Engagement on Facebook
Lesson 37 from: Building Your Photography Business for under $3,000Kathy Holcombe
Engagement on Facebook
Lesson 37 from: Building Your Photography Business for under $3,000Kathy Holcombe
Lessons
Class Introduction
06:45 2Create Your Business Plan
04:53 3Where to Invest Your Money?
27:44 4Where to Spend Your Time?
05:44 5How to be Profitable
08:58 6Write Your Personal Business Plan
16:16 7Business Plan Q & A
12:52 8Products: Overview
02:33What is Your Photography Style?
08:33 10What Products do You Want to Offer?
26:19 11Rules for Products
06:34 12Whats Involved in the Shoots for Your Products?
12:04 13How Will You Produce Your Products?
08:47 14Determine Your Pricing Strategy
06:05 15What to Charge for Your Products
18:19 16How to Use Markup Factors
07:37 17The Per Hour Sale
06:14 18Find Your Target Sale
08:25 19Pricing Strategy Q & A
22:24 20Develop a Sales Strategy
12:57 21In-person Sales Strategy
20:25 22Online Sales Strategy
23:11 23Mobile Sales Kits
18:09 24Identify Your Target Client
33:39 25Define Your Niche Market
16:10 26Develop Your Marketing Plan
14:27 27How to Increase Your Following
06:45 28Develop a Marketing Strategy
11:48 29Maximize Your Website
05:17 30What is The Purpose of Your Website?
09:33 31Website Essentials
14:13 32Website Tools to Create a Great Sale
11:58 33Online Selling Tools
11:30 34Online Shopping Cart
04:59 35Facebook Marketing Strategies & Materials
15:28 36Using Ads on Facebook
11:21 37Engagement on Facebook
08:22 38Instagram Marketing Strategies
15:27 39Define Your Brand
14:53 40Build a Solid Brand
14:46 41Maintain Your Brand through Publicity
10:39Lesson Info
Engagement on Facebook
There is a rule about Facebook. Have you guys ever had those friends that have their own business and they're always on there promoting, promoting, promoting, do this, book a session, do that? And you're just like, ahhh, I just wanna see what your kids are doing today, right. So when you're talking about Facebook, the general rule is 80% content, 20% promotion. So you need to be posting things other than promotion most of the time. You can talk about a really cool event that you went to. You can give tips on Facebook. You could have a tip of the day on Facebook for photography. Do you know how many people would follow that? That's interesting, right? That's something people wanna know about. And what better source than a professional photographer to give that? You could have an image of the day. If you have really compelling, interesting images, particularly if you're a landscaper or fine art photographer, people would love to see the image of the day. And not just the image of the day...
, but a really interesting caption that shares something that they can't see in the image. Some interesting tidbit. Like the story that happened that was crazy right before you took the shot, whatever that is. So your posts need to be 80% interesting, concise content, and the other 20% can be some kind of promotion. Oh, my gosh, I'm doing beach portraits next week. Book a session with me, I only have two left, call now. That's the promotion kind of things that we're talking about, all right. And then this is super, duper important. Any time anybody leaves a comment of any kind, get back to them as soon as you possibly can. Because social media is all about a conversation. If you can build a conversation with your followers, your post is gonna be seen by more people and people are gonna want to engage with you more. It's building a relationship with your target audience. So get back to them just as soon as you can. Even if it's just a thank you for saying whatever you said. If they say, "Love that image," "oh, thank you so much," that's all you have to do. Now here's what's really important. Everything we've talked about so far in this workshop has been really about analyzing and thinking things through. So when you have a post that's working, you need to really try to figure out why it's working. What's going on with that post? Was it the image that was particularly appealing? Was it the color? Was it an engaging topic? Was it that one person shared it to all of their friends, and their friends were like, "Oh, you kid looks so amazing," or whatever that is, you're gonna have to look through your content and really analyze what it is that's working. And do that again and again and again. So if you find one thing that works really, really well, you need to share that and replicate it. If you have a post that's really successful, boost it. Do an ad that boosts that post out and see if it's successful in a bigger marketplace. And this is a big one, post consistently. Our goal on social media is to post every single day, without fail, period. Now, here's an interesting thing about our life. Sometimes when I say that people say, "Oh, well, I can't possibly post every single day." So let me give you a scenario. In March we kayaked the Grand Canyon. 25 days on the river in the middle of the wilderness with no service. And as we were going into that trip, we were getting more and more followers on Instagram. And Peter's like, "Oh, my gosh, what am I gonna do? I can go radio silent for a whole 25 days." So I came up with this brilliant marketing campaign. (laughing) And we figured out that there is a little hand-held GPS device called a Garmin inReach Explorer. I can't post images from it, but I can text and I can post to Facebook. I was like, "Oh, we gotta do this." This is gonna solve this problem of being in the middle of the boonies, right. And Peter's like, "Well, I can't post to Instagram because I can't share images." And I was like, "Oh, that is a problem." And remember me telling you about all the scars on my knees from falling down over and over and over again? Okay, I fell down, I was like, okay, well, that's not gonna work, but there's gotta be a solution to this, right. And so this is as we're getting ready for our trip, we're packing bags, we're dealing with logistics. And I was like, "I got it!" We can create 25 images that look like we're in the desert and we can have them ready to go. I can send them to my mom. We'll easily and quickly teach my mom how to use Instagram. It won't be a problem at all. (audience laughing) And then we can text her the captions that are based on our experiences in the Grand Canyon. And Peter's like, "That's never gonna work, that's crazy." I was like, "No, no, it'll totally work." So we stopped what we were doing getting ready for our trip, and we're like, okay, what on earth, what kind of images can we post that are going to represent our trip down the Grand Canyon that we can make in advance? And so we went through and we went in the desert and we wrote day 21 in the dirt. And then we stacked rocks so it said "day in the dirt" scratched in with a stick, and then 21 carved out in rocks. Or we laid out pieces of gear that we were going to be using in the Canyon to make the numbers that represented the day. So for the 25 days before we left, we had one image that represented each day that we gave to my mom, who was very nervous about posting to our Instagram account. And then we got the Garmin inReach device two days before our trip, and we had to figure out how to use that. Thankfully, it wasn't very hard. And when we started using it, we realized we could only text 160 characters at a time. I was like, oh, I'm a writer, I cannot confine myself to 160 characters at a time. And so then we started sending out texts via satellite from the bottom of the Grand Canyon 160 characters at a time, sometimes in 15 different transmissions. There is always a solution. And the reason that I share this story with you, one, is because there's always a solution, even if it seems ridiculous and impossible. But that 25 days that we were in the Grand Canyon and we posted every single day and we chronicled that adventure was our number one most followed period on any social media ever. We got more comments on those posts than any other posts that we've ever done, more likes on those posts, and not only that, notes for months following saying, "I loved following in your adventure down the Grand Canyon." It was powerful. And it was a last minute crazy idea on how to pull it off. 'Cause logistically, super tricky. But posting consistently, analyzing what works, you know the next big adventure that we're going on, we're darn sure taking the Garmin with us, and we're gonna be posting every single day. And this time we'll make the images well in advance so it doesn't interrupt planning for our big adventure. So think through what's working and figure out ways to make it work for you in your business.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Bonus Materials
Ratings and Reviews
Amanda Beck
Kathy was a wonderful instructor. She was engaging and someone who was precise and incredibly helpful. We have a full time photography business and are always looking for new ways of running our business. Her information was insightful and forced us to have conversations about our business that we have haven't had in several years. She is fantastic and someone who has the information needed to help you start or expand your business. Thank you for a wonderful class!!
Chrissie
Thank you Kathy for yet again another very thought provoking class. You are such an inspiration, teaching us the right questions to ask ourselves so we too can be brilliant photographers / entrepreneurs. I was a fulltime RVer for seven years, traversing 44 states and seeing some of the most beautiful places on our planet. It gave me a great opportunity to meet some extraordinary people and to hone my photography skills. Now I have put down roots in Stapleton - Denver, CO and am soon to launch my own Family Lifestyle Photography business. Your course has definitely given me the courage to just charge ahead and go for it!
Jeph DeLorme
Another top notch production from the amazing team at Creative Live! Kathy Holcombe, aka FAMAGOGO did a great job of covering all the basics along with the associated costs involved in starting up a photography business. However, you don't need to be a beginner to get great info from this class, it's packed with ideas and tips that even an experienced pro can put to work and take to the bank literally the next day. I highly recommend this class.