instagram reach strategies for photographers
First, I'd like to remind all of you that follower count is not a metric you should judge success by. There are many photographers with low follower counts who are killing it at their photography business. Social media should be part of your strategy, but it shouldn't be THE strategy for growing your business.
That being said, let's chat about 5 ways you can start to grow your following on Instagram:
tip one: do an analysis on your past content
If you want to grow your Instagram account, the first thing you need to do is look at what has performed well in the past. Go into your analytics and see what performed well for reels, posts, and stories. Make a list of your top 3-5 posts over the last 6-12 months. Look at which posts got the most shares, likes, comments, and saves and then write down why you think that happened. Use this as a blueprint as you create content going forward.
tip two: develop your content pillars
Content pillars are the main topics you're going to talk about on your feed. Ideally you have 3-5 of them (I generally have four). These are super specific topics that speak to your target audience. If you are currently only posting about past sessions, this is going to help you diversify your content to reach new people & make it easier to create new content when you don't have new sessions to post about.
tip THREE: branding your instagram profile
Creating a brand takes time and will change as your business evolves. My business is currently going through a branding shift as I shift into offering more education for photographers, than just trying to reach clients. That being said, even if you don't have a solid brand, you can still improve it on your profile by updating your highlights topics and photos (in the little circles), creating a strong bio, and updating your pinned posts.
tip four: try Using trial reels
Trial reels are a great tool for finding new people on Instagram. If you aren't familiar with them, they are reels you post that mostly get shared with people who aren't already following you because they don't get shared to your main feed. Apparently, they aren't available for everyone (you need 1,000 followers and for the Instagram gods to be on your side). Use trial reels strategically to test new hooks, reach new people, & test out new topics (like in your content pillars) that you might not be ready to share with your followers.
Tip five: don't post just to post
Posting without a strategy, isn't going to move the needly and grow your account. You need to think about the "why" behind your post: who you are talking to, it it providing value like education or entertainment, what would make someone want to engage with it? To get started, think about the questions your clients ask you and how you could turn those Q&As into posts. Carousels with text seem to be performing really well right now - so test those out and see how it goes!
Final thoughts...
These five tips will help you start to test new things, diversify your content strategically, and reach new followers. But, as I mentioned, posting on Instagram should not be your full marketing strategy, but a piece of it.
At the end of the day there are over 3 billion Instagram users globally, and they aren't all going to book you for a photoshoot. If you're ideal clients are close to home, you should have strategies to reach local people. If you want to learn more about that, check out my recent YouTube video on Word of Mouth Market to get more ideas!
