Professional photographers whose livelihoods revolve around their craft know that marketing themselves is a full-time job. Baby photographers, like myself, must market ourselves not only to our existing clients, so as to encourage repeat visits, but we must continue to bring a steady stream of new clients to our studios, as well.
While word of mouth is one of the most effective means of marketing in this industry, professional photographers can’t rely solely on their clients to share the images from their sessions with friends and family members. This is where social media shines as an inexpensive, if not free, method of marketing for professional photographers of all types, including baby photographers.
Social Media Marketing for Professional Photographers
According to some online marketers, there has never been a better year to use visuals in social media marketing. Seeing as though professional photographers have no shortage of quality images to share with existing and prospective clients in places like Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter, this seems like the perfect opportunity for baby photographers and others to put social media marketing to work for their businesses. As professional photographers, we know a picture is worth a thousand words–so let’s use the photos in our portfolios to market what it is that we do best!
The Social Media Sites Where Baby Photographers Need to be Found
According to one source, the leading social media sites are as follows:
1. Facebook: 900,000,000 unique visitors each month
2. Twitter: 310,000,000 unique visitors each month
3. LinkedIn: 250,000,000 unique visitors each month
4. Pinterest: 150,000,000 unique visitors each month
5. Google+: 120,000,000 unique visitors each month
And the list continues with sites like Instagram, tumblr and flickr, all of which can be highly useful for professional photographers and their online marketing efforts.
Developing an Effective Social Media Strategy
Interacting with people in social media sites by sharing content and answering questions about your industry or services is a proven way to generate more leads for your business. Showcasing your portfolio’s best or 
images from your latest studio sessions is a great way to give potential clients a sneak-peek of what it is that they can expect from you, as their photographer.
The way professional photographers interact and the type of content they share should be tailored so that it appeals best to the types of people in their target markets. This is also true for choosing platforms and deciding where you will direct most of your time and/or resources. Baby photographers who need to appeal to people with young families, for instance, may find that they have more success marketing themselves in sites like Facebook or Pinterest than they do LinkedIn. While it’s still valuable for all professional photographers to have a presence in LinkedIn, social interactions that go on here are best reserved for professional networking and it probably isn’t the place where you will find an abundance of clients for baby photography.
A Couple of Important Things to Remember
Professional photographers who market themselves via social media must remember that this is an ongoing effort, not something you can pick-up whenever you feel like it. Sporadic social media marketing demonstrates to potential clients that you’re not committed, something which could translate to other aspects of your business. This being the case, it’s better for busy professional photographers to choose a couple of social media platforms and to focus their time and attention there, rather than only doing a little content and image sharing on every available platform.
Like I said, if you intend to use social media to market your services, you’re going to be spending a great deal of time within the various platforms, and should choose to work with those that you actually enjoy. If you cringe at the thought of ‘tweeting,’ Twitter may not be the social media platform for you, but your time may be better spent sharing your images and articles in places like Facebook.
Stay tuned for future posts in which I’ll share more specific details on how professional photographers can best use each of the top five social media platforms for marketing. No matter their niche, professional photographers are at an advantage with social media marketing, especially this year, when visuals are everything. Wow prospective clients and bring existing clients back for more by promoting your photography and your brand via social media platforms.
Professional photographers looking for further guidance are encouraged to contact me for information on this and other topics taught in my workshops: 905.449.2200.
