I recently shared in this blog post that I believe the top 3 social media channels photographers should use are:
Pinterest
Instagram
Facebook
There are SO many social media channels out there that I think it's wise for us small business owners to hone in on 1-3 channels where the bulk of our ideal clients are hanging out and do those WELL.
If you're trying to do it all and struggling with doing any one thing well, this post is for you. I'm going to share my thoughts on how to best manage your photography brand on these three platforms to really harness their power for your business.
First off, if you are nodding your head saying this is you, then stop everything -- haha! Pick one of the three above platforms and put all of your energy into optimizing it first. Then once you have a solid presence and rhythm with posting, work on adding a second. In this way you can begin to see the impact of your efforts and build something that you can manage for the long-term.
One note before we dive into each individual platform: In no way do I want to suggest that what I'm sharing here is comprehensive. This is just what we have done here at MJP. And I'm still learning. There are entire COURSES out there for business owners who want to optimize their use of Instagram. But we all need to start somewhere. You're here now, so start with this post, and then continue to be a student of each platform over the course of your career. That's my plan, so we are on this journey together!
PINTEREST
There are a number of things you will want to do in order to optimize Pinterest for your business, but as far as managing your brand on Pinterest on a day-to-day basis, the best advice I can give you is to start using Tailwind to schedule your pins. I go into more depth about this amazing tool that has revolutionized our use of Pinterest in this post, so definitely check it out! I batch schedule my own content from new blog posts, as well as a ton of content I like from other sources about once a week and Tailwind trickles out my pins to my profile at the times when my followers are most active on the platform. This is a HUGE time-saver and makes Pinterest much more manageable.
INSTAGRAM
I do all of my Instagram scheduling in advance and from my computer. No thumb typing for me. Really putting some planning and thought into my Instagram posts and typing out my captions from my computer are two huge time-savers! Between the four Instagram accounts we manage for our various businesses, we use two different scheduling tools. But my favorite is Planoly. Planoly is an Instagram scheduling tool that offers visual, drag-and-drop planning, which is AMAZING for photographers who are trying to set up a grid that is consistent with their brand. I love to plan ahead and be able to preview what my grid will look like if I use certain images. This tool is a huge answer to prayer for photographers and anyone in the visual branding space!
I also love to copy and paste various lists of hashtags for different types of posts into Planoly so I can easily cut and paste those into the first comment under my Instagram post. If you're looking for some hashtag inspiration for wedding photographers, check out this blog post from ShootDotEdit -- 19 Hashtags you Need to Use on Instagram.
FACEBOOK
Confession time. I don't do Facebook well. haha! Here I am writing this post, and I'm not really qualified to make a suggestion about how to manage Facebook. Truth be told, we have let our Facebook business page languish a bit. Which again proves my first point in this post that you can't do ALL the social media channels well. I've been disheartened by Facebook's algorithms for business pages, so it is a bit hard to muster the energy to really utilize this platform. So I've been focusing on Pinterest and Instagram. That's the honest truth. But two tools that I have heard good things about and am interested in looking into myself are CoSchedule and Edgar. I'd love to hear if you have any experience with either in the comments! And if you're a wizard at utilizing Facebook for business, please share all of your secrets in the comments as well!
----------> Just starting your photography business? Click here to download a FREE list of 50 Goals for Your First Year in Business that is sure to give you some ideas to get you started on the right foot!
There are SO many social media channels out there that I think it's wise for us small business owners to hone in on 1-3 channels where the bulk of our ideal clients are hanging out and do those WELL.
If you're trying to do it all and struggling with doing any one thing well, this post is for you. I'm going to share my thoughts on how to best manage your photography brand on these three platforms to really harness their power for your business.
First off, if you are nodding your head saying this is you, then stop everything -- haha! Pick one of the three above platforms and put all of your energy into optimizing it first. Then once you have a solid presence and rhythm with posting, work on adding a second. In this way you can begin to see the impact of your efforts and build something that you can manage for the long-term.
One note before we dive into each individual platform: In no way do I want to suggest that what I'm sharing here is comprehensive. This is just what we have done here at MJP. And I'm still learning. There are entire COURSES out there for business owners who want to optimize their use of Instagram. But we all need to start somewhere. You're here now, so start with this post, and then continue to be a student of each platform over the course of your career. That's my plan, so we are on this journey together!
There are a number of things you will want to do in order to optimize Pinterest for your business, but as far as managing your brand on Pinterest on a day-to-day basis, the best advice I can give you is to start using Tailwind to schedule your pins. I go into more depth about this amazing tool that has revolutionized our use of Pinterest in this post, so definitely check it out! I batch schedule my own content from new blog posts, as well as a ton of content I like from other sources about once a week and Tailwind trickles out my pins to my profile at the times when my followers are most active on the platform. This is a HUGE time-saver and makes Pinterest much more manageable.
I do all of my Instagram scheduling in advance and from my computer. No thumb typing for me. Really putting some planning and thought into my Instagram posts and typing out my captions from my computer are two huge time-savers! Between the four Instagram accounts we manage for our various businesses, we use two different scheduling tools. But my favorite is Planoly. Planoly is an Instagram scheduling tool that offers visual, drag-and-drop planning, which is AMAZING for photographers who are trying to set up a grid that is consistent with their brand. I love to plan ahead and be able to preview what my grid will look like if I use certain images. This tool is a huge answer to prayer for photographers and anyone in the visual branding space!
I also love to copy and paste various lists of hashtags for different types of posts into Planoly so I can easily cut and paste those into the first comment under my Instagram post. If you're looking for some hashtag inspiration for wedding photographers, check out this blog post from ShootDotEdit -- 19 Hashtags you Need to Use on Instagram.
Confession time. I don't do Facebook well. haha! Here I am writing this post, and I'm not really qualified to make a suggestion about how to manage Facebook. Truth be told, we have let our Facebook business page languish a bit. Which again proves my first point in this post that you can't do ALL the social media channels well. I've been disheartened by Facebook's algorithms for business pages, so it is a bit hard to muster the energy to really utilize this platform. So I've been focusing on Pinterest and Instagram. That's the honest truth. But two tools that I have heard good things about and am interested in looking into myself are CoSchedule and Edgar. I'd love to hear if you have any experience with either in the comments! And if you're a wizard at utilizing Facebook for business, please share all of your secrets in the comments as well!
----------> Just starting your photography business? Click here to download a FREE list of 50 Goals for Your First Year in Business that is sure to give you some ideas to get you started on the right foot!
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