Any social media outlet that gets your work in front of your ideal client is worth spending a little time on, especially if it is free (although they also now have paid promotions as well)! Pinterest is just another one of those avenues. It is especially beneficial to have your work on Pinterest in particular because people go there to search for ideas…Come on, you know you have received a board emailed from a client of a bunch of “ideas” for their shoot?! So why not have your stuff on there for potential clients to happen upon your work when they are searching for ideas or browsing on a friend’s board of ideas for their session. Honestly I didn’t really think about Pinterest being a marketing tool until I started receiving inquiries with Pinterest as their referral. I was a little blown away! (On a side note, you should always ask your clients where/how they found you so you can make sure you know where to focus your efforts and which ones are paying off.) All it really takes is a few extra seconds, provided you are blogging anyway. And you should be right? Because, while it is nice to upload an image to Pinterest and put a little blurb on it, you want people to click through to your blog or website which is what should really pull them in and sell them on you and your work! Heck, they might start pinning away on your blog and then all their friends will see all their pins and that is just more people you are reaching 🙂
How do I use Pinterest? Basically once I blog a session I pick my favorite image or images and pin them to my business board along with my location, maybe a few good keywords (in sentence form) about the session, and then also include the actual link just in case people don’t know they can just click the image. You want to make it easy for people. Also, don’t be afraid to add Pin It buttons to your website – pretty ones that stand out more so people take notice of them and thus make them think about pinning your images. Pick dramatic, eye catching images to pin that you would notice and that would stand out in a sea of images on a page. You can also try Promoting your pins (think the boosting for Facebook but for Pinterest). Or you can even Pin an image from your blog, share the pin to Facebook, and then invite people to Pin it. By boosting that post (on FB) to your target audience (which you can select when boosting) you will have your target audience pinning an image and all their friends that won’t see it on Facebook will see it on their friend’s Pinterest feed.
Another way to draw potential clients to your work on Pinterest is to set up What to Wear boards and Inspirational boards for the different types of photography you want to market. For instance, if you are a newborn & maternity photographer pin your maternity work in a What to Wear for Maternity Pictures board and write a little blurb about why what that mama wore was perfect for a maternity session and include a link to go back to that blog post if they want to see more of that session. You can do that with family, children, styled photography, etc. You are providing valuable information for your potential client but you are also educating them on your work. It’s a win-win! Boards that are presented as helpful or inspirational definitely seem to get more pins – it’s all in how you frame it.
However you do it, take advantage of this marketing tool – it can’t hurt and it will expose you to even more potential clients, especially if you are putting the right information in to grab that target audience!
kansas b. pitts
kansas pitts photography
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2012 & 2013 Best of The Knot
2012 & 2013 Bride’s Choice Award Wedding Wire 2011 & 2012 Finest of the Emerald Coast Winner
Features/Covers in Destin Magazine, Emerald Coast Magazine, Bay Life, Mozi, Beauty Bliss, Baby Lifestyles, Sandestin Hilton Footprints, & Gulf Coast Bridal. Featured on The WeddingChannel.com Wedding of the Day, Style Me Pretty Florida, Mozi Magazine, OhSnap Magazine, Confessions of a Prop Junkie, evoking you, LovePhotographsBeautifully, and NewbornPhotography.com among others.
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Personal blog… Photogingmama | weddings | babies | beach | families
