Growing Your Photography Business (Part 14): Facebook Marketing, Instagram Marketing, Keeping a Positive Attitude

Using Facebook to Grow Your Business

Facebook is a powerful marketing tool that can be used to grow any business. Why is that and what makes it different to other platforms out there? Here are the reasons why:

There are more than 2 Billion active monthly users on Facebook
Facebook is so big that no matter what country you target, there are potential audiences. As a business owner or marketer, you cannot ignore it
If you aren’t sure which platform to focus on, start with Facebook
Users have an average of 200 friends. This statistic has the potential to create a viral effect. If a friend or group friends comment or like your post, their friends will notice it.
Facebook has real people in profiles: Unlike other platforms where users can “hide” under fake accounts, Facebook has a way for new sign-ups to prove themselves to be authentic such as text confirmation or calls. This is important for your business because you’ll be assured that those who engage with your posts are real people.
Facebook owns Messenger, Whatsapp, and Instagram which are also the top platforms where users are. When you use Facebook, you can also target the audience in its “sister” platforms

Effective steps to market on Facebook:

Facebook page - create a Facebook page built around your keywords, niche, or business.
Your first posts are great opportunities to get the word out there about your organization or message
Post content regularly - follow pages that are similar to yours and get inspiration. Look for original content, photos, or videos to post
Grow your audience - invite your friends to like your page, interact with groups or community, and be responsive to inquiries
Post a photo and tag a person, friend, or page - remember that Facebook is a social network, and it is encouraged for users to interact, comment, and be… social!

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Instagram Marketing

Like Facebook, Instagram is also a powerful tool to grow your business. As of January 2020, there are over 1 billion users on Instagram and more than 500 million active users.

Instagram or IG works best in mobile phones since it’s primarily designed for mobile devices. Its audience profile is quite different from that of Facebook and other platforms such as age groups, interests, types of posts, etc. IG typically has a younger demographic. Knowing the difference can bring your business to the next level.

Facebook bought Instagram in 2012, and the giant social network integrates with IG platform seamlessly. It is best practice to separate your personal IG from your business account and to do that, you must connect it to your Facebook Page. This way, you can read IG messages on desktop and can have your staff in different roles strengthen your customer relationships.

Make sure your profile image, description, profile descriptions reflect your core businesses and capture audience attention. If possible, use your logo as the profile photo. Make sure it is crisp and clear and can stand out - even if the profile picture becomes very small. There’s also an option to import your photo from your Facebook, Twitter, or other sources.

While you’re setting up, make sure to determine what tone of voice, color scheme, and posting commitment you would like to stick to beforehand.

Posting engaging content regularly is very important. One way to do this is to follow top accounts around your certain keywords, niche, or industry. Simply search for top accounts, hashtags, or posts using the “magnifying glass” icon at the lower left of your interface. Once you find your top influencers, go over their posts, and get inspiration from what they post. IG will intuitively give related suggestions based on who you follow. You can use social media scheduling tools such as Hootsuite or Zoho.

Instagram is all about visual marketing. Creating IG content is unique because you would have to use engaging photos or turn text to photos. You can also merge both by combining your photo and some text, creating visually unique content. There are a lot of good tools out there that can help you create beautiful photo content but I recommend Canva. There are ready-made templates all ready for you to use, customize, and directly post to platforms.

Keeping a Positive Attitude

A positive attitude is considered as a soft skill in business development. Most of what we have discussed about technical capabilities such as SEO and social media management are commonly classified as hard skills. However, it is important to develop your soft skills simultaneously.

It is human nature to react negatively in the face of adversity. But choosing to be positive leads to a better well being for you and people surrounding you. Researchers found out that a 3:1 positive to negative ratio results in better well-being.

There are different ways to respond to negative comments, but always remember that there is a way to respond positively or constructively. For example, when you receive negative feedback from work, you can choose to respond with the following:

Positive-Constructive: “I’m thankful to receive these recommendations for improvement. I’ll take this as a course lesson. I’ll work on these to strengthen my skills, and improve my weaknesses.”

Feel free to verbalize negativities but don’t let them define you. Responding with a positive attitude is key.

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