How to Use Facebook and Social Networking to Speed-Feed Your Photography Addiction

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It feels pretty cool when a post on a photography Facebook page or other social site receives fast responses of likes, comments and shares. It’s even cooler, when these come from other photographers we respect. While ‘Likes’ don’t pay the bills, they broaden our reach and provide feedback to our work.

When fellow photographers jump in on our Facebook Business Pages, Google+ Pages, 500px, Flickr and engage with our postings, it cranks it up a notch. Their loyal followers may get introduced to your work. We learn more than just tips, settings and gear from other photographers. We see how they are making it in this business and leveraging social media efficiently. There are those that make a living with photography full time, as a supplement to their income, and some that are living this vicariously as a hobby.

Some of these artists have Facebook Photography Pages that paint an observable roadmap of the few, fast steps that can help our pages across social media options stand out. Here are 6 tips along with 3 example photography business pages. 

6 Tips to Setup Your Photography Facebook Page

1. Use Your Name and Your Specialty in the Title

Your brand and initial network, in most cases, starts locally. The people that you know, and are connected with you personally, will be your first supporters. If they receive a request to like your page and it’s titled “Eye in the Sky” photography the connection to you is not there. But, if they receive a request to like Nathaniel Smalley's Images from Nature Photography site, they’ll ‘like’ his page and his network is started.

Nathaniel Smalley's Page Nathaniel Smalley Photography
Nathaniel Smalley's Facebook Page – Images from Nature by Nathaniel Smalley

2. Stay True to Your Theme

If you are a nature photographer or wedding photographer, adding pictures of the family dog, even creative ones (unless Fido is a member of the wedding party), can detract from your business theme.

3. Post One or Two of Your Best Images at a Time 

Spraying a host of images at one time and praying that they’ll all be seen, is not the best strategy. When albums are posted, or many images at one time, the majority of the Facebook viewers will see the first two or three that hit their home page. If they like, they will hit like.  However, the majority won’t click in and view the other images.  Their eyes are already moving down the home page.

4. Post Consistently – Once, Twice or a Few Times a Week

Pages that post volumes of their own images on a daily basis get ‘unliked' pretty fast. There’s an exception to this (see the sharing sites below).

5. Engage With Your Followers

Let them know what you are up to. If you’re an instructor, offering local classes or speaking at a camera club, put that out there. If you have your first eBook, or are thinking about it – toss the idea out on your page. Or if there’s a workshop you’re attending, that’s good information. Richard Bernabe's site highlighted below engages the audience with updates, conversations and images from global, traveling workshops.

Richard Bernabe Photography
Richard Bernabe's Facebook Page – Richard Bernabe Photography

 6. Link Your Website and Make it Visible

Include your website information in the ‘about you' section, and a ‘shopping’ tab: if you’re selling your work, make your page visible. Every once in a while highlight a new item that you’ve made available for sale. Ian Plant's engaging page that's similar to Richard's above, clearly indicates how to buy his work.

Ian Plant Dreamscapes
Ian Plant's Facebook Page – Ian Plant Dreamscapes

Sites That Promote Photographer's Images and Links

There are also Facebook photography pages whose mission is to promote the best images from photographers who participate on their site. These pages can have a high volume of followers that are photographers and others that just love photography. The sharing pages, when done well, can be an advocate for your work and draw others to your specific page.

When participating on page sharing sites, look for the following:

  • Alignment with your theme – are they posting your type of photography?
  • Do they post the artist’s name, and a link to their page?
  • Are they posting artist’s images that posted on their time line (positive)? Or, are they going in to artists page’s and sharing without engaging with the photographer (may want to do a deeper dive into their site before posting here)?
  • The pages’ posting rules – we need to be respectful of their guidelines.

Other artists post on these pages. Comment, like the work you appreciate and engage with them directly. This is a part of building your own photography network! 

Site Link Examples That Share Other Artist’s Work

Soulful Nature: Their audience is very active and engaged with photographers that post on this site. Images are often accompanied by short poems, quotes or excerpts from songs.

Soulful Nature Facebook Page
Soulful Nature's Facebook Page – Soulful Nature

Bleu: A smaller site, photographer's post images with the color blue as the main focus. Images reflect many subjects and audience participation varies on the uniqueness of the image.

Megashot.net: A large site with a high number of followers. They also  have spin-off specialty pages.  Not uncommon for a Facebook page to receive a lot of page likes when their images are shared.

Eyesite Photography: Daily contests with themes, it's a fun way to see other's work and have some lively competition.

We may be selling our work, our professional services or may be an active enthusiast. The good news is that there are many photographers and those who enjoy photography that help feed each other's healthy addiction.

If you would like to share a favorite Facebook or other social media page of another artist (or your own), post it in the comments below along with what you think this site does well. Your insight may be helpful to another photographer!

Happy Shooting and Networking!

About Author

Sheen Watkins is a conservationist, wildlife photographer, instructor, author and photography writer. You can follow her photography on Facebook, Instagram and her website.

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