The Value of Instagram, Facebook (social Media) for a business.

[phantasia]

(please move this to real-life issues if more fitting)

I am a Full-time Photographer and I have been debating with myself if I should spend more money on expanding my social media precence.

I started my photography in 2010 and believe it or not back then the biggest way to promote your photography business was definitely word-of-mouth. So you would do one or two good shoot and people would tell others. If you were starting out maybe you would spend some money and publish in a magazine.. What actually brought most of my clients was going to wedding venues and introducing myself. I would then leave business cards and the venue owner or manager would suggest me to the couples that would come see the venue. Firstly the number of photographers were far less nad it was the main way of finding a photographer. Instagram, I don't think even existed and Facebook was still in the beginning stage. If you had a website you were already a step ahead of the rest.

Currently, I have a little more than 5k Facebook followers and only 1k Instagram. I always thought that word-of -mouth would always be the best method of getting costumers but now I feel like even if you are recommended by the venue and other vendorsm the younger generation, would first look you up on Facebook and Instagram and see if you have a lot of followers. Am I right to think that?

Now I am thinking is it really worth spending money to get a huge following. Is it one of the main concerns for people looking maybe specifically for a photographer? And then is Facebook and Instgram the right ones. How do you know if you should not concentrate on Pintrest? Ir that another big thing will turn up in a month or two. It is basically impossible to concentrate on more than two social platforms. Well even two is actualy proving a lot .
Then where should money be spent?

1. Should you be hiring a consultant?
2. Should you be buying followers? There are people that promise organic floowers. IS this legit? Although it seems to be a very slow process.
3. Should you be running paid ads on Facebook and Instagram? Or other social media?

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I can tell you now I dont even make $200 a day so I cant spend that on social media marketing. I can probably do $100 a month.

[Cinnamoroll]

Okay first off: Do not buy followers.

If I’m being honest, photography is an oversaturated market, so it can be hard to really establish yourself. Nowadays, social media and “word of mouth” is usually the best way to get clientele. You’ll also likely want a professional website with your portfolio and rates.
No one uses Pinterest (using your example) to find a professional photographer. Most people will use Facebook or Instagram to get recommendations and to look at the photographer’s work.
I don’t suggest paying for advertising on Facebook and Instagram right away, especially if you think you can’t keep up with two platforms. You also need to get a most established client base and income.

I mean this respectfully, but with that way industries are changing, you need to be able to keep up on social media, which typically isn’t very hard to do. You just need to put conscious time and effort into creating and posting your content, your photography and brand.

If you’re not willing to do that, then doing photography as your primary business may not get you very far and may not be sustainable for you. In an industry with tech like photography, you need to be comfortable with social media and digital content creation. That’s just the reality right now.

Also, hiring a social media consultant typically is something that larger brands/individuals and companies do.

[Flordibel]

Instagram is pivoting to very video-heavy content, so I've seen a lot of artists and photographers I follow struggling to keep up with that change. (How can you show videos if what you do is art or photos? But if you don't post videos, the algorithm won't show your content, which means that your followers won't even see you...)

Honestly I wouldn't much go for Facebook either. That can be good for local stuff, I guess - maybe advertising on FB Marketplace in a persistent ad - but tbh I know my first stop would be to go to someone's website to see their portfolio, not a social media site.

[birdies]

I would definitely wait and see with instagram - as mentioned above, they have just changed their system to focus on reels (video clips like tiktoks) rather than photos, and people's photos are getting buried.

There is a lot of protest and backlash about it though so wait and see and they may well shift back.

That said, if you can make short reels using trending sounds while on a photography day, showing behind the scenes etc, that can help to get you a fllowing.

[Orbit]

Hey there!!

So, I'm a professional 2D artist, and have pretty good followings on instagram/twitter (50k+) so i'm going to approach this from my experience,

First off: I think you're right on the money, that the younger generation will indeed look you up and judge you based on how many followers you have. This is the unfortunate new reality that we live in; on some level, their brains will worry that there's something "wrong" with your photos if your follower count is quite low. A social media platform that looks curated and professional, with a nice handful of followers, REALLY elevates your business and gives off the air of professionalism. It also will branch lots of clients your way and give you opportunities you wouldn't have had before.


The good news is that you do not have to spend any money to improve your social media presence. Do not buy followers. The temptation is there, and I get it. I actually bought followers once for a side account as an experiment and it was NOT WORTH IT -- i bought 1000 and 500 of them were deleted within a week, the others were obviously bots. Also, the algorithm sees all these accounts not interacting with your stuff (because, obviously, none of them are real) and it punishes you for it. It's actually counterproductive to building a following. Twitter and IG want to push forward accounts that people like, that people are interacting with.
I personally wouldn't do a social media manager either; I think if you want to spend money on anything I would take a social media course, but even that I think you could find a lot of free stuff on youtube.

The bad news is that really hustling on social media management will take a lot of time out of your day. On instagram, you'll need to post photos (daily is ideal, or at least 3 times a week. Repost old photos if you need to, play with different crops. Make sure you curate your "feed" so it looks nice all together). You'll need to post stories daily and you'll have to look into reels and how you can utilize that for your platform as well (I HATE reels, but if you want your IG to grow they really boost the eyes on your account. It's very tricky as a photo-based account to come up with video ideas. Look at what other photographers are doing. Can you do step-by-step process videos of how you edit your work? Can you do videos of weddings with your photos intercut within?).

Comment "thank you" on any comments you get when you post a photo, especially within the first day. The more comments you get the more it boosts your stuff, and the first 24 hours is KEY with social media. It's when the algorithm decides whether or not your post is worth pushing on others. IG will give you the option but I wouldn't pay IG to promote your stuff; I've watched videos and a lot of people think it's not worth the money.

IG will also reward you for being active on the account, so you'll want to like other peoples' posts and comment on other photographer's works (though never ask for follow backs or anything like that-- be genuine!). Share lots of photos that inspire you on your stories. People will start following you back and sharing your stuff back, which brings more eyes on your work!

Its definitely an investment in time-- but I will say I have received so much work from social media, and I've even built long-lasting friendships as well. The benefit to social media over word of mouth is that once someone with a lot of followers promotes you or shares your work, you'll be getting a lot of eyes on you all at once (rather than a few couples at a wedding once every weekend). And honestly, you don't need to be a 1 million follower account, you just need a decent following to get things rolling and bring you into the new age. A nice IG with a beautiful feed of your photos, maybe with a website attached that makes you easy to reach, is perfect!


Best of luck in your adventures; again, if this all seems intimidating I just want to stress that having the years of experience and beautiful photos is the hard part. You've done that already! Your work will speak for itself, you just need to get the eyes on it.

[I_royalty_I]

I agree with what some others have said - don't straight up buy followers. Yes they will be "organic" but they won't be people who will actually interact with any of your posts. You could have 1million followers, then get 10 interactions with a post. That's not the way to go. If you REALLY wanted to buy followers, you could buy a few thousand each and it should be fairly cheap... just to build your numbers up a bit.

I'd highly, highly recommend tiktok. You can buy ads on there and target your demogaphic. I'm not sure if you can specifically target it to people interested in wedding things... but I feel like so many people use tiktok now a days. If you don't have a page there, make one. Put up random video. Show off your equipment, show off the cool venues you've been to, get a cheap drone and ask a couple if you can use the footage for your own promos.

Coming from somebody who fairly recently planned a wedding, reviews definitely count, and proof images also count. Show off your style, that's really what we looked for. Reviews played a big part too because it shows work has been done in the past and it's not just your first go around. We wanted a seasoned pro because we only got to capture that moment one time.

We definitely didn't really look TOO closely at social media and didn't even consider the amount of followers somebody had. I particularly focused on a clean, smooth website that worked well. My thought process was that if our photographer couldn't have that, then how were their editing skills and all those technical bits.

[LittlePunker]

I'm a photographer as well, and while not full time (YET), when I do book clients, they spend an average of $5k per session with me on the session / products.
I am a boudoir photographer and I utilize Tiktok, Instagram, and Facebook primarily. A great tool to use would be Facebook groups. I would HIGHLY recommend joining Alex Loveland's free facebook group for photographers. I have purchased almost all of her guides and they are very easily molded to fit any genre photography. She has excellent resources to help with marketing, and her free Facebook group offers a lot of value.

My facebook group has been almost exclusively where I get my clients from, and I tend to funnel any prospective clients from tiktok and instagram to those. TikTok is becoming an increasingly popular marketing tool as well.

I would NOT trust anyone who offers to sell you followers. I know this from experience with my band long ago. It's fake, they will not help. You want authentic engagement.
I have used facebook targeted ads, but it is tricky to get a successful ad out of it. I've also used promotions on tiktok and have seen decent results but not many clients. Just traffic, which can help you TikTok videos be seen more.

With the right tools and guides, you really don't need to hire a consultant unless you absolutely can not or struggle to do the social media marketing yourself, even with the tools.
I know I occasionally struggle hard with this, but I don't make enough money consistently through my business to want to hire out, though I may one day. Even then, it would probably be a social media manager or exclusively facebook group manager, as that's the best choice!

Let me know if you have any questions!

[phantasia]

Ok from most of you I gather that buying followers won't work so scratch that
Cinnamoroll I am a pretty established photographer. I have a studio and have been a photographer for 14 years. 12 years running my own business. The problem is that i am booking more birthday parties 40+ and toddler shoots than weddings. I am struggling to connect with the 13-30 year old that is going to balls and getting married. Even the weddings I do book seem to be older couples. I have a great website. I actually studied graphic design and advertising. I finished my diploma cum laude but Instagram was only created after I graduated.

I also dont think content creating is the problem. I already had one reel go viral. Although i think it was beginners luck. I only have 6 reels. The conversion to followers just did not happen.

Flordibel yes when i really started researching now i saw that video seem to be the thing to go with. So i added lots of video content and also photos that is put together as a video in my august scheduled post. Hopefully, that will help. Then I can always for future post the photos in what is basically a slideshow set to music. I try to get video snippets at shoots but sometimes everything just go so fast.
birdies if Instagram changed back to more photos it will help so much

Orbit wow ok you have social media under control. Your advice is very practical. I think I really need to make browsing on Instagram part of my daily routine. I will definitely do the thing you thank everyone for that comment, I thought it is weird when people do that but now i get it. I do have a stunning website. Well i like it. I designed it myself i do a little website designing on the side. I manage, host and design 4 other business sites thank you for the encouragement. I do post at least 3 times a week at the moment but I am not getting much engagemnt but I think its because I am not engaging like you said. So I need to set out a time each day to browse and comment on other people's stuff. It is just so time consuing and I am one of those people that when I see other people stuff I doubt myself so much.
I_royalty_I thank you it is encouraging to know that the amount of followers is not the deciding factor. Maybe my website is a bit to arty, but I think its very much me. I should maybe look at that. Luckily I do have a few reviews. I have recently started asking people to review me on google. (another social platform) Its so hard to know where to take and where to leave.
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Wedding highlights just before covid. I basically used the same concept of the slideshow in my posts for August. Even then it was already more older couples
LittlePunker wow 5k is a lot. Not even top photographers would make that here in one session unless it is a wedding or hugh corporate event. We are also one of the 4 countries that copyright law gives the client the copyright unless specifically agreed otherwise. So I have to ask every single client to sign a contract so I can use images on social media and they dont have to come to me for prints. The digital files are theirs. Many photograpehrs has tried otherwise but because not everyone is doing it you just cant compete. 5k would be a top manager or high earnings person monthly salary here.

[LittlePunker]

Ok from most of you I gather that buying followers won't work so scratch that
Cinnamoroll I am a pretty established photographer. I have a studio and have been a photographer for 14 years. 12 years running my own business. The problem is that i am booking more birthday parties 40+ and toddler shoots than weddings. I am struggling to connect with the 13-30 year old that is going to balls and getting married. Even the weddings I do book seem to be older couples. I have a great website. I actually studied graphic design and advertising. I finished my diploma cum laude but Instagram was only created after I graduated.

I also dont think content creating is the problem. I already had one reel go viral. Although i think it was beginners luck. I only have 6 reels. The conversion to followers just did not happen.

Flordibel yes when i really started researching now i saw that video seem to be the thing to go with. So i added lots of video content and also photos that is put together as a video in my august scheduled post. Hopefully, that will help. Then I can always for future post the photos in what is basically a slideshow set to music. I try to get video snippets at shoots but sometimes everything just go so fast.
birdies if Instagram changed back to more photos it will help so much

Orbit wow ok you have social media under control. Your advice is very practical. I think I really need to make browsing on Instagram part of my daily routine. I will definitely do the thing you thank everyone for that comment, I thought it is weird when people do that but now i get it. I do have a stunning website. Well i like it. I designed it myself i do a little website designing on the side. I manage, host and design 4 other business sites thank you for the encouragement. I do post at least 3 times a week at the moment but I am not getting much engagemnt but I think its because I am not engaging like you said. So I need to set out a time each day to browse and comment on other people's stuff. It is just so time consuing and I am one of those people that when I see other people stuff I doubt myself so much.
I_royalty_I thank you it is encouraging to know that the amount of followers is not the deciding factor. Maybe my website is a bit to arty, but I think its very much me. I should maybe look at that. Luckily I do have a few reviews. I have recently started asking people to review me on google. (another social platform) Its so hard to know where to take and where to leave.
.



Wedding highlights just before covid. I basically used the same concept of the slideshow in my posts for August. Even then it was already more older couples
LittlePunker wow 5k is a lot. Not even top photographers would make that here in one session unless it is a wedding or hugh corporate event. We are also one of the 4 countries that copyright law gives the client the copyright unless specifically agreed otherwise. So I have to ask every single client to sign a contract so I can use images on social media and they dont have to come to me for prints. The digital files are theirs. Many photograpehrs has tried otherwise but because not everyone is doing it you just cant compete. 5k would be a top manager or high earnings person monthly salary here.

It's definitely taken a lot to get there, and learning marketing and pricing to get to that point. When I first started I did weddings with my husband (he did video and I did photo, and we would charge $600 for an entire event (no cap on hours!), It was so bad and we were working ourselves to the bone! But yes, when it comes to marketing, even for wedding photography, I would highly recommend a facebook group and TikTok. That is super unfortunate about the copyright in your country. That's really terrible, as an artist you should always have copyright. :(
But if you decide to, I would join Alex Loveland's free facebook group, there are thousands of people from other countries in there as well and I think you'd find it very beneficial!

Edit to add :

Also, I LOVE the crispness in your color and images! they look very bright and "true to color" feel! Amazing work!

[phantasia]

It's definitely taken a lot to get there, and learning marketing and pricing to get to that point. When I first started I did weddings with my husband (he did video and I did photo, and we would charge $600 for an entire event (no cap on hours!), It was so bad and we were working ourselves to the bone! But yes, when it comes to marketing, even for wedding photography, I would highly recommend a facebook group and TikTok. That is super unfortunate about the copyright in your country. That's really terrible, as an artist you should always have copyright. :(
But if you decide to, I would join Alex Loveland's free facebook group, there are thousands of people from other countries in there as well and I think you'd find it very beneficial!

Edit to add :

Also, I LOVE the crispness in your color and images! they look very bright and "true to color" feel! Amazing work!

Luckily I capped my hours. I am like mid level priced here. Not cheap so people wont book me because I am cheap but there are photograpehrs that charge more. I think if you did not cap your hours here there would be trouble. People have two day weddings here! Imagiine booking a 22 hour and not getting paid for those hours. Terrible. I started working with a videographer now that use to work with his wife (she is a teacher and dont want to anymore) so hopefully that will go well. SO far done 2 weddings with him and its nice.

Thank you. Yeah poeple have saif I dont have a style and I should go with like a brown tint or something but its just not me. Although if this social media thing don't start picking up I would definitely have to look at having a more distinct style.

[Cinnamoroll]

Ok from most of you I gather that buying followers won't work so scratch that
Cinnamoroll I am a pretty established photographer. I have a studio and have been a photographer for 14 years. 12 years running my own business. The problem is that i am booking more birthday parties 40+ and toddler shoots than weddings. I am struggling to connect with the 13-30 year old that is going to balls and getting married. Even the weddings I do book seem to be older couples. I have a great website. I actually studied graphic design and advertising. I finished my diploma cum laude but Instagram was only created after I graduated.

I also dont think content creating is the problem. I already had one reel go viral. Although i think it was beginners luck. I only have 6 reels. The conversion to followers just did not happen.



Part of the reason why I said what I said was because you had said you don't even make $200 per day right now. If you're already well established, great. Spend more time and up your game on social media as suggested by Orbit, and be sure to be conscious of your tone in your writing and how you come across.

Also, the "younger" generation is not "13-30". People under 18 likely will not hire a professional photographer. I think you'd be looking more to appeal to the 20-40 group? Also, a lot of photographers I follow focus mostly on one major area: landscape, nature, wedding, etc. Yes you can do it all, but on social media it seems to be more "successful" showcasing a specific style that you are strong at and can make you stand out. If you look at popular photographers on Instagram, you'll see exactly what I mean by that. Good luck!

[Flordibel]

Hey phantasia, just FYI I removed your video link for safety reasons - there's a ton of personal information there that can be used to doxx you!

[phantasia]

Part of the reason why I said what I said was because you had said you don't even make $200 per day right now. If you're already well established, great. Spend more time and up your game on social media as suggested by Orbit, and be sure to be conscious of your tone in your writing and how you come across.

Also, the "younger" generation is not "13-30". People under 18 likely will not hire a professional photographer. I think you'd be looking more to appeal to the 20-40 group? Also, a lot of photographers I follow focus mostly on one major area: landscape, nature, wedding, etc. Yes you can do it all, but on social media it seems to be more "successful" showcasing a specific style that you are strong at and can make you stand out. If you look at popular photographers on Instagram, you'll see exactly what I mean by that. Good luck!

Thank you Cinnamoroll . Yeah I try not to write to much in post because people get me wrong all the time. Yeah earning $200 a day here would make you a top earner. OUr minimum lone per day is about $30 a day. So pretty low. My aim in general is to just at least earn $100 a day and that is just one shoot for me and I get that most days. :) more on weekends so its pretty much my average. Some would say that pretty high earning. Its just stuff from other countries and social media marketing is very expensive for us here.

The great news is when someone has done a shoot with me they keep coming back. :) Its just getting them in the door I guess

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Think its small enough not to give away info. Not my actual feed but my July posts and August planned post in canva

How does it look? I do focus on weddings but put another shoot or two in every now and again. I use to ONLY do weddings and events but after covid... I learned that specializing can sink you. And I started doing a bit more and build a studio during covid. Jip build it myself when we were not allowed out. Dig foundations and everything :)

[dustyc]

I agree with pretty much all the advice above! I would also like to add tip I found that helped my Instagram reach was getting rid of inactive followers. I saw a fellow content creator mention that Instagram will only push your posts to a certain percentage of your followers, so you obviously don't want inactive accounts to be included in that fraction of your audience. I don't have a very large following (under 600), but I decided to try it out anyways. I searched my followers for accounts with key phrases like "moved", "deleted", "inactive", "new account", and if it was an account that was no longer being used, I removed them from my followers. And it worked! The next post I made got more likes than usual from my followers. It can be discouraging at first to see your follower count go down, but it felt worth it to me that Instagram was actually showing my posts to more people.

[Dark_dragonz]

Hi phantasia, I should start by saying that I'm not a photographer or an expert in this matter - I'm simply a man sharing my thoughts. I think you should promote yourself, your brand and your services on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn and your website. On each social media, you should be linking your website in the hopes of increasing traffic.

Should you buy followers? No! As many people have mentioned before, it's counter-productive. You should prioritise genuine followers who will engage with your content. Real followers may seek your services/recommend your services to people they know. Bots will not!! Honestly, the number of followers isn't everything. People will more likely be judging you based on the content you publish. If people appreciate your work, your following will increase naturally.

Should you be hiring a consultant? No need - even though it's hard work, you have all the tools at your disposal.

Should you be running paid ads on social media? Maybe something you can try in the future, but I don't think you should do this just yet.

Instagram should probably be your top priority - it's the most popular photo and video sharing social media. Hence, it's the best place to publish your work frequently, and arguably, where most people will come across your work.

You can use Facebook to advertise your photography and for networking. Join the right groups, connect with other photographers and get your name out there. Sometimes great contacts can make a huge difference!

TikTok is so popular right now, and you can take advantage. Even though it's a video-sharing app, there is a lot you can do to promote your skills and photography. For example, make videos showing your favourite photographs of the month/year, make a video teaching skills/tips, and or capture attention with landscape/travel/food photography. Also, you can use music to your advantage here!

LinkedIn is great for networking and marketing your professional experience. You mentioned having 10+ years of experience - I hope you are flexing this? Experience is crucial, and people will factor it in. Additionally, having a LinkedIn profile should increase your search visibility and hopefully attract more people to your service.

Don't forget to interact with your followers, reply to them, show your appreciation from time to time and answer queries. All these things will help grow your professional image.

One more thing, you may also want to read about SEO (search engine optimisation) and how you could improve your discoverability.

I wish you all the best! :)

[Kibba]

Just as Cinna said, don't buy followers. That actually reflects on your like count
Having 10k followers and just 60 likes looks sketchy af.

I think your best bet is paying for adds since instagram unfortunately doesn't show content to people if they're not
people are not showing skin or beautiful portraits or models.

Just keep uploading your fluid work and followers and likes will come your way.

Have a beautiful grid/aesthetic and also upload reels, that's what's selling today

[HiroiSekai]

I have rudimentary experience in this, but I'll chime in answers, although many are already well answered by others.

Buying followers is definitely a very immediately short-term benefit, with pretty much no long-term return. Genuine, organic viewership is what comes back time and time again with interest in your work. Bought followers have little to no incentive past the money to stick around long term. It's the same ideology with building any community- why buying followers and subscribers on platforms like YouTube is disliked by most.

My opinion is: try and span your social media outreach to platforms you think your audience would stay on. If you try and cover every social media site to build your pages on, not only will you burn out quickly just trying to update all of them whenever you have new content, but the return on your invested time shrinks. I would say Instagram (being a dominantly image-based platform) is a good first. If you're looking for more professional or local outreach, LinkedIn is a good place to build on. I personally wouldn't really invest a lot of time on TikTok; despite it being insanely popular, I'd argue that it requires more frequent posting and quite-bite content to stay relevant, and that's a lot of extra work on top of your photography. Twitter can be a good platform for artists too, as long as you avoid getting political and confrontational. I find artists of similar interests tend to seek and find your content, and support each other by retweeting posts, which you can also to do naturally grow.

If anything, I would invest now in having a clean, minimal and pleasing website to showcase your work. Even if you don't make it yourself, putting a clean gallery front and center shows that you'll take the same care for any photos you take. Nowadays, clean websites are easy to drag and drop with sites like Wix and Squarespace, which also deal with all of the hosting for you.

Finally, seek to play the long game. It sucks right now not having a boatload of followers and being immediately recognized, and the itch to get the numbers up is strong. However, rush on this part and as mentioned, your audience later will not be organic, and will have no connection to you and will leave just as quickly. Instead of just focusing 100% of your time on your own name, hop out to other people's Instagram, Behance, website pages, etc. and find stuff you genuinely like. Post genuine comments and engage with other communities. Without even having to buy or beg for followers, people will eventually realize that you are a genuine fellow artist and check your content out to engage further. Just remember to cross-link your pages with each other so new people can hop between them easily to join!