No matter what industry you’re in, coming up with content for social media marketing every day can be daunting. It starts with posting an Instagram photo every day… then add in Pinterest, Facebook, blogging, and now we’ve even got to deal with TikTok?! Totally overwhelming.
How can you post every day when you only have limited work to show and hours to create content? How can you afford to create new sample work for every day of the year? Well, you probably can’t. But luckily, you don’t have to – it’s all about thinking creatively about the work you have already produced to get interesting, unique photos of your entire process.
And equally important to getting unique photos of your process is telling a unique, new story alongside each photo. The story you’re telling is the magic – and it’s what is going to get you all those new clients that are waiting for you. I promise that there’s more work and planning that goes into your craft than people give you credit for – this is how you can highlight all those small choices that make a huge difference!
I’ll use an example of an invitation suite we’ve posted over and over again in a way that doesn’t feel repetitive and still gets active engagement on every new post (it doesn’t hurt that it’s one of our favorites). You can adapt this method to any visual projects you work on – a website design, a cross-stitch piece, wedding photography, etc. Feel free to reach out if you want some tips for adapting this to your work.
How to Get More Photos from Fewer Projects for Social Media Marketing
Start at the beginning: behind the scenes social media marketing content
What’s the back-end work that goes into this project? This is a great time for a behind-the-scenes shot, supplies photo, etc.
For my 1st post, I create the artwork for the suite, and I’ll post something about painting – supplies, colors, how it relaxes me, etc. and about how this will be the feminine element for our upcoming suite!
We typically skip showing the design stages, but you could definitely add in even more photos here of you working on sketches, digitizing pieces, putting together your camera kit, etc.
Show the pieces of the puzzle as they start to come together
For photography, this would be your really up close details shots (rings, shoes, invitations, veil, etc.). For invitations, it’s when pieces start to come in, to show them one at a time – bonus points for pieces that are unique or interesting.
So for my 2nd post, I would talk about this teeny tiny website card and how we’ll be wax sealing it to the invites! Then a photo of this vellum wrap which is the first “masculine” element we’ve brought in, inspired by the couple’s venue, the Henry Ford museum. Fourth, you’ll get the first image of the actual invitation, where we may talk about the gold foil process, or frankly just comment on how nice the light was hitting that day (the captions don’t all have to be rocket science!).
Number 5 will be the wax seals – and lemme tell ya, everyone on Instagram loves a wax seal photo. It’s always a winner! Which leads me to ask you: what is that ONE type of photo for your industry that everyone always loves to see? Find that type of photo and incorporate it into every social media marketing workflow for every project.
Photo 6 is this cool one that shows the original artwork side by side with the printed piece. So I would talk about how we get watercolor artwork onto the screen and prepped for printing.
So far, we’ve got 1 “getting started” kind of photo, and 5 “individual element” photos. To adapt this to a different industry – if you’re designing a brand or website, your getting started image would be sketches, brand exploration, etc. Then those next 5 could be color palettes, logo sketches, a screenshot of your favorite small elements, a look at your favorite page of the site, and maybe even one of your screen as you’re designing (pro tip: a timelapse process video would be awesome here!).
Start putting everything together – but don’t show the finished project yet!
This next one will give a sneak peek of everything together, without showing tooooo much, and after that it’s onto the assembly process.
Photo 8 we talk about postage, RSVP envelopes, our favorite stamps, etc.
Number 9 could be simple – something like “Getting these beauties ready to go out the door!” For photo 10 we could revisit a postage conversation, talk about address printing vs. calligraphy, etc. Or it could even be a spot to talk about the schematic drawings again. Not every follower will see every post, so a little repetition of details is fine – just make sure you’re framing them in a different way!
To adapt this to another industry – if you’re a wedding photographer you can now continue the story of the details by showing family photos, bridal portraits and/or wedding party photos. Those things that aren’t so “close-up” but aren’t giving away the full experience either! Captions can talk about your favorite part of shooting families, the client’s personal story with their wedding party, etc.
“The big reveal” photo!
This section can take a couple photos, it doesn’t have to be something you only post about once. Get different angled shots. If you’re a cross-stitcher for instance, you’ll want a flat lay of the final product and then another shot of it hanging up in its forever home (or you know.. .in your home on a wall that’s staged for such photos).
For our 11th photo, we FINALLY show the entire suite together, and all the pieces involved. You could talk about any aspect you want to here – my first thought is to discuss how to use different elements but still keep the suite consistent overall.
Number 12 of course is how we packaged everything together – who doesn’t love a good stationery “stack”?! And 13 is a bonus where we showed the invitation with a pair of custom sneakers we had designed for the bride!
Think of this final photo as a “what’s next” kind of image!
Maybe it’s a photo of the client’s wedding album showcasing your photography, or some of your branding elements used on your client’s packaging a few months later. Show how the viewer can continue this relationship with you past the initial project – if you’re relying on the client to send you this photo, make sure you have that ask scheduled in your HoneyBook workflow!
Creative thinking leads to consistent content
Obviously, I don’t do this perfectly every time, but the point is to get your mind thinking more creatively about the details you put together, why and how you did what and to highlight them in unique ways to get more content with every project. I won’t repeat the same exact photo within 2 months, but you could post all 13 of these in a row and it wouldn’t feel repetitive because they’re slightly different and the focus is on the story behind them.
I know it’s tough to think about your projects this way sometimes in order to maximize your social media marketing efforts with each client! So… to get you started thinking more about all those little pieces of the puzzle and the maximum potential for content, I’ve created a download for you with 70 Free Instagram Caption ideas! You could theoretically use all 70 on the same project (although that MIGHT get a little too repetitive!). Grab that download here.
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