There was a time not so long ago when social media was dominated by the millennial generation and used for nothing more than basic posting and online chat room facilities. Fast-forward a few years, and it is now near impossible for a modern-day business to thrive without an active and effective social media presence.
There are many ways that social media marketing can be implemented to benefit a business on multiple levels, bringing in a wider potential customer base and increasing brand awareness on a national and even global perspective. Staying consistent with updates and posts across social platforms is key – but not so effective if these updates and posts are lacking in quality and good branding.
One of the sure-fire ways to stand out on social media is through consistent high-quality photography. If you’re looking to invest in photography gear for your social media posts, and want to make sure you’re purchasing the best, read on.
Why is photography so important?
Social media has its different uses, and while it’s certainly fine to post blurry shots of your previous holidays and meal preps on your personal account, your business account needs to be taken far more seriously. You should see them as your opportunity for additional brand presence online aside from your website – and, in fact, if you play it right, you may be able to bring in your largest online customer base from sites such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, rather than directly from a Google search.
With that in mind, every image that you post to your business’ social media account represents your brand in some form or another. It’s most likely that, as a business, you have certain concepts that you stand by, which you can cleverly implement into your social media posts. You may also be able to creatively draw your current theming, such as fonts and colours used in your logo, to expand your brand as you are known already across your social channels.
Poorly taken photographs simply aren’t attractive, and when your goal as a business is to give off an overall image that is clean and polished, it is important that you only include the best of the best on your social platforms.
The best photography gear, ranked in importance
If you’re on the lookout for some photography gear for your social media images, it’s worth starting with the basic essentials and gradually introducing new elements to vamp your photography skills to the next level. Some of the best gear for producing high-quality images for social media is:
– A DSLR camera
It’s a costly investment, but there is no better photo-taking device than the DSLR camera. DSLR stands for digital single-lens reflex, which refers to the way the light is converted inside of the camera to capture an image. In general, DSLR cameras produce a much better-quality image, with more potential for adaptability, including good capabilities to shoot in the dark and capture wide-angle shots. They can also isolate foreground from background, focusing on only the subject and blurring out anything beyond.
DSLR cameras are becoming more and more affordable nowadays, with brands recognising their appeal and varying models in price point and usability, allowing even photography novices to benefit from a DSLR. Expert brands in the DSLR camera marketplace include the likes of Canon, Nikon, Olympus and Pentax.
If a DLSR camera is simply out of your budget for the time being, then a good alternative is to use the camera on a modern smartphone. Certain phones are famed for their impressive camera qualities and their ability to capture images almost as crisp and detailed as a standalone camera. You can normally tell whether the quality of an image is good or not by zooming in to the final shot and examining how pixelated the image becomes. The clearer it is on a zoom, the better.
– A light box
Depending on whether you have a physical product to sell or not, a light box may be invaluable for helping you to up your social media photography game. While professional photography for website content is a must, there’s no reason why you can’t photograph your own products using a light box – a miniature photography studio for creating brighter, fresher images – for your social media channels.
Light boxes are fairly low-cost and can be purchased online from a number of marketplaces. You should also find a good selection in your local photography store. Most of them are pop-up, making them easy to construct when you need them, and store away when you don’t. You should notice an immediate improvement in the sharpness and contrast of your images simply from using this handy piece of photography gear.
– A tripod
You never know just how much you’ll need a tripod until there comes a time when you don’t have one. Whether you’re after taking repeated shots of a moving subject, or you simply want to reduce camera movement and produce a better-quality image, a tripod can help you to do so effectively. Oftentimes, a tripod can enable you to avoid inconvenience on your part, meaning you don’t have to hunch over a table or crouch on the floor for an unbearable amount of time to get the perfect shot.
Tripods are widely available both online and in photography stores, but before you rush to make a purchase, it’s worth checking that you’re buying one that is compatible with your own camera. You might, for example, need to purchase an additional accessory if you’re planning to attach your phone to the tripod, as most tripods only have a screw-in feature that is applicable to certain cameras.
A final thought…
While not necessarily considered a photography gear, if you’re serious about your social media marketing, it’s worth thinking about investing in a good editing software, such as Adobe Lightroom, or Photoshop, for your computer. Editing your images on a professional programme can help to optimise what you already have and create consistency from image to image. You can also get creative with colour and tone, and add your own branded watermark if you like.
