We'd all like to think the number of followers we have on Instagram isn't harming our business, but it seems like it could be. Here's how to give your social presence a jump start in 2019.
The team over at The Futur are back once again with another fascinating video with photographer Yvette Roman. The theme of this week's debate is social media's impact on professional photography which is a topic I'm sure many of us have wondered about. Early on in the discussion Roman talks about how Canon changed their mind to hire her for a high profile job because the number of followers she had was far too low. While I'm not surprised things like this happen, it is disappointing to hear that the likes of Canon would hold a talented photographer's follower count against them when they ticked every other box.
You'd hope that if your portfolio and website looked like a million dollars then it wouldn't matter if you only had a few thousand followers on Instagram. Unfortunately, that one chink in your armor could be enough to plant a seed of doubt in someone's mind and it's for this reasonĀ that you should be making a concerted effort to try to align the message you give off in the many places you show your work.
Chris Do, the founder of the Futur, explains to Roman how her Instagram account is lacking the personal story which would add perceived value to her pictures as well as help potential followers warm to her and motivate them to hit the follow button. While many of us prefer to stay behind the camera, showing your audience who you are and what you are about, really can help to paint a bigger picture and allow you to stand out in the sea of images that are out there.
Do goes onto talk about how many photographers fail to either inform or inspire with their accounts and this can be a big reason why they may be struggling to pull in the followers. I have to agree with this point entirely and as much as it's important to show your personality on your social pages, too many baby or pet pictures on a professional page can be a big turn off for followers that came to your account to see great photography.
The video is jam-packed with useful pointers on how to up your game when it comes to social media. Running at over 45 minutes this deep conversation between Do and Roman is a long one but well and truly worth the watch.
What are your thoughts on Canon dropping a photographer for not having enough followers? Do follower counts really matter? We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
Lead image by Frits Ahlefeldt used under Creative Commons.
Actions like these will just make more photographers put money into the fake followers industry, which overtime will make Instagram statistics meaningless. I hope this is not a company policy but just a decision by some yahoo business manager who does not know what even f-stops stand for.
Dear Canon F stop this shit.
Weird, I thought Canon's thing was not actually paying the photographers that support their brand (or Fuji's)... https://fstoppers.com/news/canon-italy-posts-landscape-composite-without...
Wanting a massive IG following equals yesteryears "how many will sign my yearbook" method of gauging popularity. Its high school drama meets social media.
Only high school ends and social is here to stay and getting worse.
Here is something that may have passed unnoticed to some folks. Canon says they want to hire a photographer BUT what they truly aim for is to hire a photographer who will do marketing for them. You would think that a corporation of this size would just hire a photog to get some quality advertisement material and run their own marketing campaign. But they really aim to hit two birds with one stone.
So you will say it's normal these days and Canon has right to choose and pay the kind of photographer that fully pleases them. It's all true. I just hope this hiring criteria does not become some kind of standard across other industries in the future.
Hi Dana - we can only hope, right? I will tell you that it was a massive opportunity to learn, though. Whether it means that I up my "instagram game", or make sure I'm seen on other levels, whatever those levels may be, it was truly a moment that caused the disruption I seemed to need to take hold of what was next for me. xxx
Also keep in touch with the agency people or the people from Canon who hired you at first, someone likes you, your pics and wants to work with you. Strengthen that relationship.
What many people probably do not realize at first (even thou it's not a secret) is that some of the most successful instagramers are not particularly gifted photographers. Many of them are not even taking the pictures (go figure if every photo is a selfie) and some are not even photographers at all (Selena Gomez or David Beckham are staple examples). In fact I would argue that having some celebrity fame acquired ahead of the time is helping to gain followers more than exhibited work.
You can do a simple check by looking up some random Magnum photographers on Instagram. Many of them don't have account but some of them that do can barely churn a 5 digit number of followers. Comparing to this any decent looking girl willing to post nude/half nude photos can easily acquire anywhere between 50k to 250k followers. For models and pornstars those numbers go into millions. But at this point we need to realize it has nothing to do with photography anymore.
I'm having trouble reconciling Chris Do's obvious success (490k followers on YouTube) with some of his comments. Why is he surprised there are so few images of Yvette? She's behind the camera, like most photographers. And if so many of her clients don't want to be named, it's impossible for her to offer BTS shots of herself on essentially closed locations. How does it matter that Yvette has so few followers but the art director for the Canon shoot doesn't? Lastly, Chris' inability to answer the first on air question worries me; he's offering advice on how to gain followers and be an influencer yet can't answer how many followers you need to be an influencer?
Hi Andy - thanks so much for taking the time to comment here. My takeaway from the podcast was this: the game we play on Instagram that can separate our work as professionals from the zillions of photos that get uploaded every minute is the opportunity to more succinctly tell our story - we have to communicate the integrity of our work, especially now that our work is being challenged by (I'm just gonna say it!) iPhones, IG filters, etc. I had no idea that people wanted my story. My job, as I understand it, is to tell other people's stories, not my own. I have no desire to be an influencer - I just want to work, and I want to do my best to communicate the value of choosing experience, consistency, and to (hopefully) get people to recognize my work as such. And btw, I am in no way a Canon hater because of this experience (ok maybe for a day when it happened, but that was well over a year ago!) - they are a huge corporation doing what a huge corporation does. It was unfortunate that they gave me a verbal on the job before they looked at my social media following, if that was a thing, but it has given me an amazing opportunity to think deeply about what I want to do going forward...it was great information, painful as it was, and I'm seriously grateful.
I think itās incredibly tough to separate a professional photographer from a hobbyist; some hobbyists are very good. How do you explain knowledge such as licensing, releases, colour management etc on IG?
Iām in the same boat as you when it comes to social media āsuccessā but am taking a different route. Iāve deleted my FB photo page and having reset my Twitter Iām now only making professional tweets; in the past I used to comment on anything that interested me. Finally Iām in the process of curating my IG feed; I used to post all types of my work such as auto, food, art, fashion etc. Moving on Iām only going to post portraits and focus my feed. Iām also spending far less time on IG and social media and feel far better for it. Content is increasingly homogenous and I see too many echo chambers speaking to no one but themselves.
Lastly Iām skeptic at when it comes to Canon. As a fellow Canon shooter I love the brand but I find Canon UK to be very unhelpful. I appreciate theyāre a large corporation but my experience is that the left hand doesnāt speak to the right hand.
I feel you 100%. Every word.
Curious to hear Canon's side of the story
Aghhh It's so hard for me to care about Instagram, I almost have to set a reminder to go post something on there. I also don't have a Facebook account. I am glad my career doesn't seem to be influenced by my lack of phony social skills.
Hi All - Yvette here! Wow - I was incredibly surprised to see this on F-Stoppers today! Thank you so much for posting! I want to make a few things clear that I think are really important to know. First and foremost: I have been shooting for many, many years, and I have both gotten and lost many, many jobs. If you do this for long enough, everything will happen eventually. Every scenario - oh I could tell you stories! This one, though, hit me the hardest for these reasons... 1. I have shot with Canon cameras for decades. I love their products. I have dear friends who work for them, and I even gave a lecture on copyright at their headquarters a few years ago, and was deeply honored to do so. That said, having the opportunity to shoot for them was incredibly exciting...which brings me to - 2. There rarely been an opportunity in my career that has literally forced a sink-or-swim moment to that degree. I could no longer avoid doing the due diligence to think deeply about it, and be brutally honest about how our profession has changed over the last several years, and how I was going to deal with it. Not dealing with it wasn't going to work anymore, especially in light of the opportunities I was now getting, and....truth be told...clearly losing... This was one of the greatest learning experiences of my career, and I am, in the end, truly grateful to whomever it was at Canon who decided to put the kibosh on that job. Yes. It caused a tailspin, but So What?? In the last year and a half or so, since the whole thing happened, space opened up for me to be able to humbly and thoroughly realize where I was lacking. That is a gift, and I have nothing but gratitude for it. Whether my path going forward will end up being more reliant on Instagram or not, it has made me a much more awakened-to-this reality business person, and I have, instead of pushing these lessons away or feeling hurt, finally been able to start steering the ship again... Thank you all for reading....and...I must add here...props to Canon... :)
Well, I followed you on instagram for what it's worth.
It's worth everything. :) :) Thank you.
Yvette, it would help and be good practice to add a profile photo of yourself :) so you don't seem like someone on the witness protection program when replying to people.
The whole get in front of the camera thing, it totally skews things to young, attractive people which sucks. No one wants to see my grump old mug in their feed. I know that, so I don't put it there. If my feed was me and not attractive models that I shoot I wouldn't even have half the meager following I have. lol.
Hi David - I feel you 100%. I think that what Chris was talking about in the podcast regarding telling your story, is to make sure that the value of your experience and expertise is communicated along with your imagery (and that "how" is the next puzzle to solve, right?). I don't know if it always means actually stepping in front of the camera or not (hopefully not 'cause omg I hate that!). :)
The best example I've seen yet. Utilizing influencers to increase a Brands ability to be approachable. https://wwd.com/business-news/marketing-promotion/pacsun-fall-campaign-a....
There exist personalities that attract and those that don't. Some, have zero interest in the following. Their goal may be to create great images. Some create very different feeds to attract the following that will carry their career. Example: Sydnee Marie, Manny Perez, Scott Crawford.
Dip your toe into some greats on IG; Annie, Helmut, Rittz, Meisel. Then there are: Woelfel, Singerman, Kobeissi, Castellon. These influencers have very different followings, and very different markets. The first group made their name when editing was at its mildest. Take an incredible image, dodge/burn a little and post. That second group, they've jumped off the cliff with regards to no limits on the capture than edit results.
IG; they've created a platform for gatherers to connect. IG is exploiting the creativity for their own benefit with the advertising and promotional fees they charge. Too much of a monster they are with their boundaries on who'll get the best air time. Remember; follow, like, comment, save, and repeat. We've turned ourselves into nano-entertainment channels. What we'll do for a little attention.
Professional commercial photographer here.
How does a photographer like her get an interview with The Futur?
Honestly, someone with such a low level work (shooting kitch weddings and lifestyle) saying they're losing Canon jobs because they don't have enough followers on instagram -and why would she- is insane and attention chasing. I'm sorry Yvette, it wasn't the number of followers, and even if it was then it wasn't her photography they needed.
The story really smells. She mentioned the booked the job.. then reveals they didn't even talk budget. That's not how it works. Does anyone really believe her interpretation?
Mind you a lot of big name photographers booking 50-100k shoots are not even involved with instagram, every day. Also mind you maybe that's just the excuse she got and poor girl thought they really meant it.
Go create meaningful work, and aim to build a style and name for yourself that has people coming to you for you, not because of supposed followers.
No hate, truly surprised, as we're used to an excellent curation of designers and professionals at the Futur so far.
@minorstepļ»æ
Iāve not taken the time to read every comment so I apologize in advance it this has been discussed. If advertising agencies, corporation, websites are hiring photographers based in part on their followers, shouldnāt photographers be charging for these eyeballs? I propose a line item of $250.00 (this is an arbitrary number) per 10,000 followers be added to our estimates. If our followers are being used as part of their marketing strategy we should get paid for this service. We all complain about not getting paid what weāre worth. If followers equals value, shouldnāt we be charging for this value?
Thought?
I just watched the āInflunceā video and it addresses this a little. Iād still like to get other opinions.