We recently connected with Shea James and have shared our conversation below.
Shea, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start big picture – what are some of biggest trends you are seeing in your industry?
The number one biggest trend I noticed this year in the marketing industry is the POWER of short video posts: TikToks and Reels – the content all business owners dread making. As a freelance social media marketer and content creator, I have seen the amazing results that video posts get vs. photos. As for my clients, I know they are busy business owners and physically can’t film themselves everyday of the week, so I try to schedule out their video content on the busiest traffic days on their social media. There is no other way around the the new Facebook, Instragram and TikTok algorithms – video content will always do better and it shows in the analytics. I have posted videos of all different lengths for clients and every time without fail, the shorter videos get double the amount of engagements and views. So business owners, I know it’s not fun to make videos all day…but it works.
The second biggest trend I noticed is the use of Canva designs on social media for content. I would even say that it’s becoming the more user-friendly version of Photoshop and Illustrator combined. It’s simple..If you don’t have content for a post, you can use Canva’s free images, edit a template, add in your info and create a cool poster in minutes to post on any platform. I personally use Canva all the time as a marketer to design quick promotional fliers for events, sales, and hiring ads for my clients.
The third major trend that has emerged this past year is the preference of using vertical vs. horizontal photos on social media, especially on Instagram. I like this new trend as a photographer because sometimes I prefer to shoot vertical photos to make sure everything fits in the frame properly. This trend allows me to post my photos in a larger format without cropping and it looks more aesthetically pleasing on the feed. So next time you want to tilt your phone to the side… keep it up, and turn that vertical photo into a Reel later!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?
Hello! My name is Shea James, I am a local photographer and social media marketer in Austin Tx and the business owner of “Shea K. James Photography & Marketing”. I started my business last year, shortly after I graduated from Midwestern State University with my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, with an emphasis in photography and minor in printmaking. I have always had a passion for creativity, art, photography, and helping others, so I figured why not combine all of these things and start a business doing what I love.
I offer photography and videography services for stylized portraits, family photos, local events, food, products, content, and business headshots. Whether you want an on-site, studio, outdoor shoot, an artistic style, or commercial photoshoot – I can do it all. I also offer a wide variety of social media marketing services for small business owners, such as scheduling posts, creating tiktoks, hashtag research, promoting sales, running paid ads, engaging with followers, setting up business accounts, and more! As a small business owner, I understand how time consuming and draining self promotion on social media can be. That’s why I enjoying helping my clients achieve their marketing goals with my expertise so they can enjoy social media without the extra stress.
What makes my business unique is that I offer content creation sessions alongside my marketing packages to help my clients build up content for me to schedule out and post for them. I think this is definitely one of my clients favorite services that I offer because they just book one session with me for a few hours, they get a few months worth of content, and I take care of the rest. Another service I offer that my clients enjoy is sharing in local Facebook groups to network with potential customers. It has been so successful for all my clients that I created my own small business Facebook group as an extra feature to my basic marketing package to promote local networking in the Austin area. My goal is to help connect customers and business owners together while encouraging to support local businesses and shopping small.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding aspect of being creative and offering photography and social media marketing services to other small business owners is being able to meet and connect with other like-minded people. I really enjoy helping them accomplish their marketing goals and hearing their feedback about how well their business is doing since starting marketing services with me. I feel like with my fine arts degree I can offer a unique style to basic marketing strategies and content creation for my clients.
Overall, it makes me feel like I’m truly apart of and giving back to the local community… not only because I’m helping other small businesses grow, but because I get to network and connect with local customers and other business owners that share the same passions as me.
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
Social media in general has been very helpful, but specifically Facebook has really stood out to me as a good source for new clients. So far, I have networked with all of my clients through Facebook and still have new customers reach out to me because they saw a Facebook post that I shared days ago thats still circulating around or it was suggested to them because one of their friends commented or shared it. The main reason I use Facebook for self promotion is because you can insert clickable links into your posts and direct people to your portfolio, website, and/or other social media platforms. Another reason I really enjoy Facebook is the local group feature. Majority of my clients have found me by commenting on my posts and saving my contact info in small business groups. It’s really helpful when trying to reach your target clientele.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sheakjames.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/photography_shea/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sheakjamesphotography
Image Credits
Shea K. James