5 Mistakes Senior Photographers Need To Avoid In Instastories

I absolutely LOVE watching Instastories from other senior photographers! Your creativity amazes me! But sometimes there seems to be a little disconnect between the creativity of your work and the creativity you bring to your Instagram stories. And I want to help you guys with that today.

Our Instagram followers want to see more than just pretty pictures. They want to see behind the scenes (and not just from our senior sessions). They want to know who we are. They want to be able to relate to us and know that they can trust us and be comfortable with us at their own sessions too. That’s why our stories are so important! The Instagram feed is for the pretty stuff. But in our stories we can be playful, fun and let them really see our personality and who they are going to be working with.

There are a few mistakes being made out there when it comes to using Instagram stories that I do want to touch on though. Some of these are just missed opportunities that can easily be avoided. So let’s talk about the ones I see the most.

5 Mistakes To Avoid In Your Instastories:

1. Posting & ghosting - Be sure you are circling back around a few times a day to see who is viewing & engaging with your stories. Go give them some love too! Don’t just post a story in the morning and disappear until that evening. You’ll get the best results by posting consistently throughout the day. (Let me be the first to say, I know this isn’t realistic sometimes. I’m a mom & business owner too! Believe me I get it! Haha!)

2. Not location tagging - This one is pretty simple. Make sure you are taking advantage of the location sticker so that your local audience has a better chance of seeing your story. You can tag your city, your county, a school, a local restaurant or shop too.

3. Not following up with engagement - When your followers vote in a poll, answer a question, DM you or take a quiz be sure you are acknowledging them! Take 10 minutes a day to go through those and give them a quick “hey, thanks for voting! me too!” message. Head over to their stories and engage with them too!

4. Ignoring feedback - When your audience tells you what they like and don’t like, LISTEN TO THEM! If they want something different from you, give it to them! Hey, I’m stubborn too and want to post what I want to post, but at the end of the day we are doing this for them and to drive business to our studios. They may not actually “tell” you that they don’t like something, but paying attention to your story analytics will give you a lot of insight into what they do and do not like.

5. Speaking to the wrong audience - Remember who you are posting for when creating a story! We are creating for teens and sometimes their moms too. So many times I see photographers who have missed this somehow. They are obviously posting for peers and feature accounts instead of for clients and potential clients. Remind yourself of your purpose and mission before ever going to your stories.

BONUS! How about not engaging at all? It really surprises me how many times I’ll put a fun poll out there that I KNOW everyone has an opinion on and there are so few photographers voting on it. Guys, we have to GIVE what we want to GET! If you want to get the engagement you are craving then you have to be willing to give it first. It’s not that tough. Click a button. Dealing it to you straight - if you don’t play the game, you can’t complain when your followers don’t either. Love ya! Mean it :)

Are you exhausted from the social media game and not book photography sessions from it?

*** DON’T MISS THIS! ***

If you need somebody to come along beside you and help you do business the right way so that you can bring home a paycheck, spend more time with your family and save for retirement then you need Studio Secrets.  

The doors open November 4th for something very special for a handful of photographers who are ready to get laser focused on their businesses.  

Studio Secrets is a 6 month business coaching intensive where we dive deep into your business together.  It’s not a DIY course on one or two topics.  This is EVERYTHING you could ever need to know (and all the tools & resources) to run a senior photography business - branding, messaging, websites, pricing, sales, marketing, social media, senior model teams, systems, workflow, automation and SO MUCH MORE!  And bonus - you get me to lead you through it in our hot seal calls and a private community to bounce ideas around with.

If you’re ready to turn your expensive hobby into a thriving business be sure you are on the wait list.

Plus you save $500 on launch day - November 4th.  Woohoo!  I can’t wait to work with you! 

Get More Engagement This Week In Your Instastories For Your Senior Photography Business

Get real with me for a minute.

How real are you actually being in your Instastories? Are yours more like constant advertisements, sales and your work only?

Do your followers really know who you are?

If you are pausing to think about the answer to that question, then the answer is probably no, they do not.

We can change that though! And guess what?! It’s not all that tough!

I hear it all the time. Photographers (and other business owners) complaining about how they aren’t getting the engagement they want from Instagram, it’s not worth their time, their life isn’t interesting enough, the algorithm stinks and their followers aren’t seeing their posts.

Wanna know my response? You aren’t going to like it. But I’m a straight shooter so here goes. If something isn’t working in our social media accounts, it’s our fault, not the “algorithm”. As business owners, if something is broken we need to own up to it, take responsibility for figuring out how to fix it AND here’s the important thing - we have to take action and follow through. I’m talking to myself here too guys! It’s just the harsh reality of it.

Here’s the deal - people want to do business with people.

They want to know who you are, they want to fall in love with you (not like in the ask you to marry them kind of love, but in the care about who you are and what you’re about kind of love), and they want to trust you. But you have to give them reasons to do each one of these things!

So that’s the secret. Get your followers to know you, to like you, to trust you.

Wait. I’m not done ;)

You thought this blog post was about getting more engagement on your instagram stories, right? Oh it is my friend.

You get engagement when you show up in your stories consistently, when your followers get to know who the person is behind the business and the logo that is currently in place of your profile picture (big no-no), when they miss you when you are gone for a day or so, when they see something when they are out and think of you, when they know they can ask you a question and you will be there to answer it for them. That’s when you get the engagement you have been hoping for.

Ok, but how do you get to that point? How do you get that comfortable with your audience?

How do you get from “this is what I do” to “this is who I am”?

*** DON’T MISS THIS! ***

If you need somebody to come along beside you and help you do business the right way so that you can bring home a paycheck, spend more time with your family and save for retirement then you need Studio Secrets.  

The doors open November 4th for something very special for a handful of photographers who are ready to get laser focused on their businesses.  

Studio Secrets is a 6 month business coaching intensive where we dive deep into your business together.  It’s not a DIY course on one or two topics.  This is EVERYTHING you could ever need to know (and all the tools & resources) to run a senior photography business - branding, messaging, websites, pricing, sales, marketing, social media, senior model teams, systems, workflow, automation and SO MUCH MORE!  And bonus - you get me to lead you through it in our hot seal calls and a private community to bounce ideas around with.

If you’re ready to turn your expensive hobby into a thriving business be sure you are on the wait list.

Plus you save $500 on launch day - November 4th.  Woohoo!  I can’t wait to work with you! 

Why I Stopped Posting To Instagram Every Day And Still Increased Engagement

My senior studio instagram feed ran like a well oiled machine. Every Sunday I would plan my week of posts and have them all ready to go in Planoly, my online instagram scheduler. And every morning at 7am a fresh new image and text would hit the instagram feed. Sometimes when I was feeling overly enthusiastic there was 7am AND a 7pm posts rolling out. Seriously, it was like clockwork.

But I would be lying if I didn’t tell you it was exhausting too.

Here’s what I saw happening too. My audience knew what to expect. That was the good thing. It was also the not so good thing. It was almost too predictable and maybe even taken for granted that something pretty would just be there to see every morning. Don’t get me wrong! Consistency is great! But I needed to take a step back and re-evaluate my efforts and how I was spending my time.

Was I really getting the payoff from all the time I spent planning instagram posts? The answer was no.

I wanted more engagement. I wanted more followers in that 13 - 17 age bracket because they are my target audience for my senior photography studio. But how in the world was I going to get it?

The answer I stumbled upon? Less posting. More showing my face & having real conversations.

Engagement with your followers (and soon to be followers) is much more important AND effective than posting pretty images to your feed everyday.

How To Effectively Engage On Instagram:

1. Use the bookmark / save feature on Instagram. Go through your client list, current seniors and your model team. Put them into a save folder in Instagram. Now go through that folder once a day to like and comment on their posts and stories. This will tell Instagram that these are your people! You can use this same idea for local business and sports teams too.

2. Turn on post notifications for this same group of people. When they post look for the top comments. These are usually their best friends and ones you should have on your radar. Head over to their accounts and start engaging with them too :)

3. Train your audience. If you want REAL engagement then you have to give it first. Heart eyes and likes is what you will get if that is all you give. Now, I understand that there is a fine line between being creepy and being visible. Don’t go overboard here. We are dealing with teenagers! Just be cool, you know?

4. Pay attention to who is watching your stories. Give extra time to the people who are following your stories. Go through your viewers list and watch theirs too! If you see an opportunity to engage - a poll, a question, a quiz - DO IT!!!

5. Show your face! I’ll continue to repeat this one over and over y’all. People want to do business with people. Get in your stories, be real, be silly, have conversations, show up and be the expert in your area. Let your guard down a bit and bring some life into your own instastories!

Are you exhausted from the Instagram game and not booking any sessions from it?

*** DON’T MISS THIS! ***

If you need somebody to come along beside you and help you do business the right way so that you can bring home a paycheck, spend more time with your family and save for retirement then you need Studio Secrets.  

The doors open November 4th for something very special for a handful of photographers who are ready to get laser focused on their businesses.  

Studio Secrets is a 6 month business coaching intensive where we dive deep into your business together.  It’s not a DIY course on one or two topics.  This is EVERYTHING you could ever need to know (and all the tools & resources) to run a senior photography business - branding, messaging, websites, pricing, sales, marketing, social media, senior model teams, systems, workflow, automation and SO MUCH MORE!  And bonus - you get me to lead you through it in our hot seal calls and a private community to bounce ideas around with.

If you’re ready to turn your expensive hobby into a thriving business be sure you are on the wait list.

Plus you save $500 on launch day - November 4th.  Woohoo!  I can’t wait to work with you!