How to Build Your Social Media Brand

Whether you’re an entrepreneur or working for a large company, your digital brand and identity is a key component of expanding your network, creating a loyal following, and building a client base. More specifically, if you are focusing your business in photography, you’ll want to make sure you’re finding your target audience effectively, engaging in a timely manner, and creating powerful call-to-actions on all your digital platforms. We will review how to build your social media brand to help you and your business grow.

1. Social Media Networking

Social Media is the first step in creating your identity. Here is what you’ll want to focus on:

Start with your personal network, sharing your new or current page, adding friends, coworkers, clients, and prospective clients to your follower list.
Find out where your target demographic is ‘hanging out’. For example, students in high school are not typically on Facebook, however, they tend to be quite active on Instagram.
Secure accounts using your brand name on ALL relevant platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Snapchat, Google+, Tumblr, YouTube.
Follow influencers and like-minded companies, and engage with their audience as well. This will help you create a following of individuals already in your target demographic.
Find your voice. Don’t post just to post, but make it intentional and relevant.
If you’re feeling comfortable with posting, you can move onto developing a social strategy for your posting and content. You can use anything to outline your posting. We like the application Later, where you can plan and schedule posts in the future as well as see a preview of your future posting. You can also consider a more specialized tool like HootSuite. (more to come on this topic!)

2. Finding Clients on Social Media

Tag previous clients on images of themselves.
Encourage social reviews and testimonials. For example, you can entice clients to post a Behind the Scenes (BTS) photo from their shoot to earn a product or prize.
Engage with previous clients and celebrate their achievements, birthdays, and milestones.
Create a model team to develop eye-catching shots that the models share and tag you in. You can do this with all fields, from Seniors to families. The more you engage with these folks, the more they will share your content on their pages.
Make yourself seen! Don’t just stand behind the camera but be a focus of your social presence as well.

3. Use Facebook Ads Tactfully

Create an Ads account in Facebook’s business manager. This will help you monitor your success more effectively than just boosting a post here and there.
Upload your most current list of customer emails and names. Building an audience list off of this, plus your social network will help Facebook identity other like-minded prospective clients.
Consider purchasing an email list or utilizing a list from a recent seminar, tradeshow or event you’ve attended or sponsored.
Create “Look-a-like” audiences off your customer list and social stars (those who are already engaging with your posts).
Using target keywords to help focus your ads will narrow your impressions down to the individuals you really want to reach. For example, if you are trying to speak to new parents, you can look to target Newly Married, Families, Parents, New Parents, etc. Facebook has a long list of options available, you will want to take time going through this list and narrowing it to the most relevant keywords. Here is a great resource you can use to focus your keywords.
Find great visuals for your ads. Don’t just pick a photo that you like, consider what others will think or engage with. If you can’t decide, try using a carousel ad (which allows you to use multiple images), or a dynamic creative. Make sure you check your image specs to ensure their resolution is high-quality on all devices as well.
Finally, once you’ve created a solid ad with good content and visuals, in addition to a well-defined audience, make sure that your landing page has a clear call-to-action. This can be many things, from Book Now to Learn More. But the landing page is where you’ll want your audience to engage with you and, hopefully, become a client. Make it clean and clear for anyone who lands on the page, even if it’s just a blog post!

Building your social media presences and brand can take time, but if you are dedicated to using these platforms for your business it will be well-invested energy and effort. Do you have a tip you want to share with us? Send your ideas to marketing@artsycouture.com.

Want more? Check out our Facebook Live video where we go into detail how to implement these tips.

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