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Last week we looked at getting you started defining your social media strategy. Hopefully by now you’re starting to have a clear idea of why you need social media in the first place. Answering why you need social media by aligning with your larger business goals will get you on your way to having a more valuable and dynamic social media presence. Next, you can determine “who” you’re going to market to and “how” you’re going to connect with them.

Segmenting Your Social Media Market

As a photographer, each of your marketing goals is in someway tied to a market segment. To attract new segments you may want to focus your energies around platforms in which content is very rapidly shared like Pinterest or Twitter. New clients will be roaming across these platforms to quickly find content and information that aligns with their interests. If your goal is to further develop conversations and deepen the relationships with your existing customers, you may consider using networks like LinkedIn or Facebook. Determining who you want to market to will help you determine which platform will be the best to use. Below are three tips to help you do this.

Defining your market segments and “who” to market to:

1. List your top three revenue sources in the last six months and how you currently communicate with them. For example, galleries, online purchases, studio drop-ins etc…
2. List the top three types of customers or groups of people you want to attract. Some of these people may already be in your top three revenue sources.
3. Begin listing similarities and differences between your current and desired customers. You can start by asking questions like: How do they shop? What do they say about my work? What do you want them to say about your work? What marketing efforts are you already using that you can you further leverage?

Remember that social media is an avenue and not a destination. In most cases you want use these platforms to drive people to your website where they can make a transaction. Once you have decided “who” you want to market to you can focus on “how” to get them.

“How” to craft the right messaging for your social media goals:

1. Do a little research: Talk with your clients and find out how they like to use social media. What platforms do they use and why?
2. Keep an eye on the competition: Look at how your competition is using social media. How do they add followers and build their online community? What kind of content do they post?
3. Keep it simple: Based on the time allotment that you developed as a result of our week one post, focus your energies on crafting messages across the platforms that your market uses most. It is much easier to add to your social media mix than downsize and refocus if it becomes too much to maintain.

As we suggested in week 1, start slow and build out your strategy. At the end of each week look at the progress you’ve made toward your larger goals. Has social media helped you get closer to being successful? Document any successes and failures you have along the way and learn from your mistakes. You may find that your goals are changing, and so then will your social media strategy. This is good! The more you can align your social media efforts with your goals as a photographer, the more dynamic you can be at responding and using social media to enhance your business.

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