Social Media Marketing for your Photography Business: Our Top Tips
Let’s be honest, between ever-changing algorithms, new trends and guidelines, Social Media can be overwhelming.
Ever found yourself staring at the screen trying to type “the perfect post” just to end up realizing you’ve wasted 30 minutes of your precious time?
Argh, the frustration!
With so much conflicting advice on what to post, when and how it is easy to feel like giving up (hello, weeks of total silence on our business pages!) or purchasing every single social media calendar available under the sun.
“I really should be posting more!”
And let’s not talk about that dreaded moment when you realized you’ve put so much effort into actually scheduling a few posts and… crickets.
“I hate social media.”
Trust me, you’re not alone, and this is precisely why we’ve created The Social Post Formula - our way to make peace with social media, understand it, and find a sustainable way to use it.
For us, sustainable social media marketing means moving away from that guilty “I know I should…” to embrace a strategy that allows you to use social media as a tool – thereby putting yourself in control – rather than letting an algorithm control your actions.
This article guides you through our 4 best tips for creating just that: creating an effective social media strategy that you will actually WANT to implement.
Consistency is KEY
But how many times exactly?
Here’s your reference chart:
- "Sometimes don’t post for an entire week/ Less than 3 times a week/ I mostly post stories."
Commit to 3 feed posts a week + 2 stories a week
- "I post 3 times a week on average"
Commit to 4 feed posts + 3 stories a week
- "I post 4+ times a week"
Commit to posting 5+ times a week creating more varied comment (for example, include more reels or carousel posts)
Now, grab your calendar and mark the start date and end date of your 6-week cycle.
Done? Excellent.
Once your first cycle is done, you will move up to the next level for another 6 weeks… and so on!
Keep it simple
One of the biggest traps when it comes to creating social media content is wanting to make it perfect.
From captions to graphics, we love beautiful things (and are kind of mad perfectionists) so we want to just get it right.
Whilewanting to create great content is certainly a noble and worthy goal…the risk is over-planning and/or making content creation so time consuming that it simply is not sustainable for you to commit to it consistently.
Our suggestion?
Forget complicated social media calendars with tens of different types of posts. Instead, choose 3 or 4 types of posts that you will be regularly posting every week.
For example:
- Behind the scenes
- Sneak peak (if you are not posting sneak peaks replace this with an image from session and short caption to accompany it)
- FAQ explaining how your sessions work
- Reviews from clients
Are there any other posts you should be publishing?
Of course, there are endless possibilities and if content creation is your jam… go wild!
If you are here, however, chances are you have not fallen in love with Social Media yet so remember - consistency wins over quantity.
You don't need NEW content all the time
That’s right, repurposing content is a strategy embraced by most of the most successful businesses, creators and brand.
Repurposing content refers to the practice of reusing content previously published on other platforms(for example, using paragraphs taken straight from one of your blogposts/web pages/session guides for your captions) or republishing oldsocial media content with different images and a few caption amendments.
First of all, it helps your content to be seen.
Thinkabout it, creating good content takes time and when you combine yourreaders’ very limited attention span and an average reach of 4-10%... do you really think it’s a good idea to post something once?
To help you keep your content fresh, follow these 3 simple rules:
- Repurpose content older than 12 weeks
- Always change your images, if possible
- Change the first and last sentence of your repurposed content
RELEVANCE vs REACH and VIEWS
Soooo much is being written and said about this, and reel views: tips, tricks, trends… but have you noticed how most of that advice is being given by “experts” selling social media courses, calendars and templates?
As a photographer using social media for getting bookings from a relatively local audience, relevance is much more important to you than anything else.
But what is, exactly, relevance? In short, attracting a highly targeted, local audience.
Here are 3 tips for attracting a highly relevant, targeted audience for your photography business:
1) Unless you already have a broad audience, limit the number of reels published on your Instagram profile as they tend to be seen by lots of photographers - not necessarily a local audience
2) Combine short and long captions: the short ones might get higher engagement, but the long ones are useful for educating and nurturing “the right” people
3) Collaborate with other local businesses
And remember: reach is not your goal, reach is the result of consistently reaching out to a highly targeted local audience!
And breaaaaathe....
Remember, building an engaged social media audience is really no different than building a great client base: it takes time, work and patience.
If you ever get frustrated and find yourself sitting at your desk for 30 minutes staring at a white Facebook Business Manager remember: it doesn’t have to be perfect!
Let go of things you have very little control over, like algorithms, and focus on simple, small steps that build GREAT habits you can rely on.
Commit to posting 3 or 4 times a week for the next 6 weeks, it will do wonders for your online presence!
Empower your business from within with this free guide
Hi! I'm Giulia
But you can call me Gi.
I’m your resident Photography Marketing Coach, Advertising Geek and midnight snack smuggler extraordinaire.
