Selling on social media
Selling on social media is now becoming the norm. For small, often locally-facing, photography businesses they are super challenging to maintain. They are becoming less and less common, as other methods of selling become more popular. The alternatives in this digital age are obvious and prolific in terms of their reach and choice. But how can you make them work to your advantage? Where should you put your energy?
The best and most successful YouTubers spend an inordinate amount of time editing their videos. This is the curse of the modern day online celebrity. They may get sent products for free. Get paid advertiser revenue. Have millions of subscribers. But their time is spent filming their every move and editing endless hours of filmed content into digestible parts for their audience. As any film editor will tell you, this can be a thankless task.
Focusing on one platform and doing it very well would be the advisable course of action.
This aside, these YouTubers devote their lives to it and they have to. The challenge for you and your business is to decide where to put your energy. It would be easy to spend all your time online. Searching for new revenue streams and refining your profiles on various platforms. Your time is finite, however. Focusing on one platform and doing it very well would be the advisable course of action.
Instagram provides the most obvious route to selling on social. Whilst it does have a ‘buy’ button, as a way of showcasing your work and linking to your shop online, it is seamless and transparent.
Examples of photographers utilising social space well.
- Ted Grambeau is a well-known surf and ocean photographer, His feed is informative and well-defined in terms of his work and passion for the art. He also has sub-feeds which take the art form to another level and appeals to customers looking for something a bit different or specialised.
- David Loftus has some celebrity clients but this has come about from focusing on particular aspects of photography and doing them very well. He uses his Instagram bio to inform about the various channels he now works in including film, books and photography. His feed is a clear indicator of where his passions lie and the styles he utilises, as well as experimentation techniques.
- Greg Funnell is an editorial photographer who started life shooting portraits. His experience is now very broad, global and as such represented by an agency. His feed is really a guide to editors and private clients to the style and travel submissions he could potentially provide.
- CMMNTY is a recent artist-led online store and provides a good working example of how to utilise your feed and other feeds to generate a community. It is also a modern-day business with a charitable foundation, a key building block for today’s customer.
Selling on social is here to stay, best get involved sooner, rather than later.
