Episode 18
Kia Bondurant Instagram Q and A – Episode 018 – A Photographer Podcast Interview
On this episode, Kia and Matt talk about social media strategies, specifically Instagram. Businesses are more accepted on Instagram than on other platforms. They talk about finding the best platform to connect with your clients. Kia did an experiment comparing results from a print catalog versus an Instagram ad. 59% of internet users use Instagram and 80% of those follow businesses.
The aesthetic of your profile is important, making sure your pictures are cohesive. Consistent editing style can give you cohesiveness. Kia’s aesthetic is bright, colorful, fun and playful. Kia suggests if you want to add something new into your aesthetic, make it a part of every shoot so you have a bunch of new, different images to sprinkle into your social media.
Kia explains top 9, you’ll want to listen to this! Kia doesn’t think IGTV is going to catch on. While snapchat isn’t a natural fit for Kia’s business, Matt is interested in the ad side of snapchat. Kia’s images do the advertising for her. The fun you see is authentic and something you want to be a part of.
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Kiabondurant.com – download for top 5 things to know about instagram
Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
Kia: [00:01] Hi there, this is Kiah bonderant and you are listening to from nothing to profit with Matt and Kaya,
Speaker 2: [00:08] welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster. Hey guys,
Kia: [00:24] excited today. Matt asked me to talk about some social media and instagram strategies and we were having a side conversation and we wanted to bring it to you guys to share it with you. So Matt, tell everyone what you were thinking.
Matt: [00:40] Yeah. So where were you? Just where the conversation we’re just having that was so interesting is you were talking about how like businesses are accepted on, on instagram and people follow businesses naturally on instagram versus like you don’t follow a lot of businesses on facebook and stuff like that. Well people in general don’t. And then you were showing me some stats where it was like the amount of likes that a business. If a business posts on instagram, the amount of likes they get versus if they were to post that on, on, on facebook. So I don’t remember the stats. Like I remember one of them being like Victoria secrets or something like that that you’re showing me. And it was like, you know, they post something on facebook and they get like 2000 likes, but then they post them on instagram and they’ve got like 200,000 likes. Yeah,
Kia: [01:25] you’re a, you’re a math person, Matt. That’s exactly right. It’s from a, I found on the Internet it was a news whip is the name of it. And uh, yeah. So I think the thing is when you think about social media, and I kind of put all of this together when I was speaking to a group of photographers and I wanted it to be really start really simple because I think when photographers are looking at what they do for social media, they just get confused. Like, where do I go? What do I do? Am I on Pinterest? Am I on facebook? Am I on Linkedin? Google plus? Like, where do I spend my time, what do I grow? And so I was just looking at what works for me and also, you know, doing some research online and the biggest thing I found was that instagram is a place where businesses are more accepted than anywhere else where people follow businesses, they want to see what businesses say and they reward businesses with likes. And so like, just like you were saying, that stat is you’re going to get, I don’t know what’s that as a thousand times the number of likes on and on. Yeah, yeah. On instagram versus facebook for a post.
Matt: [02:39] Yeah. Think about it. And you’re totally right. Like when I think about like, oh, businesses, businesses marketed to me on facebook. I’m like, Ugh, it just feels like cookie. But then, but then when I’m like Instagram, I’m like man, I follow 50 percent people and 50 percent businesses and I love seeing what businesses are posting on instagram.
Kia: [02:57] Yeah, that’s the, that is, is because facebook is more of like a relational. You want to catch up with people, you want to know what’s going on with them. But then instagram is all aspirational and so if you’re looking at a business and they post a really great picture of a fishing rod and uh, and uh, the, you know, someone fishing in a way that you’re like, oh my gosh, I want to be there. That’s what you’re on instagram for, is to see aspirational things and get, you know, be excited about new things.
Matt: [03:28] That’s true because of the fly fishing industry will speak up on this. Like I follow these brands on instagram and I liked seeing all their pictures and the fish that they catch and the locations that they go. And I’m like, man, I just picture myself like I want to go to the Seychelles and I want to catch giant fish and it’s awesome. And then when I go to facebook I don’t want to see that. But I do. There is a couple fly fishing groups that I want to, I want to jump into and talk and build relationships with people in. Yeah. So it’s totally different. Yeah.
Kia: [03:54] Yeah, yeah. And I feel like when I post something on facebook, even if it’s business related, I’m not promoting on facebook, but you know, just posting about what I do in business, the people that respond are all people who care about me personally. They know me personally. Whereas if I post something on Instagram, I may get a response from someone I’ve never met before who’s a photographer or you know, someone who’s a potential, you know, portrait client. And there’s just a big difference who even as caring and looking at the images and responding to them.
Matt: [04:27] Right. Okay. So this goes back to a conversation you and I had a long time ago, not a long time ago, but we’re actually one of the, this was like the conversation we had right after. We’re like, we’re going to do a podcast together and you’re like, you’re like, we don’t even spend a lot of time on snapchat. And I was like, that’s really interesting. And I didn’t quite understand why because I knew all of our high school kids were there. But as I
Kia: [04:48] were saying, I don’t spend time promoting or using snapchat as a business.
Matt: [04:54] Yeah, that’s what you were saying and I was kind of blown away because I was like really getting into it, but as time has gone on and I’ve understood how you view social media, it makes sense because like snapchat is not that inspirational place, you know, like the audiences there. So there’s an opportunity there but it’s not the necessarily the, the native platform for us to put out our work and inspire people to book with us.
Kia: [05:19] Yeah. And I think we only have a certain amount of time as photographers and so where are we going to spend that time? I can’t do all the potential and social media platforms. I can’t do all of them at all, but I can and I can’t do very many of them well and so I do have to choose, you know, where are people going to be and so it really depends on what clients I have and who I want to connect with because if I’m trying to do portraits a families, babies, a grandma’s, then facebook may be a great place and I know a lot of people who have a lot of. With facebook and I know you do, don’t you?
Matt: [06:00] Yeah, but not as much as. Not as much as we used to. Like when I did it, I did an audit just recently of all of our stuff and I mean instagram is by far the most, the most, the most traction for sure. Like, like no matter how I measure it, right? Like the amount of DMS that we get that book people, the amount of likes we get, the amount of shares and all that, like all that information. When you look at all those metrics, like no matter how you want to break them down and just instagram like bubbles to the top on all of them now.
Kia: [06:26] Yeah, your social engagement just really makes a big difference. Yeah, and even if you compare it, you know, if you’re talking facebook versus Instagram, which I think both of those are valid and you should have a plan for both, but I do put the lion share of my work into instagram at this point. I know that pinterest can really work for people, but that is way down. You know, it’s, it’s the lion shares instagram then a little bit facebook and then a tiny bit pinterest and then I really don’t spend any time with twitter or snapchat or linkedin or Google plus any of those type of things because I don’t feel like they’re the best way for me to connect my clients.
Matt: [07:04] Well. Yeah, because every platform has a purpose and like a white way to exist on that platform. And if they were all the same they wouldn’t all exist. Right. So when you think about photography business, I think instagram is the most natural fit for what they’re trying to accomplish at instagram and what we’re trying to accomplish as a business. Like those are the most compatible.
Kia: [07:25] Yeah. And they’re going to be the most supportive of what we do. So this is kind of interesting too. I actually did a, we’ll call it an experiment this year where I put out a print catalog and uh, I’ve, when I was putting together this program and talking about social media and instagram specifically, I compared the time I spent versus the reach versus the return on my investment for print catalog versus an instagram ad. And you’ll, this is kind of amazing. Uh, I spent 60 hours on my print catalog putting it together. Uh, I spent 30 minutes on my instagram ad. I spent $2,000 mailing and printing the catalog and I spent $30 on the instagram ad and I had less than 1500 viewers. I know for sure because of how many. I mailed the catalog too, and I had over 9,000 viewers on my instagram ad. Isn’t that amazing?
Matt: [08:21] No, it’s crazy like the amount of reach that social platforms give you now is just uncomparable to what we used to do 10 years ago for marketing. You know, it’s different because it was noisier. Okay. It’s maybe it’s not even noisier because. Because direct mail used to be super noisy but it’s noisy or so you have to work a little bit harder. But like the amount of engage, reach engagement you get for like little time and little money is, is amazing.
Kia: [08:48] Yeah. Yeah. And these, here’s some interesting stats. It says 59 percent of Internet users between the ages of 18 and 29 use instagram and that, you know, for high school seniors, which is what I was gearing this, uh, you know, research toward that is exactly our target market. So 60 percent really have overall internet users are on instagram and then 80 percent of those users follow a business on instagram. So like we said, business is, is something that has really valued and follow it on instagram.
Matt: [09:22] That’s like acceptable. There was another conversation along the same lines of that. So I don’t know if I want to stay on, on the ad thing because I, I, to me, it just makes so much sense, you know, like it’s just like, it’s so much cheaper, so much better to run instagram ads and I mean even if you were paying like an ad agency to run you a set of ads for 500 bucks, it’s still a fraction of the cost of that print is a, the outreach and stuff you get as is amazing. But one of the things that you were also have talked to me about in the past in how in terms of getting followers and getting engagement is the, you’re the aesthetic of your, of your, uh, I guess profile, right? Yeah, for sure. And so I’ve been doing a lot of thinking around that and I think allison and the rest of our staff does a pretty good job, but I think we have to get it even more dialed in. Um, so explain to everybody what you mean when you say how important is aesthetics of your profile is on instagram?
Kia: [10:21] Yeah. Well, I, so I’ve put together, we’re pulling all of this from that. My top nine things you need to know about instagram and social media and so aesthetic is one of those top nine and I think it goes back, it starts out with who are you trying to reach and then putting your aesthetic together. And so when I first heard the word aesthetic, actually it was my daughter and she was referring to tumbler and that was a couple of years ago and she kept saying, oh, they have this really greatest static or I love their aesthetic and the way that she was using that word. It’s a e, s, t e h e t I c. I was like, it was a new kind of way of using the word aesthetic. And uh, essentially what she meant was putting a collection of images together in a way that makes them cohesive. And so on Tumbler, there would be a picture of pink smoke, a picture of let, you know, like just the legs and high heels with like pink to hose on the legs and then, you know, white high heels and then a pink painted gun like pepto Bismol pink. And that was like an aesthetic essentially saying danger and softness and mystery all in a really girly color Palette. And so that was,
Matt: [11:40] was it specific because when you think of guns you don’t think of like girly colors at all?
Kia: [11:44] Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there was this aesthetic and I was really kind of fascinated by it. And then when you look through instagram, especially in, you know, the larger accounts, there’s often a very specific aesthetic where the images all are cohesive, they all go together. And so, uh, if you know your brand, which is one of the first things that you have to do is figure out your brand, figure out who you’re targeting with that brand. Then you put together an aesthetic where you’re, where, what you post all looks good together. And so it doesn’t necessarily have to be super dramatic. So like, if, as long as you’re, uh, as long as you’re editing of your images is really is a consistent. Like I feel like with Allison’s instagram there is a consistent aesthetic with hers because you’re editing is all really consistent, you know, where it’s not, it’s not super bright, it’s not super crazy colors, it’s all fairly natural. And I, I dunno, you know, natural simple.
Matt: [12:49] Yeah. And Joe Jefferson, um, I don’t remember if we actually said on the podcast or we had a side conversation after the podcast, but he called it earthy and I thought that was perfect. Like Allison’s aesthetic is earthy know there tends to be in nature and the pictures, it tends to be earthy tones if she’s going to lean one way versus the other, she’s going to lean to like, you know, like browns and things like that. Versus like, I mean in a sense where the polar opposite of what your aesthetic is because you’re so bright and playful and ours is just more, more earthy.
Kia: [13:19] Yeah. Yeah. So my three words that would describe my business are vibrant, authentic, and inspirational. And so when I think of inspirational to me, a lot of times that’s happy, you know, inspiring people to be happy. And so my aesthetic is definitely bright, playful, you know, fun colors, fun expressions. And uh, so I tried to put that right.
Matt: [13:43] Like I said, some of your pictures where you’ve done like ice cream cones as a prop, you know, like that just says fun.
Kia: [13:51] Yeah, for sure. And I actually did that this year with my, with my high school senior sessions. I brought that in where I used a bright background and some sort of playful food prep and created a whole whole set of images, a whole series that I could use a sprinkling them in an, in my social media and that is something that you can actually do, you know, his plan, what you’re going to be shooting. So, so maybe let’s say allison wanted to put something new into her aesthetic and so rather than, you know, going and doing one single shoot, she could just add that into her sessions throughout the year. Like maybe smoke bombs, you know, or something like that where she does that every couple sessions and has that as something that she can put into her aesthetic, you know, so yeah. Yeah. So, and in a way to figure out your aesthetic is to look at other inspirational accounts because uh, you know, some people will use like a specific preset on so that they have an orange cast to their images. Uh, and so when you can look at that and then also look at who your target clients are and what they’re doing for their aesthetic. Because our high school seniors, I have a big range of what they’re posting on their social media. Some of them have a very specific look of what they’re trying to accomplish.
Matt: [15:13] Then you go to somebody who’s account and you realize that they only have like 15 pictures or something on it too because I’ve deleted everything else that doesn’t match their, their aesthetic or their brand, you know, it seems, you know, it seems crazy for us to talk about how a high school senior has their own brand. But absolutely they definitely do. They definitely do. And if you work with high school seniors, you know that. And also if you think back when you were a high school senior, you had, you had an image or a brand you were trying to put forward all the time, you know, that’s just the, that’s just part of being that age. Yeah.
Kia: [15:44] But I don’t think it’s going to specifically just be with high school seniors I think that they adopt or you know, high schoolers adopt early what, uh, what everyone’s going to do. And I just saw one of my, like family clients on their social media. I can see that they are now starting to put the same filter on all of their, all of their family snapshots on their instagram. And so I think it’s going to filter down to everyone. And I think that’s kind of fun because for me, I look at that as an opportunity to connect with them and go, okay, what are you doing on your social media? How can I create images that will go with that? Or how can, how can you buy into what I’m doing and put what I’m doing on your social media. And so that leads right into, you were asking me about the top nine and what that was. And my husband, Andy Bundoora is a, he is not a photographer, but he hangs out with a lot of photographers and he was just with a guy who’s got hundreds of thousands of followers on instagram and he was explaining to andy about his top nine and how that was the most important thing to his social media. And he said, what he, what it is, is when you open up the instagram app and you go to someone’s profile, that’s what you see is their top nine reese most recent posts. Most reasonable.
Kia: [17:11] Yeah. So you see their top nine most recent posts. So it’s not their top nine of the year. Um, and so when you go to someone’s instagram profile and use...
