So many (social media) sites, so little time!

[Fuzz]

Every since I quit my job and moved to New Zealand, I've been slowly getting more serious about my photography and getting my pictures "out there". Obviously you cannot just take pictures and expect people to magically find you; you have to proactively get your pictures out there in front of people. I usually just post my pictures on Flickr and share them by posting on forums + maintain a personal site via/connected with 500px. But now I'm looking to "get out" a bit more. There are just so many options out there -- Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., etc. Those of you who do this for real, how do you handle it?

Here's what I've been doing until recently:

• I use Flickr as basically my dumping ground -- I upload all my pictures there, often multiple versions/edits of the same image, etc. From Flickr, I then share on forums like TGR.
• I upload only my best images to 500px, which then go onto my portfolio site.

And now I've expanded a bit:

• I recently started a Facebook page for my photography. I post one picture a day, usually with a link to the hi-res version on 500px. But just uploading to a FB page doesn't increase the picture's reach. I keep my FB friend list trimmed (so my FB fans/likes are low), so the only way to really publicize my FB photography page is by sharing the page/pictures on FB groups. Or am I missing something?
• Just started on Instagram today, but not sure how to go about it. Should I upload only pictures taken with my phone, or should I upload my DSLR pictures as well? Same question as with FB -- how do you increase exposure to your page/pictures?

It almost seems like a two-step process -- first you upload the proper, hi-res version to your portfolio site. Then you share low-res versions of that on social media. Is there a particular logic/method that you use in sharing on social media? Any particular methods of sharing that lead to more interest or traffic? Do you feel like you get more recognition by using social media? A lot of social media seems to be driven by recognition -- people will "like" posts/pictures by a popular/well-known name even if the post/picture is just average. But better posts/pictures by others/unknowns go unnoticed/unliked. Or is it all just a waste of time? Because it does take a lot of time -- not only to upload so many images to so many sites, but also to then share them around to get as many people to see them as possible.

Do any of you do traditional bricks-and-mortar publicizing, e.g. at/through local galleries, art shops, cafes, etc.? The potential audience on the internet is obviously much larger than a local gallery/cafe, but sometimes I feel like social media is only good for getting some nice comments and people are mostly satisfied just looking at pretty pictures on the screen without taking it any further.

Thankfully, I do not need to rely on my photography for a living (at least not yet)! Just prepping for a potential future someday.

And while we're at it, what are all your sites that you're active on?

Portfolio site: www.fuzzphotography.com
500px: 500px.com/fuzzsummit
Flickr: FuzzSummit
Facebook: fuzzphoto
Instagram: fuzzphotography

[Supermoon]

There are a bunch of answers to your questions here, and a lot of it depends on what you're trying to do. If you JUST want to increase your audience size, then worry about actually making money later, there's one set of strategies, and if you want to make money now, there's another set.

Facebook:
To be honest, this is the least good network for a business/page to start on now. They are shifting quickly to a pay-to-play model where your posts will only reach between 2 - 6% of your followers unless you pay to promote it. If you have a small personal network, and aren't seeing a lot of engagement right off the bat (likes, shares, comments), you may be barking up the wrong tree here.

Instagram:
The key here is using smart hashtags (not hashtag word soup by any means) when you describe your photos, and then interacting with people you think may be into your stuff. So if you look at photos tagged with Kiwi-related terms, photography terms, etc, then like and comment on things that you like. You'd be amazed how 15-30 minutes of this per day will grow your base.

As far as the photos themselves, most photogs share high quality stuff on IG. I personally use the Flickr app to download photos from my acct onto my phone, then just post straight into IG from there without using the editing (obviously you have to crop to square). Others use mobile apps to edit/crop. Either way can work. The moral of the story here is that you are judged by the photos you post, so make sure they are something you're happy to put your name to.

The downside here is that IG is such a controlled experience it's hard to link outside to websites, etc. There are various strategies for doing this, but I wouldn't worry about it too much for now.

[::: :::]

followed you on IG

good luck w/ the promotion/business building!

[hitek79]

There are a bunch of answers to your questions here, and a lot of it depends on what you're trying to do. If you JUST want to increase your audience size, then worry about actually making money later, there's one set of strategies, and if you want to make money now, there's another set.

Facebook:
To be honest, this is the least good network for a business/page to start on now. They are shifting quickly to a pay-to-play model where your posts will only reach between 2 - 6% of your followers unless you pay to promote it. If you have a small personal network, and aren't seeing a lot of engagement right off the bat (likes, shares, comments), you may be barking up the wrong tree here.

Instagram:
The key here is using smart hashtags (not hashtag word soup by any means) when you describe your photos, and then interacting with people you think may be into your stuff. So if you look at photos tagged with Kiwi-related terms, photography terms, etc, then like and comment on things that you like. You'd be amazed how 15-30 minutes of this per day will grow your base.

As far as the photos themselves, most photogs share high quality stuff on IG. I personally use the Flickr app to download photos from my acct onto my phone, then just post straight into IG from there without using the editing (obviously you have to crop to square). Others use mobile apps to edit/crop. Either way can work. The moral of the story here is that you are judged by the photos you post, so make sure they are something you're happy to put your name to.

The downside here is that IG is such a controlled experience it's hard to link outside to websites, etc. There are various strategies for doing this, but I wouldn't worry about it too much for now.

This is a pretty solid explanation of what I've found so far. I've just started with Instagram about 6 weeks ago. Hashtags have made a big difference. Another option is hashtagging curator pages and allowing them to "share" your picture. I shared a picture with a page that has about 130k followers. When they posted my picture, it got 9300 likes on their page, and got me about 60 new followers in 24 hrs. I hashtag REI in a number of my pictures as well, and have gotten them to like and even comment on a couple of pictures, but have yet to get them to share anything on their page. My biggest issue with Instagram is the stupid crop, so I mainly share landscape orientation photos, and screenshot them so I get the whole pic in there.

500px I still don't have a good handle on. I signed up 3 years ago, and posted a few pictures, but didn't get a lot of action. Then last year I started up again and posted up some new stuff, and got all the way to the first page with a 99.2. Got a bunch of new followers as well. I should have ridden that wave, as I've only posted a few photos until recently. My current pics regularly gets up in the 90's, but I haven't had a killer response again. I've tried posting in the morning, in the evenings, on weekends, just seeing if I get better responses, and still see similar results.

Beyond that, I have my personal site and keep it pretty up to date and fresh. I don't mess around with Facebook as I regularly take breaks from in and don't want to take the time to mess with it.

[Supermoon]

One thing to add is that doing some sort of colab with a brand where you take over their page for a week. Places like The Clymb, Backcountry and GoalZero do this very successfully. If you have an in, or can make that connect, it can be good for both of you.

[sklar]

What are your goals? And what kind of shooting do you do?
Are you trying to sell prints? Get clients? Become internet famous?
That will really change things up a lot.

I started shooting seriously (skiing/action sports/adventure) about 3 years ago.
Newschoolers has been a big one for me, helped me get connections, credentials etc
NS really gave me a big leg up on getting connections and clients by giving me credentials to Dew Tour a few years ago, from there email has been the most important tool for clients, except for a few messages to the facebook page.

I have a Facebook page that I barely use anymore, I pretty much just share instagram posts to it every once in a while. It can be useful/helpful especially if you are good about tagging people and getting your posts shared by bigger pages. The new algorithms kind of killed it though, and my personal page turned into just sharing page posts, so I stopped using it a lot.
https://www.facebook.com/MattSklarMedia

Instagram has been good, trying to up my Insta presence. Best thing you can do is real (not iphone pictures) good hashtags, good sharing. I try to post about once every 2-3 days.
@mattsklarmedia

My site is pretty much only a portfolio, I don't direct traffic to it at all because I don't see the point. I update it occasionally. I'm sure it would be different if I tried to sell prints, but I'd probably use Smugmug or something similar
http://www.mattsklarmedia.com/

[Fuzz]

Thanks for the feedback.

I see that the exact social media strategy will vary depending on the goals. Right now my only goal is to get more people aware of (and hopefully to like) my photography. Not necessarily to drive sales, but to get wider name recognition.

Instagram seems to be maybe an easier way to do that since people/strangers seem to find your pictures easier (I guess through good use of hashtags), rather than Facebook, where you have to actively "hawk" your photos on many groups.

The key here is using smart hashtags (not hashtag word soup by any means) when you describe your photos, and then interacting with people you think may be into your stuff. So if you look at photos tagged with Kiwi-related terms, photography terms, etc, then like and comment on things that you like. You'd be amazed how 15-30 minutes of this per day will grow your base.

Yes, I've just started doing this. Only thing I don't like is that Instagram is all mobile-based, and I hate typing a lot on phones -- is there a way to do everything on a computer?

Another option is hashtagging curator pages and allowing them to "share" your picture

This sounds interesting. How do you find these curator pages? And then just add that page's name ("@pagename") or something. I'm obviously very new to this whole hashtag-based social media thing.

Regarding the comments about connecting with particular companies, industries, I think that's also part of my problem. I do general travel and landscape photography, which everyone and their grandma does as well. I'll have to think about how to create a focus/theme of my photography and then make connections. The other problem is that NZ has some stunningly accomplished landscape photographers, so it's a very saturated market. My idea of what good landscape photography is has jumped quite a few notches since becoming more familiar with the works of NZ-based photographers.

[hitek79]

What happened to me was that I posted up a picture, and a page named Wilderness_culture liked and commented on it. As soon as that happened, I had about 15 other people like my picture. Their followers could see that they liked my page. I checked out the WC page, and it said to tag your photos if you wanted to share with them. I did, and the next morning they posted it up. Since then I've been shared by some other smaller pages as well, including a local travel page in the Adirondacks.

http://instagram.com/p/tOG0hstzbM/?modal=true

Doing a quick search, I came across this page with some good tags and pages for NZ

http://aeimage.wordpress.com/2013/08...-on-instagram/

Another trick I've found is going back to old pictures and tagging them days or weeks later with new tags. For instance, the #hiking tag is very popular, so I'll tag an older photo with that a few days after I post it, and it will usually get it a new round of likes.

[Fuzz]

^ You mean I could Google for NZ tag pages and find them? Who would've thought of that!? Thanks for that!

[Supermoon]

Fuzz, for hashtag searching on a desktop, I would use this service: http://iconosquare.com/

You can't post photos from the desktop, but you can do most everything else with this service and Instagram website.

[Altmanator]

Hey Fuzz, tried to give you a follow on Instagram but the link in your profile and post on here is broken and the only Fuzz Faisal I found on Instagram was a private user

[Fuzz]

Shit, I changed my username, and that apparently changes the link name as well: http://instagram.com/fuzzphotography

[Fuzz]

Fuzz, for hashtag searching on a desktop, I would use this service: http://iconosquare.com/

You can't post photos from the desktop, but you can do most everything else with this service and Instagram website.

Thanks -- just started using it -- looks quite useful. I've also started using the Instagram extension for Chrome, which replicates full mobile functionality on the desktop -- that has been very helpful too.

Regarding hashtags, I've read that it's good to use the common tags (e.g. instagood, etc.). However, doesn't using a popular tag mean that your picture will get buried? For instance, if a million people are using #instagood every hour, then if I use #instagood, my picture will be on page 1,043 by the end of the day and nobody will see it. On the other hand, if I use a not-so-popular tag, then it may show up on page 3 after a day still. Or am I completely missing the point of tags? Obviously it's a balancing act -- I don't want to use tags that are so uncommon that nobody will ever search/find my pictures, but I don't want it to be so common that my pictures get lost under the pile.

[Supermoon]

I'd use a good mix of both probably. I mean, you'll get a lot more mileage by searching the hashtags you'd be interested in and liking/commenting/following on those than just tagging the shit out of your own photos. You'll get lots of likes, but it will be pretty superficial, and you'll get very few follows out of it.

[::: :::]

Fuzz
One bit of critique on the instagram photos: maybe quiet down the florid font for the image titles? Think about the fonts you see in a museum title card or in a coffee table book caption -- they typically do not compete graphically for the viewer's attention.
The photos are pretty great without graphic embellishment!

[Fuzz]

^ Good point. Thanks.

[Dromond]

On a barely related note: I went to grade school with someone who is a photog in NZ now: http://kelsidoscher.photoshelter.com/