Three Tips for Selling on Social Media

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We're professional photographers, Mr + Mrs and Mom + Dad. We like to share insights into our industry and empower other photographers to build their biz.

Hi, WE'RE ERICA+JON

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I still remember when Facebook was simply a networking platform designed for college students only, Instagram wasn’t even invented, and MySpace still reigned supreme as the online profile of choice! Today, Myspace is a digital ghost town, Instagram is the fastest growing social media platform and Facebook is so widely used that allegations of interference in U.S. elections have surfaced against them. Wow! In such a short period of time (about 10-15 years) social media has become an incredibly powerful force in our world.

It’s no wonder that businesses have flocked to social media to increase their fanbase, create community, and sell their services and products. It’s where the attention is! Where billboards and print advertising used to be the advertisement of choice, people now walk by those very billboards with their heads down scrolling through their social feeds. Marketing yourself through social networks is a great strategy, so we’re giving you Three Tips for Selling on Social Media!

Be Consistent

If you’ve grabbed our freebie ‘Guide to Brand Imagery that Sells,’ then you know how much of an emphasis we put on consistency with everything surrounding brand imagery. (P.S. if you haven’t gotten our Guide to Brand Imagery that Sells, get a copy here!) Consistency is the first priority you should have when it comes to your social media presence. Before you concern yourself with great imagery or creative posts, you have to simply show up and show up often! People desire to have community and belong to something – they want engaging brands to fall in love with and rally behind! But it’s impossible to create that kind of community if you don’t show up to begin with.

It doesn’t matter if you just created your profile and have 1 follower or if you have 10k followers – show up every day ready to engage! Showing up consistently allows people to develop trust and know what to expect from you. It’s crucial to your success!

Create Engaging Content

Sorry sweetie, but random photos and ‘thoughts of the day’ type of content is not going to help your brand sell on social. You have to be intentional to create compelling content that people will want to engage with! This includes stunning visuals through intentional photography and attention-grabbing captions and thoughts.

By now you know we’re all in on the stunning visuals piece, but let’s talk for a second about captions and the types of content to share. To help guide the process, we usually recommend brands choose a handful of topics relevant to them that they want their ideal clients to know. Then continually post photos and captions on those core topics so that your audience gets to know your entire story.

Here’s an example: say you run a local eatery downtown. You serve up the freshest and most flavorful seafood dishes in town and it’s a downright shame if people live an entire life without devouring them at least once! But post after post of your culinary creations just aren’t connecting with your audience. Why?

Because there is waaaaaaaaaay more to your story than your food. Your restaurant has a story that needs to be told. People want to see behind the scenes insights into how you do what you do. They need to be told about the plane you charter each day from Alaska with the creme of the crop of fresh seafood. They want to know the people behind the curtain! Those details, friend, are the parts of the story people can get behind. It’s not that you shouldn’t share photos of your dishes – you definitely should! – but you also need to complete the story and create a brand people feel like they know inside and out.

Engage, Engage, Engage

One thing we see brands do that literally pains us – seriously, we wince when we see this – is to post beautiful imagery and interesting captions that generate tons of discussion and then…..don’t respond! It sounds crazy, right?! After putting in so much effort to create community, why would you not take the time to respond to each person who engages back?

We made a commitment early on that we would personally engage with everyone who interacts with our social media profiles. To us, we’re honored that people would take the time to be interested in who we are and what we do, and to show how much we appreciate that, we communicate! It is so, so simple and yet so powerful.

Imagine how sold out you would be if Taylor Swift commented back to you! You’d be on cloud nine and be an even bigger Swiftie for life! Now let’s be real – T-Swift doesn’t need any more publicity, she’s set for life! But your brand can have the same impact on potential fans and you must capitalize on it through the simple act of engagement.

Pro Tip: Social media can be all-consuming. It can easily eat into far too much of your time and attention. We carve out certain times within our schedule to engage with our followers so that it isn’t an on-going process that robs our productivity. As a bonus, scheduling the time means we make sure to do it, because it’s on the calendar!

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