Since the inception of Instagram on 6th October 2006, it has become an indispensable part of our social media life. The app has given photos a perfect platform to shine. It’s all about clicking good pictures and posting it for the world to see.
With over 600 million users accessing the app on a daily basis, it’s a great platform for budding or established photographer to promote their business and expand it internationally.
Instagram is a global app used by celebrities, sportsmen and common men alike. Thus, it gives you a huge exposure as a photo enthusiast to showcase your skills and growing your customers.
It’s never too late to join this photo fanatic community. Just download and start, it’s very easy and you will be welcomed with open arms.
Firstly let’s talk about why Instagram? The reasons are:
- The ever-growing audience that will most certainly stumble upon your best work.
- Your competitors are on it, advertising their products.
- All your friends, favorite photographers are on it. Follow them to get inspired and make them notice your work.
Without further delay, let’s look at 7 tips on how to use Instagram to expand your photography business-
1. Share only your flawless work
Posting frequently is a must to keep your followers but more importantly, you need to retain them. So, while sharing remember to showcase your best work.
Your posts should be flawless inciting an immediate response from consumers and leaving them awestruck.
It’s also crucial to mix and match the post images, show all the shades of your photography from casual to formal to carefree. Variety always stands out and let people with different taste feel connected to you.
2. Hashtags are a must use
Hashtags are critical for a budding business to keep it growing. A person will not just stumble upon your work out of luck. He will search for hashtags and in doing so will engage new target customers.
When you use hashtags in your caption, and people with common interest search those, they find your account and ta-da new fans.
The limit for hashtags is 30 but you don’t have to use the limit.5-10 is enough and also use single words between them, not a whole sentence.
3. Keep your profile and bio updated
The first thing a follower will do after landing on your post/photos will check out your profile. Your username should be crafted carefully, it should reflect your business and your personality.
Your bio should give details about your work, hobbies, and nature of your work. It should always include contact details and location for your peers and potential collaborators to reach you and know where your base is. You can read here more about how to set up an interesting Instagram bio for photographers.
4. Decide your field of work and let them know
Photography has so many fields but you have to let your followers know what your forte is. Whether you do professional photo-shoots or serious artistic work etc. must be clear from your window of work.
Don’t confuse the consumers by putting everything up, find a niche and works towards that enabling everyone who sees your page to know where your expertise lies.
5. Interact by asking a question
Keeping the audience engaged is a tough task but not impossible. Interact with them through your post by attaching a question in your caption or asking a suggestion.
The question doesn’t always have to be about your page, ask a question that compels them to answer and engage in a conversation with other followers.
Ask about their favorite book or opinion about something trending, it will definitely engage people coz everyone loves to speak their mind.
Be whimsical and funny and sarcastic, be you and more while interacting. Don’t just talk or post about our photography.
6. Use your words
Instagram is a huge success because people don’t have to write long description but that doesn’t mean that you can ignore your caption.
Always put a little caption for your post. The caption should be short but full of valuable information for the followers.
Captioning your post with the right words can be the key which will help you keep your followers engrossed in your page. Also, tag all the people involved in a particular shot, it automatically broadens your reach.
7. Post bloopers and behind the scene footage
A lot of hard work goes into getting a perfect shot. There are fun, embarrassing moments and a lot of stories that people love to see.
Use the story feature of Instagram and let the world see that you are a human who sometimes is messy, climb a tree for a perfect shot or simply post your selfies with your collaborators.
Create photo collages. They work amazing. Use tools like Canva to create and share photo collages within minutes.
Keeping these tips in mind, one can use Instagram not just for fun or stalking celebrities but to excel in their career.
Sure, your portfolio is important but it never hurts to give a boon to your business. So, try the app and reach out to millions.