I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard Facebook is dead to me or useless. I myself have written it off as a business avenue as well. BUT, I have had a change of heart. As a senior photographer, it certainly hasn’t been the place it once was for my business. But, it is an avenue to interact with another segment of my market: MOMS! Do mean I am directly generating business from Facebook, with leads and messages the way I did in 2013? Absolutely not. But, we have to start looking at marketing as a long game, and embrace indirect methods of getting in front of our clients.
Ok, so this is going to seem way too simple, but here’s the trick. Friend your mom clients on Facebook! I mean, this is basic enough, but I consider my clients to be friends by the time we are done with the full experience. I don’t want my interaction with my clients to consist of a consult, photoshoot, and sales appointment then goodbye forever, I want to have some form of contact and relationship for years to come, and the majority of the time, that ends at general Facebook friendship, but that’s perfectly ok. I get to see how they are doing, how the girls are doing at college and just stay generally in contact!
Second perk to this is that I can share their daughter’s images on facebook with them. The Moms are on facebook, and I want them to get to show off their baby girl, because they are dang proud. So sharing the images with them, tagging them and so on makes their hearts happy! Yes, the day of Facebook pages getting huge traffic and engagement for free are over and done. But, I’m not using a Facebook page for marketing any longer. I’m using the relationship I have built with this client, to bolster word of mouth. It’s the indirect return on building a relationship with my clients and sharing the images they love through Facebook. I post images, tag the moms, and daughters if they happen to have accounts, and spread the love!