Social Marketing
[by Selina Maitreya]
The best tip I can share with you is to use social media as a marketing tool – not just as place to hang. It’s an easy two step process:
Build your following with clients (not just friends, other photographers or family).
Create sales trails.
Building Your Following:
Create a profile on Facebook, Twitter and Linked in, then build your following with these three steps.
Go through all current clients, and contacts you’ve spoken to and visited and send them emails inviting them to tweet, friend you and connect with you. Ask them to respond with their social media info.
View your Google analytics or statistics provided by the service that sends out your visual emails. Look to see who has opened your email and transitioned to your website 2 or more times. Send them a note thanking them for their interest and invite them to follow your blog posts and join you on Twitter, FB and LI. Ask if they’d share their social media info with you as well.
If a portfolio appointment is going well, ask your contact to give you their social media info and provide yours.
Creating Your Sales Trails:
Use social media as a marketing tool by creating a sales trail using Twitter, FB, LI, and your website. Remember – getting buyers to your website is key as that’s where you will ultimately monetize your efforts.
As 50 % of your posts can be about your talent/your business, consider blogging and placing a visual (1 image only) that pertains to your work twice a month.
When you post an image with copy, tweet about it first with a clever tweet that take folks to your blog. Leave a LinkedIn status as well with a link to your blog. On your blog, post one image only with a bit more copy and post another link that takes viewers to a “new work” section on your site where more images from this shoot live. This is a social media sales trail.
Hopefully, once on your site they will look around. If they like what they see they will bookmark your site. You’ll need to remind them of your presence (email/direct mail) so when an assignment that is similar to your vision pops up you will be visible and contacted.