The Perfect Social Media Portfolio; As A Model.

In the modeling/photography industry we rely so much on the perfect portfolio to share with our clients. So we create visual attention grabbers for new collaboration’s. However, your image is merely more than your physical features. This blog touches base on the perfect cocktail for that perfect portfolio we all strive for in the business.

In a recent blog I touched base a little on how to manage your social media portfolios for networking. That blog seems to have more people curious about creating a esthetically pleasing portfolio for social media. I have been asked to expand on that knowledge in more detail. After some trial and error, I feel I have mastered a perfect professional profile. Again, I will remind my readers, this is my personal opinion from my own failures and successes. In no way am I saying this is the ONLY WAY to set up a profile. I believe everyone has a right to share their work as they like. Please take what you can from this article. It may spark a creative bug.

Esthetically Pleasing:

‘Visual Theme’ I feel this is the MOST important advice to keep in mind when building your portfolios. How your online portfolios are structured says a lot about yourself as a model or photographer. Future clients on either end of the spectrum look for variety and examples of your work. Photographers want to see how models can pose for the camera. Models want to know if photographers are creative and experts in their field. Visual esthetic can go hand in hand with verbal professionalism. How you present yourself on your profiles can also gain you the right attention from other professionals. With that in mind sharing selfies from your snap chat or weird pictures of your cat is not considered professional. Photographers do judge models for their lack of maturity. Like I mentioned in my networking blog, be mindful about what you share.

For Facebook profiles, I suggest presenting your work with each photographer in separate folders. Giving a set destination to photographers/models work will show that you are organized and respectful of each person and their art. Having your pictures shared on your page randomly will look cluttered and confusing. Make sure you tag your photographer or model and any other team members or locations. You will find more people traveling to your page and viewing your work simply by tagging.

For Instagram profiles, your work is laid out open as soon as viewers look at your bio page. It is suggested by many professional bloggers to keep your profile theme similar. This helps gain followers and likes. Find a similar theme within pictures, such as the way they are edited, colors, and formats. Photographers can find this easy because they tend to shoot in a similar style. Models can find this a little more difficult to master. We models often get drastically different sets of images per session from photographers. I have found that sharing black and white images makes my Instagram profile flow better. I ask my viewers, in the comments, to find the colored images from my sets on my active portfolios. I also take advantage of my Instagram Stories. Sharing recent activity from my other profiles. I find I have more traffic flowing between all my pages with this method.

Eyes of Collaborations:

While this technically would fall under the ‘visual theme’ category. I feel it is important to discuss and chose to make this its own bullet point. It’s often the first visual people see before viewing your full page. Your profile picture or banner says A LOT about you as a model and/or photographer. You want to pick a picture that draws attention. Photographers I have discussed this with mentioned they are more interested in models with portrait shots for a profile picture. These photographers have said the best way to grab their attention is with the eyes. Photographers are attracted and most likely too collaborate with models when the profile picture pulls them in to view more of what they have to offer by… you guessed it, expression through the eyes. For photographers, I would say, as a model I am not turned away by photographers unafraid to show who they are in their profile picture. It certainly helps when first meeting someone new. I can recognize them and feel more comfortable greeting them.

Banner pictures on pages like Facebook and Twitter are also something to be mindful of with portfolios. You, as a model, certainly want something to show your potential. As well as say something about yourself. I have seen banners vary from artistic pictures, to proud new publishings, as well as a collage of pictures of recent work. I think it’s very professional when photographers have their photography name written in the banner. To me, it shows your professionalism as well as no favoritism to style shoots you offer. New clients won’t feel discouraged by expectations and more comfortable to work with you.

Talk the Walk:

Please, please, pleeeeease DO NOT be that model or photographer who can’t help but speak their mind a little too much on their social media platforms. I have mentioned this so many times in past blogs how important it is to be mindful about what you say on your online portfolios. Passive aggressive comments, quotes, and lyrics are so unprofessional. If you choose to act like a child on social media then you are really just hurting your business. Professionals don’t want to work with someone who is immature. Remind yourself what your mother used to tell you when you were young “If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” Photographers and models do see your shared thoughts and judge them. These comments could hinder you from future collaboration’s. I suggest sharing a status(s) as an advertisement for your skills. Mention what you have to offer as a model and a hint to when you have availability.

Spamming is also something you want to be careful of. This can be a little bit touchy because it depends on individuals what is considered spam. One follower might feel posting every hour of the day to be spam. One follower might think posting numerous pictures at one time to be spam. This confuses me because wouldn’t you want people to see your work and progression? I personally feel random pictures of random nonsense to be spam. I want to see your art and recent collaborations, not your breakfast and weird random events that happened to you during the day. Again, i’m not telling you how to live your life. I don’t think it’s fair to tell you to not post your personal life online. I do, however, suggest maybe starting a personal page for those topics and keeping your personal and business life separate. Regardless, you’ll either be judged or offend someone.

Dial Up:

Another one of the most common questions I get asked is when to upload. Now that you have decided what your theme or esthetic for your page will be, its time to know when to share your creations. So what time of day works best? Should you share everyday? How will I get the attention from the the right people and possibly gain new followers? First of all, I have read all sorts of blogs and articles on when the best time to share on social media is. I think its a a big load of BS. However, through my own experiments I discovered no real formula to the best ‘time’ to post. I can’t give you a designated time of day to share your images. I do know I get the most feed back (comments, likes, or new followers) between the hours of 3-6pm.

Sharing everyday is what most social media experts suggest. People use social media every day and are always looking for new content to explore. Personally I don’t share on the weekends or when I’m on vacation. Weekends are usually full of shoots and events, which probably means other professionals are also distracted by their weekend and not on social media. So I won’t break my neck posting for them if they aren’t paying much attention anyway. I also value my time spent with family. So I put away the social media when I’m attending parties or beach days.

To help gain attention from the right people with your photos and possibly gain new followers I suggest tagging. Yes, this means the dreaded hashtags and location tags. I know, I know hashtags are the worst to write out and remember everyday. But your phone has this cool app, probably built into it, that allows you to write notes. Write out your favorite hashtags you know get you the feedback you like for your work. Copy and paste them into your status or comments with you pictures and then you never have to worry about them again.

Location, photographer, other team members, and sponsor tagging IS SO IMPORTANT!!!! Social media feeds flow so much your profile will reach others who could be interested in working with you as well. Keep in mind everyone you collaborate with is trying to make it in this business. So always be sure to tag and promote your team from the shoot. In the long run this helps you too. The more tags you attach, the more feeds you will be noticed on, and the more attention you will gain to your profile pages. Your collaborators, from your shoot, will also see you are a team player. They will pass on the good word of your professionalism, maybe leave a review, too help you gain more work in the long run. To often in this business people only think of themselves and that does not get you ahead.

I hope these tricks on how I work with my social media portfolios not only answers consistent questions asked of me. But helps you understand the importance of keeping a professional platform. Remember this is all personal opinion from my own mistakes. It is intended to help you look more professional. Cheers!

If you would like more information or would like to schedule a shoot/coaching or assisting session please feel free to reach me at my email (BJamruss@gmail.com).

Checkout my active portfolio on my Facebook fan page. www.facebook.com/BexRussModel Cheers!