On a daily basis, 75 million Instagram users sign into their personal accounts. On a monthly basis, over 500 million users search Instagram for appealing images. Instagram is becoming a necessary social media outlet for business owners, especially wedding photographers who can share beautiful images with potential clients.
In our Instagram for the Wedding Photographer Guide, we discuss simple strategies to help you develop and maintain a successful Instagram account. We also showcase a few Instagram pros who share their techniques to mastering Instagram. Here are 5 tips to help you properly use Instagram in for your wedding photography business.
1. Create Two Profiles
Consider creating two separate profiles – a wedding photography business profile and a personal profile. In your business profile, it is still important to share some personal photos, but you can use this to primarily showcase your wedding photos and gain followers who are potentially interested in booking you. If you started on Instagram with a personal profile, change that Instagram handle to your photography business name – this way, all of your followers will now be following your wedding photography business. Simply changing your handle allows you to keep the followers you gained and allows you to create a more business-centric page. From here, you can create a new personal Instagram account.
2. Maintain Consistency
Instagram offers you the opportunity to show off your brand, your creativity, and who you are as a photographer. Consistency is key to creating strong relationships with your followers and potential clients. Just like you may create a blogging schedule, create a schedule for posting on Instagram that works for you, and decide how many times per week you will post. Followers who know that you are consistent will await the images you post and will be more likely to share your page with their friends and family.
3. Use Hashtags Effectively
Hashtags are a great way to help you gain followers on Instagram. Use hashtags that focus on wedding photography and the locations that you shoot. For example, if a couple is looking to get married in Denver, they might search for the hashtag “#denverwedding” on Instagram. If you have tagged images with this, they have potential to see it. An easy way to decide what hashtags work is to search on Instagram for what hashtags are popular and get used. You can also experiment with hashtags to see what works and gets you more traction on your images.
“When I find fashion and lifestyle Instagram accounts I love, I follow them, and often take note of the hashtags they are using.” – Melissa Jill
4. Avoid Being Boring
Instagram is a resource for you to post your best images, whether those are from a wedding shoot or something you shot with your phone. Although you are an expert in wedding photography, try to avoid posting wedding images in every post. Keep your page fresh by mixing up the types of images you share with your followers. Remember that it is important to be relatable, so share some photos that will help followers relate to you on a personal level.
For example, if you love camping, post a few creative photos from your last trip. This will show that you do more than just shoot weddings, and you may gain followers that also share that interest. One of these followers may end up booking you because of your shared interest!
Tip: While you are focusing on your Instagram account, how is your blog doing? Your blog is a fantastic platform to share your images and the stories that went into creating them. You will gain valuable SEO to help you grow your business. Learn how Fotoskribe can help your blog by capturing your unique voice!
Also keep in mind that if you do not have an interesting photo to post, it is better to not post at all. Just like you are selective as to which images you post on your website, blog, and photo gallery, be selective with the images you post on Instagram. Since this social platform is image-based, people will judge you based on the images you post! Keep your images consistent and interesting in order to gain new followers and increase the number of likes you receive per image.
Related: How can you increase interaction on your Instagram account?
5. Share Edited Images
When you share images on Instagram, you are showing potential clients what type of work you do as a wedding photographer. The best way to ensure that you are sharing your best images is to only publish professionally photographed, edited images. Further, you must ensure that your images have a consistent style across all that you share. ShootDotEdit can help you by taking the burdensome task of wedding photo editing off your plate, returning consistently edited images to you to post on Instagram. ShootDotEdit is as fast as 48 hours, so you can post your images quickly for your customers to see.
Instagram is a great tool to market your images and drive people to your website. To learn additional strategies to use on Instagram, download our Instagram for the Wedding Photographer Guide!
Leave a comment