Using LinkedIn to it's full potential as a photographer with Jeff Brown

Sam and Gillian Devine are running a workshop for Photographers to get more leads and customers from the website and email marketing. Join the event here

Jeff Brown is known for many things but especially encouraging photographers to use LinkedIn. Jeff Has a new version of his LinkedIn book “The Photographers missing link”. The first version of the book was written in January 2022, and the size of the book has doubled since then. Jeff says that many of his opportunities come from LinkedIn as well as customers.
Jeff says 41% of millionaires are on LinkedIn. The 26-34 age group is the biggest group on LinkedIn, so they a perfect age range for wedding and newborn photographers. 82% of B2B buyers prefer to buy from LinkedIn rather than doing a Google search. The average earnings are $82,000 a year. This is not Facebook marketplace with people wanting everything cut price. Only about 5% of people on LinkedIn post. Jeff says that LinkedIn is a comments based platform while Instagram is a vanity platform. He says constantly selling on Linkedin doesn’t work. He suggested mixing personal stories with business posts really helps with your engagement and helps your posts to be seen by more people. Jeff also says it’s comments that are important on LinkedIn, not likes. That is where relationships are built. Marcus like LinkedIn for posting images as there are no restrictions on what you display. Jeff says remember the image stops the scroll. A square image takes up more space than a portrait image so that works better. Above the image there is a snippet of the post that users see. Make sure that this is engaging and encourages people to stop and read your post.
Jeff then starts to talk about LinkedIn newsletters. This is a great way to get content out to followers and helping you to stand out as a specialist in your field. He says he is also using his newsletters to help him create a book, so the content is dual use. The newsletter should not be about what you have done this week. It needs to have a specific focus.
Sam asks how often to send newsletters; Jeff says that 2 weeks to a month is ideal. He said also that LinkedIn automatically recommends your newsletter to other LinkedIn users. Marcus asks Jeff about using LinkedIn’s AI to create or improve posts. Jeff tried this and was not impressed at all. It takes away the personal edge, it uses language you wouldn’t usually use. He also says AI comments are easy to spot and nothing to do with the original post.

Jeff says know your target audience and get into their networks. Photographers often start out working for free to build their portfolio. Jeff says avoid working for free for those with no network and are starting out. Instead approach people with a large following who could easily afford the work. Then make an agreement about what they will do for the work (such as 5* reviews and social posts). Also make it very clear how much the work would normally be and make them do some work to get the free photos.

 

As a quick win Jeff says niche your LinkedIn profile and connect with your target audience. And of course, read Jeff’s new book.
You can find Jeff on LinkedIn here.

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