Marketing your Store

with Instagram
Social media
marketing… how
do I do it, and why
should I do it?
Below you’ll find our general tips for all social media, but if you want
platform-specific tips see our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
guides.

Successfully marketing your photography store on social media can

reap huge rewards - but it does take effort! In simple terms, there are
three steps to success
 Three tips to success
01
Build. Before you start trying to make sales through social media, you
need to put some time into making your social media profiles look as
good as they can, by fully completing your profiles and posting some
engaging, beautiful content.

02
Grow. Once you’re set up and posting regularly, it’s time to start
growing. This step can take some time, but can also be a lot of fun
along the way. Post your best work, share interesting content you
create or find, engage with others, and take part in conversations.

03
Sell. As you continue to post and grow, the right people will start to
notice your business. At this point you can also start engaging with
people you see as potential customers. The more you grow, the easier
it will be to find buyers, and for buyers to find you.
Username
Make sure to keep your username consistent with all your other social
media accounts! Having the same or similar usernames across all
your accounts helps reinforce your personal brand and means that
people can find you more easily. You can read more about this in our
Marketing your store with Social Media guide.

Bio Instagram is perfect for showcasing your photography (image: https://www.instagram.com/

romanrobroek)

Write a simple bio that explains who you are and what you do. If your
photography is specialised around a particular subject, make sure
to mention that. If you had just a few seconds (or in this case 150
characters) to explain your photography to a complete stranger, what
would you say? That will be your bio.

Don’t be afraid to show some personality - be playful with it! This is a

chance to give an insight into the photographer behind the images.

Make sure to link to your Picfair store in the website section of your
bio! The ultimate goal of your Instagram profile should be to drive
visitors to your store.
Andrew Areoff has a fantastic bio that explains a little about himself and his work, and links
to his store - https://www.instagram.com/aareoff
“Link in bio”
You may have seen people on Instagram writing “Link in bio” in their
image captions. If you’re linking to your Picfair store in your bio, this
is a great idea! Imagine a potential buyer stumbles across one of
your posts and likes what they see. By saying “Link in bio” you are
encouraging them to follow the link to your store. This could be the
difference between someone liking your image and moving on, versus
liking and taking the time to visit your store and buy something!
What to post
Think of your Instagram profile as a portfolio - a direct platform for
you to show what you can do. It has fast become the first place image
buyers will look to get a taste of a photographer’s work. So, keep it
professional, and only post your best images. It can help if your style
or image subject is consistent, too - the best performing Instagram
accounts tend to pick a style and stick with it.

Don’t be afraid to deviate from your style occasionally, though - just

make sure they’re up to your usual visual standard. Social media is
as much about personality as professionalism, so post some shots of
your gear, behind the scenes at your shoots, your morning routine, etc.

Aim for 1-2 posts a day to keep the content rolling. Research shows
that people are much more likely to engage with someone who is
active.

Marcelo Quiñones is an excellent example of someone who uses Instagram well: a consistent
feed of similarly styled and beautiful images, with good contact information and a direct link
to their Picfair store - https://www.instagram.com/vertovthenoise
Murad Osmann is a photographer who went viral and gained over 4 million followers for his
unique (and now oft-copied) style - evidence that you don’t need to do everything to be
successful. If you excel in one area, that is enough to get you huge recognition - https://www.
instagram.com/muradosmann/
Make your Follow people
Instagram profile a
business account
By switching to a business account (it’s free) you can also add an Once you’ve posted some of your best images and your feed is up and
email address, giving potential customers an easy way to get in touch running, you should start following people.
with you. You’ll also get an added analytics section to keep track of
how your posts are performing! To get started you can follow people you already know by following
these instructions:

1. Go to your profile
2. Click Discover People > Contacts.
3. Click Connect Contacts > Allow Access.
4. Click Follow next to the people you’d like to follow.

After doing this, you can find people you might like to follow using
Instagram’s search function. Tap the search bar to search for people,
hashtags, places and events that interest you. Each time you follow
someone, they will get a notification - and some of them will follow
you back!
Tagging Cross-promote!
Tagging helps new people discover your work, and can help you Promote your Instagram account on your Facebook and Twitter and
appear in the “Discover” area of Instagram. There are three types of vice versa to encourage more people to follow you on each platform.
tagging: This can give you a nice little follower boost.

Geo tagging
Whenever you post an image of a specific location, you should geotag
it. Your image will then become more discoverable to people either in
that location or researching that location.

People tagging
If an image you post includes someone who is also on Instagram, tag
them. This is especially helpful if that person has lots of followers
themselves!

Hashtags
Tag your image with 1-3 relevant hashtags. This will make you
discoverable to people searching for those terms.
Look for exposure
opportunities
Nothing is quite as effective at growing your follower base than being
featured by other accounts with high numbers of followers. Research
competitions and opportunities that repost images. For example,
Guardian Travel Snaps reposts the best images that are hashtagged
with #guardiantravelsnaps. A great way to increase your exposure!

Here is a fantastic list of Instagram accounts that will feature

your images, for example: https://medium.com/@zoesummers/14-
instagram-accounts-that-will-feature-you-for-massive-exposure-
7e0a2d66b02

New opportunities like this pop up all the time, so be sure to do your Guardian Travel Snaps is one of many accounts that reposts photos from other users
own research to find them and take advantage when you can.
Give shout outs!
When you post, take any opportunity you can to mention others. For
example, if you used a Nikon camera to take a shot of someone that
someone has purchased as a print, you could mention them all in your
post. Your post might read something like:

“Lovely shooting @PersonA using my trusty @Nikon for @customer.

By doing so you are making yourself visible to the audiences of

PersonA, Nikon and Nat Geo, and will hopefully get some new
followers! You can do this with people, companies, and places, big and
small. Again, don’t spam anyone. Only so this when it is relevant.
Go out and find new
buyers!
Don’t be afraid to introduce yourselves to potential buyers on
Instagram. If your profile has a steady stream of your best work,
you can start searching for businesses and publications that you
think might be interested in purchasing your images. For example,
if you have an amazing collection of exercise-themed images, you
could message local gyms with a polite introduction. Find them on
Instagram and follow them - hopefully they’ll see your work and
follow you back. Don’t put them off by spamming or giving them a
sales pitch, but encourage them to be aware of you and you work.
Being proactive is the best way to make sales!

Social media is about making connections, and you want to be making

positive connections with image buyers. Remember, first impressions
counts massively, so only begin doing this if you think your Instagram
profile is full of good content and reflects your best work. If it doesn’t
yet… start working on it!