If you’re a photographer, you probably want to increase the visibility of your images and work then
Want an effective and impactful way to build interest in your work?
Try connect with other photographers, potential customers, get your images published, and give and receive feedback.
Choose your niche
You may wish to use your Instagram feed to showcase images which related to a specific theme.
You could hashtag your images with specific niches (for example food, travel, people, fashion, sepia, black and white etc.)
Followers expect a consistent theme of images, so make sure that you are keeping your branding and image theme in correlation.
Instagram users usually land on your profile and make a decision to follow you based on your previous images.
It’s a good idea to make sure the top of your Instagram feed accurately represents who you are as a photographer in order engage and build an audience.
Create great captions for your images
Creating a great caption for Instagram shares a story and tells profile viewers about the image. It’s recommended to give users something to engage with to prompt a genuine interaction.
Captions are a good method of creating a more personal connection and to bring out an emotional response from viewers.
If you have an engaging caption, people are more likely to read it or click the “more” button and spend more time on your post.
You may also wish to ask open-ended question to encourage your viewers to comment on your posts.
Build your community
Building a high quality community is about engagement and connecting with similar profiles.
If there is a photographer which you like then it’s best to follow them, and they may follow you back.
Quick Tip: If you are a wedding photographer, you should follow wedding related profiles and content.
Add your own personal touch
Your Instagram feed is essentially a journal of your photography portfolio.
It’s a good idea to give your followers an insight into your shots.
The 80/20 rule will work perfectly here: 80 percent of your photos should be focused on your photography and style, with the other 20% personal
Instagram Stories are also a great way to engage with more people and grow your followers.
Use and follow hashtags to categorize your photography work
Hashtags can increase your engagement on the platform and increase your followers. Use specific, popular, and relevant hashtags to gain exposure of your posts.
Now that you can follow specific Instagram hashtags it’s recommended to use this approach to grow your followers.
Community and hub destination hashtags are great for connecting similar users around a relevant subject.
You could also create a hashtag that’s unique to you and your photography.
There is no rule on how many hashtags you can use, however, keep in mind that you can only include 30 currently.
We prefer to quality over quantity for hashtags.
It’s best to make sure they’re relevant to your image and the audience you want to target.
Run Instagram competitions for extra engagement
You may wish to expand and grow your followers by publishing a contest, and then request people to follow your Instagram account and Like or comment on the photo in order to enter.
Example below:
User Generated Content
You may wish to add a UGC (User-Generated Content) element to the competition where people post a photo of their own images and use a relevant hashtag & follow your account.
Use the Live Video feature
Users can record and share live videos which dissapear once you stop filming.
This is another good way to promote your brand or work as it’s life like.
Since the Live Video feature launched, Instagram has added further features which may enable more engagement or interactions from people.
In addition, users can now launch live video Q&As and add music to live streams.
Live video is prominent on all social channels now, so it’s a great approach to take advantage of.
Share your profile link on your website and social media channels
Try to add a follow button to your website homepage, “About Us” page, and other pages on your website.
Consider adding an Instagram badge to your website that links to your Instagram account.
This should increase your Instagram followers, as people will see the button on your website.
