Most photographers seem to be privy to the potential of social media for their photography business but most have no idea where to start, so they either skip it entirely or try and do too much and get it all wrong. The ultimate result is either a missed opportunity, or way too much time wasted on it with no real return for their efforts.
Most social media promoting is about engaging with your present customers so it is smart to pick just 1 or 2 services and target those. I'd suggest a Blog for longer planned posts and a micro-blogging platform like Facebook for short updates on an improvised basis.
Whatever platforms you agree on, give yourself a schedule and allot a certain amount of time to post updates... And stick to it. For most photographys selling photography online, a weekly update is plenty so allow 15-30 minutes once every week to post to your blog, and 5 minutes a day to test your Wall, respond to any comments and post your own update.
Keep a list beside your personal computer for post-ideas, long and short, and add to it continually. Never go to your Blog or your Facebook page without a clear idea of what you're going to write about! Turn off e-mail alerts when visitors post to your Wall and don't fall into the trap of checking it consistently like email! Instead allocate time each day to respond to all visitor comments fro mthe last 24 hours. You'll soon work out when the busy period is and time your visit after that.
Some platforms do have potential for 'prospecting ' for leads so you can work smart and use tools like Posterous to republish your blog and social content across multiple platforms hands-free, as long as you only spend time on your selected platforms.
Facebook seems to be the platform of choice for most individuals but there appears to be a growing interest in Google Plus among photographers. The big difference so far is that Google states that the copyright of any images you submit remains with you, while Facebook reserves a right to use anything you publish as they wish!
At this point Google Plus hasn't got anything resembling Facebook's business pages, but they're reportedly on the way... So that's sure to shake things up a bit for photographers.
If you are only starting with Social Marketing the important thing is to choose which platform you are going to use and stick fast to it. Then work out who your audience will be & what sort of conversation they'd like to have with you? After that it's just a matter of telling all of your business contacts and posting continually until folks turn up and join in! Keep it professional but inject a bit of 'you ' also. Talk about the work your doing, but also why you are doing it and what it suggests to you. Don't attempt to sell here!
Always remember the goal is to make your social page a center where your photo-buyer Clients can connect to you and with each other, so you have got to keep encouraging them to go there and keep urging them to join the conversation!
Most social media promoting is about engaging with your present customers so it is smart to pick just 1 or 2 services and target those. I'd suggest a Blog for longer planned posts and a micro-blogging platform like Facebook for short updates on an improvised basis.
Whatever platforms you agree on, give yourself a schedule and allot a certain amount of time to post updates... And stick to it. For most photographys selling photography online, a weekly update is plenty so allow 15-30 minutes once every week to post to your blog, and 5 minutes a day to test your Wall, respond to any comments and post your own update.
Keep a list beside your personal computer for post-ideas, long and short, and add to it continually. Never go to your Blog or your Facebook page without a clear idea of what you're going to write about! Turn off e-mail alerts when visitors post to your Wall and don't fall into the trap of checking it consistently like email! Instead allocate time each day to respond to all visitor comments fro mthe last 24 hours. You'll soon work out when the busy period is and time your visit after that.
Some platforms do have potential for 'prospecting ' for leads so you can work smart and use tools like Posterous to republish your blog and social content across multiple platforms hands-free, as long as you only spend time on your selected platforms.
Facebook seems to be the platform of choice for most individuals but there appears to be a growing interest in Google Plus among photographers. The big difference so far is that Google states that the copyright of any images you submit remains with you, while Facebook reserves a right to use anything you publish as they wish!
At this point Google Plus hasn't got anything resembling Facebook's business pages, but they're reportedly on the way... So that's sure to shake things up a bit for photographers.
If you are only starting with Social Marketing the important thing is to choose which platform you are going to use and stick fast to it. Then work out who your audience will be & what sort of conversation they'd like to have with you? After that it's just a matter of telling all of your business contacts and posting continually until folks turn up and join in! Keep it professional but inject a bit of 'you ' also. Talk about the work your doing, but also why you are doing it and what it suggests to you. Don't attempt to sell here!
Always remember the goal is to make your social page a center where your photo-buyer Clients can connect to you and with each other, so you have got to keep encouraging them to go there and keep urging them to join the conversation!
About the Author:
Matt Brading is a photographer & write4 who sells digital stock photography on the GlobalEye stock library and does self publishing in Kindle.
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