With social media and photography, who’s driving your artistic direction and work? For photographers, artists, who earn some or all of their living in their craft, social media impacts our work. Significantly. Especially when it affects our productivity, mindset of our work and most importantly, work direction.
Before diving in, the question of “What does success look like to you?” serves as a strong guidepost. Our individual definition of success with our own work IS the benchmark for our photography work.
Why am I blogging about this? With social media’s shifting direction and influence, my benchmark and success wavers. I know that I’m not alone feeling challenged – many of us are. We can’t hide under the covers over this one!
The continual shifting social directions bring upsides and downsides. My blog centers on these ups and downs. Plus, it includes feedback from what I read and hear from artists and trusted resources. From there, I also share considerations moving forward.
If we compare our work and our stats to successful photographers of different genres, different paths and influences, we can makes ourselves a bit crazy. On the flip side, observing the work and actions of top photographers offers educational perspectives. Check out this article from the very talented, Fine Art Photographer Aaron Reed: Selling Fine Art without Selling Your Soul. He’s on Instagram as: aaronreedphotography.
Social Media and Photography: Photographers’ Views
Here’s a few quotes I hear consistently from other photographers and artists. Do you relate or have others to add? If yes, add your comments below.
- “I won’t leave my current social platform. I’ve worked so hard to build my follower base. Yes, my engagement is shrinking. Some of my sales happen from my posts there.”
- “My account doesn’t do well. I’m doing something wrong. Maybe my work isn’t good enough. I don’t get enough likes or followers. ”
- “They keep changing the algorithm! Da*n! I have to post reels to get likes and follows now. I guess I need to get more videos next time I’m out.”
- “My follower list is really big! I grew it all on my own too. But I don’t understand why I’m not selling much.”
- “That blurry image of a sunset from “Joey” got over 500 likes. My tack sharp kitesurfing photo with the big wave only got 100 likes. What am I doing wrong?”
- “I continue to be inspired by others photos. Gives me ideas for future shooting.”
- “My network of photographer friends as a result of social is so fun. It helps me level up my game too.”
- “I’m on three different social platforms. It takes a ton of time. I need to spend more time in the field and in post processing.”
- “I really love seeing other artists work from around the world. I go to their profile to see what they pushed this week as it’s not showing up in my feed.”
- “I keep seeing ads about businesses to help me grow my followers. When I research it, my social platforms ban doing this. Why do they allow these ads then? “
- “Social & my success on social makes my head hurt!”
Change is the Constant
An observation about the list above? How often are we asking about our photography work, the quality, the artistry? Our investment of time in our work? The intent of social is working – it’s consuming some of our actions and in some cases, changing our direction.
When we look at social media and photography today, almost every post includes images. This includes photos, GIFs, videos and photo video combos with majority of these not from photographers. Advertisements are photo based too.
Looking back ten to twelve years ago, photographers created websites, facebook pages, produced blogs, joined multiple platforms. And quite frankly, their work stood out across social, audiences grew. The people who followed these photographers saw their work in their feed.
Today, an awesome smartphone photo created by a non-photographer can gain as much attraction as that of iconic photographers who have many, many years of proven work. A strange, creepy video of some man dancing gains 100,000 views and a few thousand likes while a highly regarded photographers’ post gains 1000 likes. To see images from photographers, other sites and friends we follow? We already know the answer.
Compare this to musicians who sold their work on CD’s, albums versus today of downloading and selling a single song at a time. Their competition landscapes shifts (unless you’re Taylor Swift) too.
All artists and businesses, need to continually assess how they connect, engage and win with their audience. As the sources we use to grow our following change directions, we too need to look at what we need to do for the health of our own business, work and mindset.
SW
The Upsides of Social Media and Photography: Positive Vibes
Throughout the curve of social, engagement is the primary objective for the social platform and for the user. What is that in ‘Social Media’ speak?
“Social media engagement is an umbrella term for actions that reflect and measure how much your audience interacts with your content. Social media engagement can include likes, comments and shares, but varies by platform.”
Sprout Social
When viewers see, like, follow, share, recommend our work it feels great knowing that others enjoy what we do. At the same time, that interaction last seconds. Sure, sometimes there are images, videos that are ‘scroll stoppers’ and users stop to engage further. If they follow our pages, accounts, that shows their interest in seeing more of our work going forward. Does that mean each of our posts reaches their feed?
Social Media and Photography: Followers, Engagement Rate & Your Business
Which is more important? The number of followers or the number of engaging posts?
There are many opinions on this along with multiple tools to help analyze engagement. The answer in reality is both in some form. We need real followers who engage with our work. I’d rather hold 1000 followers with a steady engagement of 10 – 15% (150 people) than 20,000 followers with an engagement of 1% (200 people). The 15% in this case reflects higher work efficiency with engagement. By looking at overall engagement rates though, high volume followed accounts with single-digit engagement rate
Preferably I’d rather have 150,000 followers with an engagement rate of 20% – I think we all feel that way!
If interested in your own engagement rate, the site: Phlanx has a quick Instagram engagement rate calculator. Enter your handle and it shares an engagement rate that compares your results to overall averages across Instagram.
I do this a couple of times a year and it continues to verify what I guessed all along. Since I’m from Michigan, when I post Michigan based images consistently on Instagram, my engagement is much higher. A big percentage of my long term relationships, friends, followers here have ties to Michigan. As a result, they engage more.
When I post work from my multi-week travels, I still get engagement, but it’s about 1/2 of my engagement rate when consistently post Michigan images.
On the flip side, when I post those same images on my Facebook page? I get the same level of engagement or sometimes higher with my non-Michigan work. The reason? My follower base is broader reaching on that platform.
Engagement Rate Results & You:
If you’re a social media influencer earning an income on sponsored posts or heading that way, action and activity is crucial. Volume of followers and engagement are metrics sponsors seek.
As a photographer who’s selling their work locally, via a website, volume of followers is helpful. It is NOT the only determining factor of your work. The artist Irene Suchocki (@eyepoetry on Instagram) has about 1700 followers. On her Etsy shop alone EyePoetryPhotography, 26,500 individual art pieces reside in homes around the world. If her average sale is $25 (which I’m guessing that’s low) that’s a whopping $666,500. Plus, she sells on other art platforms. Big business!
Who’s liking, commenting and ultimately buying our work? Where are we selling our work? What pieces are selling? When I post my images, it leads to some actual sales in my Etsy shop. Tying back to my personal engagement rates above, I sell more images taken outside of Michigan than from within.
There are tools within the social platforms, typically referred to as Insights, that help dive into your own social metrics.
Activity is Important & Brings Other Personal Rewards
Engaged users are more likely to turn in to customers. By staying active in social, engaging with others, following their posts and genuinely taking interest in others, we build better relations with followers and potentially gain more too.
While likes and follows feel good, they don’t cover the bills. The more our audience sees and engages with our work, and we engage with our audience, there’s a greater opportunity they turn into a customer.
A huge reward in social includes friendships. Real friendships. Many of my engaged followers are photographers who share a similar passion in capturing imagery. Many friendships start as a result of dialogues and interactions in social media. Those friendships turn in to networks, shooting and travel partners, sounding boards that live well outside of social.
Cost of Visibility in Social
Visibility on social is relatively free outside of our time in creation of our work and time posting. Or, if we choose to advertise – we control the costs. As of today, my visibility is through posting and engaging with others. For a part two of this blog, I will run a boosted post to check impact on engagement.
Note: Social media platforms earn pennies and dollars on a clicked boosted post from individual accounts too.
The Potential Downsides of the Realities
While most agree that social media and photography play a viable role together, there are downsides. As we continue leveraging social media, especially as photographers/artists, take time to reassess everything about it – the positives and downsides. Let’s take a look a at a few of the realities:
Social Media and Photography – We are the Product, But It’s YOUR Business
Our ‘free’ social media engines are money making machines. The users (that’s us) are the product they are selling to their advertisers. We do the scrolling and clicking. Their strategy is to hook us in to seeing content that helps their bottom line. While you are posting, their algorithm is taking hold of it to place it in the feed where it fits their strategy, not ours.
While it’s the reality, there’s nothing wrong in being a for profit company. Keep in mind that they design algorithms to drive users to revenue generating streams. Today, if you go to someone’s page on Instagram, a video on YouTube or to another platform, at some point, ads fly across the screen to get your attention. They earn when users click on an ad, not when users view your work. To see what Facebook makes per user:
Meta reported Facebook and Messenger’s annual revenue per user (ARPU) as $40.96 for 2021. In other words, it earned $40.96 per user in 2021. Also reported was Facebook’s daily active users (DAU), approximately 1.93 billion as of December 31, 2021.
Investopedia
The reality is we influence engagement with our posts but we don’t control it – even with the best of images or posts. We maneuver, tag, time and do things to make our work stand out. Then, if we get traction and it reaches more of our audience, even better.
If an image or video doesn’t get the expected traction? It may or may not have anything to do with the quality of that posting.
Photography is a business, remember that you’re in this for profit too. Your equipment, time, travel costs money!
So Many Platforms – Which One(s) to Choose?
Pick a social platform, any social platform. At some point algorithms change, upheaval, angry users, blocked accounts, stolen account occur. For users with large followings, it’s hard and very risky to ‘exit’ as your followers do not always jump because you do.
At the same time, looking at other platforms, spreading across more than one potentially expands your audience and reduces risk. Spreading across multiple platforms also costs time.
Today I have too many social accounts. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest and Vero. For some folks, this is a good practice. Others, it takes too much time.
For my business today I rely on: Facebook, Instagram for my photography work, YouTube for my Lifestyle/content activities and a small amount on Twitter, TikTok, Vero and Pinterest. I won’t exit those where I have a small amount of activity today, as I prefer keep the options open.
Time management and intention to stay on for a few minutes easily goes by the wayside when that ‘adorable’ video pops up. Staying aware of time plays a big role here.
Competition is Fierce. Period.
There’s an entertainment, friendship, and educational aspect when we’re engaging in social. It’s also addictive by design. Images, videos, ads rush to greet you based on what slows your screen, what you click, like and follow. It’s sugar for the mind.
As a photography, content business, we’re competing not only with like genres. Our competition? Time, the many different genres of media on social, and all the social platforms out there. This is true for beginners, advanced and professionals.
As a business, spend the right amount of time. Avoid the deep dive entertainment temptations. Spend your time where you get the biggest return for your work, whether it’s inside of social or somewhere
Remember: Same is true for users who see our image and then that cute video pops up of the dog, cat, human dancing and then? Our recent post goes by the wayside. It’s difficult to stay focused on one image too long.
Social Media and Photography: Do Likes = Image Quality?
There are many images and videos across social that get many likes that are top notch quality! At the same time, there are images that receive the same amount based on other factors – cuteness, emotion, etc.. The cute chicken on the lap. The llama in the backseat.
Then, I see amazing, beautiful work with small amount of traction. Likes or lack of lacks are not the only indicators of image quality. Yet, for some us, it potentially creates a level of stress and self-doubt.
What’s the Best Way to Move Forward with Social Media and Photography as a Business?
What is your goal with social? Followers? Friendships? Connectivity to your current world and the overall current cultural vibe? Sales? A combination?
The right answer goes back to you, your benchmark of success. If it’s to drive business to your photography, photography site and work, how much time are you spending on your craft versus time spent in social? Social is an important element. Yet, we need to combine right activity of social with other focused efforts of representing our work.
This year there were several repeat customers, each with volume orders across my website and Etsy shop. I reached out to a few of them with much gratitude and kindly asked the question, how did you find my work? The answers included: Google Search (SEO/Smoky Mountains/Clingman’s Dome), Etsy Search, a long term follower that had never hit a like button but went to my FB page regularly and an avid Instagram follower.
In summary, we continue to search for the right balance between chasing the light, time in processing, choosing images for posting, selecting and preparing images for selling. On the back side it’s then choosing where to spend time building a community that supports our creativity and the business of our work – including social and other marketing avenues. It’s not always easy to stay on point and to remember we’re driving our business, not the social platforms.
Let your benchmark of success serve as your guidepost.
