Dear Sarah,
I have read in your previous blogs that social media isn't your favorite medium, however, I'm a big fan of the way you present yourself on social media. Can you give one tip you have learned on how to utilize social media to grow as a photographer?
- Sometimes Social
Hello Sometimes Social,
I love this question. Don't get me wrong, though I'm not the biggest fan of social media it is a must, and through my journey with it I've actually met some cool people. Though there are many ways that social media can help you, I want to talk about one of the biggest ways I used it to help me grow as a photographer.
First off, personal social media lies to you. I truly does. Why? Because 95%- 100% of the people following your personal social media are your friends or family. Why is this a problem? Because YOU, your personality, becomes a bias. People will "like" a photo because they like you, want to support you, or they have a personal connection to the picture (it is a picture of your kid- their grandkid- so they like it automatically) NOT BECAUSE THE PICTURE IS GOOD.
Take a minute to digest that. I'm sorry to tell you, 200 likes doesn't mean you are a great photographer. I don't say this to be mean... not at all. I'm just trying to help you grow as an artist. 200 "likes" from friends doesn't mean the picture is bad either. It simply shouldn't be a reason to get an ego.
So what do you do? Set up a social media account that no one knows you are on. My personal instagram account currently has around 60 followers. That isn't spectacular by any means, but when you realize that only about 6 of those are people I know, it becomes more apparent how helpful this tool is for me. That means 90% of my "followers" are people that don't know me. They follow my account because they like what I do.
Taking that one step further, 85% of my "likes" on instagram (on average) are from people that don't follow me and don't know me. This means that the general public is responding to my work. People that don't know me as a person, people that don't know the subject in the picture, people that are unbiased. It isn't uncommon for me to have at least 20 "likes" (again, not stellar or anything) within a few minutes. I'm not bragging, I don't think these numbers make me the best, I'm just explaining how this has helped me.
Utilizing an account like this can help you grow leaps and bounds. You as a photographer might love a picture and the general public won't respond, other times they will go crazy for a picture you only thought was so-so. This is so helpful because it shows you what the public, aka your clients, are interested in at any given moment. It is important to stay true to yourself as an artist, but if you aren't gaining public interest you won't get paid either.
Experiment with this, use the same hashtags for different types of photos for a month. See how people react, see how many people you reach.
Try different types of social media. Instagram is great for landscapes, Tumblr is great for portraits.
Play around with it.
Famous people have done this throughout history just to make sure they were still good at their craft. Stephen King wrote under a different name just to see if he was still a good writer, or if he was getting published because HE as a person had become famous.
Just to reiterate, having family and friends "like" a post isn't a bad thing. But it also won't help you see the general public's ever changing mood. Once you establish a new unknown form of social media it is also okay if friends and family find you, just strive to make this form of social media about reaching the world and not friends. I will say I have at least 10 new acquaintances in the photography world by doing this... and that's great!
As always, give complements to people who's work you like. I'm going to keep saying this. We all need to help each other out. If you are inspired by someone, tell them! Not just through a "like" ...write a comment. You might be surprised how many people start doing it back to you.
Hope this was a tip you weren't expecting and that it helped =)
I have read in your previous blogs that social media isn't your favorite medium, however, I'm a big fan of the way you present yourself on social media. Can you give one tip you have learned on how to utilize social media to grow as a photographer?
- Sometimes Social
Hello Sometimes Social,
I love this question. Don't get me wrong, though I'm not the biggest fan of social media it is a must, and through my journey with it I've actually met some cool people. Though there are many ways that social media can help you, I want to talk about one of the biggest ways I used it to help me grow as a photographer.
First off, personal social media lies to you. I truly does. Why? Because 95%- 100% of the people following your personal social media are your friends or family. Why is this a problem? Because YOU, your personality, becomes a bias. People will "like" a photo because they like you, want to support you, or they have a personal connection to the picture (it is a picture of your kid- their grandkid- so they like it automatically) NOT BECAUSE THE PICTURE IS GOOD.
Take a minute to digest that. I'm sorry to tell you, 200 likes doesn't mean you are a great photographer. I don't say this to be mean... not at all. I'm just trying to help you grow as an artist. 200 "likes" from friends doesn't mean the picture is bad either. It simply shouldn't be a reason to get an ego.
So what do you do? Set up a social media account that no one knows you are on. My personal instagram account currently has around 60 followers. That isn't spectacular by any means, but when you realize that only about 6 of those are people I know, it becomes more apparent how helpful this tool is for me. That means 90% of my "followers" are people that don't know me. They follow my account because they like what I do.
Taking that one step further, 85% of my "likes" on instagram (on average) are from people that don't follow me and don't know me. This means that the general public is responding to my work. People that don't know me as a person, people that don't know the subject in the picture, people that are unbiased. It isn't uncommon for me to have at least 20 "likes" (again, not stellar or anything) within a few minutes. I'm not bragging, I don't think these numbers make me the best, I'm just explaining how this has helped me.
Utilizing an account like this can help you grow leaps and bounds. You as a photographer might love a picture and the general public won't respond, other times they will go crazy for a picture you only thought was so-so. This is so helpful because it shows you what the public, aka your clients, are interested in at any given moment. It is important to stay true to yourself as an artist, but if you aren't gaining public interest you won't get paid either.
Experiment with this, use the same hashtags for different types of photos for a month. See how people react, see how many people you reach.
Try different types of social media. Instagram is great for landscapes, Tumblr is great for portraits.
Play around with it.
Famous people have done this throughout history just to make sure they were still good at their craft. Stephen King wrote under a different name just to see if he was still a good writer, or if he was getting published because HE as a person had become famous.
Just to reiterate, having family and friends "like" a post isn't a bad thing. But it also won't help you see the general public's ever changing mood. Once you establish a new unknown form of social media it is also okay if friends and family find you, just strive to make this form of social media about reaching the world and not friends. I will say I have at least 10 new acquaintances in the photography world by doing this... and that's great!
As always, give complements to people who's work you like. I'm going to keep saying this. We all need to help each other out. If you are inspired by someone, tell them! Not just through a "like" ...write a comment. You might be surprised how many people start doing it back to you.
Hope this was a tip you weren't expecting and that it helped =)
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