Should going viral on social media be your goal? In today’s episode, I’m diving into why going viral isn’t always profitable, and sharing a few examples of reels that have actually helped my business thrive. Plus, I am announcing the launch of my free content creation challenge AND the Shine Online Wedding Photography Content Mastermind!

GOING VIRAL

On Quianna Marie Weekly, we’re chatting about business growing pains, finding genuine connections, and celebrating wins of all sizes through the lens of a photographer at heart. Sprinkled throughout stories and interviews with past clients, photographers and other business owners this podcast is designed to help you step into your purpose and to truly create a life you’re proud of, a life worth photographing and sharing.

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Review the Show Notes:

The Reel That Got Nearly 6 Million Views (1:50)

13,000 Views And More Bookings (6:03)

700 Views And Still Connecting (7:48)

Shine Online Wedding Photography Content Mastermind (10:13)

What’s Inside The Mastermind (16:03)

5 Reasons You Need To Join In The Mastermind (21:03)

Connect With Content – Free Content Challenge (23:54)

Mentioned in this Episode:

Connect With Content – FREE CONTENT CHALLENGE

Shine Online Wedding Photography Content Mastermind

5.9 MILLION VIEWS – Live video breakdown of “everything I did and why i think it performed well”

Review the Transcript:

Good morning, Beautiful. Welcome back and I am so so happy you’re here. Today we are going to be peeling back behind those Instagram squares and behind those reels and tiktoks and really just sharing why going viral isn’t always profitable. I’m going to break down three unique posts that I have shared that happened to be reels, but I really just want to break down exactly how they rolled out.

Why I think I got so many extra views on one why a couple didn’t actually perform that great. And then one that Lainey Wilson sent me a heart and if you don’t know Laney Wilson she is an up and coming country artists who have been following closely for years. I got to see her at coalition’s winery, which is a wedding venue that I adore back in Northern California. And yeah, she’s been on Yellowstone, Natalie, she’s kind of a big deal. And she sent me a heart through Instagram, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. So we are going to dive into why going viral isn’t always profitable, and how we can create content that converts and connects with our ideal client no matter how many views or likes we get. Welcome to Quianna Marie weekly, a podcast for creatives who love to celebrate wins, big or small by dancing in the kitchen photographers who are excited to serve their clients and friends who are ready to chase really, really big dreams.

You can find all of the resources mentioned in this episode at quianna marie.com/podcast. Join me as I share weekly motivation, chat about growing pains, finding genuine connections and celebrating your wins through the lens of a photographer at heart. Come join me for a dance party. Ready loves though.

All right, so let’s start with a bang because I want to share some numbers here. I feel really proud about a couple of these reels that have performed well. But I want to share this one that nearly got me 6 million views. It is currently sitting at 5.9 million views. And it’s just incredible. I can’t believe this popped off it’s still going I still get likes I still get comments on it. I still can see there’s little reshares on it. And it’s just so fun to see how quickly it’s grown.

So this reel I believe did really well because it paired with a Mrs. Doubtfire sound bite okay and that audio is Hope is all the way to your help is on the way that was the sound for that and really all it was was a bride she was getting her bustle put together and it was just kind of you can tell there was just a little bit of chaos going on. Right and so there was a little clip of another bridesmaid actually believe this was my my bride Melissa I think it was her sister Eliana that came running to help save the day. And the text was over it.

So it was a shorter clip. I think the the actual reel is only like six or seven seconds. And there’s text over the reel. And it says something about you know, like when one bridesmaid is there to save the day she has been in multiple weddings like get out of the way. Well, I think this performs so well is because obviously it was a trending audio. This was earlier this year when you know Mrs. Doubtfire was all over the place. I’m sure you remember that.

That sound ringing in your ear.

But what made it so fun is people were sharing this. So this was incredible, because it wasn’t just friends that I know are getting married, right? But it was girlfriends that may not even be engaged that are sending these to their friends like so basically, it was like this wedding party party where all these girls were just sending them to their best friends, sending them to their cousins and saying, Hey, we better check our bustled to make sure that it’s not a headache when we you know when it’s your turn or whatever, right. Some people were so concerned.

They’re like, what’s going on? Like, what do you mean this bridesmaids been in 27 Different weddings. I’ve been in so many different weddings, right? So there were so many micro conversations going on on that reel. And this is why it blew up. Now I want to kind of break down the stats for you and share. This is what helped bought me it probably gained an extra 1000 Maybe 1500 new followers literally within like that week, which was incredible.

However, going viral like this was kind of shocking, because I’m like, wait a second. At that time. There was you know, 1 million views, 3 million views, 4 million views. We hit over 5 million views and I’m thinking what the heck, I thought I would wake up to so many new followers. And I didn’t I feel like a lot of us today are not hitting that follow button as quickly right. Like we’re just kind of like, Oh, that was cute.

That was funny. Maybe you go back to their page and like we’re just, we, I feel like today we are so protective of our our feeds, and what we are, you know soaking in and what we are allowing into our daily feeds really that I didn’t get as many followers as I expected for something to hit so many views and I just wanted to Totally blatantly honest, and let you know that I don’t think I actually booked one wedding from that reel. And now who knows, right? I mean, like, this could be tough because maybe someone found it.

They looked through my website, they searched me on Pinterest, they did some digging, and then they reached out to me. So maybe it doesn’t seem like they found me through that reel. And that’s totally possible. But what I want to really truly hit home today is that it really just was a fun reel that popped off that I had no control over.

Okay, like, like, like there, I want to say there was strategy involved. And I actually have another post an actual real about, I think it was like a live video that I can leave for you to show like the actual breakdown of everything I did and why I think it performed well. But ultimately, it didn’t bring in this flood of inquiries. So that’s kind of why I wanted to start with that bang today to just remind you that just because you’re getting tons of hits and likes and, and hearts and comments and shares, doesn’t always convert to sales. So now I want to share another real.

This one actually hit 13,000 views, which which is a lot like I’m not here to say like that’s not a big number. I mean, obviously compared to 6 million, it’s not as much, but I feel like that was like a little micro viral situation. For me. And it was a real about one of my best friends out here in Arizona Mallory, her engagement was out in Sedona. It was a really cute clip, a whole bunch of behind the scenes while we were walking through the red rocks, and it was just so fun.

And that’s what sped up a whole bunch of shares and comments. And what was really fun is so you know, Mallory is a friend that moved out here with her with her now husband, they just recently got married. And so we had a lot of mutual friends back in California in our hometown. So that was really fun because it drummed up a lot of comments and likes from mutual friends of ours.

So I think that’s what helps kind of make it go a little micro viral for me. But what really was converting for me is I actually had about four brides reach out because they saw that reel, and they wanted to inquire about engagements and allotments and just photos in Sedona one just wanted to reach out and look for locations, which I was happy to share. And then a couple more were like actually inquiring and booked me to do their elopement in Sedona.

So this is where the power comes with sharing locations, safely sharing your your craft and your business and your offers and your wedding collections, getting them out there and actually fueling those referrals. So that was one that had about 13,000 views I was really proud of but I was mostly thankful for those actual booked brides. I want to share another one that had about 707 views and counting. So it didn’t even crack 1000 views. But it was actually another engagement session slash it was a micro mini session that a family friend of ours book for her daughter. And it was just the sweetest thing because it was a great way for them to get a taste of me they were recently engaged and they just really were just a really sweet couple and they wanted to celebrate their engagement.

So we took some photos during the like a mini marathon day right now, I took that reel and I had seen that Laney Wilson who is a country artist, I’m obsessed with her. She’s like Belle bottom country, I just love her story. I feel like any entrepreneurial story about a country artists that has just like doing the thing and like chasing those big dreams is just so inspiring for me and Lisa and Laney Wilson is that is one of those girls, for me that is just I just love watching her story. So I saw that she posted a new release song.

And I took that song, I saw that she was the only audio person for it. And I knew I just knew that that might be an opportunity to get her attention, right. And so I use that audio, I made sure to actually tag her and do it properly through Instagram and just like record it and then tag her like, I used her original audio on a cute little clip from this reel.

And she liked it. Oh my god, you guys like she like, like, I have to like screenshot it and show you because it’s it’s such a big deal. And she’s actually she’s so about her fans. And she’s, you know, commented on things before or you know, she’s responded to things if I comment on things like it’s just it’s just so fun. And I really wanted to include this story in this little roundup of three unique reels that actually have done something for my business because it’s fun, right?

Like this is the power of social media you can actually connect with everyone like it’s you know, if you use that strategy if you use that, you know if you’re connecting with content like that is like that’s what it’s about. Right? And so anyway, I just thought that was a really fun because of course my couple they love that real they’re just so sweet.

She shared it I made actually made Maddie a collaborator on that as well. So it popped up on her feed. It’s just really cute. Right so this is another Jen toll reminder that going viral doesn’t always have to be profitable, right? It doesn’t have to be these like vanity metrics. It’s really truly about us showing up sharing our work and connecting with the right clients, right? This leads me to something so, so exciting. Oh my gosh, you guys. So after the first of the year, I will be hosting my very first mastermind.

Like, I just have to pause and take a moment here and just breathe. Because this has been a passion project for mine. for literally years, I have talked about launching a mini course launching one on one, you know, coaching, which I have done on the side. But this hasn’t really been like a thing yet, right. And so finally, I’m pulling the trigger, and I’m just doing it.

So I’m really, really excited to welcome you to and introduce shine online, a wedding photography, content mastermind. So this is very useful. If you have a hard time coming up with content to post, if you are starting to realize that you’re you’re following on Instagram is mostly other photographers and not you know, couples that are looking to get engaged or recently engaged couples like this, you know, you notice that you agreed on a lot of competitors or friends, I should say in the industry, and not actually people who are trying to book a wedding. And if you struggle with that notion, you’re thinking, why can’t my dream clients just trust me?

Like, what am I missing? And I also don’t want to throw shade, because I have experienced this myself for many, many years in the past, where you look at other photographers who seem to be thriving, and I say seem to be thriving, because who knows what goes on behind those tiny boxes and those, those pretty Instagram squares, right? But they look busy, right? They’re always booking weddings. You know, they’re on airplanes all the time. Like you’re looking at their work, and you’re thinking, What the heck, like I said, I don’t want to throw shade. But you’re thinking their photos, like I my photos look like that, like what’s missing.

So, I personally believe you’re amazing.

You have so much to offer.

Your Wedding client experience is through the roof, hands down, just just incredible. But you’re not booking those dream weddings. So what’s holding you back, baby? What is holding you back. And to be perfectly honest, you have everything you need in your pocket. And I’m really, really just talking about your phone. Okay, I don’t use any fancy equipment. I mean, obviously, my, my cameras are professional. But when it comes to recording video and content behind the scenes, I just use my phone.

LEARN MORE ABOUT SHINE ONLINE MASTERMIND

And what’s crazy is, I’d say over the last decade, I have been recording my journey I have been photographing behind the scenes stuff. I’ve been photographing clips of, you know, just videos here and there. And just honestly just capturing the shenanigans like I love the adventure. I love sharing what’s really going on in my heart. I love sharing that I’m reading love notes for my clients and thinking man behind the scenes I love showing the like the hard work and all of the love and attention to detail that goes into creating these magnificent weddings, right. And then I also love sharing how it doesn’t take a lot to create a really incredible wedding.

You don’t need to spend a lot of money to do that. Right. So I just I love sharing the journey. And what I quickly realized there are over this last decade of me just recording everything as if, you know, I don’t want to be like a wannabe MTV show, right? Like, I’m not trying to be on TLC.

As I started creating all this content, I quickly noticed that there was a strategy. And as I was building my business, I not only was just capturing random stuff, I was being really intentional with what I was capturing. And what I was prompting my couples to do on wedding days how I was interacting with wedding parties, even on mini session days, right? Like I am a photographer.

So I photograph a lot I do family portraits, I host many sessions a couple times a year that I know my couples look forward to. Obviously, you know, I photograph weddings, destination weddings, elopements around the world boudoir content photos, like I do it all okay, and I love it. I am obsessed with helping people celebrate the best days of their life, whether that is them loving Monday mornings or waking up on their wedding day, and it just been the best day ever. And so I just I love capturing that. And what I quickly realized, like I said, it’s like, there’s a strategy, right?

I love not only capturing those moments, but creating them. And so I started really like praying on this. I started meditating on this. And I’m just thinking, how can I bundle this up? Because to be perfectly honest, and I want to walk you through this journey. From the beginning. I honestly thought that I was booking all these weddings. And I was you know, growing rapidly as a wedding photographer in my hometown and then even survived through the pandemic and was able to thrive here in Arizona and in a completely new state.

I honestly thought it was just because I was nice. Like I’m not even kidding. Like I always put people first. I am always thinking of others and I love serving and creating an unforgettable experience in person and what I I quickly noticed is, even though other people were doing this, I’m not trying to dock anyone right now like I know you’re doing all this work to I know you like I hope I know you have I haven’t met you in real life like I feel like our souls are made of the same star does. And I know you like I know you’re doing this. But why?

Why are so many other photographers not sharing it? Why are they not posting it? Why are they not putting it online? And I know that there can be like going back to those reels and those vanity metrics where we’re thinking, Well, I don’t want to be braggy or I don’t want other people to think I’m self centered, or I don’t want other people to think. Right.

It’s always about other people. But let me remind you, that’s that’s the gift like that is the power it is other people, other people think so how can we show up online, share our personality, share our heart share our passions with out making it about us and actually making it about those dreamy brides, those super happy and handsome grooms, those incredible couples that just want to work with us.

Okay, how are we doing that? I have broken down into this three month content mastermind for you guys and I just like so pumped. Okay, I’m gonna give you a little preview of what’s inside. Basically, we’re gonna break it down into three chunks, okay, because this is how my brain works. And I want to make sure that we’re all on the same page. So the first month will be devoted to all the content that you should be capturing. And I say should I’m encouraging you to capture before the wedding, okay, this is going to help you build trust legitness and professionalism and your content.

So just by what you’re putting online, we want to establish that you are not only the best, but you are the favorite, the favorite local photographer, and wedding vendor, we want to prove that you know, you are confident in your personality and in you know what you’re offering on that wedding day, you’re educating your couples, you’re sharing your adventures, it’s just all the fun stuff that you could do.

Leading up to the wedding month to we will be diving into content that we can create during the wedding. Now I’m talking like, learn how to easily bank a ton of content and behind the scenes videos and pics. Now if you’re thinking I’m not a videographer, Quianna, this sounds like a nightmare. I don’t want to document all this stuff.

I can’t even afford to have a third assistant to come and shoot behind the scenes for me like whatever you whatever you have going on in your mind right now, I just want to send you a little love. And a reminder that it’s so possible. In fact, I break down ways that you can easily set up a tripod capture behind the scenes, you can literally there’s this cute little gadget, I think it’s like less than 20 bucks on on Amazon that you can purchase that just clips right onto the top of your camera.

So there’s no excuse for you not to record behind the scenes while you’re photographing and doing your your daily stuff. I go over all of that. And I even go over tips and tricks that if you are too flustered to actually record video, how you can use your professional photos and strategize what you’re actually doing during the wedding. Okay, because like I said, we need to not let your wedding experience only live in real life. It needs to get online and just kind of create a ripple effect so others can find you.

Okay, okay, I’m getting excited. This third month of coaching, we will be really, really specializing in that after the wedding content, which is keeping the momentum going and easily book more weddings. Because I I’ve seen it, I’ve seen it where you know, we we are getting a lot better about sharing sneak peeks quickly. I know a lot of photography, friends that post up same day slideshows, and I think that’s incredible. But there’s something else that’s missing after that right after you share those sneak peeks. It’s like, the wedding was exciting, hopefully you post up a blog about it, if you’re even doing that these days.

And then it just kind of sits there, right. And then I feel like we lean on our couples and wedding parties and the parents of the bride and parents of the groom. And you know, that just other people do market our business. And that’s where we get it wrong. It’s not up to them, right? Like, we need to provide content for them to see to love and like and post and like want to share it. Okay, so this is what’s missing. Now, I want to go into some detail for you and I want to be really transparent about why this is not a tiktoks or a real course. Okay, I want to help kind of create that Mindset and Marketing behind what we’re doing.

Let’s create content that stands the test of time and the reason why I say this isn’t a real course or tick tock or YouTube group coaching program. The reason why this is not that is because I could spend literally all month or this whole entire program teaching you the ins and outs and buttons and texts and content and colors and transitions and all this fun stuff on Instagram.

And literally the next day they can have a whole new like, you know, client facing, you know, program whatever like they can have a new button They can have new things and these things are changing. So I don’t want us to get caught up in this rat race of keeping up with these tiktoks. And keeping up with these rails, I want to create a mindset for you, I want to help encourage you to look at business as a whole of who you are, what you’re offering, where you’re going. And no matter what platform or what social media platform is, that

is that’s in right now. It doesn’t matter because it’s changing, you should be able to use this content in your daily life, as well as put it online. And there should be no like boundaries when it comes to that. Okay, so are we gonna go over those reels?

And are we going to go over tips and tricks on tick tock like? Absolutely. That’s our open q&a is for, I’m happy to answer those specific questions about adding text bubbles, and, you know, creating really fun transitions. Yes, we’re going to go into that. But I really want to kind of just kind of pause and remind you that, I hope that you know, we have a basic understanding of that already. But it’s the concepts behind it.

Okay, it’s the mindset. I’m going to share with you five different reasons why I think we need to jump on board this mastermind and get it rolling. So number one, you want to book more weddings, not just more weddings, but more genuine, fun loving and kind hearted couples that can’t wait for you to photograph their sisters and our best friend’s weddings to you’re tired of kicking butt at your weddings only to come home to empty inboxes.

When you know you leave every wedding with everyone raving about how well you worked, how on your toes you were and they are raving about those photos, even though they’ve never seen them. Number two, you never know what to post. Besides posting your beautiful portfolio images. Your mind goes blank when it comes time to posting anything else.

Why does Instagram hate me?

Does that sound like something you might say? The truth is, is that your work is beautiful, but your soul and your life’s work are so much more impactful and memorable. So how do we create content that connects? Number three, you’re tired of chasing trends, who has the time to scroll for hours to find trends then bounce in front of the tripod to create fun and catchy and reels and tic TOCs the secret is to capture and share everything you’re already doing. Then just add cute, trendy music. That’s the easy part. trends can be so fun and it’s important to sprinkle in the ones you love if they really relate to your business and your personality. But if we continue to chase trends, we’ll always feel burned out. Let’s make posting content fun, relatable and honestly super easy. Number four, you need to make more vendor friends.

Does your network of family and friends feel like it’s shrinking? What if you could easily connect with vendors build genuine real life friendships and love those referrals roll in? Collaborations are a great way to connect with content, expand your network and have fun sharing about your favorite wedding vendors. We don’t have to make selling feel sleazy. We just need to create content that shares our passions and drops in a sale that others are just begging to buy.

And number five, wishing dream clients would just trust you. Now I mentioned this before without throwing shade. Do you ever look at photographers and think what the heck? Why are they so busy? My work looks like theirs. I don’t get it.

This is why this mastermind is not a photography or or Instagram program. It’s all about marketing and making genuine connections. I’m talking about real friendships here. The goal is to shine online and create magnetic content for our dream couples to find you. That’s what it’s all about them. So I hope you can join us we will be starting this January. I just can’t wait. So head over to link in the show notes for you to honestly just learn more. I am offering some like little connection calls. If you have any questions, please feel free to book a call with me. I’d love to hop on the like on a zoom chat to decide if it’s a good fit for us. And before you leave, if you’re thinking okay, I think I need this mastermind.

This sounds like a lot of fun. I want to hop on some calls with some other photographers bounce ideas, share really fun reels and tiktoks and trends and just create content that is evergreen, right? If that sounds like this sounds like really fun to you. I have a free challenge for you. So this is a connect with content challenge. It is specifically for wedding photographers, but you know me, I am all about learning and applying any type of education to my own personal business.

So if you happen to be, you know, in a different industry, you’re welcome like please join us. But this will be a five day masterclass is completely free to you. We will be starting next week. But I will make sure that it is available in the shop.

So if you are catching this episode at a later date, I’m so happy you’re here. I’m so happy that we found each other on the interwebs. But check out this free challenge. It’s going to be all about the types of content that you should be creating and I keep saying should that I encourage you to create to help build a brand that lasts For generations, okay?

Because I want to tell you a secret if you were only creating How to videos and educational content for your dream clients, you are missing out on so many opportunities for others to talk about your business, and to have it be so fluid and easy to share. So join us for that mastermind it is going to be a five day class, I’ll be hopping on just for a quick little training for five days in a row, it’s gonna be so fun.

So make sure you hit that connect with content training, it’s going to be so fun. I really hope you enjoyed this episode. I am just so grateful for you. I’m so grateful that you’re here. I have been sitting on this passion project for way too long. And be perfectly honest, I’ve just been waiting to find something that felt in true alignment with what I’m doing. And this is it. I have a passion for weddings. I am so incredibly passionate about people and capturing the best days of their lives. And like I mentioned before, honestly trying to help ignite some of those moments.

So we’re gonna go over all of that in the challenge and then of course, in the mastermind as well. So if you’d like to get a taste of working with me, head over to the show notes and click on that free challenge. I cannot wait to see you inside.

I hope you have a beautiful day and whip out your phone and record something fun today and post it. Alright, they keep on dancing. See you next week. That’s a wrap on another episode of Quianna Marie weekly. Thank you so much for your listenership and support. You can find the resources and show notes for this episode and more at Quianna marie.com/podcast. I’d be honored if you’d show your support by leaving a review and rating on your favorite podcast app. Until next time, keep on dancing.