How to Stay Relevant on Social Media | Syngency

How to Stay Relevant on Social Media

"All of us have the tools to be the best self promoters that we can be. I think the social media thing plays a really big part in self-marketing" - Nate Hoffman

“All of us have the tools to be the best self promoters that we can be. I think the social media thing plays a really big part in self-marketing”. - Nate Hoffman, photographer

Social media these days can be a daunting task to take on. Creating a following or brand from scratch seems almost impossible now with how many people are using all of the different platforms available. How are you supposed to stand out amongst the crowd? How do you get people to notice what you’re doing?

The important thing to remember is consistency, and that your career shouldn’t be a sprint but rather a marathon. Below are a few words and helpful pointers from photographer Nate Hoffman, taken from our podcast episode with him a few months ago.

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“… I have photo assistants that are kind of younger and starting out…I love meeting new young hungry photo assistant that just want to work, and they’re like “well how do I get more work?” And I tell them, listen, when I’m looking for someone to do a job and I have the opportunity to choose someone to pay them to work with me…it usually comes down to that group of people that are first on your mind. You know what I mean? And, how do those people turn up on your radar? I tell people a lot of time it’s social media. That’s what it is,” says Hoffman. Continuing, “I can honestly say that the difference between someone getting booked to go on a travel job with me as an assistant, or whatever…the difference between not getting the phone call and getting the phone call…and this goes for everybody, models, photographers…is literally being on someone’s mind. It was me being Like, who should I bring with me? Who do I like? And then you happen to casually look at Instagram and go “oh wait a minute I haven’t seen so and so forever! or, this guys would be great!” Same thing for models.”

I would be willing to bet that the same goes for me getting booked as a photographer. That there are creative directors, and art producers, that are clients that are out there and are saying man, we really need someone to shoot this campaign. Who should we use? And then they are casually scrolling Instagram and are like, wait a minute! Nate, Nate would be perfect. And I know that is the case because I get DMs from old school, OG art producers you know…people that hire photographers.