Everyone knows that social media provides a platform for both emerging and professional photographers to share their work, network with other professionals, and reach out to potential clients.
It seems like a simple thing, and it can be, but there are also ways you can use places like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to boost your chances of bringing in new photography clients. These tips go beyond just uploading your photos and hoping someone finds you, and you may have already heard of them, but are you putting them into practice?
Go ahead and check out some ways you can use social media to bring in potential clients. Try out the ones you haven’t before and watch how they make a difference.
Share Your Best Stuff
This probably goes without saying, but I’m going to include it anyway because it falls within the realm of curating your feed. When people visit your Instagram, Facebook, or whichever platform you’re using (most likely all of them!), you want them to get a sense of your style, your brand, and your target audience. Instead of having a feed filled with random photos, think of it as a piece of artwork, your portfolio, and create a feed that expresses the vibe of your work.
Make it Easy for Clients to Contact You
Whether it’s a LinkedIn profile or your Twitter page, make sure potential clients know how to reach you. Not only that, make it easy for them to contact you, because let’s face it - people are busy, aren’t particularly patient, and are easily distracted, so they aren’t likely to go digging around your profiles to find your phone number, address, or email. List a variety of ways to contact you in a clearly visible space so that potential clients and vendors can reach out.
Be Professional
If you’re trying to build or maintain a photography business, you’ll need to act like a professional. That doesn’t mean you have to wear a suit in your profile pictures or hide your personality. Be you, but be a professional you who clients and other professionals can trust. Because your profile will be public (otherwise, why bother?), you’ll want to make sure you post photos that relate to your work. If you wouldn’t share it with Mom, don’t share it with the world. You’ll also want to write a simple bio that lets people know who you are, as well as your contact info and link to your website.
Use Hashtags
If you aren’t using hashtags, you’ll be amazed at the difference they make once you do start tagging your photos. Hashtags act as search terms on social media and help people find what they’re looking for. As a photographer, you can use hashtags that relate to your location, photography style, your specialty, equipment used, etc. You can also use general terms that relate to your work, like #photographer, #weddingphotographer, or #familyportrait.
Build Meaningful Connections
Building relationships with other network professionals, as well as with potential clients, creates a level of respect and trust. Spend time liking, commenting, and engaging with professionals in your field (wedding vendors, for example) and with ideal clients to build connections that are beneficial to both parties. But make sure it’s coming from an honest place and that you’re not just randomly and inconsistently liking and commenting for your own benefit.
Run a Contest or Giveaway
An easy way to generate interest in your business is to run contests and giveaways. Have followers use specific hashtags, like your page, make comments, share the contest/giveaway with friends, repost a photo, etc. You can then choose to give away a photo session, a print, a product, or anything else related to your industry and business. This gets people excited and engaged and may just bring in people who wouldn’t have heard about you otherwise. And that means potential photography clients!
Related: 10 Fun and Useful Photography Projects for the New Year
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