Get the most out of your Facebook Image Posts (and keep from getting ignored)
As a member and admin of several Facebook groups, I see a lot (a LOT) of posted images. This often includes unintentional pitfalls, missed opportunities and non-preferred behavior by members who don’t understand their options (or etiquette). Here are some suggestions to help group members get the best possible results from image posts.
BTW, this posts comes with a couple of notes.
First, regardless of the advice below, follow the instructions of your Facebook group Admin(s). If they say do something that’s different than this article suggests, they are in charge, not me.
Next, the moment I publish this, Facebook will change it’s interface and all of this will go out the window. What can I do?
Group image posts
We post for exposure and comments. Many of us work on the economy of Kudos, some of us want to market our professional services. Either way, being an active and participating member in a group can certainly help.
To understand why there is etiquette when posting images in a group, you have to know three important details:
- Group members may have “Notifications” enabled, meaning, they receive an email every time you upload a photo. Upload 15 images, they get 15 emails. This can lead some members to
- leave the Facebook group thinking it’s too spammy
- turn off notifications, reducing their participation level in the Facebook group
- Your group posts represent you and your business, its part of your marketing and branding! So if you just finished your first 15 HDR image attempts and want critiques, upload 1 or 2 of the best ones, not the entire blurry mess.
- Image and album management for Group Admin(s) isn’t terribly easy. For example, moving images from album to album is (currently) impossible.
Photo-posting (*sharing*) methods
Members usually post to Facebook groups in one of several ways:
- Direct upload by clicking “Add Photo / Video” on the group’s main page
- Direct upload by clicking “Add Photos” on a group’s album
- Uploading to your personal timeline, and then “Sharing” to the group
- Uploading a personal album, and then “Sharing” to the group
- Uploading to your company/fan page, then “Sharing” to the group
- Uploading an album on your company/fan page, then “Sharing” to the group
Each of these methods has different pros and cons. Instead of providing a specific method that will be successful in all situations, here is a list of each method and the pros, cons and best times to use them.
Direct upload by clicking “Add Photo / Video” on the group’s main page
Pros:
- Really quick. This is the equivalent of impulse shopping. You see the button, you have an image, click click click.
- Privacy. If you post a photo of the oozing boil on your foot, but don’t want your employer to see, posting it directly to a private group keeps it off of your personal timeline.
Cons:
- Posting multiple images results in multiple notifications.
- If you want to share the image on your personal page or profile, you’ll have to upload it twice.
- Its one image, clicking on it does not result in seeing your other images too.
- Someone other than you can delete the image! A real pain after getting 50 “likes” and 40 positive comments.
- Once the image scrolls down the timeline of the group’s conversations, your exposure is essentially over.
- Really (really) difficult to locate the post after days/weeks/months of time have passed.
Use When:
- Probably best used for short-run exposure, such a special notice or event announcement.
Direct upload by clicking “Add Photos” on a group’s album
Pros:
- Allows related subject matter to be maintained in a specific location
- Group albums can be created for specific functions (critiques, event, contest, etc)
Cons:
- One of the more difficult-to-manage information nodes for Facebook group Admin(s).
- Individual image posts still trigger individual notifications.
- Member-created albums may have little or nothing to do with the group’s subject or interest.
Use When:
- When asked to do so by an Admin of the group.
- The image fits the album’s specific topic or event.
Don’t willy-nilly create albums, it creates several problems:
- They are a pain for Admin(s) to manage. Just about the only thing an Admin can do is “Delete” it.
- It appears on every single member’s Lightroom plugin drop down forever!
Uploading to your personal Facebook Timeline, and then “Sharing” to the group
This has identical Pros, Cons and Use When of uploading directly to the Group’s Timeline with one additional Con.
Cons
- Your personal default security settings take preceidence over the Group’s security. If you upload an image to your timeline as “Friends Only” and then share to a group, everyone in the group will get notified that you posted, but won’t be able to see your image even if you can.
Uploading a personal album, and then “Sharing” the image (or album) to the group
By far, I have found this to be the best way to post an image to a group! Here’s why:
Pros:
- You can post multiple images around a single subject, but trigger only one group-wide notification of your “share”.
- People can view the single image, but click left-right to view other images you share.
- People who are new to the group that might be interested in your work have quick-access to previous posts.
- You can share one image, but all other images you shared are available by clicking back-and-forth.
- In the case of a “situation”, you can quickly remove ALL the images by simply changing the privacy level.
- The “description” you used on your personal posting is automatically available to the Group.
- Your “likes” and “comments” are aggregated in one spot, not spread in two or three different uploads.
- You control the image, someone may delete the group posting, but can never delete the image itself.
Cons:
- People outside your personal network can comment on your photos. This could be a pro-and/or-con
- People who posted comments may receive email replies from other people. So if your mom said “wonderful” and the next guy is a stranger that rips you a new one, your mom is going to get that in email.
- Or your boss. Or your friends. Or the client in the photograph (oh yeah, that’s happened to me).
- As mentioned, if your security setting for an image or album is restrictive (“Friends Only”), members of the group who are not your friends cannot view your images.
- Thusly, you have to leave the album and image available to “the world”.
Use When:
- When appropriate, but almost always.
- This provides the best possible exposure, ability to link back to your other images, and combine your “Likes” and “Comments”
Uploading to your company/fan page, then “Sharing” to the group
Identical to “Uploading to your personal Facebook Timeline, and then Sharing to the group”
Uploading an album on your company/fan page, then “Sharing” to the group
Identical to “Uploading a personal album, and then “Sharing” the image (or album) to the group” except one additional plus:
Pros:
- It points users directly to a full album of images on your company page, where they may choose to linger and “Like” what they see.
Other considerations
- Post images in groups where it’s appropriate. Don’t post your blurry lensbaby shots in the Canon L-Series group trying to be funny. Don’t do it. Just don’t be that guy.
- Think about the audience before tagging a person. If the audience is a brutally honest critique group, don’t tag your client. If they have shared it to their wall, all of their friends who post “you look wonderful” will get follow up replies that say “the head position accentuates the subject’s excessive double chin.”
- A watermark will never prevent your image from being stolen. 15 minutes with photoshop can remove just about any watermark. If you watermark for branding, then keep the ‘subject’ of the photograph the most important thing on the screen; your watermark is secondary.
- People do not buy pictures of watermarks, they buy pictures of themselves, their family, or places they think are cool.
- Always remember that any upload or post is going to trigger notifications. So don’t post 15 individual images unless the goal is to destroy the group.
- Careful about marketing to peers. If you’re in a group of 200 photographers, do you need to post an image with a watermark that takes up 2/3rds vertical space?
- The height, length and cleverness of your watermark does not specify your level of professionalism. If you JUST got your first camera, and you have NEVER sold a photograph, and your are posting “what went wrong with this photo” messages to Facebook photography groups, a 3″ high watermark is completely unnecessary.
- If you spend more time creating and placing your water mark than actually composing the image before you took it, you have priority issues that will be apparent in the quality of your photography.
Now go post, or don’t.
You now have some good suggestions on how to post, when to post, and what to post. Your photography is an important part of your brand and how you are perceived to others. Don’t blow a good opportunity by posting images in a way that annoys those around you!
- Don’t create an “Album” in a Facebook group unless asked by an Admin.
- “Share” images from your profile rather than posting directly to the group.
- Stick to the subject matter.
Did I get it wrong?
Feel free to post comments and suggestions for changes to this article below.
