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With the launch of my new website and branding I knew that I also wanted to take my business in a totally new direction. For a long time I had felt disconnected from Kerrie Mitchell Photography, and felt that I had changed completely from when I started the business back in 2010. This led to all sorts of complications in my mind.
Firstly, I didn’t want to move away too much from what I had created as I loved the clients that I was booking. My brides and grooms will always come first when it comes to any decision in my business and so when I had these creeping thoughts about re-branding my first worry was that I would alienate them. Secondly, I wanted Kerrie Mitchell Photography to have room to grow and be much more than just a space for sharing my work, I really wanted couples to know who I was before they even enquired and I wanted to do that in a way that didn’t look too braggy or narcissistic.
Which brings me onto this… ‘Be More Personable’ became my mantra for 2016 by accident. As I was developing, designing and tweaking the website I kept trying to keep this phrase at the forefront of my mind. And I’m trying to extend it beyond the website too in the following ways…
The Facebook Group
When booking me my brides are added to a secret Facebook Group where I hope to connect with them further. It’s a place I hope they feel they can come to to share news along the wedding planning journey, and share any woes and problems too. All without fear of ‘being annoying from talking too much about their wedding’ which is how they may feel around their friends and family! Also, with planning my own wedding right now, this group is also becoming a total godsend in providing me with likeminded people to talk to as well!
In the future I hope to plan meet-ups and #kerriembride events (one is in the planning process right now!) so we all get to know each other in person too and as the group grows I know that this is going to be such a great network of support during a stressful period of planning for many.
As well as connecting us online. The Facebook group helps my brides stay in touch with me throughout the process. Which means if they booked me in January 2015 but their wedding isn’t until 2017, I haven’t disappeared until their final balance is due! I’m around to guide, offer advice and opinions right from the get-go.
The Newsletter
Now the newsletter is a difficult one for me, as hard as I try I’m not that great at scheduling enough time to make sure I send monthly emails to my list. Instead I created a series that goes out daily for 5 days after signing up. This series is titled ‘5 Days to Looking Fabulous in Your Wedding Photos’ and over the course of 5 days I send over my favourite tips to help you in front of camera. In it I share some example images, posing tips, timing advice and other bits of information that you may or may not think about.
This has been such a success and I’m so happy to be building a little list of people interested in my work and what I have to say. I really to hope to follow up this series with a monthly email, but we’re going to have to see how it goes. I hate the idea that I may be pestering people when in actual fact I just want to stay in touch and send on some useful advice.
I adore Instagram. It’s the place where I can share all aspects of my day to day life without having to worry about producing a long wordy blog post to go with it! Often times it means I’m sharing post after post of my dog Tagg (who has his own hashtag too! #taggstails) but what I hope is that instagram is making me much more relatable to my potential customers, and showing my current clients what goes on behind the scenes too.
I also love it when my couples follow me on Instagram so I can follow them back too, I love seeing how things are progressing for them in the build up to the big day and getting a little insight to their lives too. It all helps us in getting to know each other and building a rapport so again I’m not turning up like a total stranger on W-day! Recently I have loved following one couples journey in building their dream home (It’s like being behind the scenes on Grand Designs) and also seeing another couple bring home their first puppy!
Instagram also helps me to stay in touch with couples after their wedding has passed, if they leave the brides group (which they don’t have to unless they get bored of wedding talk!) Often Instagram is the only place I can stay in touch. This is where I get to see what happens after the wedding, and most often this is seeing their family grow as babies start to make an appearance. (Or puppies… which I always love)
Snapchat
So Snapchat is a new one to me, and I resisted it for the LONGEST time but over the last couple of weeks I’ve been experimenting with sharing a story. This gives a true insight into what I actually get up to all day and I hope that when I use this later in the year I’ll be able to snap from wedding days to show you all even further insights behind the scenes!
Even though I’m sure I’m too old to be on Snapchat, I keep being told that it is the largest social media platform after Facebook and Instagram. And with Instagram just introducing a new algorithim to personalise your feed so you only see what they deem to be your favourites I think Snapchat may soon overtake Instagram for me.
Firstly I like that its not all about numbers and likes. We all get too hung up on how many followers we have or how many likes each picture receives and Snapchat couldn’t care less about that. Your followers can’t see how many people watch your snaps, or how many messages you get. It’s the most relaxed social media going. Secondly, I love that its instantaneous. There is no perfecting each image, editing it and then uploading. No fretting over whether your feed looks aesthetically pleasing and no time to worry about if you have the perfect light. instead you snap and it lasts 24 hours, providing a sense of urgency to your followers, as if they don’t watch it right away its gone forever (unless you save the snaps of course)
Here is an example of my very boring day so far in the office… (which always starts and ends with a dog walk!)
So thats all of the ways I’m trying to share a bit more of who I am with my audience, and how I hope to build relationships before I even meet some of my future couples. Being personable is hard, it feels very narcissistic but I hope that in actual fact it helps to give an insight into who I am, and you’ll be able to figure out if you want to work with me way before you enquire!
You can follow me here:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kerriemitchellphotography/
Instagram: @kerriemitchell
Snapchat: kerriemitchell
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