It is strange how photographers who play a critical role in pushing the marketing cart of any brand to success forget marketing their own photography business on social media.
Or better yet, they start their photography promotions on social media but end up creating a messed up social media marketing strategy, which breeds no results.
Which of the above situations sounds familiar to you? Have you been marketing your photography business correctly?
If your answer to the latter question is no, it is time you understand how to create a streamlined social media marketing plan to promote your photography business to the world.
In this blog, we will burrow down on how photographers can:
- Effectively create a client-centric social media strategy
- Achieve more exposure and engagement
- Connect with potential clients
However, if you think social media marketing isn’t made for photographers, here are some undeniable reasons that will convince you to market your photography business on social media.
Why is Social Media Vital for Your Photography Business?
Here are few reasons to prove that social media is a crucial marketing platform to promote your photography business.
1. Maximizing Your Online Exposure
Years of practice, hard work, and finally, you had created the perfect portfolio you dreamt of since the time you learned about the “Exposure Triangle.”
So you went on and launched your first website with an impeccable portfolio in the hopes of getting the engagement, clients, and recognition that you deserve.
But after a few days, website analytics painted an alarming picture for you. Views in single digits, that too from family and friends with whom you shared your site’s link.
Reason for this astonishing debacle?
People hardly go searching for a photographer on Google they have never heard of before.
But nothing beats the free exposure of social media groups and communities. Social media enables you to play the first card to get into relevant people’s eyes and create a fan base.
Furthermore, your fans can fancy becoming your website visitors.
2. Showcasing Your Work Effectively
“So what kind of photography you do,” asks the random guy in a photography workshop with the Sony alpha hanging from his neck.
A palpable excitement arises in your heart as you open your website’s link to show the guy your portfolio, but that soon drops into utter regret when you find out that – You forgot to add some of your recent best work in it.
It happens; it is unlikely that you will be updating your digital online portfolio right after shooting every single project.
Here, an easy-to-update social media profile comes to your rescue. Your social media can work as your instant portfolio where you can showcase the recent project you worked on, brag about your famous photographer pose, and connect with the person asking for it as well.
3. Networking with Fellow Photographers
Social media, at its core, is made to bring people together based on their commonalities. As a photography business, you can leverage this connection element in your favor by joining local photography groups.
Connecting with like-minded people is one significant aspect of social media that enables you to bring more exposure to your photography business. Interacting with fellow photographers will help you understand the industry’s dynamics in your locality and photography niche.
Moreover, collaborating with photographers of the same niche will help you get close to the relevant clients.
In a nutshell,
Social media marketing is a force to be reckoned with to promote your photography business and get more clients.
All you need to excel on social is perfect planning, commitment, and few tips.
Let’s check them out!
10 Tips to Master Social Media Marketing for Your Photography Business
Tip 1: Define Your Photography Business Goals
One important rule of marketing – Define from the outset the primary and secondary goals of your social media strategy.
So what’s your social media marketing goal?
Is it getting more exposure?
Sure, why not? Putting your name out on social media to get recognition in your niche is a great way to attract traffic to your business.
Now just decide on your secondary goals. Your secondary goal is where you specifically devise a plan to achieve your primary goal.
For example, Your primary goal is to get more reach. Whereas, planning to reach 500 wedding planners in Manhattan, using Facebook targeting ads, who would be interested in your photography service is your secondary goal.
Once you build up a decent reservoir of traffic, aka your social media followers, your goal changes from awareness to conversion.
Now you hope to change traffic to leads and leads to conversion.
Out of your followers list, there will be some people who would like your work and want to remain connected with you. And out of those people who stay connected with you, some could be your possible prospects.
But remember,
You must post your best work most interactively on social to make your followers swoon over your photography skills. We will discuss how you can get interactive with your content later in the article.
If at first, no social media marketing goals for your photography business knocks on your head, ask yourself the following questions:
- “What do you want from your business?”
- “Which part of the audience do you want to reach out to?”
- “How do you intend to engage them and interact with them?”
It will give you a headstart in the right direction.
Tip 2: Choose Between a Niche and Broad Approach
The big question: what kind of photos are you going to post on social media?
There are two ways to go at it.
First, tailor your social media photography profile base on a niche color scheme, subject matter, or photography style.
This way, you showcase your target audience to a specific photography field that you are a master of capturing.
For example, look at this Instagram photography feed filled with the faces of newborn babies. Here the studio is targeting a specific audience who are interested in baby shoots.
Benefits of choosing a niche marketing appeal for your photography business:
- Attract more people who are likely to become your paid clients.
- Niche-based clients know what to expect from you.
- More clarity for users and less competition as compared to multi-niche photography accounts.
But does a niche photography marketing strategy attract potential clients your way? Chances are there might not be so many of them on social media.
So wisely define your audience and choose the social media channel where your audience is present.
On the other hand, you can create a multiform photography account, where you post all sorts of works you do in different niches and styles, be it portrait, landscape, modeling, corporate, dogs, babies, etc.
A varied photography account enables you to get more followers than you will ever have while holding on to a niche marketing photography strategy.
Again there is a catch!
Maintaining an assorted photography account can make things crammed and piss off some of your potential clients.
So use a social media content calendar to strike a balance by assigning different days for different photography categories. It will make people less confused and, if used consistently, will become your trademark.
Tip 3: Select the Best Social Media Platforms
There is one common question every photographer has in mind when they start marketing their photography business. “Which is the right social media to promote my photography business?”
Well, It depends on your audience. Where do they like to hang out more? Which is their preferred platform to create and consume content? That’s your sweet spot.
So once you resolve the niche conundrum mentioned in the above tip, it will be a smooth ride ahead.
Say you are a wedding photographer, then your target audience is the bride- and -groom to be looking for wedding inspiration on Pinterest. Since 40 million people use Pinterest to plan their wedding, it’s a good idea to use Pinterest for marketing your photography business.
If your photography business mainly covers corporate events and white-collar candids, then LinkedIn is your go-to place.
Ask your peers in photography communities which social media platform they are using. Learn social media statistics about the rapidly changing behavior of social platforms to get more audience insights to understand the best social media for photographers.
Tip 4: Use Relevant Hashtags
Hashtags are a powerful tool to help users connect with similar content on social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Using popular hashtags, can help you reach users who are seeking posts related to specific themes and topics, making it easier for you to get discovered and engage with like-minded individuals.
You can use hashtags to categorize your work and make it discoverable for potential clients. By using hashtags that relate to your location or niche, you can attract clients who are looking for specific types of images. Here is how Coca Cola did it with its popular campaign called #shareacoke
In addition to hashtags, geotagging is another useful feature that you can put into use. Geotagging will allow you to categorize your images by location.
By exploring other photography profiles that have geotagged a particular location, you can gain insight into the type of images that are popular in that area and identify relevant hashtags to use in your posts.
Ultimately, using hashtags and geotags can help photographers gain exposure for their work and connect with potential clients in their target market. By creating a blueprint of which hashtags and locations to use in their posts, photographers can maximize their visibility and reach a wider audience on social media.
Tip 5: Prioritize Engagement Over Follower Count
Here is a hard pill to swallow – The number of likes and followers on social media are considered vanity metrics and do not help your photography business much at the bottom line.
Why?
It all started when nearly all social media platforms began to face the problem of fake followers and the flood of promoted content. It led to social media platforms overhauling their algorithms to rank content that is more relatable, authentic, and interactive.
To make a more powerful impact through your social media presence over your photography business, you need to have an engaging relationship with your followers, which is not limited to just likes and followers count.
That brings us back to the main question – How to generate better engagement with your audience?
Creating interactive content is an excellent strategy to gain engagement with your followers. You can try the following photography promotion ideas:
- Leverage polls to ask your followers’ opinions on your photos
- Quiz them about the niche-related questions
- Go live to discuss your shoot process
- Motivate them with anecdotes of your journey as a photographer
In a nutshell, the key to better engagement is to stay relevant and interact frequently.
Tip 6: Capitalize on Trending Topics
Using an ongoing trend or hashtag is a quick way to get the attention of your niche audience.
So keep your eyes upon the latest industry happenings. Figure what’s ticking your target audience’s nerves, and that may become your gateway to create viral content.
You can also get into the Instagram photography contest or programs that major photography accounts in your relevant niche hold, such as Adobe’s latest #CelebrateBlackCreativity, for a chance to be featured on their feed.
Your photography getting featured on something like this puts you right in front of an audience that is likely to give you sales or, at the least, something to go in your portfolio.
Tip 7: Share Behind-the-Scenes Content
Every photography project comes with its perils, and we know it can get hectic to find your way through pre-production to the minute when you look through the viewfinder to click that perfect shot.
It’s a jam-packed process.
But you can use this process for marketing your photography business.
Yes, I am talking about shooting behind-the-scenes. Sharing BTS of your work process is a great way to generate engagement and establish yourself as a trusted brand.
Giving an insider look into your process helps your clients to connect with you better and also gives them an understanding of what they can expect from you. It’s a win-win social media marketing strategy for photographers and videographers.
So next time you start a photography project, don’t forget to shoot yourself too!
Tip 8: Utilize a Scheduling Tool for Effective Promotion
Great! You have knuckled down to create a flawless social media presence for your photography business.
You just need to be consistent and post quality content on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, multiple times a day on different time slots.
Phew! That’s a lot.
How are you going to maintain consistent post frequency while working on your full-time photography business? Did your social media marketing hopes just turn into a nightmare?
Don’t worry. You need a social media scheduling tool to automate your photography marketing plan effortlessly.
SocialPilot, a social media management tool, enables you to:
- Connect and manage multiple social media platforms on a single interface to avoid switching between tabs on your browser
- Create and schedule your post way ahead of time so that you don’t have to sit and manually post on shoot days and late nights
- Leverage social media calendar functionality to streamline your content pipeline
- Gauge social media analytics of multiple platforms in one place to figure out what type of content is working for you
Tip 9: Showcase Client Testimonials
I am sure you have got some fantastic customer testimonials beaming on the homepage of your photography website.
Don’t just keep them on your website — leverage client testimonials to generate some social proof on social media and effectively market your photography business.
Client testimonials exhibit that you know what you are selling and how it gave off fantastic results to your previous clientele!
As for your prospects, testimonials can work as a final push to gain the trust in your photography service that they needed to convert as your clients.
Tip 10: Leverage Photography Communities on Social Media
As we discussed before, social media is an excellent tool for connecting with like-minded people. It would be a real shame if you will not utilize its ability to get in touch with your fellow photographers.
Facebook is the best place to socialize with niche communities. Get into a photography Facebook group or link with groups that include your target audience.
Instagram photography groups open up great avenues to come together, appreciate, and shoutout each other’s work. The engagement you get can surely help your organic growth on Instagram.
The same goes for LinkedIn groups. If you start networking in the right group, a goldmine of exposure and leads awaits around the corner.
Start posting questions and help other people with solutions, and once in a while, you will see a conversation striking up that can lead to promoting your business.
If nothing, you will get to learn a thing or two from other people.
Final Thoughts on Social Media Strategy for Your Photography Business
An effective social media marketing strategy is an integral part of growing your photography business. Focus on social media marketing as much as you would do on other channels.
Remember, don’t get disheartened when you will not see better results in the starting. Every good thing takes some time. Be patient and keep sharing your best work for your most relevant audience.
I hope the above photography promotion ideas will help you make the most of your photography business.
