Social media channels are a space that photography businesses should be familiar with, but are they maximizing their results? In the spirit of the Olympic Games, here are some tips to get you or your business on the social media podium. Strategy This sounds obvious, but many businesses do not have a well-defined strategy. Without one, you’ll be lucky to get past the qualifiers and into the finals. “Making money” sounds like good strategy, but how actionable is that? To get there, you need to define your target audience. If you think your target audience is “everyone,” I’m here to tell you that it isn’t. Even if you don’t have a niche and have a wide breadth of potential clientele, there are still traits that your ideal customer has. For example, what type of budget would they have? How important is the personality or customer service of the photographer versus the quality of the result? And then, what are they searching in Google in order to find the perfect photographer? What catches their eye on social to want to work with someone? Considerations such as these help you truly define a target audience in which to cater your messaging. Put your customer first Once you know enough about your customer, you have to remember to make your posts with them in mind. It’s not about posting about your new camera specs or posting your latest travel photos with self-serving messaging, but turning it into a post that meets customer intent. For example: Shooting _____ with my new camera feature _____ allows me to offer higher quality _____ images to my customers. Always think what will catch their interest outside of your visual elements. You are having a conversation with your audience, not at your audience. People value companies that are relatable and meet their needs. Doing this will get you into the finals. Consistency No one gets near the podium without being consistent. It’s easy to come back from a photoshoot and schedule three days of social media posts with your new content. But what happens next week? Soon, it’s two weeks without a post. Consistency gets your audience to expect your content, confirm you’re active and in business, and keep you top of mind. Resist the urge to post frequently if you can’t keep up that pace. Spread things out, especially once you learn the best times for your audience to interact with your content. Measure and adjust The difference between gold and bronze is often the person that can adjust the best. If you don’t reflect on your past performance, it is hard to see how to improve. Social media analytics are abundant and current, so you can figure out your baseline and test out content plans to see what works best. Bonus points if you are getting comments on your posts that give you even more insight into audience sentiment. There are many more nuances in social media, but these four categories must be done well if you want to go for gold.