Okay, let’s talk about social media for a minute (or maybe three…). There are SO many social media platforms that small businesses can utilize to get in front of potential clients. There’s Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, etc. And who knows what new platforms are going to come out in the future. I understand we can’t possibly be expected to show up on EVERY social media platform available – unless you are hiring someone for that specific purpose. But, here’s where you start running into problems… Each platform targets a somewhat different audience and different age-group. For example, when I think of Facebook users I think of people my parents’ age or older; for Instagram, I usually see people my age (30’s); and then with TikTok you reach the younger age group (teens and 20’s). Honestly I don’t even know what group I would target on YouTube. So looking at that point I would say, as a wedding photographer, my target audience is on Instagram and TikTok. And that used to be totally fine! BUT now that Instagram is trying to compete directly with TikTok and changing their algorithm what feels like every day, the difference between the two is slowly disappearing. It used to be that I could post images and stories to Instagram, then go to TikTok and post short little videos.

Where do you showcase images these days?

Now, to be honest, I didn’t utilize TikTok until very recently because I hate the idea of making videos. I’m not a videographer, I’m a photographer! My work is still imagery. It is best showcased as a still image that you can look at for more than 2 seconds. But I understood that there was a different audience to be reached with video on TikTok. However, with the introduction and constant promotion of Reels on Instagram, plus the new Stories feature on TikTok, the two apps are slowly becoming the same thing! And this irks me because now where can I showcase my images? Where will they be promoted and pushed to potential clients? Google? Good luck getting traction there unless you have years of content and SEO history to bump you up past the first 3 pages of Google search. Facebook? Not my ideal client source.

The constantly changing algorithms.

I honestly WANT to like social media. Just like everyone else, I do spend a fair amount of time scrolling through Instagram and TikTok. I save images, I share videos, etc. But as a business owner, I can’t help but feel like the system that should be working FOR me, is actually working AGAINST me. Once you feel like you’ve got a handle on things, it all shifts. On Instagram you used to be encouraged to use up all 30 available hashtags. It was supposed to be a broad spectrum of tags associated with your business, target audience and your post’s content. Now they say you should only use a max of 5 hashtags. You also need to use keywords in your post caption that correspond with those hashtags. I honestly don’t even know what the requirements are for good engagement on a TikTok video except apparently keeping it under 30 seconds. That has been a challenge for me haha.

Dealing with social media trolls.

The last point that I struggle with on social media is the presence of internet trolls. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, it refers to people online who like to comment negatively and troll other people’s posts. I TRY not to let negative comments affect me and I try to tell myself it’s not personal. They don’t know me. But whenever someone is publicly saying something, for all others to see, that has a negative connotation about something you said, did, showed, etc. it is REALLY hard not to take that personally. For example, I recently posted a series of Reels (trying to give it a shot). It was a fun, spur-of-the-moment blind taste test my husband and I did randomly on a weekday night. We filmed it and thought it was a funny experience that others might get a kick out of. Everything was going great (plenty of watches and likes) until one person decided he was going to comment that I was a loud eater and it was really gross. I tried to respond lightheartedly, but they just couldn’t leave it alone and had to reply that it didn’t matter, they still thought it was super gross. At that point I thought to myself, “You know what, I don’t have to leave that there to remind me that someone decided it was worth their time to tell me they thought I was gross.” So I deleted the comment thread and made sure that user wouldn’t be able to troll my videos anymore. Putting yourself out there to be publicly judged and criticized is so difficult. Props to the people who do it well and who do it all the time. As an enneagram 9 with a love language of Words of Affirmation, when people are rude to me, it really bothers me. Whether it’s personal or not, I hate it. I have always been a people pleaser so when I know that someone doesn’t like me (let alone tells me directly) I have a hard time letting that go.

Well that’s my rambling thought process on Social Media so thanks again for taking the time to read this! If you have any tips/tricks for getting social media right as a small business owner, let me know! And be sure to check out my last “Don’t Judge My Thoughts” post on starting a business at 30.