Have you ever thought you’d love a career of photography but dread the online presence you need to have.? Which also seems to be what you need to do for most small businesses these days. Have you thought a blog is overwhelming? 3 posts a week is crazy and sounds way to time consuming. And what is a reel even? I’ve got nothing to say or share that anyone would care to watch or respond too. Does it even matter these days?

Social media has evolved and the best part is that it’s virtually free advertising. Unless you want to spend money on it. I like to save my dollars. I started out blogging before I opened my business. I was doing it more to connect with other fellow mommies and used it as a resource for questions. And throughout of the eleven years I’ve been in business it’s been the most used and beneficial way to bring in clients. I opted out of paying money for someone else to create my website and blog. I saved some money doing this on my own by trial and error. One day I’ll probably upgrade what I’m doing again, but for now I love https://wordpress.org/hosting/ for blogging and having the website attached that way. I also have another website on Zenfolio that has clients galleries.

After blogging and have a separate facebook page I ventured into Instagram. I have the two sites linked so they can reach more people with one posts that way. I get messages from both accounts. Facebook was by far the lead source bringing in clients but now I’d have to say more are coming to me by insta.

On both sites you have the analytics to watch and see what’s working and what doesn’t. I learned You need to engage with more that four words when commenting and saving helps. In return people will come to your site and comment back. The algorithm is always changing so you have to as well. Reels bring lots of new followers. But I’m still in the learning curve of this aspect. I’ve danced and been silly but you really need good information to share to get people to come back and take you seriously. I like to do a variety of things to keep it fresh. I follow sites that offer suggestions and ideas.

I try not to worry about all of this too much. Ultimately word of mouth is 1000% the way you want to get your clients anyways. So just have fun with your online presence. And don’t let it consume you. Set some time limits and work on different things each day. Otherwise it will be stressful.

Now here’s another thing I do. I like to make slides with my favorite photos of the sessions. These can also be used for a reel on instagram.