If you are like me you are trying to figure out all the social media possibilities. There are many to choose from to help market your brand.
I am falling in love with Instagram.
It is a photographer's friend. It lets you not only post your photos but tag them and write a complete caption if you choose. You are not limited to the 140 characters of Twitter.
One of the people I like to follow is my friend Alex Garcia. Here is a link to his work https://www.instagram.com/alexgarciaimages/
Another photographer I like to follow is Dave Black. https://www.instagram.com/daveblackphoto/
When it first came out you were limited to a square image space. Well that is why I didn't enjoy the medium, but then they finally allowed you to post rectangle proportions as well.
Now the cool thing with any social media is the #hashtag. This is when you keyword your photo so that others who are following this keyword will be able to find your photo amongst the millions being posted daily. I tagged the above photo with #TybeeIsland & #Lighthouse.
Now here I didn't do such a good job with my post. I didn't use the #hashtag for Romania or the town name. I did however use them in the location, which is almost as good. Be sure and use both.
When I posted this photo I used the #hashtag #headshot and #actress and within a minute I had people in Hollywood liking the photo that are in the industry. Woo Hoo!!!!!
Did I get a job? No. However I am making a connection now within the industry.
In this photo I tagged #IslandBreezeiwt which is the name of the company that this dancer performs with in Hawaii and also around the world. To be sure they see it you would tag the photo @IslandBreezeiwt because this is the name of their account.
Start typing @nameofcompany and see if it pops up as a choice. If it does be sure to use this if you want that company to see your photo.
Talk about getting the marketing department's attention. Thats what I am talking about!!
Why # and @?
Without using a # or @ your photo is not discoverable. It is the same as walking into your public library and just sticking a photo in between the books on the shelf and leaving. You may hope people find it and someone day just might stumble over it.
However, people use the web much like the public library, they use search terms to help them find those things that they are interested in. If you have no tags on your photos they will not pop up on their feed.
Captions alone are not very helpful for searching as a #hashtag. The @ symbol sends an alert to those with that account. The odds are increased a great deal that they will see it if they check their account. They most likely will get an email as well when you link to them like this.
Once people see your image and maybe even like it they can then click on your account name and go to all your images and see your account like mine here. https://www.instagram.com/stanleyleary/
My marketing strategy is always to drive everyone to my main website where my complete portfolio, blog, contact information and more stuff resides. I want everyone to easily find me and to connect.
If you are a photographer you need to be on Instagram because this is where people look for photography and photographers.
Don't take my word for it. Read this article 160+ Interesting Instagram Statistics
No comments:
Post a Comment