Day: July 1, 2016

Why Instagram is great for photographers

by Stanley Learybusiness
 

Instagram is an online mobile photo-sharing, video-sharing, and social networking service that enables its users to take pictures and videos, and share them either publicly or privately on the app, as well as through a variety of other social networking platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Flickr. – Wikipedia

How do you find work?

To get hired, you need to find your audience. Where the clients hang out is where your potential clients are that you want to show your work.

Many years ago, photojournalists and photographers got work by flying to places like New York and making appointments at as many publications or agencies that they could pack together in a few days to a week.

It was common for people to spend $3,000 to $6,000 on transportation, hotel, and miscellaneous expenses to show their work. Most photographers would have a few books. Each of these books costs a few hundred dollars or more to produce. You often would drop off your book and hope they would give you a call. So having a few books were essential to get your work out there.

Today clients are more likely to ask you to send them a link to your website. Face-to-face meetings are more reserved for actual projects than just seeing people’s work.

How do you get their attention today?

Twitter might be the best way to get your work noticed if you are a writer.

Twitter is an online social networking service that enables users to send and read short 140-character messages called “tweets”. Registered users can read and post tweets, but those who are unregistered can only read them. – Wikipedia

It is essential to note the difference between Twitter and Instagram. Twitter is about sharing TEXT, and the programmers set up Instagram for PHOTOS/VIDEOS.

While you can post photos on Twitter, the audience expects mainly text. Instagram requires an image or photo because that is what the audience expects.

People like Instagram because it is visual, and this is the audience that will appreciate your images.

Your Target Audience uses Instagram.

The odds are that your audience [Potential Customers] uses Instagram. Go to Instagram.com and search the names of the companies you want to work with in the future.

I searched for Delta Air Lines, and before I could finish typing, it popped up first.

When you go to their account, they tell you to share your travel pics and use the hashtag #Delta.

Hashtags are a pound sign immediately followed by a keyword. They’re used for categorization on social media.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57dzaMaouXA]
Instagram is another hotspot for hashtags, and the good news for those who love to tag photos extensively is that there doesn’t seem to be a saturation point.

Interactions are highest on Instagram posts with 11+ hashtags.

Now here is another tip. If you use @Delta, whoever manages the Instagram feed for Delta gets an alert/email that you have tagged them.

@NAME is the business account. So only the account holder will get an email, whereas the hashtag is something anyone who follows that hashtag will see.

Believe me there is someone at Delta paying attention to those posts. If they like it they may share your post and if they really like your style they may end up hiring you to shoot material for their Instagram feed and other projects.

Relevance!!!!!!

While I just showed you the backdoor to getting your work in front of potential clients, you must use this technique in such a way as to be relevant to your potential client.

If you tag your photo with @NAMEOFBUSINESS, it is sure that the image is something they would post on their account.

 

Here is a post where I and tagging Coca-Cola.

Here is a post that I tagged Nescafe.

I also used hashtags for the country and region of the world.

Remember that using the correct account name and hashtags to get in front of your potential customers doesn’t mean success. Your images must be compelling, and they must think your work style is worth pursuing.

Now here are some of the Instagram accounts I follow because I think they are relevant and reaching an audience:

I follow many others, but this is a good sample. In my opinion, most successful photographers use Instagram to marry the text and images, so there is a short story.
 
I have noticed that most successful people tend to stay on theme for their Instagram posts. 
 
Be careful how you evaluate Instagram accounts!!!! Please do not base your opinions on what you think about their work alone. I highly recommend taking the time to analyze a budget and figure out why they have 40K+ followers. Humans of NY has 5.5 million followers. Now, if you are a trained photojournalist, you may find fault with the work of some of these Instagram celebrities. Don’t discount them. Learn from them and then put your personal touch on your posts using some of their techniques.