*For more information visit AdoramaTV YT page, and of course you can keep up with Vanessa on Instagram @VanessaJoy
Another lesson from Vanessa Joy and her show “Breathe Your Passion” on AdoramaTV, which explores 4 best ways to capture clients attention on Instagram and persuade them to hire you!
Vanessa shares: “Number one is posting frequency. You want to make sure that you are posting consistently. You can’t just go AWOL on Instagram and expect them when you post for it to be successful so figure out a consistent posting schedule. I recommend one post in your regular feed, your regular page once a day or once every other day, and then your stories… you want to post more frequently. I like to do five to ten stories per day, and I know that sounds like a lot so use some kind of scheduling app.”
“Number two. When it comes to your stories – really be intentional. I like to use my stories to figure out ways to connect to my clients. Clients like to see behind the scenes, they want to see how you work, so show them how you work. Show them your day today, and you know not everything has to be what I call instagram-worthy. It can be a little bit rough. People like to see you come out of failures, come out of struggle. Now stories… I know they live for 24 hours, but you can save them as highlights, and I highly recommend you having highlights on your Instagram profile.”
“Number three is to turn your Instagram account into a mini website. Put testimonials on there, or reviews, and it doesn’t have to be complicated just do screenshots of your website where all that information already is in a mobile vertical form, and put them in your highlights. People can go to my Instagram and get all the information they need and not even go to my website. “
“Number four, this is the one that I promise you is gonna be good, because people mess this up all the time, and they don’t take advantage of it, you have to tag your photos. Did you know that there are four different ways that you can tag your photos? So number one are hashtags, and that’s the one that people usually know. Now here’s the trick about hashtags don’t do the generic hashtags, where there’s a bazillion and a half hosts with that hashtag. Here’s some homework for you, and what you need to do you have to find hashtags that are relevant to your type of business… your type of photography, but you also need to find hashtags that are appropriate for the visibility power that your Instagram account has. Here’s how you do that. Post a photo, post 30 hashtags on it and range the hashtag, so put some hashtags on there that have 10,000 posts, put some on there to have 500 posts, like really niche ones that don’t have a lot of posts right, and then put some bigger ones on there that have a hundred thousand, five hundred thousand, or maybe even like a million. And then a few hours later I want you to go to those hashtags, and look through the top post and the recent post, and see if you show up. If you’re not showing up, or maybe you’re showing up after seventeen and a half swipes – not a good hashtag for you, but if you’re showing up in the top post, or towards the top of the recent post, then that is a good hashtag for you to use. So find hashtags are gonna work for the power of your account. The second type of tag that you’re going to use is a photo tag. This is where you tag the actual photo and tag different accounts in that photo. The goal here is to get your photo on their tagged photo feeds. Your photo shows up in more places. Now this is where you also want to tag relevant accounts, places where your clients are going, where they’re searching, and obviously relevant to the photo otherwise they might delete it, and not let it show up on their account. Number three – description tags, the text that goes along the caption with your photo, and you put at and then an accounts name. This doesn’t really help your visibility, but this does help your networking where you’re communicating with other people via your posts. Giving people credit for working with you perhaps, or a vendor at a wedding helps build relationships, and then maybe they’ll share your post as well, which fingers crossed is another goal because they have a lot of people with similar clients, following their account. And when they post your photo on their account, you get in front of potential clients. The fourth one that a lot of people don’t use is this, is the location tag. You want to put a location on any of your posts, reason is that people do look at the location, and see the photos that are taken there. So you want the opportunity for your photo to be seen there, but then you want to do the reverse go to a location like a high-end venue near you. If you’re a wedding photographer after the weekend, maybe on a Monday and look at all the posts that were there from that weekend, Find all the couples that look like they might be getting engaged, or are engaged soon and talk to them. DM them, comment on their stuff, follow them, like them. It will give such power to your Instagram, and you literally are going to weddings where your potential clients are, and connecting with them.”
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Watch the full episode with Vanessa Joy and Adorama TV: