Confession: I'm a reluctant self-promoter and social media photographer. Those are not good personal traits to have as a photographer, I know. I do these things with just a little more enthusiasm than kicking and screaming, largely because I have an aversion to self-promotion. I've been in the photo business long enough (almost 20 years!) that when I began social media didn't exist, and good work would speak for itself and rise to the top. Not so much anymore.
Which is not to say that good work doesn't stand out. It does...sometimes. But not enough to just sit back and wait for the phone to ring and watch the checks roll in. Photographers now need to be constantly putting their work out there and promoting themselves to potential clients. There are so many photographers now that even the best work can get lost in the noise. That was true even before social media. Add Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Snapchat and it's enough noise to give any photo buyer or creative director a headache. And for photographers, especially reluctant self-promoters, it's challenging to stay on top of it all.
But social media is an opportunity I can't ignore, so I dutifully post my work. I focus my energy mainly on Instagram and Facebook. With it's clean photo-centric design, Instagram is the best platform for sharing photos. I was slow to get on board with both Facebook and Instagram, so I was behind the ball. Had I jumped in sooner, I would have a bigger social media presence. I've been playing catch up. As I write this post I currently have 41k Instagram followers and 1k Facebook followers. It's pretty obvious how much easier it is to connect with followers on Instagram. A few years ago, Facebook changed it's sharing algorithm which made it harder to build a following and get attention, at least without paying for advertising. Instagram has also made changes from it's original algorithm that also makes it harder to build a following, but it's still much easier than Facebook.
As an established commercial photographer, I think social media has limited use for me. But as an editorial and landscape photographer, having a social media presence has helped me bring in work and sell prints. But Instagram has changed the business model for photographers entering the business. If you build a big enough following (greater than 100k), you'll likely be lucky enough to get paid to drop some company's name in your post. That's a big deal for photographers who were smart enough to jump into Instagram early and get a big following, or for those who are adept enough to work the platform to still attract large numbers of new followers. And with Instagram's analytics, photographers can show potential clients how big an impression they are making to help set their rates.
Where do we go from here? From my conversations with photo editors, Facebook has outlived it's usefulness. The editors I've talked to are more likely to use Instagram to search for images or photographers. That's all I needed to hear to change my focus to Instagram. But Instagram has a fraction of the active users of Facebook. This can be looked at in a couple of ways. First, it's still growing and has a lot of room to continue to grow. That means potential for more followers. Second, it's a more targeted audience. While Facebook is about sharing photos, it's just as much about sharing stories, or having discussions, or messaging. Instagram is all about the photos. And that's where I want to be focusing my energy...on a growing platform that's the go-to for photo editors and that's designed to be all about the photos.
