I think one of the things Photographers constantly struggle with is Marketing. Most photographers enter this business for the love of the art. You have a passion and drive to create and that passion leads you to start a business. Once your business is going you spend lots of time working your portfolio, creating a website, and designing other items like your promotional materials. Then, ready to conquer the photo world you expect the phone to start ringing and everyone to want to book just because how amazing your work is. Well most of you who have been in business for awhile know the phone never rings on it’s own, you always have to be out in front of people. A successful marketing campaign has many different levels, but today I want to chat a little about one area that has huge potential and has been one of the buzzwords for the past year… Social Media. Social Media now is a pretty crowded field with lots of companies trying to come in and get a piece of the action, but in terms of marketing power I think there is really only 1 great solution for photographers to use for their marketing…. Facebook. There are many things that I think make Facebook a perfect fit to market your photography. Some key things about Facebook that make it unique:

  • You can have your work not only shown to your clients but their circle of influence as well.
  • It lets you connect with your clients on a more personal level
  • You can see what major events are happing in your clients lives
  • An easy way to send out updates and new announcements
  • Photos, Photos and more Photos. Your work can be seen by so many people, it’s what marketing is all about.

    • Before I talk about these a little more lets discuss the personal page vs. the fan page. There are many different ways you can use your personal Facebook profile page but generally I think its a better idea to keep your personal profile page separate from your business page. You can still be personal on your business page and talk about things in your life but having a business page does have a few advantages. One is that there is no cap on the number of people that can “Like” your page (similar to being a friend, they can see all of your updates) whereas your personal profile can only have up to 5000 friends. While 5000 might seem like a big number over the years you will be amazed at how many new fans you get. If you don’t already have a business page on Facebook it’s pretty easy to get one going. Just go to the Facebook Create a Page and choose the Create a Page for a: Local Business button. The proceed to add your logo, contact info and other relevant details.

    Once you have a Facebook fan page for your photography business what do you do with it? Like I said at the start there are some pretty amazing things Facebook has that will allow you to grow your business. The best part about Facebook in my mind is the ability to share photos. I create a few different galleries on my facebook page for the different types of work that I do (weddings, portraits, families, etc…) and after I show my clients their highlight slideshow (i’ll cover why I do a slideshow first at a later date) I will post anywhere from 5-15 images on Facebook in my gallery and tag the client. Tagging is the key here and gets your photo seen by people who don’t already know you. When you tag someone in a photo your image will show up on their wall. If they have 200 friends that means that you can potentially have 200 people who might not have ever heard about you see your work. The potential here for new business is amazing. The only thing is you have to remember a few things:

    1) Make the images ROCK! They have to be your best of the best, crazy amazing shots. If that means only posting 3 then only post 3. I always have believed that 1 amazing image can do so much more for your brand compared to 25 good photos.

    2) Don’t forget to include your branding. People on facebook when viewing the images on their friends wall will see that you posted it and might click on your link but you want to make sure that your branding always sticks in their mind. For my images I created a pretty simple band that goes across the bottom of all images. It includes my logo, website and photo number.

    With over 500 million people on Facebook there is some great opportunities to get your work seen by potential clients. I’ll continue with some more ways to get business from Facebook with part 2 coming soon.

    What’s your facebook fan page? Leave us a comment below with your link.