Preparing for 2022

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Friday, December 31, 2021

By Taylor Boone

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Preparing Your Business for 2022

Every walk into a room , coffee bar or office without seeing someone on their phone?

Prepare your business for a profitable 2022 withe the following tips.

From social media changes to website updates to email campaigns, there is a lot to keep up with to promote your business. Check out tips for preparing for the new year, including a recap of social media changes, content recommendations for your website, and educational resources.

This content was published by Photobiz a trusted partner I have been with for 12 years.

Surviving social media changes

Nearly every social media platform is going through radical changes right now. Instagram is shifting its focus from photography to video (Reels), Facebook has rebranded its parent company as Meta and launched a new podcast feature, Clubhouse is now open to everyone, and Pinterest has banned weight-loss ads and introduced a verified merchant program. And that’s just a few of the changes. Being on top of these changes can help you determine where your brand should be present and where to focus your social media efforts.

For the last 2 years, social media platforms focused more on engagement and interactiveness. While engagement will continue to be important, video has become more key and “influential” content is taking up more space. For example, you’re probably starting to see more suggested content than content from your friends and followers. This is intentional for social media platforms; to stay relevant to their competition. Social media platforms want to keep you on the platform, thumbing through reels, images, and stories at a rapid pace so you’ll stay longer, see more ads, and buy more products. It's influence-based eCommerce at work.

Social media is becoming less of a place for friends and more for selling, which can be good or bad based on how you feel about it.

Instagram

For photographers, it seems counterintuitive that the “once-famous photo app”, Instagram, no longer really caters to photographers. So now you need to find other ways to interact or be seen online.

Instagram stories seem like a simple interaction point but with the rise of Reels and the devolvement of IGTV, its longer-form video tool, shorter video-centric content is ruling Instagram.

So how does a photographer survive platform changes like this? Making a video does help, but if it is not a strong suit, what do you do? Focus on your audience! What do you want them to get out of the experience? Always come back to that when making decisions about how and when to engage through social media.

Some great topics for the video to attract customers can include behind-the-scenes type experiences, such as the fun side of a shoot, the previews, and customer reactions. These sneak peeks can really humanize your business and brand, which is the point of the influencer economy. But remember, unless you are an educator, your audience is your customer, not other photographers, the behind the scenes angle will differ based on who your audience is. So, make sure your content is relevant to your target audience.

Interested in learning more about video? Check out our video marketing guide

Instagram big takeaways:

Focus on eCommerce
Reels are a big deal
Engagement, meaning comments and interaction are important, not just posting and ghosting

Facebook (Meta)

There is still a focus on native video content, Live video gains quick exposure and is better in long-form. The goal is to keep you on the platform as long as possible and to curate content that you are the most likely to interact with (becareful what you click on). As referenced in an article in the Washington Post, Facebook has changed and the content you see. It might not be content you like, it might be negative actually, but they are aware of those decisions.

When you are on Facebook, scrolling and interacting with content, you are kind of feeding it. It learns from your behaviors and curates content that seems to become more niched over time. Sure you might see a fun post here or there, but it’s focused heavily on groups, pages, and interaction now. You can find great groups there, kind of like the forums of the early internet, but now all within Facebook’s walls and tools connect to it.

Knowing your audience is important to Facebook. They are trying to push for younger audiences on that platform, for obvious reasons, which is part of why Meta was introduced, to appeal to those demographics. But currently, Facebook is catering to all but older demographic groups.

Facebook big takeaways:

Displaying curated content in your feed based on what you interact with
Pages and groups are good places for connecting with others
Heavily ad focused
Trying to change to reach different demographics

TikTok

The social media dark horse, TikTok continues to influence Meta’s products. TikTok is fast-paced, and there is a homemade aesthetic that seems like anyone can be a part of it with success if you know how to use the system. It provides a place for creative storytelling, dance, and humor, offers a fast way to share quick bits of information, and the content can be shared rapidly across many channels.

These social interactions can be used for education for photographers or to showcase your process. Problem-solving or making things relatable to the audience seems to be what TikTok users are interested in.

For photographers, it continues to chase the growing trend of video content. You don’t have to be highly skilled for TikTok, which is part of the charm of the platform. It is about giving out content in a fast way, but it can have a huge reach and content can spread quickly if people find it useful.

TikTok big takeaways:

Big reach ... if people discover you
The more homemade feel posts have, the more effective they are
Problem solving or humor is what people like about the platform
Short shareable content

All social media platforms are adapting and trying out new features. Twitter has Spaces as its answer to Clubhouse, YouTube has Shorts as its answer to TikTok, and so on. These platforms haven’t had as dramatic of changes as Facebook and Instagram, but continue to be places where you can still interact with your audiences if you know the right one for your business.

Your website must flow

Showcasing your work and selling online is part of the goal of a website. The content on the website must also have a great flow to help your visitors smoothly navigate and take action (sign up or make a purchase!).

When organizing the content on your website, think of yourself as the movie director. What do you want people to see first, what do you want them to see next? Everything from the navigation menu to your page layout can influence your website visitors. The information and imagery on your website should help tell your narrative of what your business does, how to reach you, and how to pay you.

Your website’s navigation should be clear and simple. If possible you should have less than eight options in the main menu. This should include your core pages, including your home, about, and contact page, clearly visible. Then you can incorporate other pages to fill out the full story and experience. And don’t forget the footer content!

As you look at the content for each page on your website, think of how it flows into the action you want people to take. When someone visits your homepage, where do you want them to go? Can they learn more about you, or see your work? From your gallery page, are you offering options to learn about how to work together, pricing, and booking? Your pages should drive people to take action and connect the dots for your sales funnel.

The objective of your homepage is to:

Visually tell your story
Describe where you’re located and who you serve
Showcase your best work to engage your audience
Be a hub to connect customers to deeper pages to explore

What your homepage isn’t supposed to be:

A single page with everything on it, from pricing to gallery content
Completely empty without descriptions
Over explaining your business and purpose (that’s what the other pages are for)
An SEO directory of meta keywords

You should analyze your website’s pages and see if they have the following:

Call-to-actions (CTAs) to other pages on your site
A way to connect to you, either directly on that page or a link to the contact page
Your location details (best photography in the X area and X state)
Options to return to or navigate to other pages on the site that act as a visual menu, or secondary navigation

Use dividers or color to break up information on the page

Having too large of a block of text or images without a stop can start to cause a webpage to feel long or disorganized. Dividers and color blocks can help emphasize areas on the page and can help break up the information by calling out important information for users to respond to.

These are a few simple ways to push your leads into the areas of your site you want them to go, whether that is to book services or buy your products or contact you. You always have to think about the overall experience for your customers, and that includes expecting questions and providing answers directly on your website.

If you were your own customer, would you find your website easy to use, informative, and engaging? If even one of those is a no, then you may need to update your website.

Education and self-improvement

The last but maybe the most important area of focus as you prepare for 2022 is the practice of learning. Learning is a constant in rapidly moving when it comes to marketing your business.

Beyond searching the internet or YouTube University (what I like to call it)for how-to guides, Facebook groups are a great resource to connect with people with similar interests and learn from each other.

If you prefer learning through private consultations, take a look at our private coaching sessions. They allow you to have one-on-one time with our in-house experts. Based on the questions you have, we can advise you on next steps.

We hope you will explore these educational resources and connect with other people to learn and grow together.

As we approach the new year, we hope you will take some time to plan and prepare for the future (we know we are). As technology and marketing strategies change, know that you can lean on us to help you understand the changes, and execute your business plan so you can achieve your goals.

If you need more help or assistance, remember you can always call or email. And if you want us to help take a project off your to-do list, consider working with our award-winning Pro Services team.

We are looking forward to ringing in 2022 and we can’t wait to see how you grow your business. Cheers!