TRReichman wrote:
Suffice it to say that every photographer I know got this. Nevertheless, if it is a benefit to me and makes my clients feel justified in hiring me or referring me I'm going to post it. I'm not too concerned about whether or not other photographers judge me, photographers don't pay my bills or derive joy from my work.
Make no mistake, internally to our industry it might be a joke, but if someone else finds meaning from it far be it from me to deny them that.
Why is it so hard to believe that we know most of the top 5% of togs in our region?
As an example, Philly has 526 togs listed on wedding wire that means 26 of them got awards to be in the top 5%. There are probably only 10 or so Philly togs that would be confident or motivated enough to post here, I'd guess all of them got awards. If wedding wire sorts out the top 26, based on vendors with 5 star ratings or higher with an average of 5 stars and a couple other factors, what's wrong with it? I can tell you for sure that in my region (central PA with about 250 togs) there would be 13 people to get awards and seeing the few who have got them seems about right to me.
Is FM more picky than wedding wire? yes. Rather than 26, we'd probably choose 3, which would be the top .05%. Does that mean Wedding Wire awards are a marketing ploy conspiracy? no.
I think a lot of us on FM are hard on ourselves and comparing ourselves to the super amazing togs. In the reality of wedding photography, there are a lot of really bad and unmotivated photographers out there-- they start their wedding wire account and don't even finish it. There are tons of togs on there without a single review or photo up on their site, more without any info filled out at all. Because there is no certification, insurance requirement, competency test, etc all you really need is to think you are a wedding tog and you are. I think the WW awards while not perfect do a decent job of separating the motivated togs who get excellent reviews from their clients from the rest.
I'm glad to see this post on FM, as I think it's a better place to talk about it without other people's friends, family, and clients seeing it.
For those of you surprised by your lack of WW award:
1. Check your spam
2. Contact them and make sure you didn't get one but had it caught by your email filters (you'd need to make sure you have 5 reviews or more and an average review of 5 stars)
@littleme, you would croak if you saw the people in my area that got that "award".
It's easy to get some buddies to write a review and give stars to make sure you can a little badge to put on your website. Personally, I wouldn't want an award that gave so little thought and qualification to it's recipients.
TRReichman wrote:
Suffice it to say that every photographer I know got this. Nevertheless, if it is a benefit to me and makes my clients feel justified in hiring me or referring me I'm going to post it. I'm not too concerned about whether or not other photographers judge me, photographers don't pay my bills or derive joy from my work.
Make no mistake, internally to our industry it might be a joke, but if someone else finds meaning from it far be it from me to deny them that.
adcphotography wrote:
@littleme, you would croak if you saw the people in my area that got that "award".
It's easy to get some buddies to write a review and give stars to make sure you can a little badge to put on your website. Personally, I wouldn't want an award that gave so little thought and qualification to it's recipients.
Do you have any ideas for a better system? I'd be interested to hear it.
littleme wrote:
For those of you surprised by your lack of WW award:
1. Check your spam
2. Contact them and make sure you didn't get one but had it caught by your email filters (you'd need to make sure you have 5 reviews or more and an average review of 5 stars)
You think they'd miss out 22+ feedbacks positive with 5 stars each, and us featured on their first page?
We didn't get it, and I say their awards are a way to get those who don't pay to incentive them to start advertising.
adcphotography wrote:
@littleme, you would croak if you saw the people in my area that got that "award".
It's easy to get some buddies to write a review and give stars to make sure you can a little badge to put on your website. Personally, I wouldn't want an award that gave so little thought and qualification to it's recipients.
+1
As your client goes from photographer to photographer and sees that everyone has the same award, it will lose its specialness. Still, if you combine these with other awards you won, it might add to the impression that you are an award winning wedding specialist.
It might be more meaningful if they had a bride's choice award where actual brides and newlyweds judged wedding albums or wedding pics and selected their favorite from a particular area. PPA did this a few years back and that was something more meaningful than some bureaucrats picking studios and saying that they are "bride's choice" because they have no bad reviews listed.
adcphotography wrote:
@littleme, you would croak if you saw the people in my area that got that "award".
It's easy to get some buddies to write a review and give stars to make sure you can a little badge to put on your website. Personally, I wouldn't want an award that gave so little thought and qualification to it's recipients.
I just got the email too. 