So, running a business in the middle of a global pandemic, it’s a bit of a challenge hey? I don’t know about you but it feels like we’re in limbo – not quite sure if we can meet clients face to face if it’s 1-2-1, can we travel for business if we’re not an essential service? There are so many ifs and ands, that I believe the best thing is to keep showing up and doing what we do and follow the guidelines as best we can.
The thing is, we need content to show up. Reels are fun and Lives and Stories are a great way to connect with your audience but after that they are going to check out your feed / page and your website.
Are you running out of images to share on social media whilst trying to continue to grow your audience?
How do we nurture that like, know and trust factor.
What do we post right now?
Share your personality and some behind the scenes so your clients can get to know you better.
Your workspace
Even though this might sound a bit obvious, people like to see where you work, where the magic is created. A photo shoot with me might involve my clients’ workspaces at some point. It’s a glimpse behind the scenes to give your audience an insight to what you do.
Show your clients a bit about who you are and how you work? A photos of you taking a zoom call, your cat crawling across your keyboard (why do they do that?) What do you keep on hand on your desk…no pressure to e Insta worthy here…just share a little about you.
Working from home whilst juggling family life.
Of course it’s important to share the professional side of you and your business but right now, all of us are juggling working from home with organising family life so sharing a picture of you with your family will connect you to other working aprents.
Some of my clients actively want to include their family in a few of their personal brand photos to show this side of them.
Your pets
Who can resist seeing a fluffy moggy sitting on your lap whilst you are trying to work? Or your dog curled up at your feet keeping your toes warm. Use the cute pet factor to stop the scroll through and get people to hang around a bit longer on your feed. Your audience are probably having the same experience as you so share that with them.
Your interests
We’ve all seen the Lockdown sourdough bake offs on social media in recent months but I think that one has fizzled out a bit. You may not have buckets of downtime but your followers would easily relate to you sharing what you do for yourself. For me this has been taking up macrame as it’s like a mindful exercise especially as I’m still getting to grips with the knots. Yoga is my new love although I’m still at the beginner stage…no pretzel shapes for me just yet.
So if you’re an avid cook, or you like to potter in the garden or read a good book, share these little personal nuggets with your audience. It all makes you more approachable and builds on that like, know and trust factor.
Lockdown outfits
Right, you’re probably thinking, who would want to know what I’m wearing working from home? You’d be surprised what these little glimpses of your personality reveal to your audience and I bet when you talk about wearing your yoga leggings instead of jeans whilst working, they’ll be able to relate to that. (Remember all the memes going around during Lockdown 1 of everyone eating the fridge contents and wearing stretchy waistbands hehe.)
Business props
What do you have around you in your workspace. Are you a colour coordinated queen? Or a bit random? I like my workspace to be an inspiring environment so I have plants, grasses in vases and boxes and pots in my brand colours. I’ve created a simple but thoughtful space to work in.
Your environment
I walk my dog by the Thames most days and I feel very grateful to be living nearby. No matter how bogged down I become with editing and work in general, I find going to an outdoor space like this makes all the difference to my sense of wellbeing. Where do you go locally to reset yourself when it all gets a bit much? Share these little snippets with your followers so they can relate to it.
Some tips for taking photos at home
Find the best light you can or at least the best time of day – in winter the light is better before 1pm after that the quality tends to get a bit muddy.
Take photos of items or yourself with a little blank space around you so you can add text if you want.
Take a photo of the environment before you put yourself in the frame.
I hope you and your business are doing well during these uncertain and disruptive times.
Karen xx
If you’d like to learn more about how personal brand photography can help your business, click here