There’s about to be a major shift in the social media space following an announcement from Instagram in April 2024. The platform is nudging creators away from reposts and encouraging them to focus on publishing unique videos and images. This means that original content directly uploaded by creators will be prioritized in recommended spaces like the Explore page, while reposted content will get labels and links redirecting users to the original posts. For photographers, particularly those whose work gets aggregated and shared by other accounts, this is a boon — your own posts will now gain greater visibility instead of those of the aggregator.
At Wonderful Machine, we do rely on reposting member photographers’ projects and this could alter the effectiveness of our reach on Instagram. However, Instagram’s new direction positions photographers to benefit the most.
Instagram’s algorithm changes haven’t taken effect yet, and even if they have, it doesn’t seem to have slowed us down. In April, we reached 14,123 accounts, a 31.9% increase from March. Impressions for the month settled at 41,242.
The steady increase in reach could boil down to our increased use of collaborative posts, whereby one of our posts also appears on another account’s feed. In our case, this is usually the member photographer’s feed.
We also added 96 new followers in April.
The top-performing post of the previous month featured an assignment by Denver-based Kristofer Cheng for Aescape. It reached 3,126 accounts.
A close second was one of the aforementioned collaborative posts, which featured an editorial project by West Tisbury, Massachusetts-based Elizabeth Cecil. It reached 2,115 accounts.
Pinterest is a visual discovery platform where users can collect ideas on various trending topics. We use it as a virtual mood board where we organize our members’ photos by specialty, and also collect examples of all the main types of marketing materials photographers use to promote themselves (including logos, bios, email promotions, print promotions, and PDF portfolios).
We periodically select new content from our photographers’ websites (and also consider the work they send directly to us) to keep the platform fresh for our audience.
In April 2024, we reached 98.92k accounts and generated 166.3k impressions. Engagements clocked in at 2.84k.
There has been a gradual decrease over the past few months since our seasonal highs in November and December, where some of our strongest pins focused on holiday-themed imagery. Over the past month, we have been implementing a new approach whereby each pin will follow a more personalized title and description to ensure they reach a greater audience going forward. Granted, any results from these changes will take a few months to materialize given how the Pinterest algorithm functions.
The top pin created in April featured architecture photography by Berlin-based Jordana Schramm. It received 278 impressions.
The top-performing board was Photographer Specialties, with 54.11k impressions and 1.30k engagements.
LinkedIn is the only major social media platform dedicated specifically to professional networking. This makes it a good place to share the stories of our photographers and their creative problem-solving skills. We post once or twice a week, sharing our Photographer Spotlight articles and photos from our Creative in Place email campaigns — where we pick a very specific creative brief and show clients how our extensive network of photographers can deliver on that particular theme.
In April, we had 189 unique visitors and our posts drew 4k impressions.
The post that received the most attention featured Chicago-based Ricky Kluge’s assignment for Lime, the world’s largest shared electric vehicle company. It generated 909 impressions and 242 clicks.
Though Facebook is mostly used to connect users with their friends and family (and their algorithm favors that content), we’ve found that it’s also effective at connecting photographers with clients. Our Facebook account mirrors our Instagram feed, and we also share a selection of Photographer Spotlight articles from our Published Blog.
We’ve been making steady progress on Facebook over the past few months. April saw our reach increase by 21.2% to 7.5k accounts.
The top post of the month featured Washington, DC-based Danny Santos’ work for the National University of Singapore. It reached 326 accounts.
Twitter, or X, is a microblogging platform that enables users to post short messages (formerly known as tweets). It is commonly used for sharing information, expressing opinions, and staying updated on current events.
We celebrate our daily homepage photo for a second time that day via Twitter, a strategy we’ve been implementing since the beginning of 2024.
In April, our posts accumulated 2.8k impressions.
The month’s top post featured Los Angeles-based Matthew Smith’s photo of the Outdoors. It received 125 impressions.
What your out-of-office reply should look like in picture form.
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📸 Matthew Smith // @TheMatthewSmith
📌 Los Angeles, California
.#AdventureTime #OutdoorFun pic.twitter.com/S3DaUgL2l9— Wonderful Machine (@wonderflmachine) April 19, 2024
We use our YouTube channel to host a wide range of content, including behind-the-scenes, photography compilations, motion reels, print portfolios, Member Open House presentations, and much more. Users can subscribe to our channels, comment on videos, and share with others.
We post once or twice per week and use two types of formats — vertical shorts and horizontal motion reels.
In April, we had 585 views and generated 8.6 hours in watchtime.
Stay tuned for more content on our Social Media platforms. Keep tagging us, and of course, let us know if you have any tips and ideas!
Have questions about how we promote our photographers? Check out our Membership page. Want to know how you can get the most out of your Wonderful Machine membership? Check out our Jumpstart page or just reach out!