The rollout of new features continued across all social media platforms in October. For starters, Instagram and Facebook’s parent company, Meta, plans to test a subscription-based ad-free model in the EU. Under EU law, Meta is legally obliged to provide users the ability to opt out of data tracking, which Meta uses to serve personalized ads. The company argues that they cover the costs of providing a free service to users via these ads and data tracking, hence, their compliance with the new law would be through a subscription model.
Elsewhere, Pinterest launched an Educators Hub on its platform, giving creators the resources to drive engagement, monetize their digital presence, and make more out of their profiles. And finally, LinkedIn crossed the 1 billion user threshold while facilitating premium members with new AI tools. For one, these tools will allow members to scan long feeds of information to discover the most promising career opportunities available, all in the name of efficiency.
Over the last month, we have altered our strategy on Instagram in a few ways:
The adjustment has already paid off. We reached 7,367 accounts in October, an 8.4% increase from September. Additionally, we saw a 26.7% increase in reaching non-follower accounts, getting more of our members in front of new IG user segments. Total impressions for the month were also up by 42.1% compared to September, coming in at 39,182.
The other major announcement was a gain of 414 new followers. We can quite easily credit our partnerships with other organizations in the business for this, including aPhotoEditor and Rocky Mountain School of Photography, who regularly share our content on Instagram.
The top-performing post for the month comes courtesy of Washington, DC-based Jonathan Thorpe. It covered his portraits of today’s most popular comedians, including the likes of Mark Normand, Adam Conover, and Ari Shaffir. The post reached 2,121 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. Also, we 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.
All our Pinterest metrics increased across the board when compared to September. We generated 240.5k impressions, a rise of 10%, and 6.86k engagements, a gain of 19%. Our total audience for the month was 145.96k, an uptick of 7%.
The top pin of the month goes to Miami, Florida-based Mary Beth Koeth. It featured her celebrity photography and received 50 impressions.
The month’s top parent board was Photographer Specialties. It acquired 56.65k impressions, 1.63k engagements, and 1.31k 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.
We reached 2,434 accounts in October a drop of 11.6%. However, page visits held steady at 247.
The top-performing post featured Matt Furman’s assignment for San Diego Magazine, celebrating their 75th anniversary. It reached 177 people.
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. For the Creative in Place emails, we pick a very specific creative brief and show clients how our extensive network of photographers can deliver on that particular theme.
The story on LinkedIn was similar to that in September, with page views at 438 while we brought in 216 visitors.
The top-performing post featured our Creative in Place email promotion looking at the Barbeque as a way of life. It generated 967 impressions and 114 clicks.
Twitter, or X, is a microblogging platform that enables users to post short messages/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.
Our total Tweet impressions for the month came at 933, just a 1.3% drop from September.
The top tweet in October looked at Squamish, British Columbia-based Christian Tisdale’s personal project exploring the lives of beekeepers. It generated 139 impressions.
The beauty and challenges of beekeeping, seen through Christian Tisdale, who photographed Mischa Chandler of Golden Cariboo Honey for an ongoing series. #beekeeping #photography pic.twitter.com/rxjqJW6rEa
— Wonderful Machine (@wonderflmachine) October 11, 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.
After two stellar months in August and September where a couple of our YouTube Shorts went viral, we’ve come back down to earth in October. We had 337 views and 5.6 hours in watchtime, a stark difference from September’s 2,700 views and 19.6 hours.
Still, we plan to continue sharing our member photographers’ video projects and BTS footage on the platform, letting us build different playlists of footage separated by specialty. In the long term, these playlists will give visitors to our channel a better impression of our photographers’ work behind the scenes, along with the final results of their efforts.
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!