Jason and Tim welcome on to the show today, the one and only Dave Stephenson to talk a bit about networking. Click the link to read the rest of the article and access the show links.
We can’t say enough about how important being part of a photo booth community is. You can always find us hanging around Dave Stephenson’s face book group The Photo Booth Network. We’re often guilty of playing the wallflower, but we’re still there learning everything we can. At 4,500 strong, this is certainly the largest group out there.
Having trouble with you software or any other product? Chances are there’s a specific group out there designed solely to offer support for your specific product. Customer service is great, but what if it’s in the middle of the night and you’re at an event? Or maybe you don’t want to bother support for the 10th time for some little issue you’re having and would rather just bounce the problem off the head of a few peers? My personal favorite is the Facebook group for Darkroom Booth users.
How about clearing out all that junk you’ve been accumulating as you’ve been experimenting with different products? If you’re anything like me you have at least a couple iPad display stands sitting around the shop not being used. The easiest place to sell them is within the community and there’s a place to do it! Head over to the Photo Booth Classifieds Group. While we’re on the subject of buying and selling, The Photo Booth Marketplace group is a great place to keep an eye out for vendors offering new items and promotions. If there’s a sale, it’ll be posted in this group.
Finally, although Facebook groups excel at reaching a huge number of people and you can’t deny how convenient they are, the true forum format can’t me ignored. If you want something clean, organized, easily searchable and away gets you away from Facebook, our favorite hangout spot is PhotoBoothOwners.com. This was actually the very first forum we joined when we were considering getting into the business. This is where we searched our answers and chose our booth, software and everything else we had in our original launch. Another great place to find a welcoming community and channel for support is Photo Booth Talk (not to mention some pretty amazing prices on custom flash drives).
We have a ton more forums and groups listed in our communities page, so check it out.
We’ve been asked a few times already why we don’t have a forum on our site if we love them so much, the answer is two part.
1. Why reinvent the wheel? This is already being done and we don’t think we can do it better.
2. Forums take a TON of work. Seriously, a ton. Each group typically has a team of moderators keeping things running smooth from the back end. Kicking out trouble makers, screening new comers and watching for SPAM is the short description of a very large task. Next time you visit your favorite forum or group, make sure to let the moderators know you appreciate what they’ve provided for you, I know from experience, thankless work can be way more draining than otherwise.
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