Hey Photographers -Get Your Creative Gears Turning!

There are many ways to sell photos online, in your studio, and also increase brand awareness about your services while telling people what sets you apart.  Getting traffic to your website is just one piece of the puzzle.  Another big piece that has emerged and does not seem to be going anywhere soon is engaging your customers in any way possible.  Making them part of your business in a sense, part of your daily conversation, has become important to maintaining loyalty while at the same time getting valuable feedback about your business.

Facebook is a great tool for achieving these objectives.  There seems to be 1 of three scenarios regarding Facebook with photographers; they are not on it, they are on it and not using it or they are on it and using it pretty well.  I would recommend not using it at all if you don’t have the time to properly maintain it, because a bad or inactive social profile is worse than none at all.  If you do realize the potential and are willing to learn how to use the platform to your advantage, here’s five tips that will help you get the most from the experience.

1) Don’t put too much time into it: Huh?  Yep, you heard right.  If you’re spending more than 15-30 minutes a day on your Facebook strategy then get back to the basics.  Remember to create and link to your own content when you can, be genuine, find industry specific news for your followers and mix it in with information for your fan base.  Sell yourself through being a good source of information, the occasional humerus quote and some great photos.  If you do that, then you only have to mix in the occasional promotion, contest or giveaway.

2) Plan your posts in advance: You know those times when you’re having random brainstorms.  You’re out to lunch with a friend or picking up your kids from an event or working on a home project and you get good ideas one after another.  Next time you feel the motivation and the ideas are flowing, grab a pen and paper and jot them down.  Having a rough M-F plan for  daily posts will make #1 a lot easier to follow.  Of course if more interesting topics come up during the week then it’s fine to replace them.  It simply serves as a road map.

3) Learn from your audience: The more sharing the better.  The more information you can get from your client base the better.  What do they want?  What do they need?  What are they willing to pay for?  Ask them.  It’s that simple.  It’s made even more simple with a new feature that Facebook just came out with.  Here’s a great blog post on using Facebook’s new question & polling feature.  Pretty nifty way to get information right from your clients if you ask me.

4) Utilize what you’ve learned.  If people want to see more of your photography, show them that.  If response is high to a monthly giveaway, find a way to spread it more or turn it into sales.  If your target demographic falls within a specific age group, share occasional information that would interest them.

5) Remember it’s not about you, it’s about others!  Keep that in mind and you’ll start to get more response.

I hope this was helpful.  Feel free to reach out to me with any questions or comments.

Drew Warner | SEO Specialist | MorePhotos.com