Whether it’s weddings, portraits, artistic prints, or any other area of photography that is your specialty, you need to be marketing yourself on social media.
These days, if you’re not on social media you basically don’t exist. Growing your client base and demonstrating to potential clients that you’re the best choice for them has never been easier or cheaper than with the multitude of social media platforms that are now available. Each platform has its own benefits and unique features for photographers to improve their social media marketing.
This is the most obvious and simplest place to start when establishing your network of social media accounts for your photography business. Unless you’re 90 years old or you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably got your own personal Facebook account, so you know how to navigate the site anyway.
Set up a business page, though, for your photography – don’t use your personal one. Your business page will allow you to focus solely on your work and allows greater reach to new clients because anyone can see your posts, whereas only your friends can see what’s on your personal page.
From your business account you can post links to your own blog, other articles related to photography, albums of your work, announcements, and special offers. Facebook has an analytics tool that allows you to see how effective each post is and then adjust your future activity accordingly.
Twitter is a great way to reach lots of people, fast. It’s not as comprehensive as Facebook in how much you can share and what kind of things you can share, but it’s a great avenue for funnelling more people to your website.
Tweets are restricted to 140 characters so what you post needs to be punchy. It’s perfect for announcing business news or special offers, or sharing links to interesting articles. Make sure you follow lots of people, especially other photographers, and engage in conversation to generate a larger following and greater exposure for your account and, in turn, your website.
YouTube
Yes, YouTube counts as a social media site. And before you scream, “but YouTube is for videos! I’m a still photographer!”, we know. YouTube is a platform that is great for building your brand name and creating a reputation as a leader in your field. You could, if you wanted to, upload montages of your stills to YouTube, but a more effective way of using YouTube is to create interesting and informative videos about photography.
Behind-the-scenes type videos of your shoots, or advice on how to choose locations or pose for nicer pictures are the kind of things that people are looking for. YouTube is often used like a search engine, so it’s a gold mine for targeting potential clients looking for photography information.
Pinterest is very image-heavy. And it’s full of people planning events and occasions – i.e. people who need photographers. Create boards not only of your own work, but of anything to do with your field. If wedding photography is your thing, create boards with inspiration for other aspects of the wedding too – anything from flower arrangements to invitation ideas. Broadening the scope of your account will generate more traffic and show that you’re knowledgeable and active in your field.
On your website you should ensure that readers have the option to “pin” to their own boards so that any potential customer has your work and your website saved in their Pinterest account so that you will stay in the forefront of their mind and they can return to your website easily.
Social media is designed to be easy to use, and it is. You needn’t spend lots of time on all of these platforms, but you do need to regularly update your accounts with fresh content. Responding to comments and engaging with people is also incredibly important, as social media marketing for photographers is as much about customer service and brand promotion as driving sales. Make sure that you have an obvious link back to your website on all of your accounts so that driving sales is easier.
So what are you waiting for? Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest are all out there waiting for you to share your work with the world!
