Smart ways to promote your photography on Instagram
Instagram is not just a social media platform that allows you to stay in touch with your family and friends; it is also a powerful marketing tool. At this point, every business should have an Instagram presence in order to look credible and attract new customers.
There is one unspoken rule: every photographer should be on Instagram. It makes sense – the app is free and popular among millions of people worldwide (let alone the fact that photography is the main content on Instagram).
Whether you are a professional photographer or just a beginner, consider developing a marketing strategy for your account. It is one of the easiest ways to find your audience and potential customers. So, don’t miss your chance!
Pozrite si tento príspevok na Instagrame
Here you can find some tricks that will help you to promote your photography on Instagram in a short time:
Define your brand’s aesthetics
To become a professional, you need to focus on one thing at a time. That’s why you need to choose a specific style of photography ( black-and-white, minimalistic, or film).
Most probably, your followers will expect you to stick to your theme. However, it doesn’t mean that you should get stuck with one style forever. Once you have an established audience, you will be able to experiment and monitor your follower’s responses.
The niche you choose or photos you post shouldn’t be random. Keep in mind that the top of your Instagram feed represents your talent. People decide whether to follow you or not based on the last nine images you have.
Besides the niche, you should also choose your colour theme and stick to it. To do so, make sure your photos have similar lighting. Consider using a combination of lightroom presets and Photoshop to achieve that consistent look.
Your brand should be recognizable on the Instagram market. That’s why you need to play with colours and niches in order to create something authentic.
Promote your personality
If you want strangers from all over the world to connect with you, let them know who you are in real life. Follow the 80/20 rule while working on your Instagram account. Eighty percent should be devoted to your photography practice, and twenty percent should be focused on telling your story (the place you live, your family, current job, etc.).
People love seeing what’s going on behind the scenes, and they will be really happy to get to know you better.
If you don’t want to mix your personal side with a professional one, consider setting up another Instagram account. You will be able to interact more with your followers by using a personal account.
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Build a posting strategy
Your goal is to stay focused on quality rather than quantity. High-quality content is attractive. Spamming is not. However, it doesn’t mean you should wait for this perfect shot for weeks.
Your Instagram account, along with your followers, will push you to have a daily photography practice. Aim for at least one post per day.
Another important thing is to post your photos at a reasonable hour. Statistics show that most people check Instagram in the morning. In order to get higher engagement, make sure to post in the early morning (depending on your time zone). In case you oversleep, you can also post between 2 PM and 3 PM.
However, I have a mix of Instagram followers from different countries and time zones, so I’ve noticed that most of them are online around 6 pm Central European Time. It really depends on your audience demographics.
According to the latest study by Sprout Social, the best day to post your photos is Thursday.
Keep in mind, the most important thing is to stay consistent. Posting should be a habitual process since it is the only way to maintain a strong brand identity.
Use the power of hashtags
To attract relevant followers and increase engagement, start using specific hashtags. Feel free to hashtag the equipment you are using, location, subjects, and business. It’s recommended to come up with your own hashtag so that people will be able to find your photos among millions of others.
Make sure not to use more than 30 hashtags under one image. Otherwise, people will think that you are spammy (and it’s not very good for your photography brand). Consider hiding these hashtags in the comments.
If you want to get likes, feel free to use the most popular hashtags such as #like4like, #followme, #tbt, #cute, #picoftheday, etc. To find your audience, use Instagram analytics tools such as Union Metrics, Popular chips, Sylo, Analisa, etc.
Increase engagement
You need to engage with your followers and other photographers on Instagram. It is not as difficult as you may think. All you need is to interact with people by leaving comments under their photos and answering your followers’ questions.
Establish active interaction with your competitors. There’s a chance your content will attract their audiences.
Avoid buying followers since it can pull away real people and brands. Other than that, Instagram admins can also suspend your account for getting fake followers.
The bottom line
Instagram is a perfect platform for professional and amateur photographers who want to promote their brands. To use this social network as a marketing tool, make sure to define your brand’s aesthetics, and stick to one theme. You need to build an effective posting strategy and use hashtags in order to increase your engagement rate.
Pozrite si tento príspevok na Instagrame
TIP: Check my Instagram for more photos from my trips around the world :)
