Social Media Engagement: Converting Followers Into Fans

How do you feel about the current state of your social media marketing for your professional photography business? Which channel brings you the most business? Is the target market for your specific business active in social media circles?

In short, how effective is your social media engagement strategy in converting your followers and casual observers into fans and clients?

Before I go any further with this post, I would like to give credit to Nancy Marmolejo and Bill Baren for their inspirational webinar earlier this week on the “KLT Factor” series of talks. Nancy is an expert in this field, so you might like to follow up by checking out her website and Facebook page.

Social Media Engagement – What Does That Mean?

Before I answer this question, let’s take a look at what social media engagement is not:

Would you go to a fun party and stand in a corner, refusing to talk to anyone else? Perhaps you might decide to leap onto the table and demand that everyone in the room buy something from you? Alternatively, would you simply roam the place, slipping business cards into the hand of every soul you encountered?

Of course not – or at least I hope not! Any of those behaviors might be seen as anti-social, or eccentric at best.

Social media is not that much different to a party, yet I see a lot of folks on social networking sites behaving very much in those same anti-social ways.

We’ve all seen it… the new friend who likes to post marketing messages on our wall like graffiti; the mass emailer who sends everyone they know an invite to join their Facebook page, with no regard as to whether the page is relevant to the people they’re inviting. Then there are the ones who just seem to, well, do nothing at all, yet are apparently there to market their business, and get upset when nothing happens.

Perhaps we should call this phenomenon “social media disengagement”…

In a nutshell, social media engagement is the process of interacting in a mutually beneficial way with others in your social network, without any blatant motive or hidden agenda, and which seeks to give first, and receive later.

Are Photographers Disadvantaged?

At first glance, social media (especially Facebook) appears to have been created as a marketing dream for the photographer. Here is a place where we can upload our work, where our fans will naturally want to share it with their friends. There’s really no other marketing system on the planet so well designed for the photographer.

But, I believe this very fact means that photographers are actually at a disadvantage in social media, especially on Facebook.

Why?

Simple – it’s too easy! Many of the photographers who don’t think like marketers are mistakenly caught up in the belief that their work will sell itself, so they reason that all they need to do is upload some photos and, “voila”, instant marketing and clients!

Of course, uploading images is a big part of the social media engagement equation, no doubt about that, but we need to go much further before we can generate enough social momentum to generate referrals, prospects and paying clients.

We need to actively participate in good social media engagement strategies.

Turning Followers Into Fans

Before someone can become a client of our business, they are usually a prospect; someone sufficiently motivated to call us on the phone, or email us, to learn more about what we do.

In social media circles, before someone becomes a prospect, he or she is usually a fan of our business page; a fan being described as someone who is actively engaged with us through interaction with our updates and posts. Fans are also those people who are a good source of referrals, and the more excited and engaged those fans are with us, the more referrals we’ll see coming in.

Prior to becoming an active fan, these people were simply following what we did through casual observation. Many people will lurk in the background as followers for a long time before making the conversion to fully-fledged fan, and it’s one of our jobs to keep that quiet period as short as possible, through the encouragement of engagement.

So, how do we convert passive followers into active fans?

This is where social media engagement really comes into full force. By creating an environment whereby casual followers can’t but help themselves from becoming involved, we generate the conditions necessary for them to take the appropriate steps.

It’s All About Authenticity

This is a word that’s becoming used increasingly more frequent these days, and for good reason. Social media interaction (especially reciprocal actions) requires and demands authenticity from all parties involved.

If our followers detect even a trace of subterfuge or anything that might be unreal, they will be gone. Facebook, and the other social networks rely on authenticity as the oil that makes their world go round.

Along with being authentic come the attributes of humility and honesty. People love to buy from people they like and who are like them, and being honest, open and humble in the giving of our opinions goes a long way to achieving that state.

As you can probably imagine, it takes a lot more than a few uploaded photographs to convey all of this to our followers.

Value, Credibility and Trust

This next part is paraphrased from Nancy’s talk, and refers to the three major requirements for driving the social conversion of followers into fans. Put simply, we need the following three ingredients:

• To provide value
• To build our credibility
• Generate trust

Value is something we provide through the sharing of useful information, helpful tips or assistance on a specific subject without necessarily expecting anything in return.

Helping others in this way, and becoming a trusted source of expert knowledge, builds our credibility in the eyes of our followers.

The final component, the one that seals the deal for most, is the establishment of trust – the confidence others have in us to do what we say we can do. This is often based on the social currency we earn through positive comments, likes and testimonials from other connections in our network.

Conclusion

In order to get the most from your social media marketing, it’s essential to study and practice the correct ways to engage with your social media network. Done properly, you’ll be able to generate a self-perpetuating cycle that produces more potential followers on each turn of the wheel.

In one sense you can look at the process as though your whole social media identity is a single viral entity, spreading further and further across the network.

I would encourage you to explore these ideas further and, especially to visit Nancy and Bill’s websites – they are both incredible coaches and educators.

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Photography Website SEO authenticity, Bill Baren, Nancy Marmolejo, social media marketing