Facebook for Photographers: How to Use Facebook
The popular social networking service, Facebook.com, has been in operation since 2004. The service has more than 500 million active members and is one of the most prominent examples of social networking.
Facebook allows anyone as young as 13 to create a profile and search for lost friends across affiliations, schools, countries, and cities; add (both old and new) friends; join interest groups or create your own groups; show your individuality through uploaded photos and videos that you can then organize into albums; add applications of various genres; communicate with other members through ‘wall posts’.
Facebook is a powerful network that allows you to easily connect with people you may have met from college or high school, people you know professionally as a photographer, previous acquaintances, or just new people. As a photographer, you can use your Facebook profile to distribute content for your friends and family or distribute content from your portfolio. This social media tool has the potential to attract numerous business clients for its skills, but it can also attract the wrong people. To counteract this, you can enforce the privacy of your images by setting who can see your content, in addition, you can always remove certain people from your friends list and block them from communicating with you. You can classify the images in your portfolio or personal photos, using a system of your choice, into albums to make them easier to find. But not only that, you can further categorize your friends into lists of your own creation to make it easier to communicate with groups about photography events you may be hosting and new content in your gallery albums or portfolio.
With this social media tool, the more “friends” you add to your profile, the greater the chance that your portfolio will be seen by potential clients or even admirers of your work. Unfortunately, there is still a limit to the maximum number of friends you can add (5000 currently), but there are still a good number of potential clients who could introduce you to other people interested in your work. Try as much as possible to keep your content and images regularly updated with new work and images, as an outdated portfolio is quickly noticed and could cost you in the long run. You can also trust friends within your network to recommend your skills to people who may be interested through the “suggest a friend” feature.