Photographers benefit from social media exposure, and you can forge enduring connections…
… but social media is not your friend. You don’t control it, it controls you! Read on for tips on how to use social media as a photographer and avoid over-relying on it.
Why should photographers use social media?
Sure, of course many photographers use social media, but not all. And in any case it’s always a good idea to reflect on why we do anything, including social media. That’s where this article focuses.
Posting your photographs on social media spreads the word about your work and yourself. But social media puts you at the mercy of whoever controls the platform.
So photographers should use social media thoughtfully and carefully, to forge enduring connections with your audience outside social media. Use social platforms to lure people to your own website, where you build your own network and keep your connections direct and unmediated.
You’ll find plenty of general advice about social media for photographers. This post arises from some observations over the years about how I’ve seen how photographers use social media for their own good and bad.
Here’s some of my personal social media tips for photographers.
Social media is a tool, not a friend
When I was on Twitter (pre-Musk) I saw a lot of photographers obsessing about their reach, engagement, follows, retweets, likes, and so on. Many of them were Instagram refugees who left because they got tired of trying to placate the Insta-god—a black-box algorithm that determined what to show to whom and when. That algorithm changed constantly and frustratingly without notice—shifting quicksand underneath their feet.
Especially during the NFT hype cycle, they bemoaned the work it took to get traction, at least according to Twitter’s or Instagram’s statistics. They wasted time trying to game the system, but the system always won.
With very few exceptions, corporations govern how social media platforms function. Those corporations own and constantly tweak the algorithms that determine who they reach, what images they show, when they show them, to whom they show them and in what context, whether people can download steal them.
Those corporations don’t care about your content except insofar as it serves their purposes: to make money by snaring and keeping people’s time and interactions. They use you to gather information about their visitors. That information lines their pockets—almost always not yours.
How should photographers use social media?
There’s loads of advice on the Internet about using social media as a marketing tool for photography. Most focus on commercial photography, not as much on fine art photography. This article by Jessica Miller in Amateur Photographer is a good starter guide about how photographers use social media.
Keeping in mind the transactions among you, your work, and any social media platform, you should use social media thoughtfully to coax people to your own website. Every serious photographer needs a website (preferably a green one). Your social media activity should drive people to your website where you manage what images you show, how you show them, how people can discuss them.
Social media is not a substitute for your own website. It’s a hook to get people where you want them so you can build direct connections with them. Where you control the interactions and conversations. Because…
Social media controls you, you can’t control it
Back in 2023 Elon Musk’s vandalism of the Twitter algorithms exposed how social media manipulates visibility at the whim of whoever controls the code. And the migration of photographers away from Instagram highlights how frustrating and self-defeating a poisonous social media platform can feel.
You have only very limited options to control how social media exposes your images. Platforms like Behance allow you to create a curated collection of the images you post, but on “conversational” platforms like LinkedIn, Mastodon, and Vero you have limited or no control over how your images display (framing, context, etc). People can say mean things about your work or your work can appear along with content that conflicts with your aesthetic and values. And you may not be able to prevent your images from being copied stolen if the platforms don’t have proper controls in place.
The apparent randomness of what you see on social media reflects what your intended audience sees, not what shows you in best light.
Bottom line: algorithms, business models, the whims of owners, moderators’ rules … social media controls you, and there’s nothing you can do about that.
Accepting that fundamental dynamic is liberating! When you understand the rules of the game, you can play it better, to your own advantage.
here’s some do’s and don’ts…
Do: ask yourself some basic questions before you do anything
As Jessica Miller suggests, whatever kind of photography you do, periodically ask and answer some basic questions:
Why am I on social media?
Who are you as a photographer? What place does social media have in your life? How important is it to you and your goals? How much time and attention can you devote to it? Do you hope to gain fame and fortune? Or are your goals more concrete and achievable?
What are my goals?
Some photographers just like to share their images—they’re amateurs in the true sense of the word, and that’s great!
Commercial photographers expect to win clients. Artists hope to win the attention of collectors, gallery owners, commissions. Others want to gain followers and likes because it feeds their ego.
Personally, I’m happy when people visit my website, enjoy my portfolio, read my blog, share comments, and sign the guestbook. I’m going for quality over quantity.
The more specific your goals, the more likely you’ll find the right platform and audience.
Who is my audience?
Each social media platform has a personality. Different people gravitate to specific platforms. Facebook might work well for wedding photographers if their clients share their work with their friends and family. Instagram, Behance, and Unsplash could help marketing teams find the right commercial photographers. Vero, Behance, Exposure, Refrakt, and foto work well for artists looking for collectors and curators and vice versa.
A platform’s personality and population contribute to the context in which your images appear. For example Vero’s photographers’ images tend to look more polished, professional, artistic. Behance is a mix of very commercial and high art (bit of a mish-mash).
How do I present my work in its best light?
Does a platform allow me to display my work as I want it displayed? Can I create a profile that includes my work as a collection? On Behance and Refrakt you can create portfolios where you control the sequencing of images. But Vero and foto, show your media files as posted in chronological order, which may not end up as the visual story you want to tell. Threads, Instagram, Pinterest show your work randomly and perhaps amongst images and posts that contradict your message or violate your values.
And then there’s questions about whether to add borders , watermarks, file sizes and types (JPG is best for social media, but WEBP and AVIF are best for your own website).
Do: link to your own website
You need a link to your website in every social media profile you have. It’s an easy way to lead people to the heart of your online presence. You control your website so you control the dynamic between you and your visitors, not mediated by a social media platform that doesn’t have your interests at heart. And if a social media platform disappears, you still have an online presence regardless.
Think of your website as a frame for your portfolio. Keep it clean and simple so it puts your images to the forefront.
Consider expanding your reach with a blog. Yes, It takes time and effort to feed and maintain a blog. If you write interesting content and follow good search engine optimisation (SEO) practices, you’ll show up in search results and people will find their way to your site. You’ll have more opportunities to engage strangers directly with your aesthetic.
Also consider starting a mailing list or enabling visitors to get notifications from your site automatically when you post new content. Beware that if you save information about anyone, or use plugins that leave cookies on visitors’s browsers, then you need to get permission via an online form. Search for “GDPR compliance” for more information on doing that.
When posting your own photos, consider including a link in the post to a specific page or gallery in your website portfolio to make it even easier for people to see more of what you do. BUT never do that in a comment, boost, retweet, or anything other than an original post of your own photos (that would be narcissistic and ugly).
Pay attention to the language and tags on posts that you admire so you can use them to your advantage as you post.
Do: take care about what and when you share
Every time you share an image, consider why you’re posting that image at that time. Is it your latest and greatest and you want to show the world? Is it part of a sequence that you’re building as an ongoing aesthetic story?
Each platform has a rhythm to it, waves of content throughout the hour, day, week… If you’re a commercial photographer and you’re looking to gain clients on LinkedIn or Instagram for instance, does it make more sense to post on a workday at a particular time of day in a specific time zone?
Remember that people may not see your posts immediately or even that same day. On LinkedIn for instance, I often see content days or weeks after it was posted and relevant. Platforms feed what they think is relevant to each individual, not what the people they follow have posted most recently. So relax, posting isn’t about instant gratification but rather about increasing your content and letting your audience grow organically.
Do some research but ultimately go with your gut on this. You’ll find conflicting advice across the board online.
Do: be yourself and follow your passion
Passion sells. People recognise and gravitate toward passionate people’s work because that passion – that love – gets embodied in the work. Of course, passion is different from taste. Your taste and style might work for some and turn off others. That’s life, and since you can’t control that aspect, why worry about it? (Assuming you have good taste of course.)
I like what Aprille Thomas has to say about why passionate people are sexy:
“There’s something deeper than being good at what you do that’s magnetising.”
Passion for what you do makes you good at what you do because you care enough about what you do to do it right. People recognise and respect attention to detail and the selflessness of your giving yourself to the work – your own work as well as the work of others. Aprille’s article is a great examination of passion’s attractiveness.
Show your passion for your work in your social media. And when someone else’s passion resonates with yours, share their work too.
Do: Discover other photographers
Before you post anything, explore and understand the platforms you plan to use. You’re much more likely to gain traction if you understand the culture of a platform. There are lots of social media platforms to choose from. Be thoughtful about which ones you focus on. You want to find the right audience and not spread yourself thin. Posting everywhere with abandon is like shouting “look at me look at me please please please!”
A platform’s algorithm will try to force feed you what it thinks will attract you. Break out of that straight jacket it you can. See
Do: follow, share, and comment on the work of others
Engagement grows as you engage. That’s true online as well as in the real world. The more you comment and share other people’s work, the more likely they’ll comment and share yours. Follow people whose work you admire. They may follow you back. You mutually build your visibility. (Don’t fall into the Instagrammy trap of unfollowing people who don’t follow you back – that’s tacky.)
Try flipping the standard self-promotion approach to social media. Focus on others instead of yourself:
- Share other photographers’ images, portfolios, and websites. You’ll arouse their curiosity about you. They’ll likely visit your website which brings you traffic. Liking isn’t sharing in this scenario; instead boost, repost, link to their website.
- Promote other photographers. You might feature them in your blog if you have one. Vero has an intriguing option where you can introduce other photographers to the general feed:
- Increase the time and attention you give to an image that catches your eye. Before you click-like-and-scroll, think about what you like (or don’t), how you might do it differently. Often when I contemplate before liking, I decide to comment, and that generates a bond.
- Create and foster new connections with your community outside social media. Talk to other photographers, email them with questions and feedback (if appropriate). There are a couple of people I’ve met on social media that I keep in touch with by email. Those conversations are a lot richer and denser that would be possible in posts or comments. I asked for feedback on this post with a photographer I met on Twitter and got great tips.
- Discover new photographers outside your comfort zone. You can of course use an “explore” feature if it’s available. When I travel I look for photography galleries in whatever cities I go to. Usually there’s at least a couple that have expositions that sound promising. I strike up conversations with the gallery owners or employees, sometimes with other visitors. I’ve discovered new photographers that way. One gallery owner in Edinburgh exposed me to the work of one of the photographers he represents who wasn’t on show at the time. That discovery of a new photographer and a new technique only happened because I made the real world effort and pushed past my usual reticence.
Do: be generous with praise and constructive critique
People love praise, especially when it’s specific. Likes are fine but a comment with a specific reason carries more weight. “That’s lovely” is a fine casual response. “I love the colour story, and how the lines of clouds against the moon mirror the horizon” gives a more heartfelt idea of what you liked.
Never offer any critique unless the photographer asks for it. Some platforms have discussion groups where people post specifically to get advice about how to improve images. On other platforms it’s only acceptable to offer critique when the post asks for feedback.
Critique should always be constructive. Start with what you like, then be kind about what you think can be improved. Say why you think something works, as well as why something else doesn’t. Giving reasons why makes the conversation more meaningful. It helps the recipient understand where you’re coming from, whether your advice makes sense to them, and also helps other commenters agree or disagree.
Do: add ALT text to your images (if a platform allows it)
If you don’t know already, ALT text is text about an image that’s saved with the image. Originally it displayed in browsers when an image couldn’t be displayed. But now it’s also an important service for visually challenged visitors: the screen readers they use will explain the image that they can’t see. And it’s a very important search engine optimisation that search engines use to display relevant images.
ALT text is an example of doing well by doing good. You do well to improve your reach with visually challenged people and improve your search rankings, by doing a good thing and making your images more accessible. The text doesn’t replace the image, it enhances it.
Some social media platforms make it easy to add ALT text when you post an image, like Mastodon and LinkedIn. Others like Vero make it difficult or impossible.
Mastodon is interesting because at least some of its instances flag images that have no ALT text by putting a dashed border around them shaming the photographers who post inaccessible images. Now when I see an image on Mastodon with that tell-tale dashed border, I know that the photographer has neglected to take care with what they’ve posted. And I tend to skip over those images because if the photographer didn’t bother to add ALT text, why should I bother to pay attention?
When you upload an image to your webpage, your content management system (like WordPress) will probably have a field where you can add ALT text.
Adding ALT text doesn’t just improve your reach and SEO rankings. It also forces you to analyse your image so you can explain quickly what the image shows and why it shows it.
I’m slowly updating my website to include ALT text for every image. It’s a slow process because it takes time to think about what I want to convey about the image to someone who can’t see it. I think of it as an important service to my visitors, and an important tool to help me consider and deepen my photography practice.
I’ve written an article about using AI to help me draft ALT text, read all about it here.
Do: give it appropriate time and attention
Treat social media like a daily or weekly task. Like any chore, it may or may not be enjoyable but it’s more likely to get done if you schedule it and give it an appropriate amount of your time and focus.
Do: always have an offline backup of anything you create and post
Occasionally I see someone complain online that some platform or other has wiped out their collected works and they have no backups. There’s no excuse for putting all your eggs in one online basket.
I have a local copy on my computer and I backup everything I do, every day. It’s not a tragedy if my online copies get lost. I can recreate my presence if necessary. That’s not something I want to do, but if I have to do it, I’m ready.
Consider offline backups as a necessary housekeeping chore, or insurance in case anything goes wrong. You’ll sleep better.
Do: take a break
The social media audience won’t miss you if you take a break from posting content (unless it’s your full-time job). The algorithms might take an extended hiatus into account and might boost or relegate you because of it. But you can’t control the algorithms so why worry about them?
Social media can be a rabbit hole. It can distract you from your work. Too much influence from influencers can lead you astray. Step back, clear your mind, go outside and enjoy the world. You’ll come back to social media with a more relaxed approach that’s much more attractive.
Don’t: get too attached to your social media persona
Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook seem to be the most toxic environments where people get caught up in obsessive self-promotion. When I sense someone is desperate for attention I just keep scrolling, or even mute or block them. Like in the real world, desperation is really unattractive and counterproductive.
Don’t: obsess about numbers
Numbers don’t count for much. Your social media interactions only partially reflect you as a photographer. Photography is your real calling and work, not obsessing about and boosting your numbers.
Don’t: overshare
One photographer I followed on Twitter used to do image dumps every day. 5, 10, 20 images one after another. No comments or rhyme or reason to posts, just a rapid fire spew. Initially I liked their images individually, but in bulk they became off-putting. They’ve moved over to Mastodon now and they’re doing the same thing there. I’ve given up paying attention to them. That kind of neediness for attention and lack of care about presentation doesn’t appeal to me.
Another photographer on Twitter shared an awful lot about their personal life. It felt like they were using their personal problems to coerce us into valuing their work. But personal details only matter if they’re relevant, and may work best in small doses.
I remember a portrait photographer who shared images of his parents in quarantine during the pandemic. Along with the images, he shared brief text as context without over-emotionalising – along the lines of “My father eating dinner in his chair in his overcoat. He hasn’t turned on the heat in a week.” The individual images were striking, and the minimal information about them added to their emotional weight. A lot of words would have diluted the images’ impact, especially if he tried to pluck my heartstrings.
Don’t: be a jerk
Confrontation might or might not be the most helpful way to achieve a goal. Think before you speak. True online as much as in the rest of our lives.
Remember: Your photography is your focus
It’s easy to get caught up in the dopamine hit of likes and comments on anything you post. And to get wound up about criticism or trolls. Neither of those things are important.
Your photography gives your creative life meaning. Focus on that. Share your work, enjoy when others enjoy it too or give constructive feedback.
What do you think?
How do you use social media? Do you have any suggestions about how to use it most effectively? Whose social media presence do you admire? Comment below!
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