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Building a worthwhile presence on social media is a tough task for many photographers, especially those more familiar with networking in the real world. Although there is a learning curve, social networking is one of the most powerful ways for a photographer to build their own personal brand, and many photographers have leveraged the power of their huge global audience to create extremely successful photography business models.
Even though this guide is geared toward photographers, anyone can apply these concepts and these ten simple strategies and tips will help you develop genuine connections on social media while avoiding some of the most common pitfalls and mistakes.
1. Interact, Engage, and be Yourself
Probably the biggest key to developing a meaningful presence on social media is that interaction and engagement is a must. In the real world, if you give someone a compliment or say hi and they don’t say anything in return, you’re unlikely to go out of your way again.
Social media is the same way — if all you ever do is post your own photos and links without ever bothering to get to know your virtual friends and followers or thank them for sharing and complimenting your work, you’re going to have trouble building both a following and cultivating useful networking relationships. Social media is a two way street; if you want people to care about your work, you need to care about your audience. You can encourage interaction by asking for your social media followers’ thoughts, opinions, and advice and by asking questions that solicit a response, like “Here’s a photo of tonight’s sunset! Did anyone else get to enjoy these colors?”
I often see photographers posting nothing but their own links and never interacting with their social networking connections — consequently, very few people respond to their posts, and social media can seem like a very lonely place. If you start engaging with your social connections though, you’ll find that they will usually engage with you and interact when you share something.
Social media success is not purely a numbers game, at least not if you’re playing the game right — 50 highly engaged followers is leaps and bounds better than 5,000 disinterested followers. Obviously, a lot of photographers fixate purely on numbers and even use bots and other prohibited methods to grow their follower count. Having 50,000 followers on Instagram or on your Facebook page might look impressive at first, but if your engagement numbers are low or nonexistent, it’s obvious to most people that something isn’t right.
2. Share the Love
Social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Google Plus are great for promoting yourself, but you’ll find that your self promotional efforts will be far more successful if you also take some time to promote and interact with the posts of your followers.
If you’re a headshot photographer and one of your Twitter followers is an actor new to your area, who do you think they will call when they need a headshot: The photographer they’ve never had any interaction with, or the photographer who frequently replies to their posts? You don’t need to spend hours each day on social media, but just a few positive interactions with someone can be enough for you to stick in their mind.
3. Make Meaningful Connections
A lot of people think of social media as a big waste of time, and depending upon how you use it, it can be. Used effectively though, it can be an amazing tool as well as a great way to forge real connections with people.
Get to know your followers and connections on social media. Beyond making digital connections, you can also develop personal relationships that may turn into real world work opportunities and friendships. Business success is often about who you know, and on social media, you’re given the opportunity to get to know virtually everyone — make the most of it!
Check out our social network specific Instagram Tips for Photographers and the Fundamentals of Twitter Marketing for Photographers
4. Post Frequently throughout the Day
Keep your name and your work at the forefront of people’s minds by posting frequently — at least once a day is ideal for most social networks. Your average Twitter and Instagram user follows a few hundred other accounts, so it’s pretty easy to get lost in the chaos if you don’t make frequent updates of your own. Be aware of the timing of your posts — if you share your best content when most people are in their car driving to work, it may go unnoticed.
5. Post Interesting Stuff
Catch people’s attention with eye-grabbing descriptions. Would you be more likely to click on a link to a photo with the accompanying text of “New Picture – Click Here,” or “These Vibrant Toucans were Tough to get a Great Photo of in the Rainforest, but the Effort Paid Off! What do you think?”
If you develop a reputation for posting interesting links, photos, and content, people will be far more likely to interact with you. It’s a good idea to post a variety of content, rather than focusing solely on just links, just text, or just photos.
Even if your main goal of being on social media is to sell more photos/ build an audience for your work/ find workshop participants/ or just share your photography with people who enjoy it, it’s important to put effort into distinguishing your social media presence as one that belongs to a real person who is more than just the sum of their nice photos.
6. Promote Positivity
When it comes to social media, there’s plenty of doom and gloom already, so you’re likely to find that being a force of positivity not only makes you feel better, it also attracts more people to you. Go out of your way to be nice to people — you’re more likely than not to find the kindness will be repaid.
While it can be tempting to complain about difficult clients and even other photographers, keeping your social media posts light and friendly tends to be the best approach. Everyone on the internet has got an opinion, but you’ll find that your time is better spent on positive interactions rather than wasting it arguing with people. Keep your interactions polite, even if you don’t always agree with people!
7. Don’t Spam!
No one likes spam. Avoid interacting with people by using the same phrases over and over — there is an epidemic of people on social media who just post spammy one or two word “compliments” like nice, great, cool, or good pic on every picture they see in the hope that people will return the compliment and view their own work. These kind of shallow and spammy interactions may offer a temporary ego boost when people return the brief compliment, but shallow interactions tend to yield shallow returns. Make your interactions with people meaningful!
Steer clear of sending automated messages to every new follower you get on social media. Few things are more obnoxious than a spammy Twitter direct message that says something like, “Hey there! Nice to meet you. Please visit my website & like my Facebook page.” If you take the time to make real connections with your social media friends, not only will they be more likely to visit your website, they’ll be more likely to interact with your work and share it with their own followers.
It’s OK to share the same photos and links more than once, since social media is filled with people in very different time zones who may not have seen your previous post. What isn’t OK is posting nothing but the same photos and links over and over with no additional content or interaction mixed in — keep your feed interesting!
8. Share your Best Work
As a young photographer I was always reminded by more experienced photographers that our portfolios are judged by the strength of our weakest photos. Make your work stand out by sharing only your very best images — behind the scenes photos are great, but when it comes to sharing the finished images, be selective!
9. Use Multiple Social Networks
A question I frequently see asked on photography forums is, “Which social network should I be on?” My experience is that the more networks you’re active on, the more people you can network and make important connections with. It can be tough to find the time to develop relationships and post content on multiple networks, but if you create a schedule for yourself, it’s very manageable.
Instead of haphazardly posting to random networks at random times, write down a schedule for yourself allotting a certain amount of time each day for social media work. You can certainly have networks that you focus more attention on than others, but giving yourself a schedule will help you stay on top of things.
10. Market to the Right Audience
Like a sushi chef on a ship filled with people allergic to fish, you’re unlikely to develop useful connections with people if you spend all your time trying to market your work on social media to the wrong audience. Many photographers spend a huge portion of their time online making connections with other photographers — obviously it’s great to develop friendships with fellow creatives, but likes, +1’s, and favorites do not necessarily translate into income and business relationships.
If you’re a real estate photographer, perhaps your time spent on social media would be best spent primarily developing connections with real estate agents, interior designers, architects, and developers. Identifying your market and audience is one of the most critical steps of any social media plan. Interacting on social media with people local to your area is a great idea as well.