I had an amazing photo shoot to revamp my website with Vinita Salomé from Vinita Salomé Photography last week and the results are outstanding.
Being so excited by these images, I wanted to immediately change my Facebook profile pic to get the inspiration flowing for my redesign and to share Vinita’s amazing talent. Of course not leaving myself anytime to do it, I added the photo and walked away. Then I remembered that Facebook automatically creates a notification and shares your new profile pic with everyone as the comments and reactions started coming in! Too late..! Had I given myself more time I would have googled how to turn of profile pic notifications!! (FYI, after you change your profile picture, directly change the audience setting to Only Me.)
The amount of likes and comments were overwhelming, and from some who I hadn’t heard from in years! I felt a little embarrassed with so much attention, which set me thinking about why was this image in particular so well received.
It’s quite simple – the image that Vinita took is a fabulous image.
I didn’t go to the beauty parlour, or have anyone do my make-up, and there is no photo-shop magic going on here. This is photography talent at it’s best: a natural ability to create a connection between 2 people, that opens up, and shares their story. This is years of experience and skill, giving amazing results.
In our click-tastic world, people have realised that images help tell a story and more recently, we are being visually bombarded from all corners. I love looking at what my friends and family have been up to and the photos that they post literally show us their adventures, but we have been so inundated with visual messages that we become desensitised to all that we are looking at and reacting/not reacting to photos becomes automatic.
So when a well considered image pops up in our feed of someone we know – we are more inclined to click or comment. Not just because its a nice image, but a good image tells a story and people want to be a part of that story. Whether its a memory triggered (“Wow! Haven’t changed a bit 
” – more than 15 years since I saw this person) or an insight that the image gives into that persons narrative – being connected to that story is the trigger.
And looking at this from a business point of view.. if you want to engage with your clients and invite them into your story, make sure your images are out of this world!
If you want to read more about how to use social media effectively – check out this article by Aireen from Tenfold .
Special thanks to Vinita Salomé from Vinita Salomé Photography and Eef Cafe for all the amazing coffee over the year and letting us shoot in their eclectic premises!
