Jay Kinghorn, RGB Imaging, guests blogs.

Editor’s note: today’s post is from guest blogger Jay Kinghorn, RGB Imaging. Kinghorn will present a two-hour seminar at PIEA 2010 on specific ways to make workflow run smoother.

For almost 200 years, photographers have produced great images by blending a keen eye, creativity and technology. As much as we’d like to believe that great photography lies in the hands of the artist, we must acknowledge that the success of a photo also relies on that artists’ ability to be a technician, with deep knowledge of their camera and lenses and the workings of their digital darkroom. After all, a great image is only great if it’s output in a format (on a screen or in print) that displays its true beauty.

In judging the 2010 Photo Imaging Education Association’s student photo contest just a month ago, I marveled at the entries, obviously produced with creativity, vision and technical sophistication. When vision is paired with technique and technology the alchemy of these three ingredients produces compelling results.

Today’s cameras and computer programs, and new mediums in which to display our work, provide us with extraordinary opportunities to tell stories visually. Consequently, building an efficient, effective and safe digital workflow is a challenge. However, it is a manageable one if you find accurate, up-to-date information on photography workflow.

ASMP’s dpBestflow project, funded by the US Library of Congress, is a key resource you can use to answer your digital workflow questions. The culmination of three years of research and development, the dpBestflow project is a comprehensive look at what works in a digital photography workflow.

On Feb 22, as part of the PIEA/PMA conference, I’ll be presenting a two-hour seminar on dpBestflow recommendations and provide specific advice on ways you can make your workflow run smoother, help you find your favorite photos within a large image library and ensure your photos are safely stored for future access.

Taking the time to optimize your workflow today allows you to focus more time on your photography, not technology.

Think Twitter is a waste of time? Many heavy Twitter users turn to the site first for breaking news. Some are even finding special deals.

If you follow @pma2010, you’ll find that you can get a free PMA 2010 trade show badge, insights into the upcoming event, and industry-related news.

Why should you join Twitter?

Well Guy Kawasaki is a big user, and he sat down with PMA Magazine to discuss how businesses can use Twitter:

PMA: Many business owners are skeptical about the value of being on Twitter. What’s your response?

Kawasaki: I can’t say I blame them, because the first time you look at Twitter, you think: “What is this crap? Why do I care if Lonely-Boy15’s cat rolled over?”

That is a very logical, understandable re-sponse indeed. If you don’t have that response, something is wrong with you.

The thing to do is to push beyond that. I think the scales come off your eyes when you start using searches. Let’s say I’m the vice president of marketing for Nikon. I would get on Twitter and immediately start doing dedicated searches for “Nikon,” plus “Canon” and all my other competitors. I would also search for the word “photography.” I would constantly monitor what people are saying about my brand, my competitors, and the general subject of photography.

My goal would be for my “@Nikon” Twitter account to be known as a source of information, not just about Nikon, but also about photography in general. The @Nikon account can be used just to push out coupons, promotions, and similar things – that’s a very legitimate use. If you want to go beyond that, you tweet about photography-related things you find on other websites, such as, “Check out this incredible collection of inauguration pic-tures from the Boston Globe,” and you include the link. Or, “Here is a link to some great portrait tips.” So your tweets are not just about the brand, but also about the utilization of cameras.

What will happen is Nikon will tweet that out to their thousands of followers. Their thousands of followers say: “Wow, this is really useful. I will retweet this to my thousands of followers.” Pretty soon, hundreds of thousands of people will see this thing that originated with a Nikon tweet. Many of those people will begin to follow Nikon, and it just gets better and better. That’s the way to use Twitter.

Guy Kawasaki will show PMA 2010 attendees how to use one of the most powerful tools on the internet, Twitter, to increase sales and customer loyalty at his Official Business Session on Feb. 23 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, Calif.

PMA 2010 Official Business Session Keynote speaker Peter Sheahan, author of the new book, “Flip: How to Turn Everything You Know on Its Head – and Succeed Beyond Your Wildest Imaginings,” will interview a panel of industry leaders on the important issues facing the photo imaging business.

Sheahan recently shared some insights with PMA Magazine on how to “flip” what you know to succeed in the current environment.

PMA: What is the basic idea behind “flipping what you know,” and how can it put businesses on the path to success?

Sheahan: The book is about being willing to consider counterintuitive approaches to your business. I don’t just mean counterintuitive approaches to marketing; I mean going right to the heart of the business model itself, and being willing to question how we make money.

Every business leader needs to ask, “In the next five years, where will we find new economic value?” Not how do we maintain the status quo; but how do we find new opportunities for growth, new opportunities for profitability.

They need to ask this question in two ways: first, from the perspective of finding and extracting value in their existing business models; and second, in terms of exploring new business models. That’s the essence of flip.

PMA: What are the “four forces of change,” and what do business leaders need to do in response?

Sheahan: The “four forces of change”  include:

Compression – It’s the idea we are, ultimately, com-pressing our concepts of how long things should take, the impact our geography should have in our ability to engage in an activity, and the amount of effort we expect to expend to get our results. In other words, we want it faster and easier; and we want it wherever we want, whenever we want. That’s not a new concept. What’s essential to understand in business is the concept of compression – that force of change – is omnipresent. It’s always, always there.

Accountability – you are increasingly being kept accountable by your customers for what you say you can deliver. They have the ability to keep you accountable if you don’t deliver on your promise, if you’re not creating mind-blowing customer experiences. It’s just so easy to logout and go somewhere else.

Transparency – people cannot only keep you more ac-countable, but find it so much easier to discover what else is available to them. This is obviously driven heavily by the web. Many businesses have built their competitive ad-vantage on having access to equipment or knowledge and information that is hard to get. That’s increasingly difficult to do be-cause of the quality of equipment we all have access to now and because of the in-formation explosion.

The fourth, and most obvious, is a satisfied need no longer motivates. In other words, expectations continue to rise. What is good enough today is never good enough tomorrow. If you bring that together with compression, accountability, and transparency – and there are obviously numerous subtrends that sit below that, you now have some understanding as a business leader of how to answer that first question: Where are you going to find new value? That question can’t be answered based on what the world looks like today. You need to answer that based on what you think the world might look tomorrow.

Be sure to attend the PMA 2010 Official Business Session featuring Peter Sheahan on Feb. 21 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, Calif.

What does it mean to be a retail superstar?

PMA 2010 Official Business Session speaker George Whalin, author of “Retail Superstars: Inside the 25 Best Independent Stores in America,” tells the story of 25 stores redefining what independent retailers can do in a highly competitive environment.

Whalin talks with PMA Magazine and shares some insights he gleaned while writing his book.

PMA: What underlying attitudes or practices are consistent among standout independent retailers?

Whalin: The consistent things are not terribly surprising. The people who own and run these stores are the hardest working people I’ve ever met in my life. For example, there is a guy by the name of Jim McIngvale. He’s known in Houston, Texas, as “Mattress Mack.” He owns Gallery Furniture, a hugely successful independent furniture store. They typically do about $150 million a year from a single store. If you go there at 7:30 in the morning, he’ll be there. If you go there at 8:00 at night, he’ll be there. All these retailers work very, very hard.

The other thing consistent among them is a passion for their businesses. Many stores in my book have been around a long time, but the passion of the owners has never faded.

They are also highly responsive to the customer, the community, and to changes in the environment and the economy. Many big companies are just now reacting to the recession; but these stores were able to react to the recession a year and a half ago.

One other thing they have in common – and something that surprised me – is they really don’t pay much attention to the competition. They pay attention to what they are doing internally in their businesses to get better every day.

PMA: What’s one of your favorite stories highlighted in your book?

Whalin: One of my favorite stories is certainly Jungle Jim’s International Market in Fairfield, Ohio. It’s a food store unlike any other. It started out as a fruit stand, and today is a 300,000 square-foot food emporium. The average Wal-Mart Supercenter is 187,000 square feet, so Jungle Jim’s store is 60 percent larger than that.

They sell food from around the world, and they carry the products customers have asked for. They have the most unusual selection you can imagine. They have hogs heads. I didn’t even know people ate hogs heads; but if you go in there today, you’ll find a selection of a dozen hogs heads. They have chicken feet and duck feet. They have 1,200 different varieties of hot sauce.

The owner, Jim Bonaminio – better known as “Jungle Jim” – built a display with an old fire truck, a real one, sitting on top of the hot sauce. There is a real boat in the fish depart-ment. The store is fun. They’re innovative. They don’t do the same things as everybody else.

PMA: What will you discuss at your PMA 2010 session? What do you want attendees to take from it?

Whalin: I am going to talk about how to build a business in this environment, and what to do to be better at it. In many businesses, retail or otherwise, the problems are self-inflicted. They don’t pay attention to the customers. They don’t distinguish themselves from everybody else. They don’t find a way to make their businesses better than the competition.

I’ll discuss how to stand out and how to grow, no matter what the environment is, no matter what the economy is. There are opportunities out there for every single business – no matter what’s going on around you.

Be sure to attend George Whalin’s Official Business Session at PMA 2010. It will be held Feb. 22 at the Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, Calif.

Social media marketing is getting lots of coverage – and with good reason. It’s an affordable way to talk with your clients effectively and authentically.

Want a crash course? PBS recently spoke with experts about how businesses are using social media and what things to consider before making it part of your marketing plan:

See more videos and learn more at 5Across.

At PMA 2010, social media is covered in several sessions. One session you can’t miss is “Social Networking Glue,” a part of the DIMA Brand Boot Camp.

Glenn Omura, Ph.D., looks at what vehicles are being used to connect with photo enthusiasts and loyal customers. He brings industry examples and step-by-step instructions for using social networks to their full potential.

Check out “Social Networking Glue” on Saturday, February 20 at 2:30 p.m.

With social networks, it’s always amazing to see who is connecting to whom.

Mitch Joel, DIMA 2010 keynote speaker, explores this concept in his new book, “Six Pixels of Separation.”

Social networks are creating conversations among consumers in ways previously unseen, and many companies still struggle with how to understand online marketing and take part in these conversations.

In an interview with WatchMojo.com, Joel explains this challenge and offers tips for marketing yourself:

Learn how to take part in these communities and conversations when Mitch Joel delivers the opening keynote address at DIMA 2010 on Friday, February 19 at 5:00 p.m.

Social media sites, such as Twitter, are offering free marketing opportunities to companies.

With endless status updates, tweets, and more, it’s tempting to turn away from the steady stream of information.

Yet, social media can positively impact on your business (if not for you, then for someone else), and it’s shaping how customers communicate.

Guy Kawasaki has embraced social media in several ways. Here are a few tips for getting people to read your tweets, become a Facebook fan, and more:

Guy’s Best Practices

• Always be linking—“inform.”
• Always be responding.
• Always be getting retweeted.

Guy’s Dogmas to Ignore

• You should “me-form.” You can but only if you’re Lance Armstrong.
• You should not repeat tweets. You shouldn’t if they’re boring, and you have only 100 followers. You can if they’re not, and you have thousands of followers.
• You should not automate tweeting with feeds. You shouldn’t if you don’t want to have a life, but you can if you do.
• You should not use ghosts. You don’t need ghosts if you’re omniscient, but more smart people looking for good links is always better.
• You should make everyone happy. If you’re not pissing someone off, you’re not using it right.

Guy shares more ways to use social media and interact with the public in “Building Your Business with Social Media” at PMA 2010 on Tuesday, February 23, at 7:00 a.m.

You can also get PMA 2010 updates on a variety of social media sites:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Flickr
• YouTube

Some businesses rarely give thought to their brand – big mistake.

Yes, you need to focus on making your products and services the best they can be, but you also need to make the best impression with your customers.

The DIMA Brand Boot Camp at PMA 2010 is an intensive brand development program with key tools for creating a strong impression with your customers in a meaningful way.

Before the PMA 2010 trade show floor opens, get solid ideas and key take-home tips with a full day of sessions to help build your brand.

While you wait for PMA 2010, get started on building a relationship with your customers now just in time for the holidays. Let customers think of you when they need to place orders for greeting cards, photo books, and calendars.

PMA launched an agency-produced holiday campaign branding your photo store as the place for photo books, greeting cards, and calendars.

The PMA Marketing Toolkit, including the ready-to-use holiday campaign, is now available from PMA+ services.

Get customers to your store this holiday season, and then attend the DIMA Boot Camp to build your brand in the coming year.

PMA can make your holiday campaign easier; PMA 2010 can make your brand stronger.

Despite the challenges of today’s economy, there is a large segment of consumers who still want high-end goods, and are willing to pay for them.

DIMAcast interviews PMA 09 keynote speaker Michael Silverstein of Boston Consulting Group, author of “Trading Up: Why Consumers Want New Luxury Goods… And How Companies Create Them.”

Silverstein explains the emotional satisfaction consumers feel in paying premium prices for high-end products, and how imaging industry members can tap into that emotional draw.

Get a preview of his keynote in this week’s DIMAcast before he speaks on March 2 at noon, at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nev.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, here’s a look at relationships around the world from National Geographic photographer Jodi Cobb.

Her assignment was to document the various ways in which people and cultures express love and relationships in this photo gallery.

In her Field Notes, Cobb discusses the quirkiness of Las Vegas weddings:

Las Vegas calls itself the Wedding Capital of the World, and I found just about every conceivable permutation of a ceremony there. I photographed one place where an Elvis impersonator drove couples into a building in a pink Cadillac. Once they got inside, Elvis jumped out of the car, performed the ceremony, and sang as the couple danced.

I also saw a guy in a Dracula costume perform a wedding; the bride and groom were dressed in black. Then there were the weddings at the Venetian Hotel, where people got married in a gondola that floated through canals — on the second floor.

But my favorite Vegas wedding was a drive-through. A couple in a red Jeep showed up, and when I asked why they were getting married there, they said it was because half of their wedding party was too ugly for anyplace else. Then they pointed to their dogs sitting in the back seat. They didn’t want to get married without them.

Cobb is this year’s Evening With an Artist, a free event for PMA 09 attendees, scheduled for Tuesday, March 3 at 7:00 p.m. Pre-registration and a ticket is required.

A book signing for Cobb’s book, Geisha: The Life, The Voices, The Art, is scheduled to follow.