2. Improve your reach by posting to the social media platforms your target clients visit most.

Now that you know who your target market is, you need to figure out where they interact. Focus most of your efforts on one or two platforms. As a small business owner, you don’t want social media to become overwhelming.

My chosen social media platform is Facebook. I also keep a presence on Instagram, and put a little bit of effort into Google +. Here’s what I think about each of the social media platforms and what they mean for photography audiences.

So many photographers want to delete their Facebook pages. But did you know that the vast majority of your audience is likely spending most of their social media viewing time there? Check out this Pew Research Center study of social media use for this year. If you are in camp “delete Facebook,” this might change your mind.

For photographers, this is a pretty obvious place to invest time since the main focus of Instagram is imagery. While you may not be able to reach the same number of people on Instagram as on Facebook, the algorithms are not as strict as Facebook (yet), so your posts may go further.

If you are marketing your services for photographer education, this is a great place to be since it’s a top choice for photographers. Also, the audience demographic is younger than Facebook, which makes it a good platform choice for those who photograph high school seniors and weddings.

Pinterest is a great platform for photographers looking to market their education services to beginner photographers. Pinterest attracts a lot of DIYers looking for how-to advice.

Google+

Honestly, no one is on Google+. But Google is on Google+, which makes it an important platform for SEO. The main reason I keep up with Google+ is to share my blog links, which improves my SEO and Google search ranking.

This is a good place for photographers who do commercial work, real estate photography and business head shots. It’s also great for networking with other local professionals.

Unless your trying to reach teenagers, or possibly high school seniors, Snapchat will probably not earn you a great return for your time investment. Snapchat users tend to be much younger than users on other social media platforms.

You may have luck with Twitter, but I had to let it go. Images are just not the main point of the platform — words are. As a photographer, I want my images to take the place of my words more often than not.

YouTube and Vimeo

These video platforms can be useful for photographers that incorporate videography into their sessions. YouTube currently has a huge number of users subscribing to various channels. I recommend sharing your YouTube or Vimeo links on Facebook or Google +.

How to decide which platform is right for your business:

If you have a website, try using a tracking plug-in to see how users are making their way to your site. For WordPress, the StatCounter plug-in will allow you to track where your audience comes from. I get visits from both Facebook and Instagram, but my client base finds me mostly from Facebook or Google searches. So, while I have a ton of platforms to chose from, I focus efforts where my clients are finding me.