Consistency on one or two platforms, in my opinion, is better than doing a poor job on 6 or more platforms. Consistency is key. Don’t start 6 platforms that you do well for a week and then skip posting on for months. But my guess is that at least one of them (FACEBOOK) will likely get posted on consistently.

Facebook – I have had more success with my personal Facebook page than my business Facebook page. With all the changes Facebook continues to make, it’s hard for a Facebook business page to get any traction without either paying for the exposure or having enough likes (thousands) that your posts actually get seen. On my personal page, I just toss in samples of my work with my regular posts. It’s not about saying look at my latest special… CALL NOW. That’s not the way social media should work on your personal page.

Twitter – I have been able to get BIG BRANDS to comment, re-tweet and favorite my tweets on Twitter which seems to be the easiest social platform to get in front of that audience. Twitter can be a little more challenging if you are not familiar with using it. But it definitely serves a purpose especially in getting in front of BIG BRANDS.

LinkedIn – You should have a profile on LinkedIn and as a professional photographer, you should be using a professional headshot or at least one that is very creative that doesn’t dilute your brand. LinkedIn makes it easy to share updates quickly. You can take LinkedIn to another level by publishing content similar to a blog post. This takes more commitment than just a quick update, so you may want to start out with regular short updates, but you should try writing at least one piece of content as soon as you can.

Instagram – The downside is that Instagram is primarily a mobile app. There are some things that you can do on a desktop, but all of your posts will have to be done on a mobile device. That means that you may have to find a more creative way to post your professional work to Instagram like emailing yourself an image and downloading it to your phone. Instagram is very much image driven and a great social platform.

Pinterest – One key thing to remember about Pinterest is that most of the users on Pinterest are WOMEN. I made that in ALL CAPS because you’ll really want to remember that. Pinterest, like Instagram, is very much photo driven, but Pinterest is not all about your personal images. Brenda, my wife, typically uses Pinterest for recipes, gardening, craft ideas and things around the home. Our two daughters, in their 20’s, look at a lot of clothing options in addition to other things that interest them. Pinterest is about pinning your interest. In the case of Pinterest, you may want to pin more of what is interesting to women.

Google Plus – OK, it might be the red headed step child of social media, but communities on Google Plus are a great place to post your images. For example, I’m a member of an animal community and I get a lot of plus ones of images that I have taken of our Golden Retriever “Tucker.” So find a community or two that you can post some of your images both personal and professional. Also, while you are at it, you might as well post to the personal side of Google Plus. It may not have the traction of some social platforms, but if you are posting in a community, you might as well post something on your personal feed.

Find Me On The Platforms Above By Clicking The Links Below:

https://www.facebook.com/DavidWilliamsPhotographer

https://twitter.com/David_Williams_

https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidwilliamsphotographer

http://instagram.com/raleighphotographer

http://www.pinterest.com/dwppc/

https://plus.google.com/+Dwppc/posts

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This post is not going to cover all the ins and outs of what if someone steals your images. The core purpose is to get your wheels spinning to make sure you have a presence on more than one social media platform.

1) Blogging – If you are reading this, you are experiencing blogging first hand. Blogging is a form of social media. With the social plugins attached to each post, it makes it easy for the blog author to push out his or her post on social platforms and more importantly for blog readers to share the post on social media.

2) Facebook – Although Facebook continues to change, it is still one of the top social platforms. Having an individual account allows you to build relationships online that can lead to good friendships and/or business connections offline. Facebook business pages are considered a waste of time by many today, but if you are on Facebook, you should have a business page for your business. The sad part is that your post on the business page may only reach a maximum of 10% of your total audience if you are lucky. So having 500 LIKES (Followers) on your Facebook page, may yield a maximum of 50 people being reached by your post. Even with all its quirks, Facebook is still a powerful social media resource. Who knows how much longer that will last?

3) Google Plus – One of the nicest things about Google Plus is communities. As a photographer, there are many photo related communities to get involved in. Google Plus can be a little challenging to grasp at first, but being able to do things like writing a paragraph or two, posting an image then being able to easily click in the upper right to grab the link of what you just wrote to share on other social platforms is nice. Likely the most important part of all is the tie in to a Google Local Listing which is important for your business ( MAPS ).

4) LinkedIn – Linkedin is a professional network that does allow social opportunities. You can connect with business people on Linkedin which is likely the first thing that comes to mind when you think about Linkedin other than it being an online professional resume of sorts. However, there are three other core areas of Linkedin that make it more social: 1) Groups – You should join groups and be active in the ones that you like best. 2) Share Updates – This is a nice quick feature to post your own updates or to post news from around the web. This post will be shared via Linkedin once it goes live. 3) Writing An Article – Instead of sharing a short update, you can choose the PEN on update section and write an actual article like this one.

By no means are the 4 resources above necessarily the best 4 for photographers. However, if you are only going to focus on 3 or 4 platforms, you should seriously consider how the 4 above fit into your social presence. Whether you blog or not is up to you because it is a time consuming commitment, but Facebook, Google Plus and Linkedin are 3 solid social platforms to be a part of.

Other platforms to consider as a photographer ( but not all inclusive ) are …

5) Twitter

6) Tumblr

7) Pinterest

8) 500PX

9) YouTube

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