Sue Bryce telling stories, engaging clients

Sue Bryce is is one of the most recognizable photographers in the imaging industry. Her glamour, fashion and portrait style transcend past stereotypes and has changed the face of portrait photography.

After becoming the most watched instructor on CreativeLive, Sue has created her own ground-breaking educational platform, in which she uses her signature techniques to educate photographers and empower businesses internationally.

Photographers looking to build their social media presence are often focused on the tactical questions of who to follow, how often to post and what networks to exploit. But according to Sue Bryce the route to success in social media doesn’t follow a neat script and has far less to do with a given tactic and far more to do with honesty, positivity and having something of value to share with the world.

 “Emotion, entertainment, engagement and education. If you’re touching one of those four things, people are going to be interested in whatever you’ve got.”
Sue Bryce

Bryce’s approach to social media follows a basic formula that consists of 40 percent positive opinion, 40 percent knowledge-sharing, 10 percent sell and 10 percent personality–all anchored by consistency and positive intentions. She uses her Facebook and Instogram to communicate with her clients, to educate and empower.
Having a view of your social media presence, where all you try to do is sell your followers, is a dead end. she has her followers entertained and engaged. She constantly ads value, posts instructional and inspirational videos.

She shows that the tactics of growing a social media audience shouldn’t be the first thing photographers worry about when they go online, It’s all about the why. Why are you doing something? So photographers with a story to tell and the patience to tell it over social media will grow their followers organically. She uses heart and humour to attract more followers, she is not afraid to make fun of herself and her own weaknesses

“Change the way you’re talking about your product. Tell a story.”
Sue Bryce

In photography, it’s easy to get caught up in the competitive elements. Who in your area has more followers? Who’s commanding the highest rates? Whose social media marketing is better, more effective, more attractive? Who’s booking the most clients?

Sue Bryce put it all into perspective. With her campaign, #ExistInPhotos, she’s urging fellow photographers to recognize the true value of the medium, rather than worrying about the details. Shows us how to engage clients.

“What you’re trying to do is get paid to create timeless, incredible images that people will cherish for the rest of their lives.”

Lessons for Others

Few things to learn from Sue Bryce

Show
Posts with lots of text don’t show clients what you can do. Instead, focus should be on creating videos or sets of photographs that engage the people visiting your site.

Tell a story.
When clients get emotionally involved in the story you’re telling, that’s when they buy.
Storytelling fosters an emotional connection with viewers. In the end, the story is what elevates your posts. Individual stories can resonate with the audience you’re trying to reach.

Listen to your audience to learn what they want. Read all the comments on your Facebook page. Set up a keyword/hashtag monitoring stream and watch what people are saying about you, your industry, and your competitors. This will give you incredible insight into what your demographic is thinking and feeling, thus creating opportunities to engage them.

Ask questions to start conversations. But make sure they’re good questions. Real questions. Thoughtful questions. Questions you actually want answers to.

In addition to promoting your own content, feel free to share other people’s. Whether it’s a tweet, a blog post, or even something a competitor did, sharing stuff from other people is what creates a community. And, it makes members of that community far more likely to share your content and become engaged in the post

If you have concerns as to the accuracy of anything posted on this site, please send your concerns to Peter Carr, Program Director, Social Media for Business Performance.

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