When it comes to promoting your business or just showcasing your latest photographs for FREE nothing beats social media.
Anyone who wants to get ahead in anything nowadays avoids social media at their peril. The simple fact is if you want to reach as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time AND with very little effort then social media is hands down your best choice.
Generally it is believed a presence on no more than three or four social media sites is best for business. The reasoning behind this is, it’s far easier to manage and promote three or four platforms really well. The alternative is having more accounts and not doing yourself or you business any justice because you just don’t have the time available to keep everything up to date on a regular basis.
To get the best from social media you need to have a constant flow of new posts in order to keep your followers interested. This means posting new content to each of your social media platforms on a regular basis.
How regular?
AT LEAST once a day but preferably several times a day – on ALL of your chosen platforms. This may sound like a lot of work, and initially it is but don’t worry there are apps and plugins out there that can help you (I will cover these in a later post). With this in mind I’m sure you can see why only three or four platforms are recommended.
So as a photographer which are the best social media sites to have a presence on? Which three or four should you choose?
I will list what I consider to be the top four social media sites photographers should have a presence on. I will leave it up to you to decide which ones are best suited to your needs.
Of all the social media platforms available today, Instagram is the one most photographers will think of as a place to showcase their work. It’s a simple smartphone based app that has grown considerably since its launch in 2010. At the time of writing Instagram has over one billion users, with 500 million active users EVERY DAY!
As you can see from these figures it is definitely worth having a presence on this social media platform. Being an image based platform it’s the ideal place to be for any photographer wanting to get their work noticed. As with other platforms, your followers have the ability to like and comment on your Instagram posts.
If you want to get the best out of Instagram you need to embrace using hashtags to categorise your images. I find a brief description followed by a list of hashtags tends to get the best results. Don’t worry if you post your image and then decide you want to add a hashtag or edit the description. You can always go back and change the text or add hashtags using the edit option in the drop down menu.
Drawbacks?
One of the main things you will have to bear in mind when using Instagram. Your posts initially have a limited time in the limelight. When you initially post your image it will be at the top of your chosen hashtag list. Your image will slowly move down the list as more photos are added to that particular hashtag. With 500 million daily users, this can happen very quickly when the image is in a common category. As a result you will find you get most of your likes and comments within the first hour of posting your images. After the initial post you will find you will pick up likes less frequently. This usually happens when people are drawn to your profile by your latest image and as a result browse your other images.
like it or loath it if you want to get your work noticed you NEED to have a presence on Facebook. Facebook is by far and away the biggest social media platform out there. It is the third most popular website on the internet only beaten by google and YouTube.
Facebook posts can quickly spread because of the option for people viewing your images to share with their friends. With this in mind Facebook is the obvious place to be to get the greatest reach for your posts.
Don’t use your own personal page for your work, create a separate page to display your photographs. If you do this you will have a lot more features on your photography page available to help promote your work. Once you have your page set up invite everyone from your friends list to follow your page and you will have an instant audience on which to build.
Pinterest is the relatively new kid on the block having only been launched in 2010. Even though it has only been around for a short time it’s quickly become a popular place for photographers to promote their work.
Pinterest has hundreds of boards, people and topics to follow and participate in. So no matter what kind of photographer you are there is something here for everyone. The four most searched for subjects on Pinterest are fitness, travel, weddings, and babies. If you specialise in any of these fields it’s a great social media platform to be on.
As with Instagram the best results come when you post a photograph with a brief description of your image. One thing to consider when posting images to Pinterest is because of the format of the pins you will always get better results when posting images in the portrait format.
When people think of social media platforms Twitter is usually second only to Facebook. Again another huge social media platform with over 500 million tweets sent EVERY DAY!
Like Facebook if you post an image and it gets re-tweeted a couple of times you have the potential of reaching a huge audience.
One big drawback to Twitter is you are limited to 280 characters per tweet. When you factor in that any links or hashtags you put in your tweet will reduce the amount of characters, you need to be very economical with what you want to say about your image.
Having said that it’s a great place to be if you want to network with other photographers.
Alternative Social Media platforms…
Should the four I’ve listed above not be to your liking flickr, Tumblr, youpic and 500px are all worth having a look at too.
All the social media platforms I have listed have their good points and bad points. They are not suited to everyone, that’s why it is important to spend time finding the ones that really work for you. Remember only use three or four social media sites at the most. Stick to this and you will be able to get optimum results from each platform you use.
Which Social Media platforms do you use? Are there any I’ve missed that you would recommend?
