Perception is reality

If your local community perceives that you’re a busy photographer, it'll make you a more desirable choice when someone's looking for a photographer. Social proof is a form of perception. If you can show that you're shooting all the time, people will believe that you're in high demand. People often equate that, if you're in high demand, then you must be good.

In the beginning, it can be very difficult to show that you are shooting all the time. People on social media need to see you in their feeds constantly shooting, otherwise you won't be held as a top choice when they need photos. What if you aren’t super busy yet? How do you get the social proof to create the perception problem of being a top choice?

In order to change everyone's perception and show social proof, you have to post pictures and videos of you shooting on a regular basis. I recommend you make the most of a single shoot and turn it into at least four different posts.

First Post: Packing

You got the call you're going to meet someone for a shoot. First thing you should do is take a short video clip of you packing your camera bag. Give everyone a peek at your professional gear and let them see that you are headed to a shoot.

Second Post: On Your Way

Take another short clip of yourself walking out the door. Have hold of your camera bag and say something like “I've got my camera bag and I'm ready to rock this photoshoot” or “heading out on that family shoot” or “got my gear, got my pants, let's go”. Show off that you aren’t just sitting in your living room all the time. Let the social media world know that you are busy and on the go.

Third Post: Hard at Work

Have a friend tag along and take a clip or a photo of you in the action at the shoot. If you don't have someone to bring along with you, take a celebratory selfie of you and the client. Try putting your phone on a tripod and let it record a bit while you shoot.

Fourth Post: Stunning Results

Finally, post some of the awesome photos from the shoot.

You now have four pieces of content from a single shoot. The goal here is to post each one of these a week apart. Add captions that suggest you're on a whole new shoot each time. I'm not saying you should lie, but being a little general or vague is key. For example, with content piece number one you could say something like “getting ready for this shoot, super pumped”, content piece number two can be “heading to a dope shoot”, and content piece three might be “shooting Ashley's senior photos”. The last content piece will be you posting actual photos from the shoot, which actually occurred several weeks ago.

You can literally do one shoot and make it look like you had a shoot every single week for an entire month. Even if you only had three shoots, doing one of these posts every week will help it look like you've had steady work for three months. Anyone can land three shoots.

Your friends will see you killing it on a regular basis. So when they're ready for photos, you're gonna be top of mind. Even if your friend’s don’t need photos, they might refer you to others. If they see a Facebook post that says somebody is looking for a photographer to do photos of a child’s birthday party, your friends are going to think of you.

Creating a series of posts from one shoot will generate that perception that you are busy and in demand. If you're in demand, you must be good. Use this method, along with all the other tools that I taught you in this course, and you’ll be booking gig after gig in no time.