C&T Publications Eye on Fine Art Photography - June 2014 | Page 8

A “typical day” in the life of one FAA Group administrator
Up at 6am to fix breakfast and have the first cup of tea of the day, followed by a quick peek through emails and logging onto FAA for
the first time. I tend to go straight to my group discussion board to see if there has been any activity from the group members and
post responses as appropriate, if they are short. Otherwise, if there are specific actions for me I may leave these for later in the day
when I have more time. Next, a quick look to see how many new images have been added and finally, I check to see where the
group is standing in the “most active” ratings. FAA has a way of sorting the groups by how active they are, and my goal is always to
try to keep the group on the first page of the “very high” rankings and, if possible, in the top half. I do this to try and increase
exposure for everyone’s work.
If there haven’t been too many images added overnight I will process them at this point, as described below, otherwise I leave them
for the evening.
My next look at the group comes around 6pm when I get back from work, and I will spend time over the next few hours checking
the discussions, following up on any actions such as featuring images on the group home page, commenting, and liking (favoriting)
images and then going through the images submitted during the day so that I can add them to the group. I am always amazed by
two things at this point; the diversity of images that the group takes and the fact that some members insist on submitting images
that don’t meet the group’s aims. This is one of the things that causes me the most annoyance, as the groups aims are very clear,
and I have no qualms in rejecting these images immediately. One of the other activities I make a point of doing is pinning those
images of group members who allow it, to the Pinterest sites Quintessentially British and Recesky Shots in order to potentially
draw in an audience. It’s a bit of an obsession, but I always include the title and artist name with © sign.
The main administrative activity for me though is trying to keep the balance of a highly active group, but without bombarding the
members with too many emails and messages. After image promotion I tend to concentrate on the group’s discussion