4 Ways To Promote Your Photography Business On Social Media
February 22nd, 2021
One of the great things about building a contemporary photography business is that the technology you need is at your fingertips. You just need to know how to use it.
Social media platforms provide a free option for marketing your business to prospective clients, finding the right audience for you, and getting the visibility you need to build a client base. Promoting your photography business on social media takes a little more work than what it appears as you start ramping up your marketing efforts.
Focus on What You Know
One of the most important things to keep in mind when you get started promoting your photography business on social media is not to spread yourself too thin.
You’re a busy person – you don’t have the resources to post on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, TikTok, and Linkedin all at once. Do yourself a favor. Pick your platforms and focus.
You can do this by asking yourself which platforms you are most familiar with, and balance this with which platforms are most appropriate for the type of work you want to do. Focus on one or two, master them and get into the groove. Selecting more than one gives you opportunities to link between them.
Choose your platform based on the type of content. Image-centric? Instagram and Pinterest. Marketing and business? Facebook and Instagram allow in-platform sales. Producing video work? YouTube is the second-largest search engine behind Google, so tie that in with your Insta to see more sustained growth over time.
Create Posts with Intention
One of the best decisions you can make is to be intentional about what you post. This communicates clarity and reliability even before your audience has gotten to know you, or explored your work in a more in-depth way. Give them your best first impression.
Determine the purpose of each post. What action do you want your audience to take? Do you want to lead potential clients to your site to learn more about you? Share your marketing campaign? Educate your audience about why investing in a photographer is better than taking pics themselves on their smartphones?
Knowing why you are sharing a post avoids the trap of making yourself seem desperate for attention, or giving your audience the impression that you don’t know what you want. That’s not a good way for them to know what they want from working with you.
A great tool to assist you with this process are CTAs, or Call-to-Actions. These are guiding messages that let your audience know, in a subtle way, what to do next. Specifically, how to engage your content. They help guide your audience so they don’t have to guess at what to do next.
For instance, on Instagram, you might say “Check out my link in bio” and have your post linked to a page on your website, that explains your services. Or you might offer a coupon with a link. There are lots of possibilities, but make it easy for clients to keep their attention on your content and lead them where you want them to go.
Stay Balanced in Your Output
Keeping your focus, being intentional, and staying balanced in your expectations are methods for healthy growth.
It’s wise to be realistic about why you are using social media in the first place. Ask yourself: what is the purpose of promoting my business presence on social media? If you are honest, you will realize this is because social media offers free marketing platforms.
Social media platforms give you the opportunity to control the message, content, and style of what you’re posting. Everything is under control. With control comes a curious caveat: self-managed means you’re not paying someone to do marketing for you.
That means you have more responsibility.
It’s OK to start small and build. That can be part of your posting strategy.
One strategy you can use to balance your efforts is planning the types of content you want to promote on your social feeds! That way, you don’t have to feel weighed down by the pressure to constantly post your best work and burn yourself out.
For instance, 1/3 of the content you share might be behind-the-scenes, with another 1/3 as finished, polished edits of your images, and another 1/3 as miscellaneous but relevant to your business. Some examples would be re-sharing others’ work, educational materials, and marketing posts like sales and coupons.
Instagram is great for Behind-the-Scenes via your Instagram Stories. These won’t distract from your (curated) IG feed. Stories and behind-the-scenes processes aren’t as visually interesting, but sharing this info can make your audience feel like they are part of your world and builds your ability to market yourself as a professional.
Tip: Grow your engagement and your network by tagging relevant accounts, – you get a whole new audience when clients re-share the posted story!
Once you are set up, and have some tools needed to sustain, share with people you know and ask them to do you a solid, and share with their own networks. You have the power to set yourself up in a professional way so they’ll be glad to say, “Of course!”
Remain Consistent with Your Brand
Hypothetical scenario:
You have profiles on 5 different platforms, but you are completely dedicated to one of them, only posting (maybe) once or twice a month on a couple of them, and find yourself ignoring the others because you are completely overwhelmed.
Take a deep breath and go back to step one (focus). Figure out which ones work best, and deactivate the others for the time being.
Consistency is key to the social media sphere. You need to give your audience the impression that you are steady. Reliable. Best not to let your audience wonder if you are still committed. Post regularly.
Evergreen content can be really helpful for this.
This is content that is always relevant (not your limited-time mini-session advertisements). “Why I became a photographer,” “Some of my favorite personal images,” things like that.
Determine what kinds of “evergreen” content you can curate, so you are not having to constantly create new content. Instead, you can have a backup of readymades that you don’t have to worry about if you’re not feeling inspired to post.
Another thing that can help with your consistency is to be confident in your brand aesthetic. Your audience will know it’s you! with just a glance. When the time comes, and they need your services, your style, your brand colors, logo style, and business name, will be the first image they see in their head – and on their feed, because you just posted that day.
Once you have the elements, in place for your social media marketing strategy, each one will reinforce the other to create a harmonious experience for your audience, your clients, and yourself.
