Can we talk about Follow Trains for a sec…

This might be one of my BIGGEST pet peeves in the photography space. I don’t see it in this group as often, but a few of the other groups I am in I see it weekly.

If you aren’t familiar, Follow Trains are when someone posts in a group saying “Drop your IG handle below, and let’s follow each other”

Here are 4 reasons why these aren’t helping you grow – and they might be hurting your growth.

1. It causes your engagement to drop – Unless your target audience is photographers, then getting a bunch of other photographers to follow you isn’t helping you. It might feel nice to have a larger follower count. But most likely NONE of those new followers are potential clients and they are less likely to engage with your content
2. It confuses the algorithm – If you are a family photographer in Dallas then your goal should be to create a following of DFW-based families. If you have 500 followers and 450 of them are local moms, then the algorithm is going to show your content to MORE local moms. BUT, if you have 500 followers and 250 of them of photographers from all over the place, the algorithm isn’t sure who to show your content to anymore. It’s likely going to show it to other photographers outside of the DFW area.
3. It’s adding to your social media frustration – I hear people ALL.THE.TIME complaining about social media and how frustrating it can be. When you have a follower list of account that aren’t your target audience then you aren’t going to have the engagement and community that you want. They are less likely to engage, aren’t going to book your mini sessions, have no interest in your email list and probably won’t comment on your latest post. Thus leading to social media frustration and burnout.
4. It clutters YOUR feed – Most of the time in a follow train you are expected to follow a bunch of accounts back as well. This leads to YOUR feed being filled with photographers that you probably don’t know or have much interest in. Your feed should be a place of inspiration and excitement. Not a bunch of accounts you followed out of obligation.

I am not saying that we shouldn’t support each other or follow people who truly inspire us, but be selective and focus on building a following of potential clients. It might mean a smaller number on your account, but I would rather have 100 potential clients than 500 people who will never work with me.

Ok, rant over…stepping off the soap box now ?