As a busy wedding photographer, your calendar is full with client meetings, marketing, blogging, and most importantly, weddings. With everything needing your attention at once, it can be challenging to keep track of everything you need to do, especially small day-to-day tasks such as social media. This is understandable, but the good news is there are ways you can avoid forgetting, and instead, continuously stay relevant in the minds of your past, present, and future clients!
Creating a social media schedule for your business is extremely helpful in assisting you with maintaining a consistent and successful workflow. This is one of the benchmark steps in a successful content marketing strategy, which is why we’ve developed 4 steps to help you figure out what works best for you and your business.
1. Decide on your Social Platforms
Before you can determine how often you are posting, you will first need to know what platforms work best for your business. You want your images to make a connection with your audience, and social media platforms are extremely helpful for several reasons. Instagram allows you to share your photos instantly with other users. You can also use Twitter for the same purpose, as well interacting with your followers. Facebook is also great for this because you can use it for contests that engage people in your feed.
Regardless of what platforms you choose to utilize, it is important to know what social media sites provide the most benefit to your business. By knowing this, you will be able to create dynamic and focused content.
2. Determine Days and Times to Post
Once you know what social media sites work best for you, you can then figure out what days and times are optimal for your posts. For example, if you find that your target market is nine-to-five working professionals, you will want to post around noon and at the end of the working day. The reason for this is that more people are likely to check their social media pages on their lunch breaks and their commute home. This maximizes your exposure and helps you stay on track, while you are tackling all of your other projects.
TIP: Create a social media schedule for the whole month. Being ahead in your schedule creates a picture for the work that you have ahead and can also help alleviate some of the stress you may be under during the busy season.
3. Keep to Your Schedule
This is the hardest part of creating your social media schedule, but also the most engaging. Schedules encourage you to get out into the world and get some work done. Thankfully, you have partnered with a photo editing company to free up some of your time! Ensure that you are posting to Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at the same times every single day. Not only does this help you in turning your blog posts and tweets into routine, it shows that you are consistent with your business. This kind of reliable activity will increase your clients’ trust in your brand and entice them to consistently interact with you online.
Related: 4 Secrets to Optimize Your Facebook Fan Page
TIP: Don’t be afraid to switch your content up sometimes! Try everything from personable blog posts to fun and engaging contests that get your clients closer to you and help draw in prospective customers.
4. Schedule in Advance
Schedule your posts well in advance to ensure that you are remaining consistent. To make this even easier, an app like Hootsuite provides the option to create content that you can schedule to be released weeks or months in advance. When there is a lack of consistency in your posting, or you constantly post old content without incorporating new posts, your viewers can become disengaged – ensuring that you have a consistent posting schedule is vital! By taking the time to schedule out your entire month of social media in one sitting, you can get a clear vision of each post that is going out each day, and you do not have to worry about being next to a computer or smart phone at a certain time each day to post.
Related: Top 5 Tips for Using Instagram for Your Business
TIP: Try out a few sites different scheduling sites to see which one is the most convenient and serves your needs best. Some sites, such as Hootsuite, offer free trials, allowing you to test their content calendars to see if they work best with you and your business.
The success of your wedding photography business is contingent on so many factors. However, the most important factors are how much time you are putting into the business yourself. Every aspect of the social media content that you produce and share is a reflection of who you are and should be viewed positively. By creating a solid schedule for your social media engagements, you are developing not only a routine, but you are also proving that your business is just as valuable to you as your clients’ time. For additional tips and tricks on how to create a stellar social media schedule and more, download our Comprehensive Guide to Social Media!
