A Brand-new Social Network for Photographers: PhotogRefers.com

There is no doubt about it: promoting your work and portfolio on social media is essential for your photography career. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to attract attention and drive traffic on huge networks such as Facebook, Pinterest or even Twitter. That is because the promoted posts and paid advertising campaigns are attracting a lot of attention. Have you ever heard about PhotogRefers.com? Apparently it is the next big thing in the social media scene. The best thing about it is the fact that it is designed especially for photographers and creative communities.

1 aaaa

Effective advertising doesn’t come cheap, and most photographers simply cannot afford to invest the amount of money necessary to build a decent audience on Facebook or Pinterest. PhotogRefers might just be the budget-effective solution that photographers have been searching for. It was the summer of 2012, that Chris Becker started working on what would become PhotogRefers.com in March, 2014. The concept of the platform is very similar to how others in Southern California are built: sharing and receiving referrals from peers.

Main Features of PhotogRefers.com

Basically, it is a social media platform where photographers, creative artists and clients come together, share their work and advertise their business. It doesn’t work as a directory or classified listing. It is a website that receives constant updates of works and photographs from all over the globe.

“We built this for the community. It is a win-win for everyone involved.”

The network was launched earlier this year (in March), and in only 10 days since this happened it received over 1.500 photographers who created their profiles and began using the service. We expect the network to grow in the following months. Let’s take a look at some of PhotogRefers’s main features:

1 bbbb

  • Like many other social networks before it, it gives you the opportunity to engage with new people, share your work and build an audience. You will not only be attracting random people and potential leads, but industry experts and artists that share your beliefs and work ethic. Within the platform you can “friend” other photographers to follow their work and posts.
  • Setting up your profile: it is extremely simple to set-up your profile and portfolio. You have to list your name, business information and category of services (services include portraits, events, commercial, boudoir etc..). PhotogRefers is not the type of place where you just slap some images and forget about everything. You absolutely need to update your profile with fresh visual content as often as possible.

“Only post 1 image at a time. You don’t want your images to compete with each other for clicks and views. Post it on PhotogRefers.com and then share it to your other social networks. The more love your image receives, the higher it’ll rank in our gallery and the more likely it’ll be seen by someone wanting to hire you. (Source: www.fstoppers.com)

1 ccc

  • There is an option of “adding a referral group” which will enable you to send out notifications if you are looking to hire or trying to pass leads. Let’s say you want to hire a second photographer for an event. You can do this with the help of the platform. There are many other options available to you via the service, which relies on three levels of referrals: email, friends and the referral group.
  • With the interactive tool you can favorite images, to have them show at the top of the gallery. This is an excellent way of highlighting your best works and receiving more exposure within the industry.
  • No Need for Registration: If you are simply looking for a professional photographer, (for an event or shooting) you don’t have to fill out information about yourself. You can simply go to the website and fill the request form for services.  Information such as price range, preferences and number of photographers can be seen by registered premium users.  When the allotted amount of photographers fulfills the request the lead will disappear. This makes everything super effective.

All in all, although the community is relatively new, its success rests solely on the shoulder of photographers and artists. PhotogRefers has partnered with 30 companies and they are offering amazing discounts and promos. You have absolutely nothing to lose if you attempt to leverage the power of a photography-oriented social networking platform.

Print Friendly
About Dave Hughes

Computer Science graduate, Dave Hughes is the pragmatic guy of our team. No wonder he likes to call himself a ‘cool nerd’. His brightness and attention to detail are reflected into his new tech-inspired articles and reviews. He loves writing about new tools and useful resources designed to ease your effort.