The most viral Social Media occurrence in July has undoubtedly been the Twitter rebrand. On July 23, Twitter’s abrupt transformation into “X” caught its vast community users by surprise, leading to widespread confusion (and mockery). The domain twitter.com stayed however graphics and the website title has changed to X.
Other than that, Instagram has introduced a new feature enabling users to download public Reels, which was initially available in the US. Twitter, has unveiled a range of enhancements for Twitter Blue subscribers. These upgrades encompass an extension of the tweet editing window from 30 minutes to one hour, an expansion of the tweet character limit to 25,000 characters, and the introduction of a tweet highlight tab. Notably, LinkedIn has also launched a new feature, allowing company pages to engage with direct messaging, known as “Pages Messaging.”
Since Instagram is the most important social media platform for our photographers and our clients, it’s the one we put the most energy into. We do our best to post a steady flow of interesting content from our photographers and to take advantage of all the different features of Instagram.
We post to the regular feed four times a week (plus stories), and do member takeovers once or twice a month. Also, we occasionally experiment with trends (a recent example: polls) to keep things fresh, fun, and engaging. Our hashtags help with discoverability, and we engage with clients whenever possible.
Our Instagram profile gained a slight but not insignificant increase in our monthly statistics. We reached 4,235 accounts, which is -5% less than last month. However we had a +33,9% increase in profile visits, which accounts for total of 1,370 profile visits. Additionally, we had 141 new followers in July, which is a little under +14% greater than June’s outcome.
The best post this month was by Jessica Ebelhar, from Louisville, Kentucky. She specializes in Food/Drink, Still Life, and Portrait photography. This post gained 1,5k impressions, and a little over 1,4k reach.
This month’s best reel goes to Aurélien Bergot, whose video got a little over 600 plays and a bit over 500 reach. Low statistics for reels can be attributed to changes in thebInstagram algorithm as they now prefer photo posts over reels. Aurélien is a Geneva, Switzerland-based photographer who specializes in Lifestyle, Portraiture, and Still Life photography.
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. Though Pinterest is not always top of mind for photographers, we’ve found that our Pinterest page gets a significant amount of views.
In July, we gained a little over 181k impressions and 116.84k of total audience which accounts for +3.1% increase compared to the last month. There is also a +4.2% increase in engagements, which amounts to a little under 5k accounts engaged.
July’s best pin goes to New York-based photographer Himanshu Pandya. He specializes in Auto/Vehicles, Aerial, Animal, and Travel photography. His pin gained 296 total impressions. This month’s top parent board is Photographer Specialities. It earned almost 69k impressions, a bit under 1.9k engagements, and 1.5k pin 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.
In July, our Facebook profile experienced 2,3k reach and 153 page visits, which is a +47.1% increase in page visits over the previous month.
In July, the most viewed post was by Bruce T. Martin from Natick, Massachusetts. This photo of John Hancock Tower From The New Old South Church was chosen in the Single Photo Section for the URBAN Photo Awards 2023 and published on their URBAN 2023’s website. He specializes in Aerial, Architecture, Fine Art and Landscape photography. His post gained 542 reach.
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.
This month our LinkedIn profile had a little over 3,8k followers and 258 page views. Users that follow us on LinkedIn tend to be from Arts and Design, Business Development, and Media and Communication backgrounds.
Our most popular post on LinkedIn in July is a feature of our email campaign called Creative in Place: Easy Rider. This post gained 306 impressions and 8 clicks.
Twitter, or X, is a microblogging platform that enables users to post short messages – or posts – formerly known as tweets. It is commonly used for sharing information, expressing opinions, and staying updated on current events.
We try to post on this platform about once a week, sharing photographer news, compact galleries, and articles featuring our member photographers.
July has shown some decreased statistics with Twitter. We had 106 profile visits and 523 total tweet impressions. We can attribute this to all of the recent changes in the algorithm, where Twitter (or X) now gives more possibilities to subscribed accounts and paid content instead of organic one. The best tweet in July is once again Creative in Place: Easy Rider. This tweet gained 158 impressions.
🏍️ Whether you’re into cruisers or classics, we’re revved up for this week’s Creative in Place: Easy Rider.
👇Read more below!👇#creative pic.twitter.com/TQfshvd59a
— Wonderful Machine (@wonderflmachine) July 31, 2023
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.
Last month, our YouTube channel gained a bit over 600 views and 6.8 hours of watch time. July’s best-performing content belongs is a BTS Short by Ricky Klüge from his recent Wilson photoshoot! Ricky is a Lake Geneva, Wisconsin-based photographer who specializes in Lifestyle, Portraiture, Sports/Fitness, Social Documentary, and Still-Life photography. His short gained 273 views.
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 for us!
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!