It’s #TravelTuesday and I, Dave Williams, am back once again on Scott’s blog with another micro-takeover. This week I want to cut straight through a strange thing among photographers and that thing is mutual appreciation.
Social media is a tricky playing ground right now. The algorithms on all platforms are changing constantly and it’s difficult to keep up. We’re all looking to grow and generate engagement on our posts, which we’d ultimately like to convert into clients. To do this, we need to work as a team.
Social media is awash with photos of the same places, shot time and again as a result of the rise of the influencers. I’ve recently published a book explaining how to play the algorithm and how to shoot differently so that our photos stand out, entitled The Eiffel Tower Effect. I named it this because the Eiffel Tower is perhaps the worlds most photographed landmark and it’s particularly difficult to shoot this subject in a unique way.
Back on track, though! We can do a lot to help each other by simply engaging and sharing each others social media posts, training the algorithms to see the value we bring to the party. If we want to receive engagement, we should give it. It’s a two way street and it’s definitely a team effort. We’re all in this together and in order to defeat the algorithm we have to prove within the fist hour of posting that our content provides value, otherwise it simply isn’t going to be shown. The algorithm determines that our post has value based on the engagement it receives, and on a more personable level we’re far more likely to receive engagement from others if we dish it out ourselves.
Think of this, also: – as photographers we aren’t truly in direct competition with one another. It’s ok to show appreciation for other photographers work by engaging and sharing. There will be no consequences on our own work based on our engaging with others.
That post was a hard hitting one, I know, so I won’t hammer the point too hard, but it’s something worth doing.
I’m currently in France and if you’d like to keep up to speed with what I’m up to, you’ll find my story over on Instagram.
Until next week…
Much love
Dave
