“Vast majority of the population use social media and it would be silly not to take advantage of them”

Dave Williams-Travel Photographer and Aurora Addict.

Did you ever wonder why so many people and companies seem to be making money off of Instagram? That is because they are using the platform to get In Touch with their customers, get onto the radar of products that they user and increase their own pocket book.

 For those that think Instagram is still a place where people post selfie and food, and not a place where you could market you photos, then think again. Let look as some data:

• ·         1 Billion people use Instagram every month, while 500 million use Instagram stories daily

• ·         The average time a person spends on Instagram a day is 53 minutes

• ·         On average 72% of user will make purchasing decision based on what they see on Instagram

• ·         83% will discover new products and services on Instagram.

• ·         The number of likes you have does NOT mean you will do well. What counts is how the user engages your photogram.  Do they comment on the photo? Do they share your Photo? Do they save your photo?

• ·         Product sponsors and other will look for accounts that have at least an engagement rate of 5% and higher as well as having over 1000 followers

• ·         50% of people have visited a website to make a purchase after seeing a product or Service. 

It does not matter if you are trying to build a wedding, senior, pet business or just sell your print, only having a web site will not cut it.  Additionally, with the current situation, face to face networking and sales will not be normal for a long time.  I post pictures 3x a week, the same day and time. I also post the link to this blog with one of my pictures every Sunday night to try and reach more people.  On days that I post the number of visitors to my Etsy store increase by about 10% from the day before.  One of my 2 sales so far this year was for a picture that appeared on Instagram. 

You may be thinking “I have an Instagram account, and I post pictures every once in a while. So isn’t that enough?” NO!, just posting a picture now and then will not grow your business. You want your customers to expect a new photo at this day and time.  Studies have shown that once you have gone past the first hour after posting, the number of people who view your photo drops off a lot. (I have analytical data set up to monitor my site and I can agree that within the first hour I have the most people seeing and reacting to my picture)

 For reference, I spend about 1-7 hours a week on average managing my Instagram account,  I have started to get my engagement rate above 5%, but it is not consistent.  I am still learning on how to hashtag my photos and what I need to improve.  For example, when I hashtag my photos, I need to remember to include tags for some of the products I use.  Not only my camera, but my lens, camera bag, flash units, etc.  This way I get out to a different group of people.  They may not purchase one of my service, but they also my help in promoting my business.  Increasing my follows above 1000 is another goal. The more followers you have, the higher engagement rate you have will improve your changes to have the Instagram algorithm notice you and push you business. 

Still not sure you want to be on Instagram, then check out your favorite photographers. I follow Moose Peterson (@moosepeterson), Scott Kelby (@scottkelby and @scottkelbyphoto), Space Man Eric Kuna (@erikkuna) and many others.  If these world know photographer are using Instagram, then why don't you?  Let face it, we still are limited with where we can go and who we can see.  Why not spend a little time on Instagram and take a chance. 

In future post I may go more into the use how I am using social media to grow the business and any success I am having.  Next week’s post I will update my progress on Water Drop photograph and the challenges I am trying to figure out.  The post will be Monday at 7:00 PM as I am sure my followers will be watching the Super Bowl instead.