I always struggled with getting my albums noticed, I wanted to increase facebook reach, and thinking of the perfect wording when posting to social media. I’m a HUGE introvert so putting myself out there and posting sweet captions was cringeworthy and very difficult. I would spend literally hours trying to decide what to write. After trying my best to find the right words my usual go-to when posting albums was just the words “sneak peeks” as the caption, I know, terrible right?! Ugh! I am obsessed with capturing intimate photographs of raw unscripted moments. I wanted to emphasize the emotion in my images when posting albums to social media but my words always failed me. Being an introvert is challenging, I’m fearless when I have my camera in hand but an absolute mess when it comes to putting my feelings into words.

As photographers, we work very hard to capture memorable moments for our clients and I believe that they deserve an amazing experience when receiving their previews. I wanted this for them but had no idea how to put my thoughts into writing. Earlier this year I placed very high in a huge photo contest and received tons of free subscriptions, one of which was a video slideshow platform.

Little did I know utilizing this platform would increase my facebook reach and change my photography business in ways I never believed possible.

The slideshow platform came with a free 30-day challenge. The challenge focused on increasing reach while using slideshows. It also directed photographers on how to use prompts, calls to actions, and various tips and tricks while using social media for businesses. Pretty cool, right? I started the first day somewhat hesitantly, I’m always very leery of anything new and out of my comfort zone, but then again, total introvert here!

The first of the 30 days began with simple tips and tricks to help increase reach while using the slideshow, it seemed fun and not too hard to follow. I reluctantly lowered my guard and decided to at least see what would happen after one day, baby steps right? I made my first slideshow using the platform. The site and slideshow generator was a breeze to use and featured many pages of different music genres. I chose a very touching and sweet song as this was a birth session and I wanted my photos to have something that conveyed the tender moments I had captured. It took me a total of 8 minutes to upload my photos, choose the images in the order I liked, pick the song, and push the “create magic” button…… 10 minutes later I received a ping that my video was ready to download easy peasy right! This is where my business and my life changed tremendously.

I posted my video to Facebook and started to notice interaction and shares immediately. I checked my stats 6 hours later, my organic reach was already at 4,000, crazy right?! By the end of the week, the total reach was 5,200, all organic reach! What?! I was shook. I was so accustomed to getting an average reach of about 2-300 and could not believe that this was happening. The video had 410 reactions, 128 comments, and a lot of shares. After seeing the amazing results from the first video post I decided that this was legit, I needed to do absolutely EVERYTHING that the challenge had to offer. During the remaining 30 days the instructors added more fun challenge, I completed every one of them and began to see even more results.

To keep my facebook alive, I decided to start posting slideshow previews for every sneak peek from that point on. My reach went from 3-400 to 18,000 in just 1 month! I was also almost fully booked for 2019 and was and still am receiving inquiries daily. Please keep in mind that you can create slideshows with any tools you have available and watch your social media reach grow.

I have now tripled my income, went from a part-time to full-time photographer, had numerous publications, won a new Mark camera in a contest, and have weddings and Seniors booked into 2021! I also did a little experiment and compared posting the video slideshow, then the exact same photographs as an album separately. The photo gallery received about 500 reach while the video was over 2,000. I managed to increase my facebook reach! My end take, use slideshows! Choose photos that show a lot of emotion and songs that fit that emotion.

Try something that moves you out of your comfort zone, take that leap of faith and rock your business! You never know, it might just change your life.

THIS IS A GUEST POST COURTESY OF CANDACE HENSLEY of C&C PHOTOGRAPHY

This article was featured in Summerana’s Magazine – October 2019 | The Orange Issue.  See the full issue here.