If you would have asked me in 2003 what was the most important tool a photographer could have, I would have said a blog. Blogs changed the game for photographers giving them a platform to build SEO ranking, generate traffic and create a superstar following. Photographers would post, post and keep posting until the traffic came – it was like magic. But the internet was much smaller, there were fewer bloggers and there was no Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. So, if you are thinking about firing up or dusting off your photography blog, here are some thing you need to know.
First, lets understand how we got here…
In 2003, everyone was reading blogs. In fact, they were looking for blogs to read and photographers were filling this void with emotional stories and beautiful images. Shortly after, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter started to divert the attention away from blogs making it harder to become a superstar photography blogger. In 2018, social media is where most of the eyeballs are. Does this mean blogging is dead. No – but you need to rethink your strategy.
Now, let’s talk about blogging in 2018.
The blog is no longer going to be your first touch point with your audience. The goal now is to use your blog as a platform to store valuable content. Social media is the place that you deploy that content. This means that every article you write needs to be deployed on some sort of social media platform so that you can generate traffic back to your blog.
Here is my recommendation for incorporating social media into your blogging strategy.
1. Install the Facebook Pixel on your blog (Read our article about the Facebook Pixel). This is going to allow Facebook to generate a “custom audience” or list of people that have visited your website. You will be able to re-target all of these people with Facebook ads.
2. Use social media to push traffic back to your blog. Instagram is great but you can not add links on posts and Twitter’s conversation moves so fast that your post will get buried quick. I recommend using Facebook and boosting your post that link to your articles. This is going to be the cheapest and easiest way to push traffic back to your blog.
3. Don’t post volume. Post value. Years ago it was about volume to keep the readers coming back. Today, you have to produce content that is worth clicking on. Remember, there is a lot of competition fighting for those click. So, think about answering questions, solving problem and providing value.
