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Facebook Fans of Photography [Stats]

Are you a photographer

A couple of months ago I asked the Scott Wyden Imagery Facebook community to take part in a quick survey. There were seven questions, each with a yes and no answer. All seven of the questions were optional and only to be answered if it related to the person. The unrelated answers are considered blanks. Also, each of the questions are general, not specifically about my fan page.

As I write this there are 2,972 people on my Facebook fan page. Although not everyone answered the survey questions, please keep that in mind when looking at the statistics.

Are you a photographer

Basically… you’re a fan of a photography fan page. Are you a photographer yourself?

  • 90.6% are photographers (most likely not your customers)
  • 6.3% are not photographers (most likely your customers)
  • 3.1% declined to answer
Are you a photographer
Are you a photographer

Are you a customer?

Are you a customer of photography fan pages that you’ve ‘liked‘ or do you just enjoy the content?

  • 32.0% of fans are customers
  • 64.0% of fans are not customers
  • 4% of fans had to answer
Are you a customer?
Are you a customer?

Were you recommended to become a fan?

Would you recommend a page that you’re a ‘fan‘ of to friends? People who said no are most likely saying that because they don’t want to ‘spam‘ their friends with extra Facebook wall notes.

  • 37.1% would recommend to others
  • 60% would not recommend to others
  • 2.9% declined to answer
Were you recommended to become a fan?
Were you recommended to become a fan?

If you’re a photographer, did you land a photo job with a customer specifically through your Facebook fan page?

This one is self-explanatory. Are you tracking where your leads come from? Do you ask phone calls how they heard of you, etc? If so, did you land a job from your Facebook fan page?

  • 18.5% have generated leads and converted them to customers through their Facebook fan page
  • 74.1% have not gained customers through their Facebook fan page
  • 7.4% declined to answer
If you're a photographer, did you land a photo job with a customer specifically through your Facebook fan page?
If you're a photographer, did you land a photo job with a customer specifically through your Facebook fan page?

If you’re a customer, did you find a photographer specifically through their Facebook fan page?

This one is also self-explanatory. Did you purchase photography prints or hire your wedding or event photographer after seeing them on Facebook first?

  • 20% have hired a photographer after finding them on Facebook
  • 50% have no hired a photographer through Facebook
  • 30% declined to answer
If you're a customer, did you find a photographer specifically through their Facebook fan page?
If you're a customer, did you find a photographer specifically through their Facebook fan page?

As a customer, do you find that blogs from photographers you follow have been helpful?

Does following a photographer’s blog help you, as a customer, to learn photography?

  • 60% of have been learned from a photographer’s blog
  • 0% have not learned
  • 40% declined to answer
As a customer, do you find that blogs from photographers you follow have been helpful?
As a customer, do you find that blogs from photographers you follow have been helpful?

Do you find that photographers are blogging more for other photographers?

When browsing photography blogs, it is more common for photographers to create their blog content targeted to other photographers. The problem with this is that the content is less likely to attract customers.

  • 45.7% find photography blog articles directed towards other photographers
  • 37.1% find photography blog articles directed towards customers
  • 17.1% declined to answer
Do you find that photographers are blogging more for other photographers?
Do you find that photographers are blogging more for other photographers?

Insight

In addition to my short survey, I wanted to share an interesting statistic and how I interpret the information. According to the Facebook Insights for my fan page, only 5.7% (at the time of me writing this) interact on the page. That is under 200 people out of the almost 3,000 people who are a fan of the page.

My interpretation of that information is that majority of the people “like” a page just because, or they are friends or friends of friends, etc. Not everyone “likes” a Facebook fan page because they want to interact with the photographer.

Do you think I am wrong?

In Closing

So there you have it, some basic stats from the Scott Wyden Imagery Facebook fan page community. I’m not sure why people declined to answer, but I didn’t want to make the survey mandatory. I hope that, as a photographer, you are able to walk away with some information to help guide you in future blog articles or social media posting.

What did you learn from these stats? While going through the information, did anything come to mind? Is there something you plan on changing, adjusting or writing about? Please comment with your thoughts.

Thanks for reading and happy shooting,

Scott

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Comments

401 responses to “Facebook Fans of Photography [Stats]”

  1. Scott Webb | Nuwomb Avatar
    Scott Webb | Nuwomb

    Pretty awesome insight!

    Props on the large Facebook Following too!

    1. Thanks Scott. Glad to share some interesting stats!

  2. Fascinating. I wonder what the same survey would look like if you applied it to viewers of Flickr streams?

    1. I’m sure those numbers would be quite interesting as well!

  3. Khürt L Williams Avatar
    Khürt L Williams

    I shared a link to this post on a photogs group on Facebook. Interesting info.

    1. Thanks so much Khurt!

  4. Love looking at numbers… thanks for sharing, and kudos on the FB numbers. Do you find yourself adding people or do most people add you?

    1. I have never added anyone to my Facebook Fan page. I have only recommended for people to “like” it. Same goes for my Newsletter. It’s not good practice to just add people.

      1. I almost never add anyone to any of social network site. But it’s good to know that you reached those numbers doing what you’re doing. I sure it was a lot of work social networking with all those people to get them on your FB. The way I see I get maybe 1 a day now. I’ll need 6 a day for a year to hit your number. That’s a lot of work!

        1. Thanks dude. Really the trick is not trying, but rather being myself. Not trying to tweet a certain way. Not trying to do things as the experts say to do it. Doing what I love and sharing it in an honest, true way.

  5. Hi Scott! Very interesting! And thank you for sharing.
    I have to say, that even though I haven’t done any survey among fans of my own page- I was suspecting very similar statistics.
    Good or bad? I think every page owner should judge for themselves as they set the goal of having their page.
    And I find that the Pareto principle, in general, has its reflection in your statistic as well, which makes sense, I think.

    Thanks for the statistic and your short interpretation! :)

    1. Hey Joanna. They can def. be taken in a positive or negative way. But in the end, you are right, it depends on the page owner to use the results as they want.

  6. Honestly I’ve been looking for some insight into how “likes” translate into “sales” so to speak.

    Of the 50 likes my page has received since April 1st I can safely say that only a hand full of people actually interact with the page.

    I get “likes” from the same people – even according to google analytics my facebook referral new vs returning visits is less than 50% new.

    This tells me that your statistics are correct consistent with my own experience.

    People don’t want to share your page with their friends, only a small percent of people will interact with your page, and of those that interact even a smaller percent are going to be potential consumers.

    Very nice analysis – next thing we need to find out is – Is there a way to convert more likes into sales?

    1. Thanks for your comment John. Re: Likes. 5.2% of my Facebook fans “Interact” on an on-going basis. Majority of people, from what I can tell, prefer less interacting and more eating up the content instead. But that could just be my “fans” It depends on the company, person or page.

      1. I agree if you have something to sell, people will buy. I find most people never interact or comment. Hell I have a ton of friends that I know very well on FB and they almost never interact or leave a comment. If there is something for them to look at and buy, the chances of you making the sale is a lot higher.

        1. Have you looked at “like” insights. Those are quite interesting as well :-)

  7. Kick ass post, first of all Scott. Love the information gathered and the way it is displayed.

    The trend you find is not exclusive to photography…check this out.
    1 million fans = 826 likes per post + 309 comments per update (yes that low…)
    https://www.penn-olson.com/2011/05/17/facebook-business-fan-page/

    I do think that sometimes in social media, photographers think about peers as their audience instead of non-photographers. While both can be an audience (that is how I operate, though I do want non-photographer engagement a lot as a photographer is not gonna hire me), focus too much on peers I find annoying. LOL.

    I do agree with what you wrote about why people “like” a page. But also sometimes it seems like it is not even about the work. If I write something personal about me that is not image related, I get more “likes” than on my actual work, despite the fact that many people email me etc. and tell me they like my work. Actually posting it and it translating into likes doesn’t have same impact as me even writing about my mood. LOL. I guess posting work or treating the fan page as a biz portal is less popular with people versus people seeing my page almost like a personal profile they are interacting with.

    Again, great post.

    1. Also very interesting findings Trudy. The funny thing is that one never knows if the hard work it takes to market on Facebook will pay off. What are the chances, you know? But… it happens. I’ve been hired through Facebook already and you never know if it could happen again.

  8. I dont have a FB fan page, so cant really comment on how many ‘Likes’ I would have or the interaction that I would receive. However I do ‘Like’ lots of other peoples pages – (photographers / bands / authors etc.) I use these more as a news service than to actually interact with them. I have far too many friends, both real and virtual on FB to be able to spend time conversing with each and every one of them, in short there is far too much traffic and a lot of noise going on.

    Flickr is in my opinion more of a gallery with people moving in circles of their chosen interest (portrait / landscape etc). I’ve never really thought of Flickr as a vehicle for non-photographers to go hunting for images to put on the wall, possibly again because of the vast amount of noise and ‘snaps’ that are up there.

    With the advent of G+ it will be interesting to see how things pan out – ‘Togs seem to be in circles of ‘togs and maybe not reaching out the the general viewer. However it’s early days yet and only time will tell with that medium as it becomes more mainstream.

    1. Flickr has changed a lot over the years. I am not sure how well Google+ will do with all the nonsense that gets posted over there, but it will be fun to see for sure!

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