Pressgram is on the scene and if you do not know what it is or why your church should use it, play catch up first. Now, a lot has been said about what Pressgram can do, but as a blogger, I still was not sold with it. I can think of five reasons I do not want to use it.
- I do not want to spam my viewers with posts on my homepage that they do not care about.
- It does not fit my blogging strategy and so I do not want it in my RSS feed.
- I’m already doing this on my social media accounts
- Photo privacy is fine, but I’m not in the business of photography, so that does not apply.
- How does this even help me?
Great points, right? Then I read this blog post by Dustin Stout on why every blogger should use Pressgram and my wheels started turning. After much internal debate, I actually was able to realize why a blogger should use it (apart from what Dustin wrote) and answer the five questions asked above.
1. You Won’t Spam Viewers
Uploading the Pressgram WordPress plugin solves the spam issue for your blogging homepage. Upload as many images you want to your blog via the iOS app (Android users, it may be coming?) because with this plugin and using the right category, these posts will never show up on your homepage.
2. RSS Can Be Spam-Free Too
What the Pressgram WordPress plugin does not do is stop the article from going into your RSS feed and I do not want to spam that either. The easy work around is to make sure your Pressgram category is only used for your Pressgram photos and then include the following code into your functions.php file on your WordPress platform:
function filterPressgramFromRSS($query) {
if ($query->is_feed) {
$query->set('cat','-999');
}
return $query;
}
add_filter(‘pre_get_posts’,’filterPressgramFromRSS’);
Make sure you change ‘999’ to the category_id variable of the Pressgram category you want to exclude.
3. Your Basecamp Should Be Your Blog
Michael Hyatt in his book Platform says that social media should never be your basecamp as you do not control the platform. Instead, make a website or blog your basecamp and go from their. With Pressgram, the photos are shared on social media like I want, but pushes for a community on my blog.
4. Photo Rights Apply To Everyone
No one is probably ever going to repost my image on their website, but photo rights should still be fought for no matter if they directly apply or not. I support Creative Commons and proper use of media and hope that my tiny little contribution, it helps.
5. Go For Community First
Photography for blogs is all about building community and we want to see that tribe grow. As you push this, push it to your blog with Pressgram instead of social media that is only part of your brand. Making your tribe meet at your blog is actually healthy for the whole community instead of your Twitter followers, your Facebook friends, or your Google+ fans.
In the end, I love Pressgram and ChurchMag is hoping to see this become a great personal approach to blogging.
Are you on Pressgram?
Wes Molebash says
I’m using Pressgram to add value to my website.
I’ve created a section on my blog that I call “The Studio”, and I promote it as a behind-the-scenes look at the making of my comic strip. Pressgram not only allows me to upload pictures to my site quickly and easily, but (as you noted above) it allows me to use a special category so these pictures don’t clutter my home page. Not everybody wants to see the inner workings of my creative process, but a handful of people REALLY do. Pressgram allows me to cater to these folks easily.
You can check it out here: http://www.insertimg.com/category/studio
Jeremy Smith says
Thanks for sharing.