THIS WEEK ON THE MORNING MARK:
Amateur Photographers: Social Media is Calling
Not a world-class photographer? No problem! There are two economical ways to acquire the photos you need for your marketing, and hiring a professional photographer is not one of them.
STOCK PHOTOS
Browse thousands of free, high-quality stock photos on websites such as Unsplash, Pixabay, Pexels, Reshot, and StockSnap, and download with just a click.
If you can, select photographs for your digital aesthetic that match your brand. (If you’re a cutting-edge tech company with a brand entrenched in blues and turquoises, stay away from the picture of the bright magenta laptop. If your brand is bright and fun, don’t fill your Insta feed with black-and-white minimalism.)
Stock photos can be helpful when you are just starting to take your own photos and don’t have a “Photo Library” yet. Even when you do, they can fill in any gaps you may have in needed photos.
TAKE YOUR OWN PHOTOS
Are you taking your own photos? Feeling intimidated because you don’t have a professional camera? Don’t sweat it! You can capture great photos with your phone. These do’s and don’t’s will steer you in that direction. After that, you just need a little inspiration!
The Do’s:
Use natural lighting. This creates a more authentic feel and makes photos look less staged.
Take photos with personality! A little attitude is always welcome. Whether or not there’s a person involved, there are many ways to add some character to your shots. Consider: a cupcake piled with a mountain of icing and rainbow sprinkles, or a business woman in bold sunglasses. What emotion are you hoping to evoke?
Add a pop of color. Depending on your brand, pops of color are a great way to sneak in some brand reminders for your audience.
Work with angles. Change things up by taking people pictures at different angles – this will break up possible repetition and keep the audience engaged.
Keep product photos consistent. If you shoot your fall season product pictures in a coffee shop, be sure to keep that theme throughout your page, so as not to distract the user from the products themselves.
The Don’ts:
Don’t overuse portrait mode. Portrait mode has a unique feature of blurring out the background. Be careful not to overuse this options, as your content may start to all look the same!
Don’t use the same person in every photo. Mix it up! Seeing the same guy or gal in every shot can quickly get repetitive, and you may risk losing your audience’s attention.
Don’t make the process boring. Shooting high-quality pictures can take quite a bit of commitment and time – prepare what you can in advance to keep it moving and make the process enjoyable!
Takeaway
It’s all about authenticity. Try to post with your own photos at least a third of the time. These photos will reinforce the unique selling points of your brand in a way most stock photos can’t. In time, you’ll begin to notice or create photo opps as naturally as you do any other business task, and your Photo Library will be brimming with choices for posting.
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