So much has already been said about Instagram’s decline as a photo sharing platform. And for good reason! The majority of skilled and renowned photographers are unanimous in their contempt for Instagram with its heavily commercialized philosophy and lack of growth opportunities. As a result, more and more connoisseurs of quality photography start looking for other alternatives that are more suited to their needs and providing more freedom for their artistic expression. Well, to our mind, one of such platforms is Twitter with its multiple tools and extensive support for creative personalities. In this post, we’re going to cover five useful tips to help you make the most of Twitter as a photographer.
#1 Post as Often as You Like
Generally, the consensus on Instagram was to post once a day, but not more than twice a day. You didn’t want to dominate someone’s feed with a slew of photos. But with Twitter, you’re definitely encouraged to be more active. Of course, as with anything else, you shouldn’t go overboard and strike the right balance, but you can safely post images in stunning 4K resolution several times a day without worrying you’re spamming someone’s timeline! Just like with Instagram, you can edit your images to make it look even more attractive and professional.
(See more here to know which editing software to use for the best photos.)
#2 It’s Not Just About Photos
Unlike Instagram, you don’t need to show off you photography skills by posting professionally taken pictures. Truth be told, this is unlikely to compel someone to follow you on Twitter.
Twitter encourages you to talk about topics you genuinely care about, ask questions, spark discussions, respond to other tweets, share your expertise and experience with other photographers, etc. Have fun with quips and jokes and don’t take yourself too seriously. And make sure to be courteous to people who follow. That’s the philosophy Twitter has adopted long before your migration to this platform. So stay loyal to it.
You can also use Twitter to retweet other things you like, find useful or helpful, which is a good way to show support for other photographers’ work.
#3 Consider the Crop
One thing that can be frustrating when posting pictures on Twitter is their photo preview crop. They used to utilize AI to detect faces and find the best preview. But they have since ditched that for a number of other, more flexible and versatile features. Today, you can post a single 4×5 photo on Twitter with no crop to the photo preview. What you see is virtually what you get. When you post two images, the aspect ratio changes to 7×8 for both of them. But you can simply click on the photo to see the full thing. With three images, the photo you select first will be a 7×8 vertical crop with the following two photos in a 4×7 horizontal crop. And finally, with the max of four images, Twitter puts them in a 2×2 grid with two having a 2×1 horizontal crop. This may result in some strange previews that may appear less than ideal. So, considering the crop is just something to keep in mind when posting your projects.
#4 Hashtags
Using hashtags on Twitter will be a bit different than on its Instagram counterpart. Twitter is more restricted by character limits, but hashtags still can come in handy here. You just want to post fewer of them. Try to cap it out at three or four intentional tags. So, if you’re a film photographer, consider including a broad hashtag like ‘film photography’ and then narrow it down to include film stock and camera used.
You can also search relevant hashtags to find fellow photographers and discover some cool tips and tricks that will help you improve on your skills and professionalism.
#5 Engage Genuinely and Productively
The nature of the social media beast is that in order to grow, you must engage. So, some photographers have a very transactional approach to interacting online. But if you’re genuinely interested in photography and have an appreciation for the art, interacting online in a real honest way is something you should strive for. And Twitter is the platform that can help you with that.
One of the notable advantages of Twitter is that it enables you to easily interact with like-minded people. Twitter is better suited for maintaining constructive and positive discussions and promoting the flow of expertise and professional knowledge. Twitter encourages photographers to take their support for their fellow photographers to the next level by using their platform to bring awareness or show appreciation to their work. And it provides plentiful tools for that. You can quickly retweet the post you liked, reply to it with genuine positivity and otherwise engage with people whose work inspires you.
