Brad Lane Photography – Sub-brand Project

As part of my challenge to build my own creative brand, I have made the decision to finally produce a professional photography body. Specifically, motorsports photography has been a great interest of mine for the last 10 years. In the last 12 months this passion has solidified itself in my bank of creative skills, so much so that I have also been able to invest in a Canon EOS 7D MkII. This DSLR is able to shoot as quick as 10fps on continuous shooting, for sports photography this is extremely useful and if anything the most beneficial utility the camera has. It means that I am able to shoot bursts whilst tracking the subject and have a much greater chance at landing the perfect shot.

This project is set to take off for 2019, my aim is to gain a following through social media in anticipation of landing interest from the 'men in suits' of motorsport. As of today I have posted 4 photos taken from 2 different events in motorsport and action sports. The immediate response I have collated is great and I have been able to plan my next moves of my social marketing strategy due to the analytics gathered through social channels.

When posting my first post (as seen on the left), I planned what I would be able to do in order to reach the greatest possible audience as quickly as possible. The algorithms and systems social channels use prioritises quick audience engagement and after even a few hours in some cases, moves onto the next relevant post. Thus the previous post is lost in the endless feed of images and status'.

To get around this issue (yes, I believe to an extent this can be considered an issue for creatives and start up brands), I did the following:

You could consider these my own social marketing tips, but don't hold me to it.

• Keep the caption short and relevant, don't rant about something you don't want EVERYONE to read.

• Mention (tag) as many people relevant to the photo as possible. In my case this includes tagging drivers/sponsors/brands displayed on the cars or branding in the shot.

• Add a location to the photo. It means your photo appears on location searches and explore pages, therefore more people will see and potentially engage.

• Use hashtags, as many as feasible. I do this in a comment under my post, you don't want your followers or potential followers being overwhelmed with useless words if they've already found your post. Keeping them in a comment hides them from the initial post appearance but still shows them on searches and explore pages.

• Add alternative text. This is a new tool for me but something I am very keen to keep up with. It allows visually impaired users to understand what the photo consists of, a short explanation of what is going on will boost the value of the post in the back end of the social channel systems.

• Create a business account. With this you can view statistics on your posts engagement and the information about your audience.

More soon!