Having started out on Instagram a few years ago it's easy to see where I stand on this question but I am always curious how many photographers use the platform for advertising their business or even use it to build more business.
Having started out on Instagram a few years ago it's easy to see where I stand on this question but I am always curious how many photographers use the platform for advertising their business or even use it to build more business.
I'm not sure if I use it to generate direct business but right now its more for brand awareness than anything else. I tried to do an actual advertisement image to my stream on instagram and got literally ZERO responses and it was a exclusive and great deal too! I may not try that again until I got 1-2k followers but I've been using it daily for about 2 weeks and growing followers little by little. Overall use for about 2 years in September, but I've been doing it much more consistently and only uploading my work and BTS and rarely ever anything "personal" like food photos.
I was a late adopter of Instagram, which was a big misstep for me. While Facebook has brought me an ample amount of business, Instagram has knocked that out of the park. It's a no-mess, quick and easy way to connect with potential clients and talent. I have a small following, and am working to increase my presence on IG. Can't say how excited I am about this group, already found gold in some of the posts here!
So happy to hear that Paige! Also, welcome to the Fstoppers Writers group! Glad to have you on board. As for IG, its an incredible tool an so happy to hear you are enjoying the group! If you have any questions or comments please shoot them over here in a new post and I will gladly help if at all possible
Thank you very much! I will definitely keep that in mind! I've already feel like I struck gold with the tip I saw regarding placing your hashtags in a comment rather than the image itself. That's golden!
How does that benefit you?
It benefits you by giving you the exposure of using multiple hashtags without most people seeing that you used them. Once you get a few comments on your post from other users, Instagram "hides" the oldest comment posts. So when people see your post in their feed, they only see the last couple of comments and not your own comment with all the hashtags.
So i have been considering bringing Instagram to my photography business, but something that i have been wondering about. Should i make an additional Instagram account form my photography or should i let i be the same as my personal account for potential clients to have a way to get to know me a bit?
What are you guys doing, are you using a separate account for your business? or are you using your personal one?
That is an incredible question and one that sadly you will ultimately have to make. I am glad to give you my advice and how I look at it all! I started my own personally account just a few weeks after the app launched without ever thinking much of it. I used a nickname I have been given for years. "Gris" or @the_gris since being given that in my HS days as my older brother was big gris and my little bro was well little gris. Ha. It was simply a part of me and a quick simple way to make the name easy to remember. Most folks personally new me by that anyway. I find it MORE beneficial that I used my personal account for my professional business because it grounded me as a real person and someone people could relate to. Not to mention without the simple switch between personal and business pages it makes it a hell of a lot easier. Also, taking photos personaly and proffessionally have led me to job opps so I will thank both for that.
For 2015 I have booked about $12,000 in work directly from Instagram. Unless the brides aren't telling me the truth. But I believe them because of their location and wedding locations.
As for accounts. I have a personal and business. I don't actually use the personal one at all anymore. If there's a personal image. I post it to the business account but it's still shot with my DSLR and in the same format I post everything else with.
I get substantially more business from Instagram then I do from Facebook. Plus I never have to spend a dime on an add. I think when IG added the direct message feature it really changed things for the better. Before that it was just about brand awareness. Now I get inquiries and have collected a lot of contact info of potential clients/collaborators. I also find it to be great when I'm traveling and trying to connect with new people in a city I'm not filmiar. I have not had a bad experience yet fingers crossed!
I use IG, have been using it for about 2 months now with a steady growth in followers. I'm not looking for stellar growth, but I'm averaging about 5 followers a day that are not bot's. Still experimenting with hashtags, either in comment or actual post. Since I have started, posting at least 1 picture a day, based on best time to post I have had over 4K in likes and up to about 350 followers. No external advertising, just a methodical strategy of one pict a day. It is an experiment that I hope in the next year or so will start to pay off. I'm @mike_mosesphoto Thanks for all the good comments and thoughts to follow.
Photography is not mymain work buti would love to have such a great following to show what i do.
If this then makes an income i guess i would be more than satisfied.
I indeed use instagram to spread my work.
I started a whole new account for IG because i have a lot of stuff i like doing and my photography simply got lost in between these.
I post videos of me flexing or inthe gym for gym enthusiast or my snowboard videos and other stuff. This always kept away people from seeing my pics because it looked confusional i guess.
Today i have two accounts @nelb.fit and @nelbrodriguesphoto