Estimated Reading Time 10 minutes.
You surely chose your passion for a living over depressing bureaucratic careers, and I congratulate you for your choice! However, being a photographer is no easy job! Regardless of the technical aspect of the job, the early wake-ups, and the long journeys, social media and smartphones have turned the job look more accessible and slightly trivialized.
While this nemesis idea is eating every photographer up, in this article, I will show you how to put social media to the advantage of your businesses and stand out of the crowd, either you are an art organization or an artist.
It is for sure, social media is for everyone, and it suits all businesses and liberal activities, but unlike the common misconception you might have as a photographer, social media remain “visual marketing”, and visual is your strong point. What is left to be done is to stay distinguished all year long. For that, join me in this article.
Agenda
In this article, I will explain and focus on the social media you must use as a photographer. I will also give some best practices that will boost your marketing objectives and give you better results. By the end of this article, you will be a happier photographer who has a plan… not any plan… a content plan for his or her new social marketing strategy!
I am sure you heard of most of the following social media I will mention. And probably, you are using them on a daily basis, but probably not in the right way. In this article, I will discuss how to take full advantage of your social properties and adapt your day-to-day content consumption and use of social media to satisfy and increase your business as a photographer. How, you say? I will explain…
Despite the latest few Tweets that Adam Mosseri – Head of Instagram left us, and the fact that the platform will focus more on videos from now on (among other things), Instagram remains the number one visual social network you could ever use. With the massive audience it has, you can gain enormous notoriety due to its popular success.
The pictorial network is best used for previewing and highlighting your services or even promoting your next exhibition, project, or campaign. It is a great social network to share photography artwork with other photographers, clients, and fans.
What you might not know about Instagram is that it has various algorithms that determine what you see on your screen. Every type of content has a different procedure because it fulfills different needs. Reason why, different actions need to be taken either you’re checking out your newsfeed page, stories, or even search page.
Regarding the content appearing in the feed and in the stories, make sure your followers interact with your content. To make your content appear first, Instagram will take into consideration the number of likes, comments, bookmarking and the localization you mention.
As photographers, what could perfectly work here for you is storytelling. Tell people why you took your photo, what is the story behind it, what happened on your journey, and share some behind-the-scenes pictures and videos. Set the mood and keep the suspense going.
Interact with the same type of content to indicate to Instagram’s algorithm that this kind of content interests you. Keep your content and comments relevant to your activity, and don’t forget to use five to ten appropriate and specific hashtags to share your content in front of the right targeted audience. Use the first comment to share your hashtags and keep your captions short and concise but also creative and clever.
Use call-to-action buttons to drive traffic to your website, portfolio, or blog. Work on your profile and write a bio of 150 characters that describes your activity in the simplest way possible and use emojis to make it more fun. If your content is relevant, share it on other social networks, and don’t hesitate to tag your fellow photographers and galleries or any work/firm you work with after you get their approval, to gain more visibility.
Highlight and pin your best work-related stories on your profile. It’s a great asset to showcase your work, vision, and philosophy.
Most popular posts on the explorer search page depend on the interaction they get just after they were posted. Instagram’s algorithm will search for similar interactions and analyze your recent activity regarding previous content you saw or interact with. Same for Reels, Instagram will examine previous videos you saw and interact with as well as the popularity of the account that posted this piece of content. On these terms and conditions, take a moment and reflect on the type of content you might share and the community you want to interest.
This is only the tip of the iceberg. There is a lot more to say about Instagram, but I will keep it short for now. The next social network is an Adobe product and is suitable for professional artists. Let’s discover more about it!
Behance
“Without any doubts, Behance is LinkedIn for creative people!”
It is designed by Adobe itself to make creative peoples’ lives much easier. At any time during your creative journey, you’ll need to present a portfolio or a piece of work to get a job, a client, or any work opportunity.
Behance is giving you the chance to digitalize your portfolio, stay in touch with other creatives, create new experiences, and stay in touch with a community of creatives and art enthusiasts.
It is a great tool to build a name among other creatives, agencies, and people who potentially surfer to find interesting arts, like buyers for instance.
As you can conclude, Behance will help you focus on your work, and design your personal branding. Personalize your profile and fill in your basic information, mention the team you’re working with (if they’re on the platform too), link all your social proprieties to your account, and tell more about you, your work experience and your references.
Display your projects, mood boards, or any piece of work you’re proud of. Drag and drop projects in the order you desire. A Best practice says to place the best work at the beginning and at the very end, this way, you will impress your visitors at first sight and leave them with the same idea in mind at the very end.
Either you are in the early stages of your career or someone who has a lot of work experience, don’t hesitate to privilege quality over quantity. Juniors must show some personal projects for starters; however, professional seniors must present aspiring projects that define the trajectory they took, or relevant work to the position they wish to apply to. In both cases, tag your images and projects, it will help the internal search and search engines to perform.
Respond to comments and critics with high professionalism, block trolls and make sure the showcased work drives traffic to your website or blog by backlinking all your projects.
Behance is a great solution for all creatives, not only photographers. Well now, if you wish to join a community of photographers only, you must join 500px.
500px
Discover and share some photography in a social network dedicated 100% to photographers only. This social network gives you immediate exposure and ensures your photos are seen by a community of photographers. Present yourself as a professional and highlight your services and work as a whole artist. Measure your performance and rank your work in comparison to other photographers.
You can use the free version with a limited number of uploads (7 photos per week), or you can opt for the paid option with numerous additional features such as unlimited uploads, ad-free browsing, and promote your own photography workshop. You can also certify your artwork thanks to 500px license. It might take a couple of days for the approval, but once it’s done, you’ll earn 60% of the license and the remaining 40 % will go to the platform.
You can customize your profile, build your brand identity, your portfolio, and get the exposure you wish for. Insights will guide you in sourcing your traffic and exposure, choosing mobile-first photos, and making your work search engine compliant. You can also share your resources and get hired faster with access to a priority listing.
Participate in the suggested quests. These challenges will test your skills, give you exposure, help recruiters recognize your skills, and off course make you eligible to win a prize. If a brand sponsors a quest, make sure to take part in it, because you might reach a wider exposure this way and bring more business to you.
Fill in a form and surpass your creative boundaries so you become a 500px Ambassador. Share your love of photography and your work experience, regardless of the background you come from, and advocate your passion. This will show as a gem in your career path, especially to people who might look up for you in the Directory (section where you can find and hire photographers).
Joining a group discussion or creating one will help you interact more with this community of photographers. Choose groups that might interest you professionally and are in concordance with the type of photography you do.
Last but not least, 500px exposes photographers who have excel in their domain. Creator stories is a “magazine” of great accomplishments and success stories. It might be a great source of inspiration for you, and surely soon another webpage to highlight your triumphs.
Finally, 500px wants to treat you with some exclusive discounts over its special features to push your creative features and keep you connected in a creative discussion.
Summary
To sum up things to you:
• Use Instagram to highlight and promote your work, next campaigns, and exhibitions. Use it to push your followers to take actions such as buy, like, comment, and bookmark, but also, to interact and create a cohesive atmosphere thanks to the storytelling you’ll do.
• Use Behance to digitalize your portfolio and build a name among your fellow colleagues. Also, use it to focus on your work and build your personal branding.
• Use 500px to discover and share photography with other photographers, to build a strong brand identity, to find new work opportunities, and to become a reference in the field.
In conclusion, this is only a bunch of suitable social media you can put in use as a photographer and stand out from the cruel unprofessional photography that is occurring on social networks. I hope these best practices will find you best, and I promise to provide you with more tactics and networks soon.
Stay tuned!
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