Is the world of social media a foreign land for you? Fear not, as one of the premier Event Photographers in Northern VA, I’m here to shed some light! In today’s world, social media has become one of—if not THE—most effective ways to engage existing and potential clients. If you want to attract more people to sign up for an event you are promoting, social media is the way to do it. If you want to highlight a past event and show off your talents to gain a greater following, social media is your answer. Social media optimally allows you to post videos, pictures, stories, and taglines to draw attention to your business. But with so many platforms, how do you get the most bang for your buck? Especially to ensure the best return on investment without outsourcing for social media management.
Determine which platforms you want to utilize.
You need to consistently post on at least two platforms in order to establish an online presence. Get to know your audience before choosing which ones you will use. For corporate-minded business men and women, Linked In and Facebook are excellent choices. For design-oriented, non-profit, or small-scale businesses…Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are all great options.
Set up a schedule.
Have your posts ready in advance for each platform, and set up a schedule for when you want them to post. Your posts should go out often (at least once a week) and consistently. There are several great online resources such as CoSchedule or Hootsuite to help you organize it all and send out your posts at the correct time.
Harness the power of visual testimonials.
You already know that a picture is worth a thousand words, but this has never been truer than with social media where viewers scroll quickly through their newsfeeds only to pause at the most eye-catching posts. Testimonials on their own do not draw attention but attach an interesting testimony to an intriguing picture, and you’ll have an audience (another great reason to hire a professional photographer for your events—iPhone photos just aren’t the same).
Focus on both past and present.
Once you have your audience’s attention, they will want to know both where you’ve been and where you’re headed. Make a highlight reel (video or photos) of past events to show them how amazing they are, and then share upcoming events with preview photos so that they can get involved. Both are equally important.
Create a unified, consistent hashtag to use across all of your channels.
You might think that hashtags are just trendy phrases that teenagers use on social media, but they actual serve a vital purpose for your business or event. By creating a consistent hashtag across your platforms, viewers can click on them to quickly access all of your related posts. Hashtags are a way to archive your content and facilitate searches to find it easily. (For instance, when people post pictures from a wedding using the tag #HitchedToHitchcock, the newlyweds can search that hashtag to find all of the pictures that people took from their wedding.) If you use several slightly differing hashtags, some of your content may not appear when people search for it.