Social media is something that is now imperative to successful marketing… But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be selective when using it.
As a photographer, grappling with social media often involves sharing lots of images (mostly yours) in the hope that someone will see it, re-tweet it, and it’ll go viral and result in thousands of orders… Result! Unfortunately that rarely happens.
You’re more likely to be successful on social media with a strategy – but don’t worry, that can be easier to implement than it sounds. First of all, you need to think about the following:
Who are your audience?
Your clients, the people you’re trying to reach?
This should be something you’re already familiar with (have you read our previous blogs?) but if you’re not then it’s okay to take a sit down and think about it now.
Are your audience online – and if so, where?
Not every group of people is online – that’s a fact – however, most people will be in some guise and some will be using certain networks more often than others. It might be that your fans are mostly on Facebook, or perhaps (as you’d hope they’re interested in images) they’re on Instagram? It pays to do your research… Which leads us on to our next point…
You don’t have to be on every network – focus.
Be selective, think about the point above and work out where suits your audience and creates the most engagement. We find, for instance, that we get a great level of interaction via Facebook, but Google+ not so much.
Make your content unique
Don’t whitewash every network with the same content! It’s easy, but you’re not giving your followers reasons to follow you on each network and this repetition quickly gets boring. Some content can be duplicated, but ultimately, you’ll want to change this to suit each network – don’t just copy and paste.
Don’t just talk about yourself.
Your social profiles shouldn’t be line after line of self-promotion. What are you interested in? Our biggest loves are our clients (corny, but true), art and design (of course)… Closely followed by dogs (Mason is our favorite). These things are what motivate us, and therefore most of what we present online falls into one of these categories. It’s important to show the world what a multi-dimensional person you are – don’t be afraid to show you’re human; your followers will thank you for it. Silly stuff is fine to share too, but don’t get caught up sharing too many memes. Social sharing is a balancing act.
Time it right
Most of us don’t have time to be on social media all the time, and if you did, then you wouldn’t be creating artwork. This is why clever folk out there invented social media scheduling tools – your new best friend. There are hundreds of paid for and free apps like Hootsuite, Buffer, Tweetdeck and Sproutsocial (to name but a few) that will allow you to write engaging tweets (see above) and put them out when your audience will see this and pay the most attention. Try these out and decide which suits you (and your budget) best – most of them have free trials. Once you’ve got your scheduling tool, try posting at multiple times of the day and monitor what creates the most engagement.
…That said, post when you’re able to reply
There’s no point putting out content which engages people at times that you’ll be unable to reply if someone starts a conversation – posting content at these times is shouting into a void, and ignoring followers is rude. You don’t need to be glued to your phone but make sure you’ve enabled push-notifications on your mobile, check occasionally throughout the day, and reply where necessary.
Engage with others
Don’t just wait for people to engage with you! Follow people you’re interested in and tell them when they’ve created something you adore – you want the same in return, after all? Share, promote, engage – do everything you’d like to see in return. Aside from the fact that karma’s great… An artist it’s also important to be aware of what’s going on around you.
Once you’ve got the above questions answered you can begin to create your plan, or strategy. What will you share?