The Best Free Online Tools to Manage Your Photography Business
It is all too easy to fall into a trap of signing up for an ever-increasing number of photography and business tools that entice you with the promise of better organization and communication but lay on costly monthly subscriptions. Shed that overhead and consider these free alternatives instead.
It seems as though every week a new product is released and marketed to business owners — from a new customer relations management (CRM) software that promises something new to marketing and social media tools, and anything else photography-related — which can quickly rack up the business expenses bill.
The subscription model is particularly hard to avoid as many companies favor that over one-time purchases, which helps them attract new customers because small monthly payments are easier to stomach than large single investments, and companies can continue to quietly withdraw money monthly even if the software isn’t being used. Not every photographer is business savvy, which is why it can be easy to subscribe or purchase more tools than is necessary, especially if they have fallen victim to an attractive sales campaign.
Regularly checking monthly income and expenses report — or at least creating a spreadsheet with all subscriptions — can help monitor what is actually essential to the photographer’s business and what can be canceled, while being open to free alternatives can help avoid future money being wasted. Sometimes, paid tools can make the process more complex than it needs to be — especially for small business owners who don’t need necessarily need all that these tools offer — because they can be sold as a must-have for those who want to be successful.
To help photographers cut down on costs, especially to recoup and reset after any pandemic incurred losses, below are a few free alternatives to help run a business. There are other free alternative business tools out there, however, this brief list can give a headstart for those who want to cut down on expenses and are looking for suitable free platforms to help with the day-to-day business tasks.
It might seem like a step backward to use spreadsheets after accounting apps such as QuickBooks and Xero, have made their way into the everyday lives of business owners with their marketing promises that say they’ll help simplify and digitize accounting records. However, even small business owners will still be required to regularly log into their software to reconcile transactions and compare them to actual bank records, because errors may still occur along the way. Submitting financial records with incorrect entries can cause more than just a headache for business owners.
As someone who has used several apps like these, I still dread the weekly or monthly accounting I had scheduled myself to do. Although on the surface it seemed to promise a seamless workflow and saved time, I found myself dealing with incorrectly imported transactions, lost connection to my bank account, and more. It was only when I changed my accounting firm and they advised me to return to using simple spreadsheets, I realized I had forgotten just how simple and painless this process can be. The accounting firm also advised that not all apps provide the required format as accepted by the government financial institutions, too.
Using Microsoft Excel if you have Windows or Google Sheets can be a cost-effective way to manage finances, especially because users can download a variety of templates to get started with or create their own from scratch only using the parameters that they need.
This can be combined with storing digital invoices and receipts either on the user’s device, on the external storage, or on the cloud. Many cloud companies offer free storage up to a certain size limit, and with PDFs and JPGs of paperwork taking up a small fraction of storage, users can pick out a free cloud service to store their financial records. This makes it easy to share them with an accountant or financial advisor, too.
Canva is a free tool that is best known for creating social media graphics such as posts, infographics, sales visuals, and more. However, Canva — which has both free access and a paid tier — can also be used for creating paperwork and documentation such as contracts, letters, invoices, proposals, and more.
Canva provides an endless stream of ways to create and modify different types of templates that you can use across every stage of your business. The final document can then be downloaded in a variety of formats, such as JPG, PNG, PDF, and others.
The free account on Canva doesn’t permit creating a library of saved templates that you have used nor does it give access to all stock photos or saved brand colors, but you can still create a free account that will be very useful for most business applications. Whenever you log in, the website will show you the last used templates, which is helpful if you keep re-using the same template for invoicing, for example.
Another feature that Canva might not be as widely known for is its ability to let you create educational, inspirational, or instructional presentations, PDFs, or digital e-books. If you want to create a guide for clients about your business, a digital magazine that features your photography work and writing, or a newsletter for your audience, you can choose a variety of templates that will have their own unique font and color styling.
The free account doesn’t permit altering the size of the chosen template, however, if you want to use a straight-forward A4, for example, Canva offers a large variety of documents that fit standard sizes and still have plenty of options to choose from.
Personally, I have used Canva for “thank you” letters, invoices, illustrative proposals, photography education presentations, client guides, creative magazines and e-books, social media advertisements, and a lot more. Another popular alternative is Piktochart, if you don’t like Canva for any reason.
Use Notion for Business Management and Tracking
Notion is an incredibly useful free tool that allows you to create lists and organize everything from quick ideas to a more complex client and project management. Notion can be used as a mobile app and on desktop, and you can create numerous sections that can be customized to suit different parts of the business.
For example, I use Notion to keep track of photo shoots by creating an entry for every booking. This entry contains information such as a client’s details, shoot date and location, notes that I may have added throughout communication, links to their invoices, and more. Then, each shoot can be moved across the board to be placed under categories that I’ve created, such as “In progress,” “Need attention,” “Finished,” and so forth.
Notion can also be used to dive deep into each individual project. For example, I use it for an online course I am creating and set it up so that each entry is responsible for a single lesson, which then contains information about the progress, where my presentation slides are uploaded, and any additional notes or documents that are attached.
This platform can also be used to gather your ideas, wish lists, reading lists, monthly, yearly and lifelong plans and goals, and much more. The opportunities for this platform are endless and once my current CRM subscription runs out, I will be solely using Notion for managing any client work and keeping track of it all. If you need a good start, Notion also has a large list of free templates that can give you a solid base to start building and organizing your business and personal life notes, lists, and more.
Use Pinterest for Moodboards and Advertising
Pinterest is likely to have an association with “pinning” weddings inspiration by couples, DIY decorating ideas, or meal recipes. However, Pinterest can provide a free tool for those who would benefit from a visuals-based digital scrapbook.
For those who regularly plan shoots that require collaboration and sharing of ideas and concepts, they can create hidden or public boards and use Pinterest as a repository to collect ideas, colors, moods, and themes to share with the rest of the team or client. Equally, if photographers need to provide clients with suitable outfit ideas, Pinterest boards can be helpful especially because they can be updated in real-time and don’t require anything to be downloaded.
Besides its clear usefulness as a mood board, you can also use Pinterest as an additional marketing stream. Photographers can do this by making helpful boards that clients are likely to come across such as, “Best wedding venues for elopements in London” instead of “My favorite wedding venues I’ve shot at,” for example. Photographers can direct additional traffic to the original source, such as their website or blog. Pinterest also provides traffic insights which can be helpful to determine whether the user is reaching the right kind of audience or if they need to slightly alter their boards.
Understanding and leveraging Pinterest as a free marketing tool does have a bit of a learning curve, however. That said, there are plenty of free tutorials available on YouTube.
Sign up for ‘Google My Business’
Advertising on a small budget, or in fact no budget, can seem like an impossible task. However, business owners can create a free Google My Business profile for their business which gives an additional presence on Google Search and Maps. It also gives owners the opportunity to respond to reviews, especially if used in conjunction with a Facebook page, post photos, special offers, and add and edit business information.
Although this may seem more relevant for those with a fixed location, such as photographers with a studio, it can still work just as well for those working from home, too. This free tool also shows key audience insights and if subscribed to, sends regular e-mail updates on the data collected on how many impressions your business received, how many people clicked on your website link, and so forth.
For those who don’t have a website yet, Google My Business allows creating a basic site under a domain that reads “name-business.site,” using the information from your listing. Users can also modify the appearance of the site with a few template choices.
Try ‘Buy Me a Coffee’
While most have surely heard of more popular fan funding services like Patreon, Ko-fi, Podia, and others that allow users to share public and members-only content in exchange for donations or tips, membership fees, and product sales fees, they are not the only options. Buy Me a Coffee is a new alternative and provides several benefits to members that may be preferred over the more popular Patreon, for example.
Users can create a free profile, link it to several payment methods — such as credit cards, Paypal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay — and receive instant payouts from any donations. Fans of the creator don’t need to create an account either to support the photographer either. As quite a new alternative for fan sites, Buy Me a Coffee gets regular updates from customer feedback and works on improving the experience.
Creators can use this site to sell “Extras.” For example, photographers can sell downloadable content such as presets, PDFs and eBooks, templates, and other digital products, as well as other experiences — like Zoom calls, art commissions, or live event tickets — which can all be customized. Users can also “sell” free products, which the audience can download automatically and without any extra steps required by the photographer.
Photographers can use this website to also share free content, such as blog posts and articles, or hide them under a membership, depending on how they choose to use this platform for their business. For those whose website provider requires an additional monthly cost for selling digital downloads, Buy Me a Coffee can provide a free alternative to host the products as the commission is taken only when a sale is made.
Of course, Use YouTube
The popular video website can be used for more than just watching music videos, listening to podcasts, or following the latest reviews and inspirational videos. For those who want to sell access to video tutorials, YouTube can be used as a platform to host the educational material by making it accessible to the audience through a unique link that cannot be found through a general search.
Although this is not the most reliable way to share material like this — navigating YouTube’s rules can be tiring and challenging — it can be a start for those who are on a budget. If a creator has a website, most website providers also allow embedding a video which means that the video could be embedded on a page that is not accessible via the website menu. This way, photographers can share a link with the embedded YouTube video that is still under their website domain.
Marketers aren’t clairvoyant but they can keep a finger on the pulse of trends. To help brands stay ahead of the competition, HubSpot Blog surveyed more than 1,000 global marketers from B2B and B2C brands and a handful of industry experts to create a 2022 marketing trends guide, covering privacy and AI to social media and SEO. Ahead we break down HubSpot’s findings on social media marketing trends.
As HubSpot notes, 79 percent of Americans have some type of social media account while there are 3.7 billion social media users worldwide, making it a regular part of people’s lives and a critical tool in enhancing any marketing strategy.
Live Content Will Be A Leading Social Media Format
Among the social media marketers HubSpot polled, 68 percent reported that audio chat rooms such as Clubhouse are the most effective social media content while 59 percent report the same for live video.
Ninety-six percent of those investing in live audio content intend on spending the same amount or more on it through 2022. Live video, on the other hand, is reported by 9 percent of respondents as driving the largest return on investment (ROI) of all social media formats. These formats enable brands to connect directly with audiences in a meet-them-where-they-are context while discussions range from current issues and events to the brand’s stance on those issues to the products and services themselves.
The authenticity and dynamic nature of this format can’t be matched as heart-to-heart conversations may be interspersed with expert opinions, Q&A-style discussions, how-tos and entertainment.
TikTok Will Continue To Gain Brand Interest
TikTok began to go viral roughly three years ago, sparking a new medium through which brands can connect with audiences without sounding sales-y. The social media app now boasts 1 billion global users and caters to a vast array of audiences. Having recently launched a number of advertising and marketing features for businesses and creators, TikTok has positioned itself front-and-center in the race to secure the highest quality content, the highest number of users and creators and brands that will continue engaging with it for marketing purposes.
Sixty-seven percent of marketers intend on increasing their TikTok investment in 2022 and 10 percent of marketers who employ some sort of social media into their overall marketing strategy intend on investing the most in TikTok throughout 2022.
Most Marketers Will Concentrate On Three To Five Social Media Platforms
Of those social media marketers polled, 64 percent use three to five platforms, 11 percent use one or two, and 7 percent use seven or more. Managing three to five platforms allows brands to expand their reach to a variety of audiences while allowing for their marketers to engage with each one without exhausting their bandwidth or producing low-quality content.
In order for a brand to determine how many platforms to be on, i.e., how able a social media marketing team will be at building an effective and engaging strategy, HubSpot suggests answering the following:
- How many social media marketers are on your team?
- Which social media platforms have audiences that best align with your brand’s targets?
- How much time will it take to master a strategy on each of the platforms?
- Which platforms, if any, will not benefit the overall marketing strategy right now?
- Which platform’s content, if any, can be easily repurposed? (such as TikTok and YouTube Shorts)
Influencer Marketing Will Evolve From Trend To Common Marketing Tactic
When HubSpot asked global marketing professionals which trends they planned to invest in for 2022, 34 percent said influencer marketing, ranking it first and above other trends like mobile web design and short-form video marketing.
While 57 percent of respondents that currently leverage influencer marketing say influencer marketing is effective, 46 percent of them plan to increase their investments in 2022. Additionally, 11 percent say influencer marketing is the top ROI-generating trend they’ve tested.
More than 56 percent of marketers who invest in influencer marketing work with micro-influencers, according to HubSpot.
Video Marketers Will Keep Content Short
HubSpot found that short-form content is the second most effective trend marketers are currently utilizing. Short-form content requires less bandwidth and aligns well with the fast-paced attention spans of online audiences in a variety of demographics.
More than 31 percent of global marketers currently invest in short-form video content, 46 percent of them consider the strategy effective when it comes to performance and engagement. In addition, next year 89 percent of global marketers plan to continue investing in it or increase their investment.
Permanent Social Media Posts Could Overtake Ephemeral Content
Brands have observed that permanent social media content—namely standard posts, videos and live events that live on a platform’s feed and can be viewed again days later—might be more effective than ephemeral content such as Instagram Stories and Snapchat.
HubSpot’s survey results show that 44 percent of global marketers plan to increase their investment in permanent social media content, while 8 percent say it generates the most ROI compared to other marketing strategies they leverage. Meanwhile, 25 percent of respondents cited ephemeral content as the “least effective” trend they invested in.
Lastly, 37 percent of marketers said they plan to decrease their investment in ephemeral content.
However, HubSpot cautions against writing off ephemeral content completely as it can still provide other brand awareness benefits and unique content experiences.
According to Kelly Hendrickson, a social media marketing manager at HubSpot, Instagram Stories’ fleeting design and fun editing options give brands a new strategy for producing content that varies from their other social media content.
“Instagram can organically serve up a wall post across a wide span of time, so there’s less of an opportunity for brands to be timely (who wants to see New Year’s post when they’ve already given up on their resolutions?!). Since Instagram users are more active on weekdays, during the standard workday, it seems users are looking for a break,” Hendrickson said.
Hendrickson urges marketers to remember that the combination of a running clock and a lively audience presents a big opportunity for brands to lean into quick, in-the-moment content that showcases the light-hearted side of their brand, adding that succinctness and clarity are key in content.
The growth of your online business in Shopify significantly depends on how well you use the e-commerce platform. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as it sounds. There’s a lot of competition in the e-commerce industry itself, and it requires patience, intentionality and transformational skills to move to the top right in the categories where you compete. Many marketers who use Shopify for eCommerce encounter strategic and tactical issues using the platform. At TopRight, we’ve studied the most common issues facing marketing executives and we provide tips and techniques to help you get the most out of Shopify. Here are a few of the most common marketing challenges you could encounter while using Shopify:
- Mediocre sales conversion
- Insufficient traffic to your site
- Difficulty interpreting Shopify analytics
- Unrealistic predictions of sales and traffic
- Misalignment of inventory management
- Failure to target and identify customers
Importance of a Clear Marketing Strategy
Your marketing strategy acts as a playbook for your business and how you make investments in you Shopify store. It helps keep your business pointed in the right direction and allows you to make informed decisions. Without a strategic marketing playbook, it’s easy to get lost and encounter obstructions. A stragegic playbook can help guide you to responding to challenges and navigating barriers you may encounter with your Shopify store. Specifically, it can help you:
- Estimate sales potential
- Promote your goods and services better
- Attract new customers
- Maintain good connection with existing customers
Tips on How to Get the Most Out of Shopify
Of course, understanding the analytics on your store isn’t sufficient to assure success. You need to turn data into insight and devise strategies to drive traffic and conversions. Here are a few tips to guide you through the development of a winning marketing strategy to get the most out of Shopify.
1. Invest in Your Own Shopify App
Most successful Shopify merchants have optimized their app to tell their brand story. A Shopify app is a powerful way to give customers a reason to care about your store and the products you offer. Your brand story also helps you build connections and engage with other prospects on other ecommerce platforms and social media sites. Making this simple investment enables you to connect, reach and engage more potential customers.
If building your own app is an obstacle, you can use tools like Pocketfied – an easy app builder that lets you conveniently manage your store. You can have your own published app within a day, even if you don’t have any design and coding skills.
2. Use Shopify Resources
Shopify offers resources to help you become a more effective marketer and entrepreneur. It provides guides, podcasts, and even an eCommerce University to learn new skills. Use these resources to learn more about the Shopify platform and get ideas on how to work on the platform more effectively and efficiently.
3. Promote Your Store on Social Media
Social media networks like Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter represent significant opportunities for you to boost brand awareness and drive traffic to your store. However, social media marketing is highly saturated – it take a lot to stand out from the crowd. Many Shopify merchants use social media to showcase their goods and services. You need to develop a good and structured approach to get an edge and drive results.
- Make a business page or account on all relevant social platforms.
- Follow accounts and market to users within your target audience.
- Integrate your shop in your accounts so shoppers can easily buy without leaving the social platform
- Post meaningful content regularly including: videos that showcase your products; special pricing promotions; new product launches; and private/ exclusive store events
4. Leverage Email Marketing
Email remains one of the best ways to connect and engage with customers. When properly used (not abused), emails can serve as the backbone of your customer conversion strategy customer conversion strategy. Here are a few tips on how to use it appropriately:
- Be creative with your emails so you can easily attract interest and give people a reason to care
- Send out cart abandonment details to remind customers about incomplete or unfinished transactions.
- Be professional and respectful – don’t send too many promotional emails. Thoughtless interruptions drive customers away.
5. Create a Website and Start Blogging
Write compelling content that will attract and encourage readers to go to your store and check out your products. Don’t just focus on your products and services. Make content about related topics and issues where you can smartly and smoothly promote your products. Think about topics that would be of interest and value to your audience. Content can be a gift if it is positioned properly with your customers.
Research what your customers care about, what they want or what unmet needs they may have. Again, don’t overload your blog with sales messages and stories about your business. Instead, focus on the relevance of your products to your customers’ lifestyles. What can you do to make them the hero of your brand story?
6. Invest in Paid Advertisements and Affiliations
Depending on your budget, be sure to set aside some money for paid advertisements. Online advertisements, clickable or not, will drive traffic to your store and boost your store’s visibility. These are usually posted on online platforms like social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. Additionally, you can use Google Ads to get your store to appear on the top page of search results.
You can also develop affiliations with other Shopify stores and businesses so they’ll help promote your store and products. For a small percentage of a transaction, an affiliate marketer with help will drive traffic and potential customers to your store. However, remember that you’ll be sharing your revenues or paying them for their cooperation!
The Takeaway
Story, Strategy and Systems alignment can be a heavy lift when you launch a Shopify store. There are many pitfalls and issues you may encounter. But if you focus on telling a simple story, formulating a clear strategy, and leveraging Shopify best practices, you can navigate these challenges and successfully give your customers a reason to care, listen, engage and buy from your store.
The growth of your online business in Shopify significantly depends on how well you use the e-commerce platform. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as it sounds. There’s a lot of competition in the e-commerce industry itself, and it requires patience, intentionality and transformational skills to move to the top right in the categories where you compete. Many marketers who use Shopify for eCommerce encounter strategic and tactical issues using the platform. At TopRight, we’ve studied the most common issues facing marketing executives and we provide tips and techniques to help you get the most out of Shopify. Here are a few of the most common marketing challenges you could encounter while using Shopify:
- Mediocre sales conversion
- Insufficient traffic to your site
- Difficulty interpreting Shopify analytics
- Unrealistic predictions of sales and traffic
- Misalignment of inventory management
- Failure to target and identify customers
Importance of a Clear Marketing Strategy
Your marketing strategy acts as a playbook for your business and how you make investments in you Shopify store. It helps keep your business pointed in the right direction and allows you to make informed decisions. Without a strategic marketing playbook, it’s easy to get lost and encounter obstructions. A stragegic playbook can help guide you to responding to challenges and navigating barriers you may encounter with your Shopify store. Specifically, it can help you:
- Estimate sales potential
- Promote your goods and services better
- Attract new customers
- Maintain good connection with existing customers
Tips on How to Get the Most Out of Shopify
Of course, understanding the analytics on your store isn’t sufficient to assure success. You need to turn data into insight and devise strategies to drive traffic and conversions. Here are a few tips to guide you through the development of a winning marketing strategy to get the most out of Shopify.
1. Invest in Your Own Shopify App
Most successful Shopify merchants have optimized their app to tell their brand story. A Shopify app is a powerful way to give customers a reason to care about your store and the products you offer. Your brand story also helps you build connections and engage with other prospects on other ecommerce platforms and social media sites. Making this simple investment enables you to connect, reach and engage more potential customers.
If building your own app is an obstacle, you can use tools like Pocketfied – an easy app builder that lets you conveniently manage your store. You can have your own published app within a day, even if you don’t have any design and coding skills.
2. Use Shopify Resources
Shopify offers resources to help you become a more effective marketer and entrepreneur. It provides guides, podcasts, and even an eCommerce University to learn new skills. Use these resources to learn more about the Shopify platform and get ideas on how to work on the platform more effectively and efficiently.
3. Promote Your Store on Social Media
Social media networks like Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter represent significant opportunities for you to boost brand awareness and drive traffic to your store. However, social media marketing is highly saturated – it take a lot to stand out from the crowd. Many Shopify merchants use social media to showcase their goods and services. You need to develop a good and structured approach to get an edge and drive results.
- Make a business page or account on all relevant social platforms.
- Follow accounts and market to users within your target audience.
- Integrate your shop in your accounts so shoppers can easily buy without leaving the social platform
- Post meaningful content regularly including: videos that showcase your products; special pricing promotions; new product launches; and private/ exclusive store events
4. Leverage Email Marketing
Email remains one of the best ways to connect and engage with customers. When properly used (not abused), emails can serve as the backbone of your customer conversion strategy customer conversion strategy. Here are a few tips on how to use it appropriately:
- Be creative with your emails so you can easily attract interest and give people a reason to care
- Send out cart abandonment details to remind customers about incomplete or unfinished transactions.
- Be professional and respectful – don’t send too many promotional emails. Thoughtless interruptions drive customers away.
5. Create a Website and Start Blogging
Write compelling content that will attract and encourage readers to go to your store and check out your products. Don’t just focus on your products and services. Make content about related topics and issues where you can smartly and smoothly promote your products. Think about topics that would be of interest and value to your audience. Content can be a gift if it is positioned properly with your customers.
Research what your customers care about, what they want or what unmet needs they may have. Again, don’t overload your blog with sales messages and stories about your business. Instead, focus on the relevance of your products to your customers’ lifestyles. What can you do to make them the hero of your brand story?
6. Invest in Paid Advertisements and Affiliations
Depending on your budget, be sure to set aside some money for paid advertisements. Online advertisements, clickable or not, will drive traffic to your store and boost your store’s visibility. These are usually posted on online platforms like social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. Additionally, you can use Google Ads to get your store to appear on the top page of search results.
You can also develop affiliations with other Shopify stores and businesses so they’ll help promote your store and products. For a small percentage of a transaction, an affiliate marketer with help will drive traffic and potential customers to your store. However, remember that you’ll be sharing your revenues or paying them for their cooperation!
The Takeaway
Story, Strategy and Systems alignment can be a heavy lift when you launch a Shopify store. There are many pitfalls and issues you may encounter. But if you focus on telling a simple story, formulating a clear strategy, and leveraging Shopify best practices, you can navigate these challenges and successfully give your customers a reason to care, listen, engage and buy from your store.
Being a whistleblower comes down to careful preparation but also an eye trained for dirty tricks, said Ifeoma Ozoma, an ex-employee of several Silicon Valley giants turned revealer of tech world wrongdoing.
“I planned it like a program or product launch. Obviously the experience is something very personal, but I approached it like work,” she told AFP.
While Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen has become a figurehead for the fight against social media’s faults, there are others in the tech world, like Ozoma, who have also taken big risks to stand up.
An African-American, former policymaker relations specialist for Google, Pinterest and Facebook, she continues to work for ethics in tech, but from the outside, via her consulting firm Earthseed.
She has marked a first big success via the recent adoption in California of a law she co-sponsored, called “Silenced No More.”
Starting in January, this law will prohibit employers from using confidentiality clauses to prevent victims of harassment or discrimination in the workplace from speaking out.
In mid-October, she posted online a guide for whistleblowers.
“The difference with tech companies and other industries is on the power that they wield, but also they pretend they’re better for workers, consumers, society than more traditional industries,” she told AFP. “That’s just not borne out in reality.”
– Keep the emails –
A Yale University graduate in political science, the 29-year-old was born in Alaska to Nigerian immigrants.
She left Pinterest at the end of May 2020, with six months of salary, after months of making complaints internally and also to the state of California, accusing the social network of discrimination and racist retaliation.
She said the company paid her less than if she had been a man, but she also complained about their lack of action after a colleague posted her personal details online to expose her to anonymous harassment.
In mid-June 2020, as the Black Lives Matter anti-racism movements were in full swing in the United States, her damning account on Twitter of her experience sparked a scandal for the company that had largely avoided controversy.
“Pinterest, told a number of reporters that the CEO had no knowledge of me being doxxed… and I was essentially making up a story about him being aware,” Ozoma said.
“I knew that it was something that would probably come up later. And so I had the emails,” she added.
The accused firms try to discredit whistleblowers by many means, said Libby Liu, the director of Whistleblower Aid which is working with Haugen.
“They will throw up against the wall every discrediting thing they can think of, through like every media organization on the face of the Earth,” she added.
– Losing their health insurance –
The whistleblowers that come forward often have a lot to lose.
“Just one example here in the United States — because our health care is tied to our employment — when you decide to whistle blow, you’re also making a decision for yourself and for your family to lose access to your health insurance,” Ozoma said.
“That is not a small thing to ask of people,” she added.
Whistleblower leaks and damning media reports have tarnished Big Tech’s image, but they have had limited tangible consequences for Silicon Valley.
In fact, Haugen’s oft-repeated accusation that Facebook puts profits over safety is not entirely new.
“There are countless nonprofit organizations and reporters, who reported on the exact same thing for years,” said Ozoma. “It remains to be seen whether anything fruitful will come of it.”
But from anti-sexism protests at Google in 2018 to warnings from former top Facebook officials, the pressure for change is steady.
After Ozoma spoke out at Pinterest, other female workers did too.
The company paid $22 million in December 2020 to Francoise Brougher, its white, former COO to settle a gender discrimination lawsuit.
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Uncategorized2 weeks agoHow to Create a Social Media Report [Free Template Included]
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