Figured that it’s finally time to get back into the social media game so I can get back into the photography world (and get clients from it I hope). I’ve got 3 different Instagram accounts right now and they’re all sorely unloved, and I know (I really know) that being consistent and posting and using them is the way to make things work and get traction, but it’s just felt like it’s so… daunting lately.
First of all, having three sucks. Instead of one to be able to concentrate on now it’s three. The biggest problem I have (mentally) is that there are three because they all are their own focus (and I know that’s unfocussed).
- @alanbailward – This is the one (duh) attached to my name, and it’s the one that’s a more NSFW boudoir profile, which was (is?) what I’m trying to make my main focus. So a search for me pulls up a bunch of photos of half naked ladies, which feels weird somehow, even though it is a style of photography that I truly believe in and am passionate about.
- @bailwardphotography – The “photography” account, concentrating on “normal” photography – portraits and family and whatnot. The sort of thing you’d expect from a photography profile. Sadly the last 2 posts were 13 and 240 weeks ago respectively. IE: completely unloved.
- @abbotsfordweddingphotography – Honestly this should have been “bailwardweddings” or something similar. This was created with a bit of SEO thought, figuring if people search for “Abbotsford wedding photography” they’ll find me first. The last posts were 95 and 141 weeks ago. Another unloved account. This is obviously for all wedding work.
I figured that I should start working on the photography account, being that it’s the most “normal” one, and feels pretty easy to work with. It’s portrait photography, right?
So I went to ChatGPT for some advice. I told it that it was a social media expert and asked the best way to start and grow a new account (which is essentially what this was).
I got a list of things that it recommended. IE:
- How to set up the profile with an image, and example of how to word the profile information.
- Who to follow and why
- Types of posts to make
- Wording for posts
- Hashtags
- How to follow and what sort of following / follower ratio that it makes sense to have
So tonight I finally started doing some of that. First thing was the thing that I took the most time with (because I of course am avoiding doing the “real” work) and chose a profile photo. It took a few goes and it was really weird to keep on looking at photos of my own ugly mug, but it was cool to see I guess.
All but the last one was taken by Paige Scott, who I took some images of a while back and is a great girl. We went to Sendall Gardens in Langley a while back and took photos of each other for our respective social media. I have no idea if she ever used any of my photos to be honest.
I did a lot of comparing against other people and what seemed like it worked. A photo of the photography themselves seemed to make the most sense, compared to a logo (which honestly I think mine is sort of boring as a profile image) or a client photo (which I have no idea what I’d choose).
In the end I went with this one:
Having a bright human form and a darker background to make them (me) pop out a bit felt better, and while I like the ones with me closer in better as photos, this one seemed to be about right as a profile image.
I also deleted some older images that I don’t think really represent what I do, as well as more “personal” photos (ie: some stuff from my Kenya trip).
Now I guess I need to get on to the next steps, actually posting some images.
One thing I don’t know yet is should I start moving things around and swap the use of the different profiles, ie:
- @alanbailward – personal stuff, pics of food, dogs, family, cityscapes, etc
- @bailwardphotography – boudoir work
- @abbotsfordweddingphotography – rename to @bailwardweddings and keep as wedding stuff
- Create a new profile for boudoir called something like @truemoments @truemomentsboudoir and use that for only boudoir photography (I even have the domain but haven’t built the site (yet)).
This would create a complete separation and it’d be really easy to not have people looking for personal stuff to go to my name, family photography to the photography one, weddings, and boudoir etc. But of course the huge downside is now I have 4 social media accounts to maintain and keep healthy.
If I drop everything but, for example, boudoir I can completely and 100% concentrate on that one thing and nothing else. But then I alienate the wedding and non-boudoir clients, which are ones I still want because I’m finding it really hard to find boudoir clients in the area I am (course I also suck at marketing so there’s that.
Anyway – let’s see how this goes, spend a couple of weeks grinding on the one account and see what happens. I also asked ChatGPT to give me a schedule of bite sized tasks to do, so maybe if I follow those (like a good human who will do what his robot overlords order him to do) something will happen…