How to Build a Photography Community
One of the things that attracts people to the realm of photography is how personal it is. By and large, this is a purely solo endeavour.
Photography is about the world as you see it – the color of the sky, the movement of the trees, the way one person looks at the other. When you’re taking a photograph, you’re taking a snapshot of your viewpoint, and that includes your thoughts, your beliefs, your opinions, and your personality.
In some ways, however, this can make photography a rather lonely passion, which is why social media has become so important for photographers the world over. Through the power of social media, you can build your own photography community, working to glean some ideas, share your passions, and feel part of a whole.
This can be enormously helpful not only from a photography perspective, but for your own mental health. Being part of a community makes you feel important, loved, recognised, and understood – feelings that are all the more important in the digital world of 2024.
But starting this community is not so easy, especially if you suffer from social anxiety. Here at MySocialBook, we’ve built a whole community around photo books, so we think we know a thing or two about how to do it. With this in mind, we’ve listed out a few of our top tips to get people involved in your work and spark the first flames of your very own photography community.
Share Your Photo Books
We’ve just mentioned that we’ve built a community around photo books, so we can’t think of a better place to start than with your own photo book creations. Over the last few years, we’ve found the popularity of photo books has grown exponentially, with people loving the old-school, tangible aspect of physical photo albums over digital.
If you’ve used our photo book creator, then, why not share your creations on your social media page, using the appropriate hashtags for others to find you? If your creations are more personal, that’s fine, but this is a good initial idea to demonstrate your passion for photography and show that you’re not ‘just another Instagram photographer’. You’re someone who takes their photography seriously, and understands the importance of giving heart-warming memories the pedestal they deserve.
Start a Blog
According to recent statistics, around 1.3 billion photos are shared on Instagram daily, so that’s quite a lot of competition for you to deal with – and a huge amount of communities that are already formed. To distinguish yourself, then, we’d recommend building your own dedicated website that explains who you are, what you do, and what you love about photography.
This should also include a blog, taking readers through your daily photography endeavours, with a few tips and tricks that you’ve picked up. By doing this, you can display your personality behind the camera – something that can be particularly difficult with just a picture – and get on the same level as many of your readers. You’ll soon find that people relate to your posts and want to discuss them – and your photography strategies – further, and before you know it, you’ll have a small community that shares the same passions.
Reply, Reply, Reply
Going back to social media for a second, if you’ve started a blog, posted unique photographs, and included all the right hashtags, you’ll begin to find more users interacting with your posts and even leaving a comment or two. You want these users to know that you’re not a mysterious, anonymous figure, posting their pictures but never interacting with the outside world!
You’re a human being and you’re ready to make some new friends. To ensure this, don’t leave your users ‘on read’. If they’ve left a comment, make sure to actively take an interest in what they’ve said and reply to them. Tell them ‘thank you’ if they’ve expressed something positive, and answer any questions they have about your photography methods or strategies. As well as this, try to make it an open dialogue, with multiple people commenting while you ask questions of your own. With the users similarly feeling seen and recognised, they’re more likely to comment again, and again, and again, until everyone knows everyone and a buzzing community has naturally formulated.
Passing Points
These are three of the most important things to do if you want to start a community, but there are a few passing points. Try to post on Instagram regularly, replying to comments on a daily basis, and put in some effort to visit follower pages and comment on theirs. Try to keep things on topic, setting up some photography challenges and ideas for everyone to try out. If you do all of this, it won’t take long before you’re part of a happy, active community – and photography won’t feel so solo anymore!
