Ultimate Social Media Guide for Photographers
Updated on January 2, 2023 in Photography by Nishant Shrimali
Today your social media is more than a place to interact with friends. It is a place that represents the work and experience that you have collected in the past years. Especially if you are a photographer then this Social media guide would be the biggest learning for you.
In this, you would learn everything from choosing the platform to growing your audience. Also as you go along this social media guide, you would find some great profiles which would help you to understand the point in a much better way.
Hence without wasting any more time, let’s start the Ultimate Social Media Guide for Photographers.
Your Ultimate Social Media Guide for Photographers
Choose the Right Platform
The very first step for you would be choosing the right platform according to your very own niche. In order to start with this social media guide successfully here are the top picks that you can choose from to get the most benefits as a photographer.
This goes without saying that Instagram is among the most popular as well as versatile platforms out there. With new features rolling in every now and then, it has accumulated all kinds of audiences at the same place.
The profile allows you to showcase your work in a 3 grid which also acts as your portfolio making it perfect for you to gain clients too. Moreover features such as stories, highlights, and carousel allows you to interact with your audience in a more attractive manner.
Second, on this list would be Pinterest itself. This platform is based on photos itself and has gained popularity due to quality and the feature to pin down the favorites. From inspiration to contact, Pinterest is a place that can get you organic impressions more than anywhere.
Moreover, it has a place for everyone, which means no matter what your niche is you will find your audience here.
For example, you can refer to the Joy Cho /Oh Joy Pinterest where she has sorted down various photographs which you can refer to as a great example of a social media guide.
Also Read – How to use Pinterest Marketing for eCommerce Business Growth
Facebook has the biggest active user base of 2,603 million. This number simply means that you would definitely find the people who would be interested in your work. Also, the new updates that keep rolling in are focused to make Facebook a more interactive place. The only drawback that is important to discuss in this social media guide is that the reach on Facebook is very low. You can also read Facebook Advertising Strategy.
Lastly, LinkedIn is a platform that would allow you to reach professionals. Especially if you are into corporate photography, real estate photography, or product photography LinkedIn is the best place where you could showcase your skills and attract more clients to work in the future.
The best example of this would be the LinkedIn profile of Karen Ollis. The profile is an ultimate Social media guide for LinkedIn itself where she posts articles for corporates and how photography is updating.
500px
If you are looking for a community of photographers then there is no place better than the 500px. It is a hub for photographers and you most likely won’t need to go finding any other social media guide other than the one you’re reading right now at the PixelPhant. At 500px you can get paid for your photos, see how well your posts are performing and gain global exposure. As a photography enthusiast, you can start your social journey from here to look for like-minded people in a single place.
Flickr
The next platform that we highly recommend you use in this ultimate social media guide would be the ultimate Flickr itself. It is a community of photographers where you can share your work, protect it from being pirated and also gain inspiration from millions of other users sharing their work.
Unsplash and Pixbay
Unsplash and Pixbay are not social platforms but they do allow you to get exposure from around the world. Whenever someone likes your work he can follow you on your social media. In addition to this, they are the stock photo sites which means you can also license yourself to earn a royalty.
Tweak your Photos for the Platform
Now that we have sorted down the platforms and why you should prefer them to let us continue this social media guide by discussing how you shall start a great social media photography page.
Choose Your niche
If you wish to take away one point out of this social media guide for photographers, then this is the point that you should remember. Photography itself is a broad field, and no matter what you do, it is next to impossible to click a picture that everyone on the globe would like.
Hence choose your style and niche in which you would be working majorly. You can sometimes try out other stuff but the majority of your posts would be related to a single niche.
For example, if you are looking to become a travel photographer you can look up to Saltinourhair profile as your daily social media guide.
Resize your photos
Every platform has its own preference and orientation at which an image is shared. Hence it is very important that you resize the image that you are posting so no details are missed out and the quality of your image is maintained.
For Instagram the idol aspect ratio is 4:5 with a photo size of 1080px by 1350px. For Pinterest the ratio is 2:3 with an image size of 800px by 1200px. Whereas for Facebook and LinkedIn you shall go with 522px by 368px.
Follow a Theme
Lastly, as you are already on your editing desk you shall also add a style of your own. In order to distinguish yourself, it is very important to add a style of your own. This can be a color theme, a frame, or a signature shoot.
This would grab attention quickly and help you stand out in this big pool of images that are being posted every second, even while you are reading this line.
Now if you would like to follow a theme with a similar editing style you can get inspired by doubleexpomagzine for the double exposure images
Or like if you wish to follow a theme with the same capturing style you see how longexposure_daily is sharing the long exposure work with the world and how you can start your own page with your signature shot.
Build your Audience
Until now in this social media guide for photographers, you have learned about the platform and the way you shall edit your images in order to stand out. But now it’s time to learn how you shall grow your photography page using this social media guide.
Use Hashtags
The very first and important thing to remember in order to grow your photography page is to use the right hashtags (#). With these, you can share a post with people in your niche. Moreover, if you are using Instagram you would be aware that people also follow certain hashtags to keep themselves updated.
Hence in order to make sure you are attracting the right people to your page use the right hashtags. You can understand the right hashtags as the hashtags that people are more likely to follow in your niche.
Use Geo Location
Along with the hashtags, it’s also very important that you use the local location of the place where you clicked the image. This way when people will search for that location they will be able to see your image and then may even go through your profile gaining you extra followers.
Collaborate
Another great way to earn new followers would be collaborating with other people with the same or slightly distinguished niches. You can contact other photography pages to share your posts with credits so that people who would be interested in similar work could know about you and follow you. You can too share their posts in return in order to mutually help each other.
Interact
As important as it is to find new followers, it is also important that you make sure that your existing followers keep following you. The best way to do so is by interacting with them. Reply to as many comments as possible and if you could help someone else by liking and sharing their post, don’t hold back yourself.
Terms associated with Social Media marketing
Now that you have gone through the social media guide above, there are also some very important terms that are related to it. These terms are very important and would come in very handy if you wish to run ads on social media or track the performance of your social media.
Impression
The Impression is the number of times your post was displayed.
Reach
The reach is the total number of times your post watch was actually seen by the people.
Engagement
Engagement is a metric that shows the number of people who have actually interacted with your post. The interaction could be anything such as likes, comments, share and save.
Profile Visit
Lastly, as the name suggests it is the number of people who have visited your profile.
Bonus Read
As we are concluding this ultimate Social Media Guide for Photographers, we would like you to remember one thing when you are starting out. Consistency. If you believe you can only post two times a week then be it. But make sure that you are posting it 2 times a week regularly.
Nonetheless, we highly recommend you post regularly and also interact with your audience for that matter. People don’t wish to follow just a brand of yours, rather they would like to follow you and interact with you. As a creator, your job here would be to deliver what they are looking for.
Comment down below which according to you is the best upcoming platform for the photographer that we haven’t mentioned in this Social media guide. Also if you would like to keep yourself updated regarding photography, product image editing, eCommerce, and much more, you can sign up for PixelPhant free email newsletter.
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