Social Media Myths about Nature Photography Business to Ignore

In today’s world, social media invades all parts of our lives, both personal and work-related. On the one hand, social media can seem like a big time-waster. We spend hours uploading photos, responding to comments, looking through our streams… and nothing of any importance seems to get done. On the other hand, social networks are incredible marketing tool that offer small nature photography businesses like ours an opportunity to be noticed among the corporate giants.

So how much of my social media following is truly influenced by what I do as a photographer or how successfully I run my business? This article looks at some common myths that you must be aware of to be successful when using online social platforms to grow your nature photography business.

Myth #1: Social media follower count reflects the popularity of your nature photography business.

In good old days of Google+, I had over 1.6M social media followers. During that time if you look at the number of followers I had on social media, you may jump to the conclusion that I’m a great photographer and/or own a very successful nature photography business. Sometimes this high follower count gave me almost a celebrity status – when I speak at media events and such, more people are likely to attend and pay attention to what I have to say.

 

Many people think that, because I have a lot of followers, I must be a very talented nature photographer. Otherwise, why would they all follow me? But is this an accurate conclusion to jump to? The truth of the matter is that I acquired my high follower count because I was placed on the Google+ suggested users list early on.

All social media companies have algorithms for promoting certain individuals over others. They do this for to keep their audience interested and engaged which in turn drives their profits. So the number of followers on social media does NOT always reflect a nature photographer true talent. So just remember that there are lots talented nature photographer whose social media count did not reflect their skills or their success in nature photography business. And some highly successful nature photography business owners don’t even post their photos on social media.

Myth #2: Your photography business will have far reaching influence on social media

It is often assumed that a photography business with high follower count on social media must have great influence in the nature photography world. But the truth is a bit more complicated than this. It is true that photography business owners can reach a lot more followers with a high social media presence. For this reason big companies often flock to the social media influences with a large following to recruit them as ambassadors to promote their products. However your reach is intentionally limited by the algorithm of the social media companies.

If all you do is post photos and sponsored content for photography companies, your social media followers will soon loose interest. Engagement on your social media profile will likely drop leading to far fewer likes and shares on your content. To build a sustained influence you will need to take a more balance approach by posting valuable, interesting, intelligent content along with sponsored posts.

Myth #3: Running a nature photography business on social media is a no-brainer

Not everyone who follows you on a social platform is a potential customer. There are many reasons why someone would follow your on social medial platform. Some people may just like looking at interesting or beautiful nature photos; your work may inspire them but that doesn’t mean they want to purchase it. Some social media followers may actually be competitors who want to ‘scope out the competition’.

On top of this the visibility of the nature photography content you provide is actually fairly limited. There are a couple of reasons for this.

• Algorithms of social media companies are designed to restrict the visibility of your content to just faction of your followers.
• And when you do post content social media, all of your followers may not always be online. It’s a big world with different time zones and people with busy lives… only not everyone will actually be online at the right time to view your posts.

So remember that popularity on social media does not automatically translate to a marketing or sales effort.

Myth #4: All I need is social media for my nature photography business

We have often been asked why I need a website when I can just use a Facebook business page for my nature photography business. The single most important reason to have your own website is to maintain complete ownership of the content that you create. A nature photography website will allow you have complete control over the access, visibility, design and ownership of the content you create. You are not bound by the ever changing algorithms or subjected to terms and conditions of the social media platform. You are free to express your own view….no matter how controversial…without risk of being banned from social media.

 

We have often been asked why I need a website when I can just use a Facebook business page for my nature photography business. The single most important reason to have your own website is to maintain complete ownership of the content that you create. A nature photography website will allow you have complete control over the access, visibility, design and ownership of the content you create. You are not bound by the ever changing algorithms or subjected to terms and conditions of the social media platform. You are free to express your own view….no matter how controversial…without risk of being banned from social media.

Myth #5: All social media platforms are created equal

Interaction on social networks is great for building personal relationships, too. But with the number of social networking sites growing like weeds, but you have to remember that all social media site are not created equal. Our preferred social media planforms are the one that offers tools facilitate easy interaction with our audience (such as Facebook). We will spend more time and resources building audience on these social media platform over others.

When you measure interaction on social media sites, you must have a goal in mind. The single-most important goal for interaction on social media is for our audience to read the nature photography content that is posted on our website. While a likes and shares are important, they don’t necessarily educate our audience. For this, social media such as Facebook, Flipboard, Twitter and Instagram that allows us to share a direct link to an article becomes our top priority.

So what about other smaller less known social media platforms? We do have a presence on some of these social media platforms. However they play a very smaller role because in our nature photography business strategy. This strategy provides a logical way to maximize the return on our time.

In Summary

Social media IS a great place to be social with your admirers. If your nature photography business have large interested following, you have the benefit of being able to post content to market your products. But you must maintain a balance between being social, providing interesting content for your audience and marketing your product. To keep your followers interested, it’s important to find out who your customers are, listen to what they want, and provide value-added content. If you continually try to sell your product without this balance, you risk losing attention of your followers.

If you are running a nature photography business the trick is to find ways to simplify and streamline the social media strategy. Do not get pulled-in by the mind-numbing draw of millions of posts that are vying for everyone’s attention. The trick to taming the social media monster is to maximize the content consumption using automations tools available. It takes discipline and forethought – but you can make social networks work for you. If you do it right, social media can take your small photography business to new heights. Good luck!