For any profession, social media can act as a powerful marketing tool.
A photographer can use the power of social media for marketing purposes. With the help of social media, a photographer can build contacts with thousands of clients. If you do use various social media but feel as if you are not getting enough attention, then you need to try some marketing strategies to enhance your visibility.
Marketing strategy is very important for a photographer to convert their photography skills into a successful business. Technology and various platforms of creation have provided different methods for learning and showing their photography skills in social media platforms.
In this article, we will focus on some researched and well developed best photography marketing ideas for professional photographers.
Social Media Marketing on Facebook:
Everybody knows that Facebook is a great place to create a business page for a website. Many people come here, they follow some people and they like some content that others are pushing out. But there is something that you might want to pay attention to.
1. Add a Facebook icon to your website:
The first one is to add a Facebook icon to your website. The Facebook icon on the right top of the webpage allows people to see that you are on Facebook and they can follow you and get better up to date information.
If you post regularly on Facebook, it gives them an easy way to go directly to your Facebook page and like all of your content. If you don’t currently have all social media icons on your website of the entire social media platform you are currently on, it is recommended to do soon, so you can have a better online presence.
2. Put your logo on a profile picture:
On Facebook profile the two main photos that people use to see is your cover photo and profile picture. If you are a professional photographer and have a photography business and you also have a Facebook photography page then you should set the photography business logo picture as your profile picture.
A lot of photographers do a mistake to put some other type of pictures on there and it has nothing to do with their actual business. So people could get confused when they see that in the small thumbnail view. So if you put your logo on profile picture’s space, you’re probably good to go.
3. The best picture should be your cover picture:
On your cover photo, it is always recommendable to put a really awesome photo that crops really well to that aspect ratio. Make sure you put your logo on there as well.
You can also use this spot as a sort of advertisement because when you change your cover photo it sends out a notification to your followers and they can see that maybe you have something special that you are promoting and that will give them an opportunity to see them very easily.
4. Add a call to action button:
You should also think of to add a “call to action” button. Call to action is a little button on Facebook that allows people to go directly to anything that you tell them to go to.
For example, you can give your contact number that will allow people to get in contact with your business directly. You can also do so many things. If you are a landscape photographer you have to add “visit the shop” button which allows them to go directly to your online store. You can have a generic button which just checks them directly to your website from that button.
Social Media Marketing on Instagram:
Instagram offers very awesome services. Many photographers use it a lot for marketing purposes because it is only directed towards sharing photos that are perfect for a photographer because that’s typically what photographers like to share.
1. Use hashtags:
The first tip on Instagram is to use hashtags. You can do little research about how to use hashtags, how to get the most out of your hashtags and where to put them in your post so that you will not be cluttering up your descriptions.
Hashtags are the only way to search on Instagram. You can search by location but hashtags are a specific way to get users to see your photos especially the ones that are searching for that particular hashtag.
2. The amount you need to upload:
A lot of photographers may like to upload one photo a week or two photos a week, that is fine. But the more you upload the more exposure, likes and the more followers you are going to get. So it will be fair enough to upload three to four photos per week. That is very doable especially if you have enough project that you’ve been doing.
Just pick a really good photo for that day. Hashtag it, create a good description for it, upload it and see how many likes and followers you can get from those photos.
3. Upload edited, non-smartphone photos:
A lot of photographers forget to do this that you don’t have to upload photos that you have taken from your phone. You should actually upload photos that are taken from your normal DSLR.
So you should upload a really high quality edited photo. Use some editing with Lightroom or Photoshop, send it to your phone and that way you can upload a high-quality image from your phone to Instagram.
4. Always tag a location for your photos:
Whenever you upload photos to Instagram make sure you add a location to your photos. There is a location section on Instagram, when you upload, make sure you tag the city that it was taken or the business that you were taking in, even the county or the state.
Make sure you are putting a specific location in there. Whenever the people look for geolocation you could show up in those search results.
Social Media Marketing on 500px:
It is a community built by photographers for photographers. It is basically a social media account just for photographers.
1. Upload your best images:
The first tip is to only upload your best photos. Your best photos are said to be your finals. The stuff that you would keep at the end of the year to make sure that you are improving, the photos that are worth to frame, that you really want to show off.
You don’t upload any blurry photos, any behind the scene photos, just all of your final edited photos to 500px. You will only see top quality and high-quality photos on 500px so that is something to think about.
2. Fill out all of the fields when you upload:
Make sure you fill out all the fields once you’re uploading images. Whenever you upload an image, make sure on the right side you have to fill out all of the field, even a description. This will help you get better discoverability when people are searching.
Make sure that you put in a category, a title. You should make sure it’s checked whether if it’s adult or watermark, you should make changes for the license to fit, whatever license you want to go for that image and you can see more discoverability as you fill up more information.
3. Get involved:
Get involved, you don’t just upload it, make sure you are looking through photos. You’re searching through other people’s photos, commenting, sharing, and sharing awesome photos taken by other photographers. It’s really a community-based platform. So make sure you are getting involved in the community and share your contact information as well.
Maybe you are searching for photos that were taken near your area and you want to meet up with other photographers that are in your area and get together. This is a great platform to do that on.
4. Hashtag weare500px on Instagram:
Do follow 500px on Instagram and when you upload a photo to Instagram hashtag it with “#we are 500px.” This allows 500px to comb through some of those hashtags and maybe add your photo as a featured photo of the day or the week.
This will just give it a better opportunity to get on that list and once you get on that list they will obviously give credit for the photo and that will also allow you to get a little bit more followers as well.
Marketing on some other social media platform:
Apart from Facebook, Instagram and 500px some other platforms are also available to market your photography business.
1. Pinterest:
Pinterest is a content sharing website that allows you to share and post photos and videos to the Pinboard. Pinterest describes itself as a catalog of ideas that inspire people to go out and do. It is essentially a formal visual bookmarking.
The Pinterest user base is more than 80% female. Being a photographer if you are not on Pinterest or not using Pinterest actively, you are missing out. Pinterest is also heavily used by the people looking for interesting portraits ideas, family photos, babies’ photos and models for a photo shoot.
It is also a great way for a real-estate photographer to show off their ability because many people who plan their new home design, they are using Pinterest.
2. LinkedIn:
LinkedIn is definitely not a suitable platform for posting a picture but it is really a wonderful platform for building network and connections.
Social Media for Photographers:
1. Create a strong portfolio website:
To impress your followers with your photography collection, as a freelance photographer you should display a well-structured portfolio of yours. Your portfolio is a showcase, where you can tell as much as you can about your talent. While preparing a photography portfolio website, following point must not be ignored:
- Upload high-quality pictures in a beautiful layout and enable the viewer for a quick overview as well as for enlarging pictures.
- Make your website user-friendly for a mobile user.
- Create a separate album for all genres of your photography.
- Keep things simple and clean.
- Mention your contact details like email id, a link of your social media profile, etc.
2. Share stories associated with the picture:
When you share associated stories with your photos, people do feel more connected with the pictures. However, images itself tell a lot but adding text content will have some extra advantages. It helps to engage the audiences and multiplying your followers.
3. Upload tutorials on YouTube:
You can create your YouTube channels and upload some occasional tutorials. People usually come to YouTube to learn various skills. Create a short and informative video related to photography and upload it on your YouTube channel. Many marketers create a YouTube channel to create a brand and earn followers.
4. Try paid promotion:
The fact is paid marketing gives better and quick results than free marketing. If you are a beginner and have just started up freelance photography then you might not appreciate this idea.
You can try some of the options dedicated to the promotion of your business within your budget. All social media platform facilitates paid advertisement. You can promote your photography business there and increase your reachability.
Conclusion:
There are numerous social media platforms like Twitter, Snapshot, etc. which have huge followers. But Facebook, Instagram, and 500px are the most effective platforms to expand and grow your photography business as much as possible and really get your name out there. So, explore more social media marketing tips and enjoy photography.