Using Instagram Stories as a Marketing Tool for Photographers. With new features like tagging and Boomerang being added this week as well as the possibility of links being added in the near future, Instagram Stories is quickly becoming a great tool for marketing that every photographer should take advantage of. The possibility that adding links in stories has for marketing and sharing your content is huge. Since they are only temporary, it's important to post them at optimal times for your audience. For a lot of photographers, you yourself are your brand, and Stories are a great area to showcase a different side that doesn't fit in your feed. If you want to keep it about your business, you could take video of how you pack your gear for a shoot. Create a series of graphics that tease and sum up your new blog post. Using Instagram Stories as a marketing tool will also make your Instagram feed more professional-looking as well as show your followers you're keeping up with social media trends. If you're unsure what you should be posting or what your followers might want to see, just ask. Do you have any tips or techniques you've been using to get more out of Instagram Stories or some examples of photographers that are using stories in a great way?
Are you using Instagram Stories in your marketing? Are you
wondering how photographers are using Stories? With new features
like tagging and Boomerang being added this week as well as the
possibility of links being added in the near future, Instagram
Stories is quickly becoming a great tool for marketing that every
photographer should take advantage of. Here is a list of ways you
can start using Stories for your business today.
What’s New
Boomerang, which was introduced last year, is now also an option
next to the record button when you create a new Story. If you
haven’t used Boomerang before, it takes a quick series of stills
and turns them into a GIF-like loop that you can use to experiment
with motion in your stills. Users can now also tag or mention
people in their Stories similarly to how you currently can in
comments and captions. Most interestingly, Instagram
mentioned it was unrolling a trial for Verified accounts to add
“See More” links at the bottom. The possibility that adding links
in stories has for marketing and sharing your content is huge. For
all the advantages there are for marketing within Instagram,
directing traffic back to your blog or portfolio has always been
the biggest thing that’s missing.
Stories is similar in functionality to Snapchat, but with a
considerably larger audience built in. There are lots of
reasons you might use one over the other, but for me, Stories
have the opportunity to appear more professional and less raw.
Unlike your regular Instagram feed, Stories only last 24 hours.
This feature is what makes it so powerful for marketing. You don’t
have to worry about outdated posts being found in your feed or
going back later and deleting them.
Since they are only temporary, it’s important to post them at
optimal times for your audience. Just like in your feed, you want
to try to produce Stories that represent your brand. For a lot of
photographers, you yourself are your brand, and Stories are a great
area to showcase a different side that doesn’t fit in your feed. It
also seems that the more you post within that 24-hour period the
higher you’ll place on your followers feed. Stories always seem to
go in order from most to least at the top of my feed. Creating a
series of Stories that work together to tell a bigger story not
only opens you up to more creative options, but will get you more
views.
- Location or venue scouting: A great way to
always have new content and seem like you’re out shooting whether
you have clients or not is to share images or video from test
shoots or location scouting. If you’re checking out a wedding venue
or hiking in the mountains for an upcoming assignment, you can give
your audience a peek. - A look into who you are: Depending on what
type of work you shoot, this can cover a lot of ideas. If you’re a
family or portrait photographer, maybe you’ll want to share
personal parts of your life, like playing with your kids or
pets….
COMMENTS