As a rule, contests have always been a tried and true way for any business to gain visibility, brand recognition and most importantly, to grow the business. With the explosion of the internet as not only an education and informational tool, but also a booming hub of cultural activities, the opportunities and audience for a contest has grown exponentially. With the clever use of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, an adept photographer can build and grow their business through viral marketing strategies.

Whether you run a blog on the subject or have a brick and mortar Photography Studio, you can take advantage of many of these photography marketing ideas to grow the business you have and maybe even expand into some new areas. It does not matter if you understand social media or not, it is important to factor its incredible power and possibility. Think about it this way: Millions of people around the world tap into these sites every day. How many of these people are interested in your niche? How many people have no idea who you are? Social media is your chance to increase those numbers. If done right, you can tap into the greatest source of free advertising available.

Here are 5 great ideas for running and promoting a contest with social media

1)         Referral Contest – One successful contest is a referral contest. With this type of contests, your current customers are challenged to recommend your business to a friend or family member. This can be done in several ways. An effective method to use is a Facebook Fan Page. For example, have a contest where the first person to help you get 5 or 10 new fans on your Facebook fan page.

2)         Photo Contest – This one is not only a great for publicity, but also fun and enganging for your customers. You can either post photos from your own shoots, or have your users submit their own photos. Then have everyone either vote or post a comment on your blog, with the winning photographer (or subject) winning a prize. You can take this even further by running a drawing for everyone who comments/votes and giving out more prizes.

3)         Facebook Status or Twitter Contest – This contest has some of the greatest potential to go viral. To run this contest, you must have two criteria: the winner must be a fan or follower and they must make a status update or tweet announcing your contest. Each tweet or update  (Limit 1/day for a short period time) earns an entry into the contest. Depending on how large the prizes are, you can give out one large prize or several small prizes throughout the contest. If you want to keep people interested, consider giving away small weekly prizes with the chance to win a grand prize at the end of the contest.

4)         Creative Photo Shoot  - Have your customers tweet or submit to you their creative photo shoot ideas. Once all entries are received, narrow them down to 5-10 shoots and hold a poll. You can also do this tournament style to generate more buzz. When the votes are in, the winning idea wins the photo shoot of their creation.

5)         Seasonal Contests – Everybody loves seasons and holidays (and there is no shortage of them). Try running a contest for one of them. You can have users submit holiday-themed photos or ideas. You can also just use the holiday as an excuse to hold a contest. For example, you can run a contest for a free Easter, Christmas or Halloween shoot. You will be sure to have plenty of people (especially families) jumping on board to win.

These are just a few ideas for growing your business through a social media contest. One of these may work for you, but make sure to play to your strengths and do what is best for your customers. Take some time and do some research on how each website works, so that you are able to make the most out of each social media outlet. Be creative and with the right steps, you can push your traffic through the roof in no time. With luck, many of these new visitors will not only be interested in your contest, but will also turn into regular, loyal customers.

This is a guest contribution by Georgia McCabe:  Georgia spent 30 years as a Sr. Executive in the computer and photo industry at IBM, Eastman Kodak and Fujifilm. As a driving force in conceiving and executing breakthrough approaches to the photo printing, sharing and delivery market place, she literally “changed the rules” for a category undergoing massive technological change and re-invention. She is a certified social media strategist, and is a market and branding consultant helping businesses utilize the tools and power of social networking. Georgia McCabe

Photographers need customers plain and simple. Getting the word out on your photography services can be made easier with the help of social media marketing, twitter, Facebook and by running online contests. Facebook is free and easy to set up. It is no longer an option if you want a Facebook fan page: if you want to be a success, you need one!

The Top 5 Tips on Why a Photographer Needs a Facebook Account;

1. To spread the word. The beauty of Facebook lies in the fact that most, if not all, of your high school, college and other business and social contacts most likely have one. Reach out to these people without purely marketing to them. Subtly reminding them that photography is what you do for a living may be enough to open up new business. These old high school buddies will have need of a photographer someday, or know someone who does and the simple reminder that you are a professional, may be enough to spark a job. Request friends of friends and build a network quickly. 

2. To make new contacts. First and foremost, you will want to keep it friendly. Facebook posts and updates should not all be about getting new business or self-promoting, rather, allow your contacts to see both your work life and a glimpse at your daily life. People who feel comfortable with you as a person, will be much more likely to recommend you to their friends and family who need photography services.

3. To direct people to your blog or website. Facebook has a great function that lets people see whenever you update your blog. You could also update your status letting people know that there is a new post. This serves two functions: updating brings traffic to your blog and keeps your Facebook current. A current, active Facebook keeps people engaged with you and your name at the forefront of their minds. Link your regular blog traffic to your Facebook with a Facebook button or small screen shot and vice versa.

4. To network with other photographers. Join photography groups on Facebook. Use the search function to network with local and global groups that cater to photographers. Find a professional photo lab or discover contest ideas and successful photography marketing ideas from other professional photographers who market on Facebook.

5. To make a name for yourself. Having a Facebook and Facebook fan page is a great way to brand yourself. The personal photo shot you post and the information you give all add up to a particular image. If you are careful about the information you share and how you share it, the rewards will be enormous. Build your brand by customizing your Facebook fan page and displaying the best photos you have to offer. Social media marketing is a matter of strategy and if done properly can turn into viral marketing, meaning that the people you reach would never have heard of you without the use of the web.

Today, virtually every successful professional photographer has a sales website. Many even have implemented some sort of marketing plan to aid them in selling their creative services.  Few however, have even begun to recognize the tremendous advantages of implementing and adding an effective social media strategy.

Social media marketing is very different from conventional website marketing. Success in social media venues doesn’t follow from directly advertising your services or product. Social media marketing revolves around delivering valuable and compelling information to target consumers.  The viral nature of social platforms will make them extremely effective “on-ramps” for your existing website by separating you from your competitors in those inevitable Google information searches.

5 Simple Tips to Get You Started on the Social Media Bandwagon.

Tip #1 Create a Blog

If you don’t already have one, create a blog and connect it to your existing website.  Start with simple, one page posts of general interest to your target audience.  Keep the articles short, but try to post something new at least once or twice a week. You are not trying to impress your fellow photographers, but are trying to provide information to your actual customers. You would be surprised how many consumers would be interested in knowing simple things like how solid colors work best for pictures or how a fundraiser can be enhanced through event photography.  Post about an environmental or child shoot you did and include a few selected pictures.  Show off, but don’t try to sell a new product or service. You don’t need to do extensive research, just write about things you already know and have already done. Be creative and offer up some of your experienced advice and tips. Here is a link that may get your creative juices going.  Be sure to set up an automatic email system (Aweber or Constant Contact) to capture resulting leads. 

Tip #2 Sign Up on Social Media Sites

Join and have a complete profile on at least 2 social media sites. Actually, we suggest you join three.  Our top three choices would be Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.   The “help” functions on the sites themselves are pretty comprehensive and should get you get going with little trouble.  You need to remain aggressively active on these sites, making connections, monitoring and continually posting new and valuable content. Sign up for Lazyfeed or Google Reader, either of which allow you to automatically monitor specific topics of interest and easily see what other people are blogging about.  Pass interesting blog links on to your followers.  Join groups on LinkedIn as they are a terrific source of good information on what your colleagues are doing.   Relax, this is not nearly as hard as it sounds and I guarantee that you will be amazed at the visibility, clients and referrals that will come your way as you become a visible expert in your area.

Tip#3 Utilize Video

Video is a uniquely powerful tool and today almost anyone with any digital skills can create their own web video content. In addition to YouTube, there are many other free video hosting sites that accept uploads.  If you want the best search ranking, video is definitely the way to go.  Do a video of one of your shoots, showing how you interact with your client. Show unique environmental hot spots where you take people for wedding or senior portrait shoots.  Animoto.com is another site that you can use, even if you don’t have actual video content.  It allows you to turn your best still photos and music into beautiful videos.  The great thing about Animoto videos is that you can easily post them to the various social sites as well as link to them from your blog and even sell them to your clients. 

Tip#4  Get Help On-line

If this is all new to you and you are not sure how to get started, there are a number of places on-line that have tutorials that will help you get started.  These are just a couple to get you started, but if you search Google there are many more to select from.  Here are a few links. 

Top 7 Twitter Tutorials:                 http://bit.ly/alBGO9

How to Use Facebook:                     http://bit.ly/9H7Fvu

LinkedIn 101:                                      http://bit.ly/aO5DjX

Free 5 Part Series on blogging:    http://bit.ly/bxgu4K

Tip # 5  Outsource or Barter Your Expertise and Learn From Others

If you feel that all of this is too much of a distraction from your core business, you can outsource everything to a rapidly growing list of companies and individuals that offer these services. As a photographer, you already have very unique skills that are in tremendous demand in the social media arena.  You are a visual artist and images are absolutely critical to this venue. You would be surprised at what you could arrange for by bartering a few head shots or by doing some absolutely trivial Photoshop (compared to retouching) work on a Facebook fan page.

Remember, unlike print or other media placements, your digital content remains available long after posting, continually adding to your positioning as a the “go to” expert in professional photography.