Without having an ‘official’ website of my own, my initial thoughts were to have a Facebook page. This was prompted after I was asked to provide a website link for an upcoming publication, and so I launched my Facebook page. As expected, it was a slow start. A couple of friends probably took pity on me and liked the page, but over a period of time, the number of visitors has grown in fits and starts. As at today (1st November 2015), I currently have 2190 Facebook followers.
Some weeks, I will get lots of new likes, and other weeks, virtually nothing, and perhaps even lose a couple of followers. It seems these days that social media is often more popular than a dedicated website, and so this is why I started my Facebook page.
The trouble is, am I jumping on the bandwagon just as everyone else is leaving the party? There seems to be so many different social media sites now that I really don’t know what is the best way forward to promote my photography.
Magazine submissions are my preferred method, as it’s always nice to see my photos in print. Then again, it’s difficult to know how wide an audience your reaching with magazines. With social media, you can see instantly when someone likes what you’ve posted, and so you get that instant gratification that you’re doing something right.
Many people seem to think that Twitter is the best medium, although the majority seem to favour Instagram. I’ve tried both, and got very little feedback from either of them. I have quickly developed a number of followers on Instagram, but relatively few on Twitter. I hate the fact that tweets have to be limited to just a few characters, and to be honest, I don’t know how to use either Twitter or Instagram effectively. If anyone has any suitable tips, I’d love to know.
In the meantime, I continue with Facebook as my primary social media outlet, but have recently started this blog so I can ramble about my thoughts and ideas in more detail, and also show additional photos and behind the scenes shots which I hope may be of interest to some.
I appear to be virtually the only person viewing my blogs at the moment. Perhaps it’s a slow start, and the number of viewers will slowly increase. I certainly hope so.
On the other hand, how many social media sites am I realistically expected to maintain? Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and now WordPress. I’ve also got Google Plus (which I’ve never used), and I’m on at least 5 modelling portfolio sites. It’s so difficult to keep up, and could easily become a full time job keeping them all updated, hence the love/hate relationship.
I’m a huge fan of Facebook, as it’s enabled me to make some very useful contacts with models, stylists, photographers, designers and a whole host of people across the world who I probably wouldn’t have otherwise discovered. Many of these people I can genuinely call friends, even though most of them I have never met.
If you use social media to engage your audience, what method do you find to be the most successful? How quickly did you get followers? Is it difficult to keep posting on all the various platforms? Any comments or suggestions would be most welcome.
Gary Clutterbuck Photography 