Marketing advice for photographers: Be social on social media
Image by: @priscilladupreez
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Facebook and other social media platforms are just that - social media platforms. They have expanded to make money by offering business tools, but it doesn't change the base that they were formed on. So on socials we must prioritize being social as a sales strategy.
Respect groups and be a friendly neighbour
Groups full of advertising aren't social and constant ads break sociability aspects and that's why many admins restrict them totally or partially. So many people want to use these free tools to minimize their marketing investment and maximize their reach, that groups would be quickly overrun if not monitored. We are also not being social if we scroll these groups with the mindset to only find paying clients. On socials it's about relationship building, becoming an accepted community member with valuable information. As Sesame Street taught us, there are many people in our neighbourhood. You are the good photography neighbour, and if you are neighbourly, you will be able to gain ground much better than just using social media channels to sell.
I interact within groups as a community member and as a mom. I post sometimes when I need advice or looking for a referral. I’ll make it a point to respond to people on any topic I might have some insights into because I live a life outside of my photography and my local area is important to me. This is an important aspect. Especially if we aren’t heavy users of a particular media but have chosen to use if for business, it’s important also to show up as a human too. This helps our marketing because then we don’t look so predatory as to only show up when we’re looking for a money exchange. Being social literally gets our name out there. Not as a photographer maybe, but that’s ok. When the times comes (see the next section), you will build out that link.
The Contribution Strategy
When an opportunity comes, I contribute resources such as sharing my local venue wedding directory to someone looking for something in the area, or an interesting blog post related to family, maternity or newborn which are my other specialties. I create content specifically that may be meaningful and valuable. And because it’s content and not advertising, there isn’t any restriction about posting or responding in groups.
Resource-building
Read what people are writing in groups to find problems that you can be the solution for. Moms are always looking for activities to do with kids, places to go, places to shop. Women are seeking advice on family dynamics, self-image, career and referrals for services. People are planning events of all sorts. Find the angle where photography can be relevant and start creating content. Go on a field trip to photograph the best splash pads in your area and write a post for sharing. Go connect with the new children’s boutique or new family restaurant and offer some photos and do a profile piece on them.
Fun and levity
Look for creative ways to present your content that is appealing to your audience. I photograph families, and sometimes pets do the funniest things. I wrote a post on the times that the family dog stole the show when doing a session, and it was a fun piece to share because I know there is a TON of dog owners and lovers in our area. If someone is going to scroll funny animal videos when they want to zone out, let it be my content!
You probably have a good body of work. Look through sessions to find opportunities to aggregate photographs around a particular topic. Outtakes, kid’s funniest or crappiest faces during sessions, animals cuddling with their humans, the season’s most popular outfit colour or style. The variety of different clouds you encounter when shooting on sunny days. How pigeons seem to find themselves into every urban photo you ever take, or how rainy reflections make locations look magical. If you can be creative during sessions, move some of that creativity into your content too.
Advice
We live and breathe photography and others do not. Find ways to share your knowledge and expertise. This could be around photography or around subjects related to your photography such as family life, newborns, or planning events or weddings. Here you can share local resources that are relevant to your genre and it gives you an opportunity to meet other local entrepreneurs as well! This is particularly good to build authority. If you know what you’re talking about, people will seek you out when they are looking for information.
Community well-being and empathy
The remnants of hurricane Debby swept through our community two weeks ago. We here in Montreal aren’t usually heavily affected by hurricanes (nor prepared for them), since we are quite far north from where they usually hit land. We may get some wet and windy weather at the most. But Debby’s torrential rains in a short period, overflowed our systems and caused chaos. Roads flooded, and sewers backed up. Hundreds, even thousands of people had flooding and sewage backup into their basements. And where do we typically store our old family albums? You guessed it - the basement. I wrote a post about disaster preparedness and recovery around our photos and albums and linked to resources for salvaging damaged items. I wrote it because while I was spared, many friends and neighbours were not, and my heart went out to them. I care very much and helped in the realm that I could - around photography. My blog post wasn’t selling anything and had no call to action to book services - that wouldn’t align with the circumstance nor my integrity. But it helped to reinforce my reputation as an professional in my field and people in my see me as a trusted member of the community who reached out to try and help where I was able.
When your community is in hard times, find ways of helping or supporting. I also worked many years in the non-profit sector and I regularly provide names of community organizations when people can find resources such as food bank or shelters. It’s hard for people to ask for help, and my years of experience also allows me to demystify a sector that people often don’t know much about and in doing so, helping them find the courage to reach out.
Where can you help? Volunteer work, a previous career where you have a depth of knowledge: retired contractors in my area posted on FB after Debby, to give advice on how to safely dismantle damaged materials and prevent mould growth, and former insurance agents offered advice of how to deal with insurance companies. Involvement in faith-based or religious communities, personal experiences in parenting or sports or other topics. We all have something we can contribute.
The sell, where applicable
I do a mix of linked and non-linked content, and I let my intuition and common sense guide me. If someone needs a referral for some good appliances, I will answer inline (because I recently bought new appliances myself) because writing a blog post about appliances doesn’t make good business sense for me. But if someone is looking for a local venue to marry at, I will link my venue directory, and then add a few lines in the post - maybe stating the shortlist of what to look at in my list based on what matches their description the best.
On days where I can post ads, I alternate between my fun/ advice/ resource content, and advertising offers. All of these link to a web page or a blog post and all of them have a lead magnet to get people onto a mailing list (with exception of any well-being posts).
A note on etiquette
I will never, never, ever complain, be snarky or sarcastic or mean in any posting, anywhere, ever. I don’t flame clients publicly and if there is ever something I need to vent about, I do so privately in my journal.
We all know and see the sh*t disturbers in local groups who only chime in to make fun or flame others. And it may be tempting to get sucked in. We as communities experience many gripes. Here is my neck of the woods it’s construction, a failing bridge under eternal repair that causes massive traffic woes, ongoing language issues between the majority and minority language groups, politics, and bad service at restaurants. I may share in frustrations or have opinions on these things, but I refuse to participate. My personal philosophy is that I will only post what’s helpful and positive. I have no desire to correct people, change their minds (impossible anyways), or to get into a word battle and need the last word. This is because even though I may be participating as just me, I am tied to my brand and I will protect that reputation always and in all ways. Off-putting, sarcastic or mean comments written by me personally can have a way of finding their way back to me professionally.
This may be especially important to those who live in small towns where everyone knows everyone. Keep it helpful, upbeat, and on-brand. You never want to get your name out there, only to find that it’s not in a positive light. When it comes to social media, my policy is to be social, but also to always be kind.
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