Use Of Social Media for Photographers
I first started to think about how viewers experience my photography after this fantastic course.
Imagine a new person who is exposed to your works for the first time. Are they amazed? Or confused? In terms of navigation, do they have a clear next step, no matter where they start? In other words: does your universe look like a museum or an attic for them? It’s useful to have several narratives in your SM, optimized for different groups of people. Every narrative should have a clear way to explore it. The viewer needs to know where to go next. Otherwise, they go to the next tab.
Let me show you how I arrange my work. Today I will give you a brief characteristic of my 3 main sites, tomorrow I will talk about nine additional resources (picture above). Then Monday, I will show you 3 possible narratives for people of different backgrounds and with the different first contact.
As always, I welcome any questions (aliona.kuz@gmail.com)
My website — clear and straightforward interface centered around a picture. It's my first link in every business and collaboration letter. Gives easy access to my portfolio and resume. Plus, for viewers with a lot of time, it provides access to dozens of my stories and my blog and interviews. You can spend 2 minutes and only get the info you want or 2 hours and never run out of new stuff.
Facebook is much more dynamic than the website. It has 81,5k followers, many of whom are from Europe and with only basic English (because I started it while still in Switzerland). Here you will find mainly resulting pictures. The first function of FB is to bring my viewer's attention to new cool stuff (see the scheme on top); second is to give me an outside perspective on either best or most experimental photos I make.
Instagram has only 900 viewers. I know most of them personally — they are people I worked with or plan to work within different cities, other photographers, magazine editors, and small brands. A lot of my clients and collaborators contact me here, so I try to show not only my work but also my creative process and, of course, resulting pictures being used by magazines and in exhibitions.