The Social Media Money Formula
I see more and more photographers each day turning to social media to increase business. Yet, the vast majority of them give up because they don’t see a return on their investment. Social media is seen by many as a waste of time. Or, at best, just a social hour with no business benefit.
Photo credit: pylypenko on Flickr
Clients: To make money, you need clients who are willing to pay you for your work.
Leads: To get clients, you need leads – people who are interested in possibly paying you for your work.
Traffic: To get leads, you need targeted traffic – people that are interested in what you do.
Don’t be fooled by the simplicity. It really is that simple. Your social media efforts drive traffic, you turn that traffic into leads, you follow up with the leads and close sales.
At least, that’s how most people attempt to do it. But, there are two more crucial pieces to the puzzle that many people leave out:
Your blog: Your social media efforts should drive people to your blog. A blog is a social media tool of sorts. Its much easier to drive social media traffic from one social media source to another. People respond to “go check out my blog” much better than “go check out my site”. Blog feels much less salesy.
Lead Capture: This is the key (the secret key, if there ever was one). Your blog must capture the traffic you send as leads. It must be a traffic conversion machine that hands you tons of leads. How’s this done? Offer some compelling info, free report, ebook, etc. in the sidebar of your blog. It should be present on every page. That will help. But the most effective way to do it, is to actually put the web form inside your blog post. You’re much more likely to capture leads in your post than in your sidebar.
Now, lets put the pieces together.
Here’s how it works.
First you write a blog post. The post must have content that is relevant to your target market. If its not relevant to people who are likely to buy your products/services, you’ll drive untargeted traffic. That won’t do you any good except waste your time. So, write some good, juicy content that your customers would love. At the bottom of the post, insert a webform (preferably created by your email marketing program). Tell your readers that if they’d like to get more great content, like the post they just read, all they have to do is fill out the form below to join your list (then, of course, you just need to use your email marketing program to follow up and send them good stuff).
Once you have your post with lead capture form ready to go, you take it to social media outlets where your target market hangs out. Take it to twitter or Facebook and post your link with a short description of what you wrote about. Here you’re providing value to the community. You’re telling them about some content that you created just for them, and they can get it for free. Give them the link and send them to your post.
Once they get to your blog post and fill out the form, you’ll have leads to follow up with. At that point, its up to how well you can convert leads to sales.
The process really is simple and it really does work. I’ve seen it work in my business and in other countless times (I’m even doing it right now).
I just shared with you the basics of the formula. The actual formula is a little more complex and involves calculating the actual expenses, revenues, and profits you will have from your social media efforts. I go into great detail about this formula and how to leverage it in my Over[Exposure] course. If you’d like to get on my list to find out more about Over[Exposure], just fill out the form below. (see, its easy) I’ll send you some info about Over[Exposure] and of course I’ll send you occasional free tips on how to grow your photography business (about one every 8-10 days). I won’t sell your email address and you can opt-out at any time.
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I couldn’t agree more! I use several different tools to market and distribute my photography.
I would strongly recommend to all my fellow photographers to click on my website to see how easy it really is to be up and running shortly.
The tools that are offered make it so easy to promote your stores and with the merch store I am now selling my photography directly on facebook!
Its the evolution of business and the ones that believe its a waste of time and useless will soon realize their customer base isn’t growing.
My blog is like an updated version of my portfolio – I post sessions. I create albums on facebook and tag clients. I fail to see how creating ‘a form to people to fill out’ will draw people to see IMAGES. It works for your blog because you have other information to READ and understand. I have pictures that I want ANYONE to see – I don’t want them to have to sign up to see them. That defeats the purpose of a blog of this type.
Can you please elaborate on who that should work?
Tyler,
I agree with the tactical approach that you shared here. While money may not be the first goal everyone thinks of in social media it does relate to the value in captivating an audience. Whether that’s simply good vibes, lots of traffic, ad revenue or actual people buying your stuff — it’s still value.
In the examples you shared about Twitter and Facebook it’s important to consider the segmentation and attitude of those communities separately. Likewise, build value through clever contributions on each and build exclusivity in each community.
I like it, good stuff. I think many other photogs will enjoy it.
~joe
Jen, I think you missed his point. The point is to send people to your blog to view content… and to have your blog be a point to capture leads.
Most blogs do NOT have a contact form built into a post… just an area to comment, yet your website has a contact form that should be a part of the flow of your site.
The point is, setup your blog to allow you to capture leads just as easily as your website does, and use it to that end. He’s not saying to withold images.
The suggestion to offer an article on how to pick a photographer or something useful in exchange for an email address is just smart, it’s not witholding anything that you would have normally given otherwise.
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Thank you all for your comments. Tim, you’re right – the key is to get focused on capturing leads. Any traffic you drive (social media traffic included) is useless if you don’t turn that traffic into leads and those leads don’t turn into sales.
Jen, you’re also right that it seems to make more sense on some blogs and not others. The approach you take is totally up to you. Here are a couple of options:
1) Add more content to your existing blog other than just updated portfolio pictures. What kind of content can you provide that your target market will appreciate? What can you withold and offer as a bonus if someone gives you their name and email address.
2) Create a separate blog that is valuable content only and keep your current blog which is updated portfolio images. I wouldn’t recommend this method because you still lose the traffic on your portfolio blog.
In business, everyone always thinks that they’re unique. I’m not sure why. But people’s initial reaction often is “When my business is different because ….” I think it’s just an excuse. I think people look for excuses to avoid doing the hard work they need to do to grow their business.
No matter how you look at it, no matter how good an marketing you are, starting and growing a small business is tough work. It requires guts. It drains you. Its mentally taxing. But its also extremely rewarding to those you make it.
The truth is, all businesses need to do the same 3 things: Attract new business. Close new business. Fulfill on their promise to their customers.
If you’re not doing one of those, you don’t have a business. If you are doing them, then general small business rules almost always apply.
I hope that helps.
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