The Value of Engagement
Lesson 33 from: Developing a Social Media Strategy for PhotographersColby Brown
The Value of Engagement
Lesson 33 from: Developing a Social Media Strategy for PhotographersColby Brown
Lessons
Class Introduction
13:12 2Ages of the Internet
18:47 3What is Social Media?
06:36 4Social Media by the Numbers
08:19 5How Social Media Changed the Photo Industry
17:02 6Social Media Myths
19:13 7Finding Value in Social Media
38:58 8How does Noise Effect Social Media?
05:18The Rise of the Curated Feed
16:27 10The Longevity of a Social Media Post
07:13 11Tips for Creating Successful Posts
07:36 12Leveraging Facebook for Your Photography
33:40 13Importance of Instagram for Photograhers
19:12 14Why Use Snapchat?
09:07 15Using Twitter to your Advantage
08:22 16Tips for Leveraging LinkedIn
08:48 17The Benefits of Pinterest & Google+
11:17 18What is a Social Media Strategy?
32:28 19Social Media Strategy Hotseat
17:53 20Identify Why You're on Social Media
05:45 21What networks are right for you?
15:35 22Choosing your Online Personality
10:14 23The Role of the Website in Social Media
11:19 24Outdoor Photographer Case Study
22:58 25Wedding Photographer Case Study
16:01 26Fine Art Landscape Photographer Case Study
11:54 27Music & Event Photographer Case Study
16:51 28Advocacy & Viral Content Photographer Case Study
18:18 29Tips to Building Your Social Audience
19:20 30Identify Your Target Audience
24:24 31Paying to Play on Social Media
16:54 32The Anatomy of a Social Media Post
07:20 33The Value of Engagement
06:33 34The Value of Consistency
14:26 35Feeding the Social Media Monster
16:09 36Details of Posting on Social
07:17 37Tools to Manage Social Media Accounts
12:30 38Taking Advantage of Momentum
13:09 39Reflections from a Career Built Around Social Media
26:05 40Lessons Learned from Social Media
04:23 41Social Media Mistakes to Avoid
08:41 42Common Social Media Questions
25:44Lesson Info
The Value of Engagement
Engagement is important again because it helps every aspect of your social media presence. It helps you create relationships, it helps you build followers, it helps the algorithms, everything. So the benefits of engagement, human interaction, core concept of the social media age. Again, a lot of people look at it where it's just like overall engagement numbers, like, think of it on a micro-level, think of it that every opportunity you have to connect with another human being is a positive experience because it is. It's a point of contact. It's a reason to have that conversation, it's a reason to develop a relationship. Every time someone engages with one of my posts, it is an opportunity for me to have a conversation of some sort with them, even if it's just the likes, and oftentimes, I'm not going to go back and say thank everyone for the likes, but that's why we have the call to actions. Either way, it's a point of contact for those engagements and that engagement, again, spurs every...
thing else. Builds brand loyalty and trust. People that engage with me feel that they trust me more. They ask me questions, I respond to them. They know that I'm always going to be there. Facebook then or Instagram or Twitter reacts in kind. Oh, they do trust him, oh they do want more content from him slash social media platforms love it. Engagement spurs more engagement, I can't say that enough. The more you engage, the more you will get back all across the board, for your followers, for other people that you're connected to, growing your numbers, everything, the algorithms, all of it, it will always lead to more. It's a snowball effect. The more you engage, more people sociologically speaking, psychologically speaking, will want to engage with you. And the more people engage with you, the more Facebook or Instagram or Twitter are going to show your content to spur more engagement. It's a big snowball effect so anything that you could think of for ways to engage with your followers is going to be positive. And it holds a monetary value. Again, the idea that you can take the idea of engagement and turn that into something. Maybe it's a non-direct value monetary value but it can be indirect because it's helping you do these things, build these following, have these connections, build relationships. I have people that have connected with me for years and eventually five, six years later, were able to come on a workshop or purchase the product or whatever it was. I cultivated those relationships and it takes time to build that stuff. But there is value in it, there's value to you as a brand, there's value to you, the love of trust you have, there's value to where you want to be. So do as much as you can to engage with every single person that you can online that you feel is wrapped around your target market audience. So how do you encourage engagement? Again, upload your largest accepted image sizes. I can't stress this enough and again will shelve the idea of content infringement or copyrights for later, a little later in this class. Largest images, you know, look the best. Images that look the best receive the most engagement. If upload images that are smaller than the max size, someone opens it up on a desktop, your image is going to be like this. How are people going to see what it is? You're so worried about you know image theft of people stealing your work but no one's going to be seeing it anyway. So why are you even posting stuff online? Like what's the point? Shorten your post, long-form content is generally not received well online, at least in terms of social platform, there's a place for that. It's called a blog or LinkedIn is pretty good with actually their long-form content. Keep things simple. Don't overly complicate your stuff, don't have 10 call to actions with 18 different questions, straight and to the point. Post more than once a day. This is a surefire way to increase engagement on average per day, which is again self-explanatory, more content, more opportunities for conversation. Just don't do it a million times. If you're going to post twice a day or three times a day, give yourself a couple hours. Generally, my happy place is like two a day, post in the morning, post in the evening, hit different demographics, increase those algorithms for different people. Crowdsource for answers. It's a great way to spur engagement where you're sitting and you're not just saying, "What did you do today?" but it's like I want to, you know, I want to try... I did this before. I'm going to Australia to work on a marketing campaign and I was like, "Hey where should I go?" Like that's a crowdsourcing for information. I'm just asking a question where it's a one-on-one conversation. You're trying to get the crowd to help you with it. So I posted a map of Australia and I said, "Hey, I'm going Australia to work there for five weeks. I need your help. I haven't been to these regions, what should I do here?" And the word Australia, the map of Australia was in there. A lot of people, my followers in Australia then saw the post, they all started to engage, things got bigger and bigger. I got a lot of actually great information. But crowdsourcing is different than your standard call to action. It's just a different approach to it. When appropriate, boost your posts. Again, don't be afraid to spend a little bit money here and there. You don't need spend a ton, you don't even do it every posts but play around and experiment with it because it can be helpful and if you work it into a larger strategy, you'll actually grow your following quite exponentially and your organic reach will increase as well. Post consistently. Again, this is the idea that you can't neglect your accounts. If you sit there and you post every day for a week on Instagram and then all of a sudden, you're gone on a trip for three months and you come back and you post again, your engagement's going to be down. Try to post as consistently as you can because otherwise, you'll be penalized for it. You change up that consistency too much, you'll be penalized for it. You post five times a week or seven times a week every day, two weeks later you post, you know, three times a week, your engagement's going to drop. So you kind of have to find that right balance of what works for you. A lot of people like I said, that's once a day, which isn't too much to ask at least for scheduling. Take an hour out of the weekend and sit there and plan your post out for a week. And then just make sure at least once or twice a day, you're going back and you're engaging with people that have reached out and took forth the effort to engage with you.
Ratings and Reviews
Giles Rocholl
This course is designed to help you develop a Social Media strategy if you are Photographer. I am a professional photographer with over 37 years of experience and although I know how to use Facebook and Instagram I didn't really understand how to use them to achieve business and personal goals. I started watching this course about 2 months ago and have just finished it due to work commitments. However I have put into practice his advice as I learnt new understanding and my following has grown rapidly. Also my work load and quality of assignment has increased dramatically too. It takes some brain rewiring to understand how social media has taken the place of many traditional media streams but Colby does an excellent job of painting a picture that helps hugely. The best thing about Colby's strategy is that it is real life, honest and something I feel I can personally and ethically live with happily. I happily endorse this course and recommend it.
Beatriz Stollnitz
I was very lucky to be in the audience for this class. Colby is an incredible instructor - he has the rare combination of being successful, knowledgeable and talented, but at the same time down to earth, approachable and genuinely willing to help others succeed. The content presented is actionable - I have so many ideas of things that I can do right now that can help my online presence! I can't wait to get started!
Rob Lettieri
I learned a few things I never knew...especially the whole inside scoop on LinkedIn....who knew??? Easy to listen to....a lot of deflection to later answers to questions...which would have made a director allow for less...why ask if you cant answer just then....and he says every question is a "great question" but it clearly isn't in a few cases....so credibility goes down...I understand positive enforcement for the millennials...but every question is not great. otherwise easy to follow and straightforward....