer progresses.
Bye, Bye, Blogger
Okay, so that might sound a bit harsh, considering I have 5 blogs hosted at Blogger, but this new guy is running WordPress, installed on my server. I can’t tell you what a relief it is to have all the source, database, and everything else at my disposal and not having to deal with FTP issues between my web hosts and Blogger. I’m really excited with what I’ve seen of WP so far, and the fact that there is a ton of stuff out there that I haven’t even scratched the surface of yet. Stay tuned here, because this is one of those big shifts that rejuvenates some of my older sites and makes them new again.
Twitter x2
With some of my recent work outside of my normal routine, I fell out of the Twitterverse for awhile. Now I’m back online regularly, and also am sporting a new Twitter account to promote my new site, @MauiByPhoto. This has given me new options and responsibilities in terms of managing multiple accounts (via TweetDeck) as well as starting from scratch and organically growing a follower base just like I did with @webnelly did 2 years go. Except this time, I don’t want to take 2 yrs to get 200 followers, and I get to be more open and engaging as a “brand” instead of my shy ol’ self. 😉
Now on Facebook
To compliment the new Twitter account, I’ve also creating the Maui by Photo page on Facebook, which was a first for me as well. Not only does this give yet another vehicle to promote my site, it presents new challenges and experience in the world of social marketing. It’s also giving me the chance to connect to new faces that I otherwise would not have found on Twitter, so another big plus there.
Unlike Twitter, however, I’m still new at the networking side of Facebook. My Twitter skills have had 2 years to mature, so it’s going to be awhile (although I wish it wasn’t) before my page’s fan count gets into the triple digits. Of course, if you’re reading this, maybe you’d like to have a look and maybe join, too.
Still More
Those are the teasers, but the entire process of launching the new site and treating it as a ‘brand’ really has my creative juices flowing. I have some big plans for this brand over the remainder of the year, and it will be a challenge to balance this with everything else I have started and have been working on. But then again, I never really have backed down from a challenge before.
Stay tuned for more details to come, and in the meantime visit the site, follow me on Twitter, @MauiByPhoto, and pay a visit to my page on Facebook.
Mahalo,
– Kris
