This is a little bit of a rant that I’ve been building up towards for a while. Especially after my wife returned from travelling for 6 months. We found that the most successful travellers were the ones that were successful at Social Media. Those travellers that had thousands, if not tens of thousands, of followers. They had gotten themselves into a position whereby they could post a photo of… A fucking egg, and it would get 2000+ likes on Instagram.
Now, please don’t think that this is my way of slagging off people who have obviously worked really hard to get to where they are, but it’s more my way of venting that this shit is very time consuming and sometimes “unfair” Especially with the way some of these Social Media Platforms display content.
I don’t by any means think that I am a Grade 1 World Pro photographer, but I don’t think I am super crap either. I understand the fundamentals of photography, ISO, Shutter etc. I understand the Rule of Thirds, negative space, high key, bokeh and so on… I know how to take a photo “correctly” But when I look at my Stats on Instagram, for example, I get 12 likes for a photo and only 30 people WORLDWIDE have seen it. Really?
Social Media is hard fucking work. It’s time consuming work. In fact, I haven’t really posted anything for almost a week I think. I’ve just decided to take a step right back and focus more on taking photos, rather than posting them.
You get the people who Follow you, then Unfollow you as soon as you follow them back. As a result I have chosen to ONLY follow people or posters that I find entertaining or inspiring. I will not follow someone just for a re-follow. Do you think that a traveller with 123 000 followers follows all of those 123 000 people back? Hell No.
What prompted this “rant’? I’m no marketing expert like some of the travellers out there. Loads of them actually have Marketing or Business Degrees, the chose to escape the “Rate Race” to travel. But they have a leg up to the “Average Joe” traveller coz they understand how to promote themselves.
Why do I keep using Travellers as an example? Probably because it’s something I can relate too after our 6 month travel stint.
I plan shoot loads in 2017. Hell, the goal is to get out of the house even if only ONCE a week with my camera. I’ve now also streamlined my genre’s even further. Landscape and Models. That’s it… Unless it’s a paying gig. No more sports. No more random around the house shots. Nothing. Only Boobs, Bums and Sunsets.
I am probably more of an Average Joe than most. I’m a tradesman who works an average of 9 hours a day, unless there is overtime, or I am on call out duty which means I could be working for 24 hours straight. I have a wife who I love spending time with. Photography is my main focus. Yet with photography, work, wife, life, social media… I seriously can’t find time for everything.
Tim Ferris says: “Lack of time is actually a lack of priorities.” And I get that. It makes sense. But old Tim (Again: I’m not slagging him off. He’s a massive hero of mine) has now got himself into a position where he probably doesn’t even have to work. Hence his first book; “The 4 Hour Work Week” But he still does. In fact he works damn hard. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I think it’s become way more difficult to establish yourself. Way more difficult to stand out and get 1000+ likes on Social Media.
I wouldn’t even be surprised if all these “big time” social media stars use Social Media Managers. They pay a fee to have some post and maintain their Social Media pages. Keeps the stats up. Keep the engagement up. Keeps the algorythm happy.
Or… Maybe I’m just a whiney bitch and need to put in more effort.
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