Wedding Photography on Social Media
This week, I had a potential customer that asked if I could point them to my social media sites so they could view my images. Now, my social media channels are available to access on my website and I will say, I am not an avid social media poster. However, society dictates that I need a social media presence, and so after many years of not partaking, I finally set up a Facebook page… 3 weeks on and I still haven’t posted on it.
I have an Instagram for my other interests (flowers and general photography) but I do not publicise those and again, I haven’t posted in a while to these sites. This may be partially down to my age (I’m a Gen X), it could be because I am genuinely not concerned about the number of followers or likes I have (which we feel validates us if we get lots of likes and/or followers) and it’s not part of my routine to post.
I am a private person and I would define myself as an introvert so by definition, I am not one to share my life with what are ultimately strangers. The dilemma, however, is if you’re running a business, you need to share your work so people can view it. My work is displayed on my website. I researched several photography websites before deciding that I didn’t want an endless stream of photographs on display. Potential customers can however, access more images through the client gallery if they want to see more examples of my work or on the blog posts which summarise some of the weddings photographed.
The main site for photography in all its shapes and forms is/was (depending on how you look at this) Instagram. I am in the “was” camp. Instagram was the site to post images until recently where it has changed direction and now gives priority to videos, following the Tik Tok model. Nothing wrong with that. But it effectively ‘forces’ photographers to change tack or fall behind (based on how its algorithm prioritises posts). I know that Insta allows for chronological posting but it is a setting you must select. What I didn’t know up until this point was the demographic, which I found on a Hootsuite blog post.
So as a photographer, I feel a little put out. The platform that was originally created for photographs has shifted to video. No matter though because there are other platforms out there that can potentially serve my business more productively.
Pinterest and Wedding Photography
The site I am more interested in is Pinterest. Reading the demographics for this platform on another Hootsuite survey provides me with a potentially larger platform for my images because it is used as an ideas platform. And in terms of some other stats, InfluencerMarketingHub states that more women use Pinterest than men (women tend to do most of the planning for a wedding), more millennials are on Pinterest (a potential market), the posts have the longest lifespan. The stats are geared towards the American market, but they do provide an indication of the type of market Pinterest serves.
So for me in this case, Pinterest is the site – I can post my blogs on Pinterest that points traffic to my site, I can post a video if I choose, but mostly I can post simple pins which are images I have taken.
I have used Pinterest to generate moodboards and such in the past, but it is only now that I am using it a little more frequently, that I can appreciate the value that it brings to me and my business. I can also follow my other interests (flowers and plants for example) on the same account and people only see what they search for, so I don’t need different accounts for different niches that I may want to cover.
For me, at this point in time, Pinterest is the platform of choice for wedding photography on a professional level, plus an idea generator for different interests, on a personal level.
One more site I will mention but haven’t started using in earnest, is Vevo. Vevo has been around for a while and allows you to post more than an image or video. My excuse for not posting regularly is time at present, but it’s a site I will be exploring more in the coming months.
The big downside of social media sites is how we (and others) use it to validate ourselves. If you don’t get ‘enough’ likes or shares, we think we’re not popular. I guess that’s the whole point of social media – who is the most popular and stands out the most? For some of us that is important, because we may be using these platforms to generate an income, but I believe for the vast majority of us, we want to share something that we think others may like.
As far as wedding photography is concerned, sharing images regardless of the platform you use, does give others an idea of your photography style and for potential customers, they get a feel for your work. That work is also available to view on the photographer’s website.
For me, researching and writing this blog – I need to do some more research on focusing on specific platforms that are more suited to wedding photography than to take a scatter gun approach where we try to be all things to all people. One of the hardest things for a business, is to determine its niche and stick to it.
I hope to focus on a couple of very specific sites over the coming months so that I can share them with images for potential customers.
