I’m really excited to talk to you about this today about how to turn your followers into clients and where most photographers are getting this wrong, (and I totally used to do this too!) as they’re not necessarily thinking about how to get their existing followers to turn into clients. They’re thinking about how to get more and more followers, because I know if you’re listening to this and you have like 200 followers, you’re like, “Tavia, I’m only getting like seven likes per post. I don’t have enough followers. Really, what I need is more followers, and then I can think about how to turn those into clients.” But that’s actually backwards-thinking because 200 people is actually quite a lot of people.
Think about if 200 people showed up at your doorstep and they’re wanting to hear about your business. Think about 200-500 people or however many followers you have in your backyard. It’s actually quite a lot of people.
I also like to use this example: imagine you’re hosting a dinner and you have invited 10 of your closest friends over. Then all of the sudden, you run outside and start screaming in the street, “Hey everybody, who wants to come to this dinner? I’m having this really great dinner inside. It’s gonna be so fun. Who wants to come in?” And you’re out there for hours and your guests are inside like, “Hey, we came to this party. We’re here for dinner. Where are you and where’s the dinner?”
And that’s kind of what it’s like whenever we’re just out there trying to get more and more followers instead of really looking at how we can serve and nurture and grow the relationships with the followers that we already have.
So for the purposes of this episode, and really I hope for the rest of your business, you’re going to try to forget getting more followers and instead do things to nurture these followers that you have now and start getting them to take the next step with your business.
If you have 100 followers and they’re not booking you, why do you think that’s going to change if you have a thousand followers?
The truth is if you have 100 followers and they’re not booking you, they’re not joining your email list, they’re not taking the next step with your business, why do you think that’s going to change if you have a thousand followers?
Let’s talk about three different things that you could do to turn your existing followers into clients and actually start booking clients from social media.
1. The type of content you create shouldn’t just be about your clients or your business.
If you’re like most photographers, you’re creating content about your clients, right? You’re saying, “Oh, I loved this beautiful session…,” or you’re talking about your business, doing mini sessions (Christmas minis, Santa minis, spring minis). That is what I see a majority of photographers posting. I don’t want you to post that or at least I don’t want it to be the majority of what you post. And I know that seems crazy.
But if you think, why are people coming to social media? They’re coming to connect, to be entertained, and maybe do a little bit of learning, right? They’re coming to have fun.
Let’s go back to the party example I used earlier: Think about it like if you are at a party, would you go there and tell the people that you’re talking to how great it was photographing another family? No way!
So what should you post about and talk about? Well, I really like to go back to the party or the friend example because that’s how most people want to engage on social media and how most people want to interact on social media.
So there’s two things that I want you to post and talk about:
Create reciprocity through VALUE content.
So thinking about how can I serve these people? What is something that they’re already searching for or thinking about in their current phase of life?
Think about it like if you’re at a party and you go up to somebody who was expecting a new baby and you’re like, “Oh my gosh, congratulations! I heard you’re expecting, that’s so exciting! You know, when I was in my first trimester, I struggled so much with morning sickness. Is that something that you’re struggling with?” And obviously they’re not gonna be able to respond, but you know what I’m saying.
That kind of content, that kind of interaction is how I want you to go into social media, and thinking how can I give them value? “Oh, have you tried these ginger chews or have you tried peppermint oil? Those things really helped me in the first trimester with morning sickness.” That builds reciprocity and relationship with your followers to where they’re like, “You know what, I wanna go back to Sarah’s account because every time I go there, I see something that helps me or is valuable to me.”
Build the know, like, and trust factor through CONNECTION content.
Connection content is where you’re highlighting another business that’s going to serve this ideal client.
So this is really building that no like and trust factor because you are saying, “Hey, I know that you’re expecting a new baby and I just found out this amazing business that I think is really going to help you out. They’re a prenatal chiropractor and they specialize in serving pregnant moms and hear some really cool stuff that I learned about prenatal chiropractic.” So I just am sharing this to get your mind spinning a little bit about what else you could be posting.
Now, if you’re one of my students inside The Content Club, you already have access to blog posts and social media posts that I’ve written for you every single month that do this. They give you that value content and they give you that connection content. It’s already done for you inside The Content Club.
2. In order to know what to talk about and how to give value content, you have to know them right?
Just like friendship in real life, you have to get to know your followers. And how do you get to know someone? Well, let me tell you what you don’t do.
Don’t just post and ghost.
Meaning you’re not just posting and going and doing something else. What I want you to actually do is to follow your dream clients back. When they follow you and you click on their account and you’re like, “This is totally my dream client,” follow them back. Not because it’s some smarmy way to get more followers, but it’s a way for you to engage with these people as a regular human person.
I follow so many of my clients on social media. I follow so many of you guys on social media, because I wanna know what you guys are posting about, what you’re thinking about, what you’re talking about, and same with my clients.
And some of my best clients have come because we have this connection, because we engage on social media. And we like each other’s posts, and we comment on each other’s stuff, and we engage in each other’s stories.
And then whenever I see them in real life, I know what’s going on in their life. And we really have built this like friendship, but that doesn’t happen with every single client. But I really think that it’s a big part in how my business is able to stand out because I’ve built these types of relationships and behaved a
specific way on social media. And the way that I’ve behaved has been friendly and engaging and not just, “Hey, I’m posting. Here’s this. Goodbye.” I’m actually treating social media in a social way.
I really think that a big part in how my business is able to stand out is that I’ve behaved friendly and engaging in social media, actually treating it in a social way.
Give the engagement that you want to get. If you want to get more comments, start commenting more. If you want to get more followers, start following more of these people who have started following you and your dream clients. And it also doubly serves as a way for you to see what they’re struggling with or what they’re thinking about or what they’re posting about.
This is especially useful if you’re kind of out of the phase of life that you’re serving if that makes sense. So like I know a lot of you are motherhood photographers who don’t have kids yet and so you’re like “Well, I don’t know what to post about or say because I don’t have kids yet, so I can’t draw on personal experience.” Well go and follow some of your clients and or potential clients and then you see what they’re posting.
Or maybe you’re like me and you’re like, “I haven’t had a baby in 10 years. I don’t know what moms these days are doing or posting or talking about.” Cool. Engage with them and follow them and see what they’re posting about and see what the trends are going on and that kind of a thing. So it’s so powerful in so many different ways.
Big takeaway from this point is just to be friendly on social media and treat it like a social gathering or be social with it.
3. Get them off social and onto your email list
You’ve done the work. You’ve built the relationship. Now is the time or they need to come and join your email list.
Now you guys know email lists are where it’s at. And if you don’t know, I want you to to know and I’m gonna tell you the value of having an email list of people who want to hear from you. That is so incredibly valuable because think about it like this: what if social media disappeared? What if Instagram and Facebook went away or what if they changed it to where you had to pay a monthly membership to post or get a certain number of posts, right? Do I see that happening? Probably not! But the truth of the matter is we don’t own those platforms. And so we don’t have any control over what happens.
So if you’re building your business solely on social media and something changes, it’s very likely you might not have a business anymore. And so I want you to be thinking about how to grow an email list and get these people off of social media and onto your email list.
Here’s what I don’t want you to do:
Don’t make a post that says, “Come join my email list.”
Because let’s be honest, people get a lot of emails. People are already on a lot of email lists and they’re probably not gonna wanna join your email list if that’s what you say.
But what I do want you to do is give them a specific reason to join. And I want you to talk about it. That specific reason could be “Get first access to my spring mini sessions” or “Get VIP news and special promotions and offers and updates.”
My favorite thing for you to do would be to create a lead magnet, something that is juicy and specific and free that you can give people in exchange for their email address.
When it comes to getting people off of social media, when it comes to getting your followers to actually turn into clients, I wanna lovingly remind you not to expect it to be instant. This trust can take time to build. Someone has to find you, follow you, engage with you for a while, and then come join your email list. It is a little bit of a process. So I don’t want you to be like, “Okay, I made one post and it didn’t get the comments or reactions or engagement that I wanted. So this isn’t working.”
It takes time. But it’s so worth it because you’re building these deep-seated relationships that are going to serve you in your business for many, many, many years to come.
Next Steps:
Now, I want you to think about what we just talked about and take a simple action step from this episode. Maybe that looks like just a simple mindset shift of I’m going to stop trying to get more followers and instead pretend like I’m having a dinner party with the 100 Instagram followers that I have and
just serve them like crazy or see what they actually like.
Or maybe you’re like, “Okay, I’ve already got that relationship piece going. Now it’s time to get them off of social media and come and join my email list.”
So whatever that next step is for you, I want you to take a second and identify it so that you can take action on that.
And if this episode was helpful, it would mean so much to me if you would leave the show a review, I will walk you through how to do that at thebeautyinbirth.com/podcast. When you leave the show review, it helps the show reach more people and the more people you reach, the more episodes like this one that we can do.
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And my friend, remember, if you have a passion, it is not an accident because not everyone loves the thing that you love. So whatever your passion is, It’s there for a reason and I hope that you’ll get out there and make it happen. Have a great week.
