I can’t tell you how many fiascos I’ve had in my kitchen.  My cook top is no stranger to messes (just last week I tried to make home-made white cheese dip.  The kitchen, myself and at least one of the kids were covered. in. cheese.) And then I figured out that my beloved cheese dip I eat at the mexican restaurant is basically cheese flavored gravy.  And my arteries screamed a little inside. But it’s okay. They’re southern.  They tough.  Like little artery gangsters.  I hope.

A few weeks ago though, I was in the kitchen crafting a delightful cookies care package. I like to make things from scratch because I’m southern, and we all have someone with the sacred cookie recipe. My mother-in-love’s cookies are where it’s at. So here I go, dumping in all the things when I realize, I’ve done it all in the wrong order. Like, really, you would think you should be able to dump all the things into the mixer, mix them, and cookies just pop out perfectly. And be all June Cleaver with your pearls and apron when guests come to the door.

No.  Apparently, science has something to do with cooking and you can’t merely mix all the things together and pop out perfect cookies.  They tasted like cardboard and didn’t rise.  So I had to start over.  Apparently my inner June Cleaver was cooling her heels on a remote beach in the Caribbean.

I pretty much feel that’s how my social media recipe was born.  By doing all the things wrong before I figured out the right order that worked.  There’s a science to these posts and if done right, you can reach thousands of people with just one post and a few dollars.

In an every changing world, social media can be a bit of a headache to navigate as a business.  So many questions. Do I boost a post? Who do I boost it to? What order do I do everything in?  Pretty much, I’ve found about 100 ways NOT to post to social media before I found something that worked for me.  When in one day, I had 7 wedding inquiries based off one blog post within 24 hours, my blog finally paid off and I wrote down the recipe. Literally, on a recipe card. Don’t worry, it’s turned out way better than the cookies and without the sink full of dirty dishes.

1. Creating Graphics. When my blog post is written up and everything is groovy, I publish it.  I typically write my blog posts the night before. In a perfect world, I’d love to say I have 10 blog posts written up ahead of time, but in reality I have small children and obviously like to make messes in my kitchen so I don’t really have time for all that.  I highly recommend it though.  I’m sitting here typing this in my kitchen eating cookies during nap-time.  (I showed those cookies who was boss.) I open a photo up in photoshop and create social media graphics, like this one.  

2. Posting to Facebook and Pretty Pictures. I set up a scheduled post on Facebook from my business page with an image.  The image is very important.  People like pretty pictures and pretty pictures therefore help your post go further. I upload my image and in the comments post a little attention grabber and a link to the blog, like “You won’t believe number 10! Questions to ask your wedding photographer (and my answers) are up on the blog!” It takes a while to get over being deliberately cheesy in your Facebook posts. Not going to lie.

3. Boosting and Target Audiences. Once I post the image and link, I boost the post for about 10 dollars.  You can choose whether to boost it over several days or one day, I typically do one.  (I don’t like to drag it out.) I also created a saved audience which is VERY specifically targeted to my brides.  I include locations I’ve shot, places I want to shoot (Holla, Ireland!) as well as interests that are important to me, to my brides, etc.  On my list of interests are “destination wedding, wedding cake, wedding inspiration, Adele (because she’s my homegirl), the Bachelor (because my brides love it), Anthropologie, Pottery Barn, Tiffanys, etc.  I include shows they watch, music I listen to, stores we love, etc.  I get as specific and creative as I can with my audiences.   It helps me target a very specific bride that would connect with me and my work.  The great thing is, you can actually save this audience and use it again! I have a saved audience for brides and one for photographers. (Which I’ll use today!)

4. Tagging. Hash tagging. All the things. Once the post is submitted it takes about 1 hour for the post to become boosted.  I take this time to share the post to my own personal timeline and tag my brides whose photos I’ve used in the description of the share.  Personal page tags seem to go way further for me.  I also post it to Pinterest (with the graphic) and Instagram and tag and hashtag all the things.

5. Interaction. After a bit, anywhere that I can “like” my own posts, I go do that.  I don’t know if this really helps or it’s just in my head.  But if it may help even a tiny bit, I go for it.  What really DOES help though, is commenting.  If anyone shares my post (My brides LOVE it when I use their pictures so usually they do) I go through and comment anywhere I can saying “thanks for sharing!”.  It doesn’t take a ton of time but I try to comment and reply in some way to every comment.

Bonus Tips :

*When thinking of blog post ideas, think of ones that will help you tag the most people.  For example, this year, I split up my end of year posts into categories.  “Best of 2015 / Real Moments” , “Best of 2015 / Bride and Groom Collection.” This allowed me to continuously be able to tag lots of clients in one post. My brides whose photos were chosen loved to share these posts.

*Become Facebook friends with as many people related to a wedding before hand as possible.  When I post a wedding sneak peek, I tag moms, friends, anyone who appears in the blog posts that I can.  Tagging really helps your reach go so much further!

*Use Peak Times – I schedule my posts to show up on Facebook at 7:45 am Central Time.  It’s usually around the time folks are getting to work/classes and checking Facebook before work or class begins in my time zone.