Welcome
Welcome to the next issue of SeniorInspire the Newsletter!
When I first got into photography, Facebook didn't exist and MySpace was all the rage. Remember those days?
Since then, especially with the emergence of Facebook and then Instagram, social media has been on fire and become arguably our most important marketing tool.
This is especially obvious with how many of you email me each week to tell me your favorite parts of the newsletter each week are the articles about social media,
So in this issue I'm focusing almost primarily on that. Hopefully you'll be able to find some tidbits to help your own social media game.
I'm also throwing in some exciting news about the summer issue of SeniorInspire the magazine where the focus will be your square, social media ready images. Submissions you'd like considered for the next issue need to be in by June 26th. Hope to see you all submit!
Enjoy the issue!
Magazine Update
Are you going to be one of our 75 SeniorInspire Influencer for 2022?
I'm excited to announce that TODAY we began accepting submissions for the next issue of SeniorInspire the Magazine! We'll be accepting your submissons through June 26th.
For this next issue of the magazine, we are looking for 75 SeniorInspire Influencers who will each have one to five of their images featured in the mag.
And what I'm most excited about is that this is going to be the first ever SQUARE issue of SeniorInspire the Magazine! And in keeping with the social media theme of the issue, we're asking that all images submitted for consideration be cropped square at a minimum size of 2400px X 2400px.
You're not going to want to miss this!!!
Check out ALL the details on the SeniorInspire website and get your submissions in today, before our June 26th deadline!
Instagram and Social Media
When's the last time you updated your Instagram Bio?
If you're not sure, maybe it's time to take another look at your bio!
Here's a great article on the subject with checklists and sample bios to get you going.
In my endeavors with SeniorInspire, I've discovered there are two important things photographers need in their bio, but sometimes leave out...
First, you're a local business. Make sure people who visit your page know where you're located!
When I feature images on SeniorInspire I like to include the photographer's home state. You'd be surprised how many of you give me no clues. And if I can't figure out what state you're in, do you think potential clients will be able to figure it out?
And second, include a link with a call to action in your bio! Instagram only gives you one link and if you're not using it correctly, you're really missing out.
But even more important than having a link, is having a link that leads a potential client by the hand and into your sales funnel.
Don't just link to your website's homepage or, even worse, your Facebook page! People looking at your Insta page who are looking to click on a link are ready for the next step! So, link to an info request form potential clients can fill out so that you can follow up and try to qualify them as a client.
Your Instagram bio is more important than you think! If you're not optimizing your business's bio, you're missing out on potential clients!
The Best Time to Post on Instagram in 2022
If you ever wanted someone to just tell you the best times to post on Instagram for maximum engagement, this article from Hootsuite is for you!
There are a lot of factors that go into 'the best time to post on Instagram' and of course you should test this and your mileage may vary...
But the team at Hootsuite analyzed over 30,000 Instagram posts from all kinds of businesses. They also took data from their own social team’s experiments posting content to 200k followers, all to pinpoint the average best time to post on Instagram.
And their answer?
Wednesdays at 11am is the best time to post for maximum engagement!
Of course that's not to say you should only post on Wednesdays at 11am. Obviously it's important to be posting more often and when your followers are online.
But to give you a start, their data revealed what they felt were the best times to post each day of the week...
Monday - 12pm
Tuesday - 9am
Wednesday - 11am
Thursday - 11am
Friday - 2pm
Saturday - 9am
Sunday - 7pm
And when it comes to Reel's, between 9 am and Noon, Monday thru Thursdays appear to be the sweet spot.
Again, this is just a start! It's important for you to test and monitor your own audience. Figure out when they are the most engaged and what types of posts get them going!
Some Gen Z social apps you may not be aware of..
Ran across this great article from Hubspot that discusses three social media apps Gen Z has on their radar - BeReal., Poparazzi & VSCO.
And while none of these apps appear to have any real potential as marketing tools for photographers, all of them can help us to learn more about Gen Z as potential clients.
VSCO has been around for awhile and even I'm familiar with that one. But what I find most interesting about BeReal and Poparazzi is how much emphasis they put on authenticity!
No filters, no BeautyShot selfies, just flat out realness - something I've been told over and over that Gen Z craves.
Anyway, if you make it to the end of the article, it does a great job summarizing Gen Z social media preferences and what they mean to us as marketers.
Check it out!
Instagram Wants to be TikTok when it Grows Up
I'm not a fan of change for the sake of change, but apparently Instagram is...
If you haven't heard, Instagram is currently testing a full screen, scrollable display that apparently will look a lot like TikTok.
I guess this makes sense as Instagram pushes to place a heavier emphasis on Reels and Reels are of course full screen, but I'll never understand why you'd take a successful product and push to make it look more like your biggest competitor.
Isn't this exactly what New Coke did? They tried to taste more like Pepsi and got crucified for it.
Anyway, check out this article from Social Media Today that has more info about what Instagram is testing and a sample of how it will look.
I have no idea how this will impact the posting of photos or if it will effect our reach, but if experience tells me anything I'm not holding my breath for a positive outcome here.
And Finally
For those of you who have been reading SeniorInspire the Newsletter for a while, you may have noticed we haven't done a photographer interview in a while. I'm planning to bring those back as time allows. If you have any suggestions for photographers you'd like to see interviewed, please email me.
That's all for now. Hope you all have a great week!!