Social media advice

[Ben F]

I find managing social media for my photography pretty difficult. Found a decent article on social media strategy, particularly Instagram strategies for photographers.

MOD EDIT - link removed.

I would be keen to know if anyone has tried any of the advice it says in there. Has it worked? I don't want to put all my efforts into something for little payoff.

 

[pocketshaver]

don't expect much to come from those tips unless you want to be like every other "wants to be" on instagram taking pictures of their spoon with a cell phone.

youd probably end up spending 5-10 hours a day on instagram just to create content on it, and to go about following people and seeing what the daily photo on instagram trends are.

 

[Derrel]

I thought the advice on hashtags was good, specifically about looking for good hashtags that have between 100,000 and 500,000 entries, as opposed to just going for the most popular hashtags.

I do not use Instagram much and have really not considered it to be something I want to pursue, and I do not consider it a form of portfolio or a promotion for my own photography but years ago I did a quick experiment with hashtags, and I found that hashtags gave me 10 to 20 times more likes than photos which were not tagged.

I think the real issue is in the amount of time and effort that it takes to build followers on Instagram. Do you actually think that a high follower count will translate into actual paying clients? Do you think that the time and effort spent on developing an Instagram follower base is time and effort well spent? I really do not know the answer.

Some people are really tuned in to Instagram but I do not believe it is actually as good as direct marketing, but to certain people I do think that one's Instagram presents a certain level of being established, and of being creative and capable with a camera. Among older readers of this forum there is a tendency to downplay the importance of Instagram, and I think that is largely generational. I am 56 now and I grew up before the era of the cell phone and social media but there are lots of people who spend loads and loads of time on social media, and their opinions and evaluations of a photographer's Instagram might very well be greatly different from mine.

 

[BitGid]

My clients are rarely active on any platform except Facebook. I maintain an Instagram account because I enjoy using it and am kind of expected to as a photographer, but the only place I "promote" myself in any meaningful way is through my webpage and personal Facebook account, which is all mixed up with personal Facebook updates as well. Nearly all of my clients are both commercial in nature and also personal Facebook friends.

 

[Original katomi]

Instagram is that a new form of 78 no thats I pod I know it’s the digital version of the telegram

 

[Derrel]

Who here remembers the importance of placing a Yellow Pages ad for one's photography business????????????

 

[pocketshaver]

Who here remembers the importance of placing a Yellow Pages ad for one's photography business????????????

ANother pleasant memory. Goes side by side with the dodgy looking shifty acting "photographers" the school would hire to do the schools photo day.

 

[Joe Elliott]

Hey

Guess the question is what you are hoping to achieve from Instagram. Do you want...

• to be Insta Famous
• To sell your service
• To network with your customers and other photographers

Now to be Insta famous I think is pretty pointless. You don’t need that to build your business.

What you need is customers!

My advice would be to use these tips to attract people in. Once people are in the door look at ways to get people in your world.

That way they are your leads not Instagrams, you can get in front of them whenever you need. No need to worry about algorithm changes because they are on list.

To actually attract your audience you need to think. What problems your audience face that you can solve and What content is your target audience consuming.

Look at what your competitors are doing. If you see something generating a lot of engagement, model it. Don’t copy just model!

Actually write a caption that would help your audience find you. Use smaller hashtags so you can dominate them first as you grow start to use bigger hashtags.

If you want engagement you need to actually engage. Go to accounts where your customer is already and start engaging. These people will see you and in time will start to notice your stuff.

Use hashtags to get featured on curated accounts. Some accounts just repost other peoples content and they have a great following, they will say use this hashtag to get featured...

So use it and you might get feature in front of a larger audience.

Once you start look at ways to get people onto a platform like your email list. So that they are always at your reach.

Hope these tips help you

 

[Jeff15]

I don't use Instagram...............

 

[Soocom1]

Who here remembers the importance of placing a Yellow Pages ad for one's photography business????????????

The photo store I worked for was owned by a man who started his carrier in photography by working for a photo store in Dallas.

The story he told was that they put a full page ad into a newspaper and then measured the response.
They got something like 4 additional new customers.

So his take away was that advertisements DON'T work...


When he opened a store on the Westside of Abq., he didn't advertise and then wondered why the store failed 8 months later.

 

[paigew]

I don't get very many clients from instagram. I do feel like you should *have* an account to show your work though. It's a lot to keep up with, social media...I recently hired someone to post for me on my biz account.

 

[Space Face]

I don't do Faceahche, Instabam or any of that stuff. Ain't got the time or patience for it.

 

[Overread]

Note - please be aware of "last post dates" in threads. Sometimes it better to start a fresh conversation than reboot an old one.

Also fairly sure the original post was a just a spambot that slipped the net- original one link removed.