Instagram is a place for you to display your photography work – but even more so, to display your personality alongside your images. Brainstorm a list of potential images/captions, so you always have a stockpile of ideas! Here are some ideas to get you started:
Your Latest Work
Any images you’ve recently photographed for clients, taking careful note to only share images you want to shoot again. If you didn’t love that specific pose or location, don’t share it! Share an image you absolutely love from that session.
Your Office Space
If you don’t have a traditional office space, no worries! Take images of whatever corner of the house you work in (simplified, make sure to clear the clutter) – or snap iPhone photos of whatever coffee shop you’re currently in. People love to visualize where you’re creating these beautiful posts.
Yourself
It’s very, very important to show your face on Instagram regularly. We recommend not have users have to scroll any more than about 21 images to see a photo of you.
Client Testimonials
Regularly ask your clients for testimonials after sessions, and use snippets of their comments on Instagram. Either design a words-only square in Photoshop, with your brand colors or share an image of the clients with the testimonial in the caption.
Vendor’s Work
If you’re stuck for what to post, share an image from a vendor you love (florists, venue, planner, etc.) and use the caption to talk about your workday. Make sure to end the caption, giving a shout-out to their gorgeous work in the image!
Talk to Clients
Write posts specifically to clients and help them prepare for their engagement session, family session, wedding day, ordering albums, etc. These have to be short, but any information you can share positions yourself as an expert in the industry and help you to get more Instagram followers!
Features
If you’re regularly submitting to blogs and magazines, take the time to share any successes on your Instagram! Even if it’s a small blog, it still looks wonderful to have your work featured publicly.
Friday Introductions
Post an introduction of yourself (#fridayintroductions) and ask your followers to introduce themselves every now and then! It’s so fun to hear who’s following you, and this encourages engagement, too!
Planning Your Feed
Although your images are shown one at a time in a follower’s feed, when a new user lands on your profile – they will see the first nine squares of your Instagram grid. We are on Instagram to attract new customers to our business, so this impression really matters! There’s lots of information on the internet about planning your feed perfectly, and to be honest, here are a few tips for you.
- Stick to a specific color scheme. You don’t get crazy with this, but if your images tend towards colorful, light, and bright, you won’t share a random dark photo. You also wouldn’t share a client testimonial on a completely black background. It distracts from your feed! Just keep the overall visual look of your feed in mind, and you’ll be fine.
- Sneak In Your Colors: Design quotes in Photoshop about your promotions or a client testimonials and shares in your feed for variety. If you have the main brand color in your business, use that to add color to your feed instantly.
Scheduling Your Feed
You can use Planoly to manage your Instagram. It has absolutely amazing drag and drops feature on both your iPhone and your desktop computer. You can upload images to the calendar, schedule them immediately, or build a media library of ‘unscheduled’ posts for the future.
