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If you’re like many photographers you’ve already experimented with social media, either on a personal or professional level.  For many, the challenge is how to use social media more effectively; where to begin? Our goal this week is to highlight ways you can use Facebook and Twitter to get more business as a photographer. We will introduce how other photographers use Facebook and Twitter, discuss features of both platforms and conclude with suggestions on how to best manage your social media time.

An Introduction to Facebook and Twitter for Photographers

Social media is an invaluable tool for any business because it enables the free and easy distribution of content in real time. For photographers, using Facebook as a platform provides an easy way to share one’s work with friends, clients and future clients. On the back-end of Facebook are analytic tools that provide valuable insights on how effective your different efforts are. One major advantage of using Facebook is that you can learn what types of content your target audience is interested in and craft your future messages around these subjects.

Wedding photographers at Emilie Inc. use their Facebook pages to post album previews of the weddings that they capture. By including links with these albums they can drive traffic back to their blog page and increase their SEO presence. Fraenkel Gallery uses their Facebook page to keep members abreast of different events and photo openings. As a photo-centric platform, Facebook provides the opportunity to be very creative with how you market your content. According to Facebook, posts that include links, photos and albums receive 100-200% more engagement than those that don’t.

Twitter is an exciting platform that allows you to share short messages, including photos, links and other media content. liveBooks client Chase Jarvis uses Twitter to supplement his video brand and share exclusive, on-scene content. Sport photographer Brad Mangin uses Twitter to energize his followers and talk about sports in real time. The key to using Twitter effectively is to keep your content catchy and interesting. You only have 140 characters to convey your message; research suggests that the most successful tweets are less than 100 characters.

Regardless of how you use each platform, doing social media well takes time. Below are three simple tips for being more effective with your social media presence.

• Start small: It’s easy to get excited about social media, and just as easy to burn yourself out on it. Only expand once you have a good handle on one or two platforms.
• Focus your time: Set a daily goal for something you want to accomplish through social media. Maybe you announce exciting news every Monday or add 10 new followers throughout the week. Setting small goals will help you stay focused on improving your business.
• Have fun: If you aren’t enjoying creating content, chances are people aren’t enjoying reading it. Use your abilities as a photographer to create energy around what you do.

A Final Word on Social Media for Photographers

From this point, liveBooks wants to help you build your social media strategy. Tune in next week as we take you through developing your social media goals. Each blog post in this series will build on the last one and help you get a little bit closer to achieving an effective social media strategy.

Be a part of our Social Community! Like us on Facebook for unique photos and content you won’t find anywhere else, and follow us on Twitter.