Photography Social Media Strategy & Making Money on Facebook

In episode 3 of Get the Picture?, I'm spilling all my social media secrets — from making money with Facebook to growing on Instagram, TikTok, and even YouTube. I’m sharing my personal story of how I’ve grown my platform over the years, and what’s actually helped me build an audience of over 17k on Instagram, over 6k on TikTok, and over 3k on Facebook. We’re also getting into what it really takes to grow online as a photographer and the strategy that has helped me get to where I am. Whether you’re trying to grow your audience, book more clients, or just figure out where to start, this episode’s for you!

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LINKS & DISCOUNTS

30% OFF Honeybook (CRM): https://share.honeybook.com/tori8974653

Amazon Storefront: https://a.co/d/09bGJF9a

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SOCIALS

Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getthepicture.pod

Photography Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/torielisabethphoto

My Website: https://torielisabethphotography.com

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YouTube: https://youtube.com/@torielisabethphoto

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@torielisabethphoto

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/telisabethphoto

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/torielisabethphoto

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to another episode of Get the Picture. My name is Tori Elizabeth. I'm a full-time wedding and travel photographer, part-time photography educator, and your host. Thank you so much for tuning back in. Today we are talking about social media, which is the thing I get asked the most about by far. Since I've grown my platform to 15k, I always get questions about how do you grow on Instagram, how do you get clients, how do you expose yourself to people in different locations and get travel weddings. That is everything that we're gonna talk about today. Before we get into it, I'm gonna give you guys my little update. I had a shoot yesterday and it was so good. It was so beautiful. It was this location I've been dying to shoot at. If you've seen my branding photos, it's the same place I had my branding photos taken at. And I did a couple shoot there with just the sweetest couple. Um the girl is actually a photographer, which was so fun. I always love doing photos for other photographers. And it's just like, I don't know, it's fun when you take photos for photographers because you they always get the vibe, like they always know what you're going for. You start to pose them and they like finish the pose because they're like, Yeah, I know this one, like I know what you're doing. Or like, oh, I've seen this one, I've wanted to try it. So it's always so fun. But oh my gosh, it was so cute. I mean, her outfit was perfect, they were adorable, they were down for all my crazy ideas. Um, it was just great, like, just a fun, like creative, really rejuvenating shoot. I really need to stop though, with the like, I'm sure you all understand this, but I feel like every shoot I like say something different, like I have like a go-to phrase or like compliment or something, and I tend to overdo it. Like it used to be like saying cute so much, like, oh, so cute, so cute, you guys, and I still do that, but I've like added other stuff, like I've started saying like sleigh or sleigh queen, and it's so cringy, and I need to stop. But I think I said it about 50 times yesterday, and I literally told them out loud, like, this is bad, you guys. I need to stop saying this. I'm so sorry. Um, so in case you guys are wondering, does that ever stop? No, it's a sickness, it never stops. You're always gonna say something cringe during your shoots. I bounce back and forth between like cue and slay and like gorge, like so cringe, but at the same time, if I were getting my photos taken by me, I would probably love it. So it's probably not that deep, but anyway, feeling super rejuvenated um creatively after that shoot, and I'm super excited to be talking to you guys today. Super excited to be talking about content. Honestly, one of my favorite things to talk about. I love photography, but I've also grown such a love for social media, it's so much fun. And I know a lot of you are like, oh, it's not fun, it's just stressful, like, and I hate showing my face and all these things, but like let me tell you, I used to feel the exact same way, and that's kind of how I'm gonna start off the episode today is I'm gonna tell you how I used to feel about social media and how social media started for me because I feel like a lot of you would look at where I'm at with social media and be like, oh, that would take so much work, like that's gonna be so hard, I'll never get there. And let me tell you, it does take a lot of work, but you can get there, and it's not as hard as you think it would be. Um, it's a lot more realistic than you think it might be. So let me start at the beginning. For me, social media started off as just like posting my feed posts, right? This was before like reels were kind of blowing up and becoming so much of a thing. I was really just posting my photos. I think I was even posting like single photos by themselves, not even slide posts. And I was just posting my work because I was like, oh, like maybe people will start booking me. And then I started to, you know, I would get followers, and then I started to offer really cheap shoots, and I just kept posting my work, but like one or two photos, like it took me so much work to like make a post. It was just so much effort. So I was like posting my work very sporadically, like not posting a lot of it, posting like a photo from a session. Um, I was not responding to DMs, I was and never would post on my story, never made videos, like nothing like that. I was doing like basically what I'm saying is I was doing the bare minimum and I was just hoping to get booked, and it was taking forever. And so I this was like about the time reels were starting to blow up, and I was like, you know what? Like, I'm just gonna try it. I'm just gonna film myself. And so I think the very first reel I ever made was like a video. I like took it after my session or something, or like my client, I think it was a grad shoot, and my client went to change outfits, and I like sat down in the grass and like filmed a video of myself. I think that's what happened, and I was like kneeling down, and I like had my camera and I was like, like, you know, like kind of like that with it, like smiling. Um, and then I just put text over it like four places I'm dying to do a couples shoot or something like that. And it was like a library, a busy street, a hot air balloon festival, um, I don't know something else probably. Um, and that was like the first reel. And I remember it did well, I think it got like 200 likes or something, which at the time I only had like probably a thousand followers, maybe 1,500 followers. So that was like a big deal. That's like a lot of likes for reels were what they used to get. And so I just kind of kept going with it. I honestly don't know if I got followers or not from my first few reels because I don't even know if I understood how to track that and how to see because I was really not like super into social media yet and like the analytics and like figuring out how my content was actually performing. So I don't really even know how well those first few ones did, but the point is I just started doing it, and then I remember I had one that was like, oh my gosh, it was not even a good reel, it was just there was a sound that went like bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum. And and people were like making reels where they like put photos to it and they were just like flashing photos really fast to this beat. And so that's a reel I made, got like 600 likes, and I was like, oh my gosh, like people are seeing my content. And so when I it started to work, it started to become fun because I was like, I can get something out of this, I can make followers out of this, I'm getting exposure, like something I'm doing is working, and that's kind of what I want to talk about today. Is like when something works, all of a sudden it becomes fun. When it's not working, that's when it sucks. So, like recently, you know, the algorithm on Instagram has been crap. A lot of people are not getting views on their posts, a lot of people are like, why is my content not being shown to anyone? That makes it not fun, right? Because like you're not succeeding, and so or it feels like you're not succeeding. And so obviously you don't want to keep doing it when your content isn't performing well. But those times that you do get good engagement and your content does perform well, like you need to let those carry you because those make it worth it, like those make all the work worth it, and that's kind of what I'm talking about today. But kind of back to my story. Um I was probably doing like really mid, like not very um interesting, very basic reels for probably like two years, honestly. I would do the classic show behind the scenes, flash the photos. I don't think I would even like put text on the screen or anything, or if I did, it was like like lyrics to the song or so. I don't know. Like I feel like I was just doing the basic thing that everyone else was doing, and I think that was good, like for a little bit, you know, to get my feet wet, like get the hang of social media. But I was, you know, posting maybe five photos and feed posts, posting very sporadically, maybe once a week. Um, when I do reels, they were very basic, just exactly I was just like copying what everyone else was doing. So I did that for a while. I got to around 3k eventually after who knows how many, like two years probably. I don't even know. Um, and then I was like, okay, I am gonna start showing my face more. I had really not shown my face more than a few times, kind of that first reel that I ever made and a couple other ones, but I really hadn't shown my face much. And I think I had listened to a podcast episode where someone was talking about showing your face or something. So I was like, okay, I'm gonna show my face. And I remember I was in my, I was still in college and I was in my apartment, and I was like, okay, I'm gonna batch some videos. And I like set up my camera or my phone on like the selfie and I put it in like my windowsill where there was like natural light coming in, and I I think I grabbed my camera maybe, um, and I like changed outfits in between takes, but I would just like record myself like hi, like waving at the camera. Like I was not talking, I would just like wave at the camera, and then I would do like this so that I could put text, you know, like over my hand. I guess if you're not watching on YouTube, I'm like holding up my hand to kind of in the air, because you know, people would like hold the text, so it was like kind of during that era. Um, and so I would like batch these like five-second really short videos just to show my face. Um, they didn't do very well, but I kept doing it, like it felt really cringe. I felt like, oh my gosh, like I I don't look good in these, like I don't feel like I look cute, like, and I don't remember them doing very well, but I kept going. And as I kept going, they started to do well. Um, my theory and what I think is that when you first show your face, people are like surprised or like they're just not expecting it. Like it's not your typical content. They're like, oh, that's what she looks like. It's not like oh she's ugly, but it's just like, oh, I wasn't expecting to see her. Like typically I just see her photos. Oh, okay, that's the person who takes the photos. And so the first few times they're like registering that, and then the fifth time they see your video, they're like, Oh, I know that girl, I see her face all the time. Like, I know who that is. I'm gonna like the video this time. So you kind of have to like get people used to seeing your face before that type of content performs well. So I feel like once people got used to seeing my face, it they did start to perform well. And I would show my face and I would uh I would not talk, but I would like wave to the camera and like that type of stuff. And so eventually I kept doing that. I posted more reels. I think I would do like two a week, two feed posts. I was probably trying to post like 10 photos in a feed post. So I was like putting more effort in. I grew to about like 5k. Um, and then around five, maybe 6k, I was like, okay, I need to start talking in my videos. Like, this is like the next step. I need to start establishing myself as an expert, like I can do it. And so I started talking and like being like, here's a wedding idea, and like giving a wedding idea, or being like, here are five photos I took, or like, hey, I'm Tori, and here are my photos, just like little things, nothing crazy, but I would talk in my videos. It felt so, so uncomfortable at first, you guys. Like, I I never thought I would be able to, like, I've always wanted to do a podcast, but it just I was always like, This is gonna be so far out of my comfort zone. How am I gonna do this? But like it might seem like I'm natural on camera, or you know, like I don't know, okay at talking to the camera, but you know, like I'm sure I'll look back on these first podcast episodes in three years and be like, oh my gosh, I sounded so cringe, I sounded so robotic, like, so like there's always gonna be like you can always improve, like you're always gonna look back and be like, oh, that kind of sucked. But for me at the time, it was a big deal to start talking to the camera, and I'm really proud of myself for doing that because it was really hard, and not a lot of photographers do that. Um, a lot of, especially not on Instagram, like that's more on TikTok, but on Instagram, it's a lot more like curated content, and I feel like people are like, I don't know, like it just feels a little bit more judgy, like it just feels like people are judging you, even when they're not, or even when it doesn't matter, even if they are. But I kept talking to the camera and those started to do well, and I was really surprised, like, okay, people actually care what I have to say. So I started doing like three reels a week and like three feed posts a week, two to three feed posts a week. And I was posting like almost every day, and I started posting to my stories as well. So, you know, what the reason I'm telling you this story is you can see the progression from when I started social media to where I'm at now, I just kept adding more and more, I kept doing more and more. As I did more and more, my growth was exponential. So at first I went from like one and a half to three K, and then I went from three to five K. Then I went from five to like 8k by doing like these talking reels and stuff, and then I went from 8 to 10k within like two months or three months or something like that. Um, and then I hit oh my gosh, when did I hit 10k? Like I think at the very beginning of this year, or maybe at the very end of last year. Um, and then now I'm at 15k and it's May. So you can see the growth is exponential. Like at first, you're gonna grow 1K in a year, then you're gonna grow 2K in a year, then you're gonna grow 5K in a year, and then you're gonna grow 10k in a year. Like it's just that's just how social media works. When you have more people to share your work, it's just it's gonna go farther, it's gonna perform better. There's more people who can share it and save it. That's telling the algorithm like this content is valuable. So you have a higher percentage that people are going to do that. And so that's something I didn't understand in the beginning. Like, I was growing so slow, and I was just like, oh, it's gonna take me forever to get to like even 20k. How will I ever get there? It's gonna take me like 15 years. Like, no, it won't. It will take you two to three years, maybe. Or if you're lucky and you blow up, like maybe it takes you one. Like, so I didn't understand how realistic it actually was to grow on social media at the rate I am growing right now. For perspective, I've grown 3k in just the last three weeks, um, which is kind of what pushed me to start my podcast and everything. I was like, you know what? Like, I'm growing a lot right now. We're just gonna ride the wave. I'm not gonna wait for the momentum to slow down. I'm gonna use the momentum and keep going. So I've also grown 3k on TikTok in the last like two weeks, which is crazy because I was only I had started TikTok way late. I was way late to the TikTok game, and I was at 1.8k, and now I'm about to hit 5k. I'll probably hit 5k today. So that is so crazy, um, especially only being at 1.8k. So, in case no one has told you, in case you didn't realize, it really is realistic to grow quickly on social media, and the more effort you put into it, the better you will do. So, if you're feeling stupid showing your face or talking to the camera or whatever, because not a lot of photographers do it, if you're one of the ones that do it, you're gonna pass everyone else up. There are so many people that were around the same level as I was, um, had been doing social media around the same time, and they're still scared to show their face, and I've passed all of them up. And I don't say that in like a like prideful way. I'm just objectively, like, you will pass people up, you will be able to stand out and like have more of a platform the more effort you put into it and the more you put yourself out there, even though it's scary. So, I believe in you guys, you can do it. That's your first thing for today. So now I'm gonna break down each of the social media platforms. We're gonna do Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and then I am gonna talk about YouTube. Even though I'm new to YouTube, I do feel like I have some insight to share so far. So getting into Facebook, um, you might be like, why are we talking about Facebook? What does like why does Facebook actually matter? That's what I thought. I thought Facebook did not matter until I had a reel blow up and get a million views on Facebook, and then Facebook sent me a message and said, Hey, you can be monetized. And I was like, I'm sorry, what? I can be what on on Facebook? Like, are we talking about the same social media platform? They're like, Yeah, you can be monetized. Just like submit your, you know, whatever information. So I submit my information. I'm like, no way this is actually gonna work. I got $250 that first month from Facebook because my reel was blowing up. And I haven't, I'm like, I'll even tell you guys how much I've made since then. I haven't made so much, like I haven't made tons of money. I have made um, well, I'll tell you about my following and how I grew that first, and then I'll tell you how much money I actually make from it. So it's nothing crazy, but it is something. It's supplementary income. And again, the more I grow on Facebook, like I am getting exponential growth and seeing that in my income that I'm making as well. And so the more followers that followers I can get on Facebook, the more money I can make. And so eventually I could be making a pretty decent amount of money on Facebook. So that's kind of why I'm telling you about uh guys about it. It's like a little hidden, it's like a secret, it's like a little hidden gem. I had no idea you could make money on Facebook like this, so I'm just excited to share it with somebody. Um, so what happened was I have connected my Instagram and Facebook, like probably a lot of you guys have. Um I know a lot of people connect like their Instagram to their Pinterest or their Instagram to their Facebook. If you connect your Instagram to your Facebook, it automatically puts all your posts and most of your reels. Sometimes there's copyright issues with music, but most of your reels on there as well. And so it will just automatically put everything on your Facebook. So that's what I recommend doing. There's no reason to go and post it separately on both platforms, really. Um, as far as I understand, they work pretty similarly. So you really just, as long as you're using the right hashtags and stuff, like just have it auto-post to Facebook. That's what I was doing. Um, and I would check in with Facebook. Like you think it doesn't matter, you think like you would never grow on there, but I would check in there, make sure you're not leaving any comments unresponded to, make sure you're engaging with a few other people, maybe follow some people, that type of thing. Um, just give it like a little bit of effort, nothing crazy. And I want you to keep checking up on it though, because if you ever do have a reel that does well, especially if there's a reel that does well on Instagram, check and see if it did well on Facebook too. Um, because that's what happened to me. I had a reel, it was blowing up on Instagram too, and it was blowing up on Facebook. And so I like happened to just check in on my Facebook. I don't normally check Facebook and I was like, let's just go check it for no reason. So I check it for no reason, and I was like, oh my gosh, like I have grown over a thousand followers in like it was like a few days, and I was like, or friends on Facebook, they're friends, sorry. But um, I had had I think 40 friends on Facebook, so I literally did not use my Facebook account. I was like, oh, there's no point, like no one uses Facebook anymore, right? So all of a sudden I've got like like 1100 friends on Facebook. I'm like, wow, that's crazy. I get monetized, I grow up to like 1800 followers from that reel. I make $250, or it's like $270 or something like that in the first month. Um, and then I'm like, okay, like you can make money from this. This is crazy. So my stuff keeps posting to Facebook, and then while I, you know, I make TikToks on the side more than I post reels. Like you, you know, I can make five TikToks a day, you can only post one reel a day. So I was putting my extra TikToks onto Facebook as well, hoping that like one of them would gain traction and I can make some more money from that, just kind of throwing stuff at the wall, seeing what sticks. Um, and so I started putting extra videos on Facebook, just kind of like every once in a while I would just throw one up there and just see. And I had a couple other ones go viral too, or like mini viral. And um the things that blow up on Facebook are so funny because it's usually things where there's something to complain about. That's just like the nature of Facebook, especially if you frame it in a way where you're like, this is the best photo ever, and then people will be like, that's not the best photo. Like, people just like to get angry at stuff, but it's engagement. Any exposure is good exposure, and it makes you money. So that's the type of stuff that will usually blow up for me on Facebook. Is like, you know, I posted um a ring shot where I like put the bride's or not a ring shot, an earring shot where I put the bride's earrings in a leaf. Like I like put them, poked them through the leaf, and you know, it blew up on Instagram, everyone loved it on Instagram. On Facebook, everyone's like, oh my gosh, like, did you ask the bride? Like, you're gonna drop the rings and the leaves, and you're gonna the bride's gonna have an allergic reaction. It's just like a bunch of stuff like that. It's like, oh my gosh, of course I asked the bride, like, and so that is the type of stuff that does well for me on Facebook, but you know, I'm just posting a lot of stuff on Facebook, seeing what happens, and then I keep getting little videos that will get traction here and there. Um, and so I've since that first initial month, I think I made like 80 bucks. I think I might have made like a hundred bucks, I don't know, like 50 bucks one month, um, 80 bucks last month, I think this month right now I have like 60 so far. So it's nothing crazy, like I said, but I mean it's this is content I was already making that I was making, you know, zero dollars posting on Instagram and so and zero dollars posting on TikTok, and so I can make money from that exact same content on Facebook, and I had no idea. And I think the criteria for being monetized on Facebook is like a like 1200 followers or a thousand or maybe it was fifteen hundred. Maybe I had gotten initially to 1500. It was some something less than 1500, and so it's really not as hard as you think. Um, and so if you're not already putting just like a little time and effort into Facebook, I would because I had no idea you can make money from it. Right now, I'm up to over 3,000. I think it's like 3.1 or 3.2 on Facebook, and I'm getting like 5k views on all my reels. I used to get like a hundred views on my reels, and so it's kind of crazy because I'm getting money from like every single reel now, it's not a ton, but like again, growth on social media is exponential. So, like by the end of the year, I expect to be making a decent amount of money from Facebook. So get on the Facebook game, just just put in a little bit of effort if you didn't already know about that. I just wanted to share my little insider tip that I had no idea about. Alright, I'm actually gonna switch the order. We're gonna talk about TikTok next because TikTok kind of feeds into the way I approach Instagram now. TikTok is very like Gen Z oriented, like it's all of the things that Gen Z like in a platform. You've got to Play into that a little bit in order to get traction on TikTok. What I've found does well on TikTok is first of all posting multiple times a day. We're talking like no more than five, but like at least two. Like you can post multiple times a day on TikTok. That's the beauty of TikTok. Like Instagram gets mad when you do that, um, YouTube kind of gets mad when you do that. Like, TikTok is meant for like spamming, honestly, and just like kind of seeing what works. It's just meant for like, I'm gonna post this random video in my car and just upload it and just whatever. And then I'm gonna post a random photo later. And like it's just meant for that. Okay, and so you need to be posting as much as you possibly can on TikTok. Eventually, things will start to do well. The way that TikTok differs from Instagram is TikTok shows things to non-followers first. So you could be make a brand new TikTok account, have zero followers, and it would show your content to people. You would give your video a chance, just like it would give my video with I have 5,000 followers, give it the same chance that I have, right? Like obviously, I have a little bit of an advantage because I have more people who can see it, but initially it shows it to non-followers, so newer accounts can get more exposure on TikTok. That's why TikTok is so good, that's why it's good to post so much. Um, and so you're gonna you're gonna post like two to five times a day. Um, I would rather you be consistent, post three times a day, then post five times one day, zero times the next day. Like, I'd rather you be consistent. And you're just gonna post, you're gonna post your feed posts from Instagram. You can put them as photo posts on TikTok, put music over them, and then put text over them and say like why I love these photos, and like write a couple slides of words, or be like, oh, these are my favorite photos I've taken because of blah blah blah blah blah. Just like write a little blurb about it because TikTok likes text and just throw the throw your feed posts on there. So you're gonna throw your feed posts on there, you're gonna post a rant, like if you go to the store before you go into the store, I want you to just like sit in your car for five seconds, like record a video and just be like, this is my favorite photo I've taken on a wedding day, and then just show the photo, or be like, this is how I took this photo and explain it, or say, like, as a wedding photographer, this is my pet peeve about weddings, blah blah blah blah blah. Just something random. Okay, you're just gonna like whatever pops into your head, whatever you're thinking about while you're driving to the store, like that's what you're gonna record. And you're just gonna throw that one up on TikTok, put some text over it, and just call it a day. Okay, you're you're we're not putting that much time into these videos, we're just kind of seeing what works. TikTok is all about like raw and unfiltered, so that's what you want to be. You just wanna like whatever pops into your head, you're just gonna record it and throw it up. Okay, we're not like trying to be professional on TikTok. Gen Z is on TikTok, they don't care about professional, okay? We're just doing whatever we want on TikTok, we're just using it as an outlet, it's just gonna be fun, we're just gonna post whatever we feel like. And I want you to just keep doing that on TikTok, okay? And I guarantee you're gonna have some videos that you don't expect start to do well. And then this is where we're leaning into Instagram. Those are the videos that you're gonna put on Instagram. Instagram is a little bit more curated, a little bit less raw, a little bit more professional. And so you wanna save, you know, Instagram likes you to post like one time a day, sometimes not even every day now, because they're really picky. And so if you can take your best content from TikTok and see what performs the best on TikTok, then put that on Instagram, you're like shortcutting it, you're getting rid of like the low view videos and just posting your best content on Instagram. So that's kind of what I've been doing recently. I wanted to experiment with some like photography education. So you guys might have seen these, but I did videos where I'm like talking to myself. So I like filmed in one outfit on this side and then filmed in another outfit on this side, and I was like talking to myself, you know, it's a different person, but like supposed to be a different person, but it's actually myself. And I'm like explaining to myself how to use a camera, how to do camera settings, how to shoot in manual, and I was like, I'm just gonna see how these do. And so I threw them up on TikTok, blew up, and I was not gonna put them on Instagram because I was like, had my hair up in like a messy bun, not like not like this, if you're watching on YouTube, like it was not cute, okay. And um I didn't have makeup on in that first outfit, and I just did not look good, okay. I didn't like how I looked in these, but I threw it up, threw it up on TikTok because TikTok is all about unfiltered and everything, and so I was like, I don't care, I'll put it on TikTok, and it it blew up, so it's still going right now. It's at like 62k, which I know doesn't seem like so much, but I've gained over I think it's like a thousand followers now from it, which is which is crazy, like crazy for like a smaller TikTok account like mine, like absolutely insane. Um, and so I was like, okay, that worked. I guess we'll put it on Instagram. Guess what it did on Instagram? Over a thousand followers. I think it's at like 1200, it's still going. And so I was like, okay, that worked. And so then I started doing more of them. So because I have TikTok as like my experimental type of social media, I was able to get a video to do well. I would never have just put that on Instagram. I would have been too nervous and too self-conscious. It's not like filtered enough, it's not perfect and professional enough. And so I had no idea that it would do well, but because I tried it on TikTok, I was able to put it on Instagram. So that's the way, that's why I believe that every photographer should be on TikTok. Even if you're not getting clients from it, it's a great way to just like test out content. And like I said, like your extra reels that you're not putting on Instagram, you can go and put those on Facebook too. Like you've already made them, like, or sorry, your extra TikToks that you're not putting on Instagram as reels, you can put them on Facebook. Um, so TikTok is like where I make everything. I make everything in the TikTok studio. I feel like it's the most user-friendly. Um, I just like the user interface the best. I feel like it's easiest to edit there. Um, I know a lot of people like Cap Cut, but I just make all my videos in YouTube in uh TikTok. My gosh, not YouTube, TikTok. And then I put all the extra ones on Facebook and I put the best ones on Instagram. So that's kind of how I go about content creation with reels and everything. Now, what does well on Instagram? I've already told you what does well on TikTok, just honestly anything, just like raw, unfiltered, whatever pops into your head, shower thoughts, like that's what does well on TikTok. Instagram is like the thing about Instagram, if it's too curated, people don't want it. But if it's too unfiltered and not polished enough, people don't want it. So you kind of have to find that like middle ground. For Instagram, you always, always, always, always, always, I cannot stress this enough, need text on the screen on a reel. Never ever start a reel without text on the screen. It's an immediate scroll, it's boring. Like, we don't want to see it, okay? Um, so within the first two seconds, there needs to be some kind of hook. And we're not talking about just like behind the scenes from this shoot. That's not a hook, that's just text, okay? It needs to be a text hook. So instead, if you're gonna post behind the scenes from a shoot and then you want to show the photos, it needs to be like you'll never believe what happened at this shoot. Um, what else could you say? Like, this was my favorite photo from this shoot, and here's why. Um, maybe that's not a great one, but like my favorite photo I took of this couple. Um, like it could be a photo, uh like a video of you covering your mouth being like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I took this photo. This is so pretty, and then showing the photo. Like it doesn't just have to be behind the scenes, then photos. Um it could be like, oh my gosh, you won't believe this photo for the behind the scenes and then show the photo. Like just something that's like more interesting than just like behind the scenes versus photo. Like everyone's over it. Like we've seen that for four years now, no one wants to see it anymore. It needs to be something that's like there's a reason to watch the video, like something that makes me want to see the photo. Like, oh, like is the photo really gonna be that good? Like something like that, okay? If it's a video of you talking that you're putting on Instagram, it also needs to have text on the screen. And I found that closed captions do really well on Instagram. I think a lot of people are scrolling, you know, they're on the couch next to their spouse and they have their volume off or whatever. So if you're if you could put on closed captions or like if you put on captions on TikTok using their just like caption feature in their um like editor, you I feel like will find better success with your videos because you're making them more accessible for people. So captions are really good on Instagram, always have a text hook, and again, not just text, it needs to be something that makes me want to watch the rest of the video. I want you to actually think, like when you're making your reels, I want you to think if I saw this reel pop up like on my reels tab, like I'm scrolling, would I watch it or would I scroll past? And if you're like, like be honest with yourself, and if you're like, no, I probably would scroll past and be like, what would get me to watch this video? So like try to get into your own head and think like, if I was seeing this from another photographer, would I watch it? Why or why not? Um, so that's kind of what I want you to think for Instagram. I'll give you tips for feed posts as well, just like your regular photo posts. As many photos as you can put on there is better. So if you have 10 photos to post from a session, that's great. But if you can like, okay, I like these 10 photos, let me look back and see if there were five more photos I could add to make it 15, that's better. Like any the more photos you can put, the better, okay? Because that's the longer people are gonna be scrolling through your your post and like more watch time, more like it's gonna tell the algorithm, oh my gosh, I can't talk. It's gonna tell the algorithm that people want to stay on your post longer because it's a good post and they're gonna push it to more people, okay? So if you've thought that feed posts cannot be used to reach non-followers, I want you to get that out of your head. Um, some people say like feedposts are for your current followers, reels are for your non-followers to find you, like feedposts are for who already follows you, reels are to reach more people. I actually very strongly disagree with this because so much of my growth has been from feedposts. And I had no idea you could gain followers from feedposts. I'm talking, I regularly gain from 150 followers all the way up to sometimes even a thousand followers or like close to it from a feed post, just like a photo post. Um, so in case you thought that reels are the only way to grow, it's absolutely not true. Um, so make sure you put a lot of effort into your photo posts, okay? So you're gonna post as many photos as you can, and then I want you to start adding text on your feed posts, okay? And if you need an example of what I mean by this, go to my Instagram. It's at Tori Elizabeth Photo, um, just like my YouTube, if you're watching on YouTube, same username, same as my TikTok, everything. Tori Elizabeth Photo Elizabeth is with an S. Okay. Go to my Instagram and I want you to just click on my text posts, see how many likes they have, see how many comments and shares they have, like see how well these text posts are performing, use them as inspo for you. Like, get ideas. Please don't go and copy my content, use it as inspiration for your own. Um, never does well just copying people, okay. But um, I want you to get ideas from mine about what I mean for text posts. So, like instead of just posting a ring shot, you know, yesterday I posted like what did I post? Like unique ringshot ideas, and I posted, I think, 14 ring shots, okay. So instead of just posting like random photos or random rings, I like put text over it or like you know what I mean? So try to start incorporating text over your posts into your Instagram like um like posting routine. If you need a good app for like cute fonts and like putting text over your posts and like making cute slide posts, um, I use the scroll app. I think it's S C-R-L-L. Um, not sponsored. I just use it. It's $35 a year, I think $34.99. Um, totally worth it. It's super cheap. I love it, it's super user-friendly. They have all these templates. I don't really use the templates a ton, but I do use, I love their fonts on there. I have like one particular one that I always use. If you go on my Instagram, you will see the one that I'm talking about. It's like all cutesy. Um, so yeah, those are my tips for Instagram. All right, my last tip for you is about YouTube. Obviously, I am new on YouTube. You know, I just started posting a few days ago. Um, and my podcast is kind of like why I started my YouTube, so I can put my podcast on YouTube, obviously. I'm up to I think almost 50 subscribers today, which I'm actually pretty proud of because I only started a few days ago. So I have not had any crazy growth on YouTube yet. I do have faith that it will come eventually because I know how social media works, and like I said, gross growth is exponential. So because you haven't gotten that in your head already, growth is exponential, keep that in your head. But what I have found on YouTube is that the more like value-packed it is, the more subscribers you get from it, the better it performs. So I'm gonna keep this short because I know not a lot of you are on YouTube and not a lot of you probably care about YouTube. But if you're posting more informational stuff, that usually does better on YouTube for me than just like random, like showing photos or whatever. Um, it has been pretty effective for me to show behind the scenes though, if it's from my meta glasses. So, more like if you can see what I'm doing on my camera, because again, that's like informational, like you're getting something out of that. So that's what I found as well on YouTube. Just wanted to kind of throw that out there in case anyone's thinking of starting YouTube. Okay, this was kind of a longer episode, but I wanted to give you guys all my good social media tips. So make sure you go get on Facebook, start making money from Facebook. Don't wait like I did. I wish I had gotten monetized sooner. Um, and you know, put all your stuff on TikTok, just throw everything on TikTok, just see what does well, put the best stuff on Instagram, put the extra stuff on Facebook, and make sure your feed posts are interesting on Instagram. You can grow from them, you can get followers from them. Make sure you're using location-based hashtags um like relevant to your area, and make sure you're putting text on some of your posts, make them more interesting. Remember, everyone and their mom is a photographer now. Everyone's posting pretty photos. You have to make yours stand out. So that might be literally putting text and like explaining your photos because if no one else is doing that and you're doing that, your stuff is automatically more interesting and more engaging. So I want you guys to try it. I promise you will see success from it. Um, if you do find success from it, like I would love for you to DM me or especially if you want to like leave a comment on YouTube that would make my whole day. But that is all we have time for today. So please, you know, like, subscribe, follow the podcast. If you want to rate and review it, I will literally love you forever. And I'm so excited for the next episode. So make sure you tune in for next time. And I hope you guys have a great rest of your day. Bye.