Let’s face it. Just about everyone out there is on Facebook. According to Facebook, roughly 45 million users log on every day in the United States. Everyone uses Google too though. So what makes Facebook so much more powerful? Connectedness. In a Big Brother-ish way, Facebook knows virtually everything about you. While Google can make good guesses about you based on your searches, you’ve actively told Facebook all kinds of things advertisers want. You’ve revealed your age, education, marital status, interests, and all kinds of other things that can help advertisers find you. Not only that, you’re linked to all your friends through updates, news feeds, tagging, and more. Facebook connects people in a way no other website ever has. While it’s a great tool for finding old friends, it’s an even better tool for helping photographers find new clients.
Facebook Ads for Photographers
One of the most powerful ways Facebook can aid photographers in connecting to potential clients is through ads. Unlike Google AdSense which requires you to pay for certain keywords, you pay for placement or clicks for a set of parameters in the user’s profile on Facebook. This allows you to target people who aren’t looking for wedding photographers. You can get your foot in the door before they even begin researching photographers.
Wedding photographers can easily target soon-to-be-brides who will likely be the type of client they’re looking for. On Google AdSense, when someone searches for “New Jersey Wedding Photographer” Google has no idea whether it’s a client or whether it’s just another photographer researching the competition and spending your ad budget. Neither does it know whether the person is looking for a $500 wedding photographer or a $5000 wedding photographer. But with Facebook, you can target women in 20 surrounding towns from 25-40 who have graduated from college. This type of person is likely to have a larger budget.
Senior portrait photographers can seek out married women from 40-55, the group most likely to have children graduating from high school. You can have ads appear for people on their birthdays offering them a birthday discount. The possibilities are truly endless. With Facebook ads, you can target the clients you want to find at the price you think they’re worth.
Facebook Fan Pages for Photographers
You don’t necessarily have to spend money to be a successful Facebook marketer. Facebook allows businesses to create a fan page for free. There you’ll have your own dedicated space to post photos, updates, and more. You can offer your fans exclusive discounts, keep them up to date on studio promotions, and much more. But where your fan page can really become powerful is when you start adding photos.
Facebook Photos for Photographers
Photos are arguably the most powerful way for photographers to use Facebook. Tagging allows us to get our photos from an event or portrait session seen by all the attendees and friends of the client. It’s basically free advertising. As easy as this is, many photographers are missing out on the opportunity by making a few fundamental mistakes.
The dos and don’ts of posting photos on Facebook:
Do:
- Watermark your photos with your studio name and website. In the event people choose to steal your photos, at least you’ll have your name and site on them. Don’t make the watermark too obtrusive, or people won’t want to look at the photos. Don’t make it too discrete either, or it might as well not be there.
- Upload the photos to your studio’s fan page. It should be easy for the viewer to navigate back to a page with your branded with your logo along with your phone number and website. A fan page has all of this.
- Shrink your photos to 604 pixels on the longest side. Facebook currently displays photos at a resolution of 604px on the longest side. If you resize your shots on your computer, although Facebook will still re-compress them, in my experience they will look better.
- Send the link to your client
- Ask that the client tag all people in the photos. This is key. This will ensure that everyone who attended an event will see the photos.
If you do all those things, you’ll be able to sit back and watch the comments, like, fans, and eventually clients stream in. But be careful not to make a couple of simple mistakes that could lessen your chances at winning new clients.
Don’t:
- Post your photos without watermarks. You’re just asking for them to be copied. When they are, they’ll be of no value to you without your branding.
- Upload your photos to your personal Facebook profile. This makes it difficult to find your business information.
- Send small JPEGs to the client and allow them to upload the photos to Facebook. Now no one can find your fan page. You will also not have control of the photos your client posts, whereas you can delete inappropriate comments and resolve other issues on your own photos.
That’s really all there is to it. With a small investment of money for ads and time to create a fan page and begin uploading your shoots, you can begin taking advantage of the tremendous opportunity Facebook provides photographers to reach out to potential clients.
Ben DruckerPPBF Contributing Writer
Maplewood Event and Portrait Photographer: Ben Drucker Photography
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