There is a fine line that separates a professional photographer from a photography enthusiast. The former is looking to earn revenue from their passion, while the latter can do without clients.
Surely your business has been affected during these past few months, just like most businesses out there.
Since the first cluster of COVID 19 cases broke out in our country, Malaysians have found themselves in an extended period of the movement control order. This period of restriction has impacted the lives of Malaysian business owners. In order to cope with this situation, businesses are going digital to widen the reach for their potential customers. With the battle against COVID 19 still ongoing, there is no sure sign of knowing when we can get back to business like how we used to.
One thing is for sure, the new normal calls for new ways of doing business.
Regardless of what business you are running, there is almost always a way that you can digitalize your business operations. Even for a photography studio that offers in-studio photography services? Yes, even that!
The question you may be asking yourself is how can I use social media to promote my online photography business? Keep reading and you will find the answer!
Going digital with online photography
One of the ways you can promote your photography business during this period of movement control order is through social media.
Before executing your social media marketing strategy for your photography business, it is important to know the difference between the various social media channels.
This way, you can identify the strength of each platform and use them to your business’ advantage.
We will highlight the Top 3 social media networks that you should use to promote your online photography business!
1. Facebook
2. Instagram
3. Pinterest
Photo edited with source from Pexels.
1. Facebook
If you have yet to build your business’ presence on Facebook, it is possible that you are missing out on massive opportunities to reach your potential clients.
Today, Facebook is beyond just a social networking platform for friends and families. Businesses have used Facebook to target audiences within their niche to promote their products and services, as well as interacting with their customers.
Similarly, your online photography business can also benefit from having an active presence on Facebook.
With these tools, you can know the demographics of the audience that interacts with your page, which posts outperform the others as well as keeping a close watch on your competitors’ page!
Facebook said that their platform prioritises content that aims to create meaningful interaction.
For example, if you are an online photography business on Facebook, you should focus on creating content that resonate well with photography enthusiasts.
If you’d like to stay relevant on your audiences’ news feed, you may consider these type of postings:
- Engaging photos and stories to highlight your photography process, from planning to printing;
- Live video to show how things happen behind-the-scenes;
- Relevant news within your niche and your community to show your knowledge in the photography industry;
- Featuring your customer’s testimonials to increase trust among first-time visitors to your page;
- How-to videos to educate your audience about the tips and tricks of the photography industry.
These content will not only help you to build engagement with your audience, but they can also help to position your business as an industry leader who knows what they’re talking about!
Being on Facebook is a good way to build connection with the community within your industry. Plus, if you have yet to create a website for your business, a Facebook Business Page is a good place to start.
Of course, both a professional website and an optimized Facebook page are essential for an online photography business as both have a symbiotic effect. By having a Facebook Page, your website content and Facebook page’s content can complement one another and engage different audiences with varying content.
Click here to see more on How to Set Up Your Facebook Business Page.
Photo edited with source from Pexels.
2. Instagram
Back in 2016, a study conducted by Kantar TNS, a market research agency in Malaysia found out that Malaysians are the most active Instagram users in the Asia Pacific region.
These numbers were from four years back, so you can imagine how much growth Instagram had since then.
Essentially, Instagram started as a photo-sharing app in 2010. Today, just a decade since its debut, Instagram has a lot more features that businesses can leverage on to promote their businesses.
From Instagram Stories to Instagram Live to Instagram Shop and various other engaging tools for businesses to interact with their audiences, this platform has gone from a photo-sharing app to an effective marketing tool for businesses worldwide.
Hootsuite provides some interesting statistics on Instagram that will make you want to consider setting up your own Instagram Business Account if you have yet to do so.
Here are some key takeaways:
- 63% of Instagram users log in at least once per day
- Instagram’s potential advertising reach is estimated to be 850 users
- 75.3% of businesses will be on Instagram by 2020
- Instagram users spend on average 28 minutes per day on that platform
- 62% of people said that they become more interested in a brand or business after seeing them on Instagram
These are just some of the statistics that prove why your business should be on Instagram right now!
As every social media platform have different functions, you will need to understand which type of content are suitable to be posted on your Instagram Business account in order to get the best out of it.
Here are some ideas on what your online photography business can do with your Instagram Business account:
- Conduct questions and answers (Q&A) sessions by allowing your audience to interact personally with your business and ask questions related to your industry;
- Post offers and promotions or carry out giveaways by asking your audience to share your posts on their Instagram feed or stories;
- Share memes or other funny content related to your industry to show a more approachable and less formal side of your business;
- Use carousel images to their fullest potential to increase your audience’s engagement on your account;
- Use stickers and GIFs in your posts to make them more fun and relatable for your audience
One of the best part of having an Instagram business account is that you can set up your Instagram shop. This allows followers to view your products and shop for their favourite products within the platform itself.
Due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, Instagram has enabled the Shops tab on the main navigation bar where people can browse through thousands of Instagram Shops while they are on the app.
If you are looking to sell your prints and other photography-related products, check out this step-by-step guide on How to Set Up Your Instagram Shop !
Compared to Facebook, Instagram is a more visual platform that emphasizes on the aesthetics. As an online photography business, your Instagram Business account can serve as a double-edged sword to function as your photography portfolio, as well as a marketing tool to promote your business to a wider pool of audience.
3. Pinterest
Moving from one visually-centric social media platform to another, Pinterest is one of the most underrated social media platforms that creative businesses are taking for granted.
Although Pinterest may not be the most popular social media network in Malaysia, but it is great to target more quality customers. This is because people who are on Pinterest are usually in the process of building their dream for a certain phase in their lives.
Whether is to get inspiration for interior design, wedding planning, fashion designing or branding design ideas, Pinterest can help you identify who your ideal clients are.
For example, if you are looking for customers preference for wedding photography, you might want to take closer look at users who are diligently pinning wedding planning related photos on their Pinterest boards.
These categorization of pins can help businesses to understand more about their audiences’ preferences. By knowing what people like, you can post more relevant photos that may interest them on your own Pinterest portfolio.
Pinterest sophisticated algorithm, otherwise known as the Smart Feed, is engineered to show users the content that they care about. Pins are ranked based on the quality of pins from Pinners (which is the term used to describe Pinterest account holders) that users follow, related pins and pins within the user’s interests.
Here’s how you can use Pinterest’s unique algorithm to promote your online photography business on the platform:
- Post high quality visuals by category to strengthen your photography portfolio while allowing users to browse through your pins efficiently;
- Provide free downloadable templates that represents your business’ personality and value so that they indirectly become your advocates while using your content;
- Promote your blog post from your website using creative visual accompaniments to attract website traffic from visual-first visitors;
- Highlight your photography services for designers who would like to hire professional photographers to feature their products;
- Collaborate with local designers to get a chance to be featured on their profile to increase your reach to customers within their niche
Being an online photography business, Pinterest has an advantage that other social media networks do not have when it comes to the highlighting the creativity behind a photography business.
These are the the social media platforms your online photography business should consider utilizing to build your online presence.
Photo by Lisa Fotios from Pexels.
Before deciding on your business’ social media marketing strategy, be sure to have answers to these questions:
- Will I find my ideal clients or target audience here?
- How are my ideal clients or target audience using these platforms?
- How can I use these social media platforms to help me achieve my business goals?
Once you know the answers to these crucial questions, you can start planning the content you wish to post on your Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest accounts!
It is not too late to optimize your social media accounts so that they can yield the best results to grow your business.
If you already have accounts on those platforms, you may want to carry out a social media audit to see how you can improve the content and user experience on those pages.
If you have yet to set up accounts on those platforms, start today! We offer social media management services to help you kickstart your online photography business journey right away.
Take note of the tips we have given you and plan out your social media marketing and social media content strategy.
Social media is the easiest and fastest way to promote your photography business online, so stop wasting time and get started right away.
If you need more help with curating content for your social media accounts, we are more than happy to help you out with our affordable social media strategy starter pack!
Get your Special Sharpen Your Weapon strategy PDF to help you cope with COVID-19 !
