Frustrated With Instagram as a Wedding Photographer?
Social Media Should Not Stress You Out as a Wedding Photographer //
I think that it is safe to say that many people have a love-hate relationship with Instagram. On one hand, it is a great opportunity that can provide exposure and a chance to connect with people around the world. And on the other hand, it takes a lot of time and it is difficult to get results that you want to see – which can be rather frustrating – to say the least.
I want to talk less about how to grow on Instagram and more about how you can get rid of that feeling of frustration and overwhelm when it comes to using the platform. This is not to say that I never have those feelings myself, but I have learned how to navigate them well.
At this point in my life, as a mother of two little ones, I am very conscious of the time that I spend working on my business and the time that I dedicate to my family. Yes, it would be beneficial to my business to spend some more time planning and excuting on my Instagram strategy, but to be honest, I just don’t have the capacity in this season of life. And that’s okay. By accepting and being content with this reality, I give myself permission not to feel bad about it.
Like we all know, in order to see real results on Instagram, you need to be able to invest a lot of time and energy into it.
Ever since the feed changed from being chronological to algroithim-driven, it has become more and more challenging to get decent engagement and grow an audience. And as a side note, notice that I keep using the word audience instead of followers. Followers to me sounds so impersonal and degrades people down to meer numbers.
Hi, I am Aida, host of My Wedding Season -The Podcast!
If you prefer listening, this blog post is also available in audio format on my podcast: Episode 05.
Anyway, back to the algorithm. Instagram has revealed what factors go into determing the ranking of posts on a feed (Source: Tech Crunch).
These include:
– Interest
– Recency
– Relationship
– Frequency
– Following
– Usage
Now I am not going to go into all these points in detail. I just listed them out to demonstrate that in order to be successful with your Instagram strategy, you need to take all these points into account.
And it is also a well-known fact that your posts are shown to only a small percentage of your audience. And since the 10 years that Instagram has been around, it’s become extremely saturated, making it even harder to stand out. All this can make it rather frustrating and overwhelming, especially if you have limited time to invest in it. Not to mention, Instagram is a business and wants you to spend money on advertising. So if you don’t want to be confined to limited organic reach, it makes sense to invest your marketing budget wisely when needed.
I mainly want to encourage you to take the time to really think about what you are trying to achieve through Instagram.
For instance, simply aiming to add to your follower number and trying to increase the number of likes on your posts is usually not the right answer. That is what usually leads people down a rat-race, in a state of disarray and stuck dealing with comparisities!
I recently came across a YouTube video of Tim Ferris where he was answering a question about how to grow an audience. His reponse was to ask yourself why you need to build an audience? This helps you figure out if there are other ways to get you to your goal faster rather than building an audience. This is how he pretty much puts it: Building an audience is not an easy thing and it requires a very conserted, conscious and well-planned effort.
And if you do decide to build an audience, he recommends reading 1000 True Fans by Kevin Kelly. And I too must say that this is a very thought-provoking article. To quickly summarize, Kevin argues that all one needs is a 1000 true die-hard fans to make a decent living (of course, this number can be adjusted according to your business). There is actually no need to gain thousands upon thousands, and for some millions, of fans. I also recommend that you read it – I will drop the link in the show notes.
I agree with him and think that this is a big relief, because it seems more manageable and achievable. You no longer feel the need to reach some arbitrary follower number and you can focus on serving your audience well. And they in return are excited to engage with you and what you put out.
Or after putting a lot of thought into it, you realise that it is not necessary for you to build an audience, but it is worthwhile to have a presence on Instagram. Perhaps you have noticed that your potential clients mainly find their way to you through hashtags, word-of-mouth, Google, Pinterest etc…and not because they have been following you on Instagram. Therefore, it might just make more sense to use Instagram as a quick portfolio, like a virtual business card, that leads people to your website and inquire with you.
So circling back once again, if you have decided that it is important for you to have a strong presence Instagram with good engagement, one of the key factors to pay attention to is consistency!
And since posting daily can be frustrating and overwhelming, I have a few suggestions for you.
It may not be for everyone, but if you feel like it will work for you and your business, give it a try!
1. USE THIRD-PARTY APPS TO PLAN OUT YOUR GRID AND SCHEDULE POSTS
This takes the pressure off of failing to post regularly and having to think of a caption on the spot. It is also a great way to batchwork your posts!
2. HIRE A SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER
This is particularly helpful if you cannot even find the time of day to plan out your posts and engage with your audience. There are plenty of people who work at an hourly rate.
3. SHOW UP ON STORIES
Interacting with your audience in this way is great for building a relationship with them. Stories don’t need to be perfect and curated which is great! Especially on the days that you didn’t get around to making a post, just show up on Stories
Well, that’s what I for you today! I hope that you found it helpful in reducing the sense of frustration and overwhelm that Instagram tends to bring along. If you have questions or comments, send me a DM on Instagram @aidaglowik. I would love to hear from you!
Cheering you on,
Aida