Industry Insights Blog
How to Plan Your Holiday eCommerce Strategy on Social Media
If you haven’t started to plan your holiday ecommerce campaigns yet, now’s the time — the holiday season is just around the corner!
If you haven’t started to plan your holiday eCommerce campaigns yet, now’s the time — the holiday season is just around the corner!
Between Thanksgiving, Christmas, Black Friday, and the rest of the winter holidays, this is the most important (and busiest!) time of the year, especially for eCommerce brands.
In fact, holiday eCommerce sales reached a total of $126 billion last year — up from $108.2 billion in 2017. That’s a 16.5% increase in online sales!
Hoping to get a piece of that holiday eCommerce action? The trick is to start planning early and we’re showing you how to do it:
Step #1: Review Last Year’s Holiday Campaign
Before you jump into any planning, you need to spend some time reviewing last year’s campaign to see how it tallied up against your goals (feel free to skip this step if you’re running your first campaign this year!).
Was your holiday campaign successful? Did it perform as well as you hoped? Did it underperform? What metrics or KPIs did you use to measure your success? Were they useful?
This step is all about reflecting on your previous successes or failures to identify areas where you can improve!
Try to be crystal clear about what you’re looking to achieve with your campaign — was your goal to sell a certain number of products? Grow your email list? Drive traffic? If you had multiple goals, how did they stack up against each other?
You should also spend some time breaking down your results by channel. For example, if you ran promotions on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and more, find out which channels had the best ROI (return on investment). You may want to consider doubling-down on your best channels!
Here are a few questions to get you started:
What worked and didn’t work in your campaign last year?
How was your timing?
Which channels had the best ROI?
What are you definitely repeating this year?
Step #2: Make a Plan for this Year’s Holiday Ecommerce Campaign
When it comes to planning your holiday ecommerce campaign on social media, it’s important to start with the end in mind — your goals and KPIs!
Once you have a clearly defined goal for your social media campaign, you’ll be able to come up with strategies to achieve your goal.
For example, @herschelsupply ran a ton of promotions on Instagram last year, including a holiday gift guide featuring some of their most iconic products. Since most of their marketing was focused on social media (and Instagram specifically), we can assume that their main goal was to generate sales of their products through social media.
Holiday ecommerce campaigns are naturally very much focused on bottom-funnel goals, like conversions and sales.
But you can also incorporate some top-funnel goals into your strategy, like improving brand awareness, building engagement in your community, or even growing your email list.
For example, last year @lululemon ran their #feelgoodgiving campaign with the goal of inspiring people to practice mindfulness during the holiday season.
So they focused more on driving engagement rather than generating sales through social media (although, they did promote special holiday product lines as well!).
Once you’ve decided on your goals (and the metrics to measure those goals), it’s a good time to nail down your timeline.
Timing is everything when it comes to holiday marketing campaigns, and you’ll want to set your timeline well in advance of your launch date. Here are some key dates for the upcoming holiday season:
Halloween: Thursday, October 31
American Thanksgiving: Thursday, November 28
Black Friday: Friday, November 29
Cyber Monday: Monday, December 2
Christmas & Hanukkah: Saturday, December 1 – Wednesday, December 25
Boxing Day: Thursday, December 26
New Years: Tuesday, December 31
Note: Don’t feel like you have to stick to these dates. For example, if you do a lot of business in Canada, you may want to incorporate Canadian Thanksgiving into your holiday campaign. It really depends on your business and what’s right for you!
The most important part of this process is creating a robust promotional calendar that ties back to the specific goals of your campaign. For example, if your focus is generating eCommerce sales, you need to break down how and when each product will be promoted in the lead-up to the holidays.
According to Lizzie MacNeill, Later’s Partnerships & PR Lead, a lot of businesses run 2-3 promotions per week throughout the entire holiday season, including Instagram posts, stories, influencer marketing, and more.
That’s a lot of social content to plan for!
But even if you’re only running a few promotions during the holidays, it’s really important to build a calendar with your key promotion periods for the season.
It’s also important to factor in how long your individual holiday campaigns will run. You may want to think about a launch timeline that runs something along the lines of:
Day 0-14: Pre-launch hype
Day 15: Launch day
Day 16-20: Post-launch follow-up
By breaking it down per day, or pre- and post-launch, you’ll be able to start thinking of creative ways to incorporate your products into the campaign, without having dull, repetitive content.
For example, if you’re planning on running a Halloween campaign this year, you should plan to have all of your creative and messaging finalized before October 1st.
Then you can start teasing the campaign in early October leading up to your launch day.
If you’re partnering with any influencers for your holiday eCommerce campaign, you also need to take their timelines into consideration.
For example, if your Halloween campaign launch is happening on the 20th of October, you may want your influencers to promote the campaign on their own channels starting on the 14th or 15th of October.
That means you need to review the promotional content that they plan to post by the 10th of October at the latest.
One last thing to consider: shipping!
Every year, carriers publish their “Last Days to Ship” schedules in October — these are the final days that orders can be made before Christmas.
Before the dates are confirmed, you can still start developing your promotional materials based on previous years — but be sure to stay on top of this year’s deadlines.
You should also make sure to include time for you to process orders (including international orders) before the deadlines!
Nailing down a solid calendar is super important — it will give you a clear idea of how much lead time you’re working with and the potential scope of the project. If you’re running to a tight deadline, you may have to scale back on some of your more ambitious ideas for your campaign.
Use Later’s free social media holidays calendar to keep your Instagram up-to-date and plan your content ahead of the holidays!
Step #3: Decide on Your Strategy & Creative Direction
Now that you have a goal and a timeline, you’re ready to start choosing what social media channels you’re going to light up when you launch your social media campaign.
But each channel you choose — Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube and more! — should all have a slightly different strategy and approach.
For example, what you create for your Instagram will be hugely different to what you create for Twitter, so they deserve different strategies!
So it’s important to spend some time thinking about each channel, how it will best serve you and your audience, and how that channel’s social strategy will work.
Now that you have all the background details like goals, timeline, and channels locked down, it’s time for the fun part: what will your campaign look like?
It may sound like a fancy marketing term, but having an overarching creative direction is what separates your campaign from your other day-to-day social posts!
What’s unique about the holiday season is that you can create several different campaigns, each with their own creative direction, to coincide with the individual holidays.
Take @lushcosmetics for example. They ran several *gorgeous* holiday campaigns last year, each with its own creative direction and concept.
So how do you go about coming up with your own creative concept for your holiday ecommerce campaign?
Well, the first step is to brainstorm some ideas! We recommend hosting a big session where each of your team members gets a chance to pitch ideas for the campaign.
Each pitch should have its own branding concept (like brand colors, fonts, visual identity), timeline, and promotional strategy.
To keep everyone on track, make sure that each pitch answers the following questions:
What is the idea or concept behind the holiday marketing campaign?
What is the focus of the holiday marketing efforts? What products or services will we be focused on marketing primarily?
What is the campaign’s promotional strategy?
How will the campaign help us reach our business goals?
Once you’ve come up with the broad strokes vision of your holiday campaign, including its overall look and feel, it’s time to build the specifics.
Here are a few elements you should consider when developing your creative direction:
Firstly, the overall visual style of your campaign needs to be defined in your creative concept.
This should include a color palette, some inspirational imagery, a design style guide, or design templates that will work across your social channels.
Of course, since you could be running campaigns for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and more, you might have to do this several times over!
Mood boards are a great idea at this stage of planning. You can easily create a mood board by pinning inspiration images on Pinterest or check out this blog post from Canva on how to build a mood board for your future campaign.
Secondly, your creative direction should outline your campaign message and editorial style.
This will help you fine-tune your content and make sure how you’re introducing, explaining or selling your product throughout the campaign remains consistent.
It’s a good idea to nail down a couple of terms or core messages you want to weave through each of your campaign assets.
For example, @maccosmetics ran a campaign last year centered around “New Year’s Resolutions.” In each Instagram post, they shared a resolution and a call-to-action to purchase one of their beautiful glitter-based products:
Finally, you should also think about specific promotional strategies for each idea.
A lot of businesses like to partner with Instagram influencers for their holiday campaigns. It’s a great way to introduce your business to new audiences, get on shopper’s minds, and, during the holidays, to get your customers into the buying spirit!
But you should also consider running an Instagram advertising campaign during the holidays. That way, you can jumpstart your engagement and reach more people with your campaign!
Of course, if you’re running your own business, this might mean that you are coming up with the creative direction, managing the photoshoot, editing the content, and posting everything yourself — which is a lot of work!
But as long as you can stick to your timeline, and you’ve got a clear creative direction you’ll 100% be able to achieve a successful campaign!
Step #4: Create a List of Assets for Your Holiday Ecommerce Campaign
Once you have your overall strategy nailed down, you should spend some time reviewing all the assets you’ll need for your holiday ecommerce campaign
Your campaign assets would be things like photos, videos, graphics, GIFs, or anything else you’re planning to share on social media.
When it comes to actually creating the content for your campaign on social media, this is going to vary heavily depending on the size of your company, and whether you’re selling a physical or digital product.
For a physical product, you will obviously be creating photos and videos with the actual product. You’ll want to have a mix of both product photos and lifestyle photos, and your creative shoot could range from a small photo session with your iPhone to a multi-day, big-budget shoot with multiple photographers and videographers.
We can’t stress enough how important it is to get started with this step early on!
If you’re planning on posting content throughout the season, you could be looking at dozens of Instagram posts, stories, Facebook posts, emails, and more! So there’s really no time to waste.
In fact, some businesses start creating their holiday assets as early as August or September!
Step #5: Prep Your Social Media Content Calendar
Once you have all your content and assets, it’s time to put everything together and plan out your social media content calendar for the holiday season!
Now’s the time to plan when each piece of the puzzle goes live across your social channels for maximum impact for your campaign.
This often takes up more time than you think, so make sure to factor that into your timeline and schedule!
While you may have official “launch” days for when you’re promoting your products, you might want to have a different timeline for social media or different launch “phases.”
For example, @meundies (a Later client!) announced their holiday line on November 1st last year and then ramped up promotions throughout November and December — in total, they promoted over 15 holiday-inspired products during this period!
When it comes to planning out your holiday ecommerce content, there’s no better tool than Later’s intuitive and easy-to-use content calendar!
You can schedule your photos and videos to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest with Later, and view all of your social posts on a content calendar together to have a comprehensive view of everything that’s going out.
Even if you’re not ready to actually schedule your posts yet, you can still plan out your social posts with Later’s new calendar notes feature.
You can add notes to remind yourself to post on that day or time, create placeholder content, or indicate which posts will be a part of your campaign.
Don’t forget to schedule your teaser content ahead of your campaign launch date too!
If you’re posting about your holiday ecommerce campaign across multiple social platforms, that means you’ll have a lot of different photos and videos to manage.
Instead of scrambling to find the right content for the right channel close to the deadline, you can upload all of your content to Later’s media library so everything is together and easily accessible in one place.
You can use labels to tag all of your campaign assets and keep them organized, so they’re just a click of a button away when you need them.
Scheduling your holiday campaign content with Later (across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest!) is free — sign up today!
Step #6: Track and Measure Your Campaign Success
We did say that a successful campaign was all in the planning — well now you’re already planning for next year!
By setting up some trackable links and getting your campaign reporting in order at this stage, you’ll be fully prepared and armed with more campaign knowledge for future campaigns to come.
Here’s a couple of ways to get your reporting organized for your holiday eCommerce campaign:
#1: Set up UTM tagging for your social posts and newsletters
UTM is short for “Urchin Tracking Module”. To put it in easier terms, a UTM is the piece of unique code you’ll add to the end of your URL. With UTM tagging, you can make sure Google Analytics is tracking your social traffic with complete accuracy.
First, decide what website or specific webpage you want to send your followers to — this could be a specific landing page for your holiday campaign or the shopping pages of your website.
It’s best to send your audience to a website they can take a “next step” — whether that be signing up for a service, making a purchase, or simply continue the conversation.
For example, if you running a new holiday campaign and want to get more newsletter sign-ups, you can send them to a landing page on your website:
Next, Google Analytics lets you tag your URL with the following three campaign parameters and their values. You can add parameters (such as utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign) to a URL to capture reporting data about the referring campaign.
For example, the following link would allow you to identify the traffic to later.com that came from Instagram, as part of a particular campaign:
https://later.com?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=holiday-campaign
Note: Google Analytics is case sensitive so make sure you’re consistent in naming your sources!
Thankfully, all the technical stuff is taken care of if you use Google’s Campaign URL Builder — it allows you to easily add campaign parameters to URLs so you can track custom campaigns on your Google Analytics Dashboard.
All you have to do is fill out the form, and Google will create a custom URL for the social posts part of your holiday campaign!
Now you’re all set! Once you’ve added the link to Instagram, you can start to track traffic for each individual link on your Google Analytics Dashboard.
#2: Review your social media analytics
Whether you’re promoting your holiday campaign on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram, it’s super important to check in throughout your campaign (as well as afterward!) to see how your content is performing.
That way you’ll be able to gauge what content is getting the most traction, and what types of posts your audience responds to best. For example, you could find that user-generated content (UGC) is driving more sales than stories on Instagram.
One way to do this is to check in with your analytics for each social site, like Instagram Insights or Pinterest Analytics.
However, this can be time-consuming, especially if you’re running your campaign across multiple platforms.
To help save time, you can track your Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest performance all in one place with Later Analytics!
With Later Analytics, you can hone in on each post’s performance, and really see which content is working best for your audience and your campaign goals!
Track and measure your Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest performance with Later! Available on all paid plans starting from $9 per month!
#3. Get your campaign report ready
Equally as important as tracking and measuring your campaign, is how you record and report on it.
Being able to analyze and store the metrics related to your campaign (as well as the wins and losses!) shortly after the campaign has finished will be a huge help with it comes to planning next year’s holiday campaign!
Think about the campaign goals we set out in Step #2, and how you’d like to report on each one.
Make sure you spend time thinking about the lessons learned and how you could improve upon your campaign plan and direction — all this info will help out when it comes to improving and scaling your next campaign!
Not sure what to include in your campaign report? Check out our free social media report template to help you get organized!
And that’s it!
With the holidays just around the corner, it’s important that you start planning your eCommerce campaign on social media as soon as possible!
Just try not to get too stressed out! Holiday marketing campaigns don’t have to be overly complicated and can deliver great benefits to your business.
Whether you do a few simple things to “dress up” your brand for the holidays or commit to a full-on campaign, follow our planning guide to get the most out of this busy season!
Ready to get organized and plan out your holiday content in advance? Start scheduling with Later, the #1 Instagram marketing platform trusted by over 2 million businesses! Sign up now — it’s free!
WRITTEN BY
Benjamin Chacon
Benjamin is a Content Marketing Strategist at Later and a recent transplant from Toronto. You can follow his day-to-day on Instagram @benjaminchacs.
The Anatomy of an Artist or Brand Press Release
A press release should include the following information, generally in the following order:
Logo, Identifier, Release Information, Contact Information, Headline and more. Find out more!
THE ANATOMY OF A PRESS RELEASE
A press release should include the following information, generally in the following order.
Logo - If you have a company logo it should appear at the top of the page.
Identifier - Simply identifies the document as either "PRESS RELEASE" or "NEWS RELEASE". Both are acceptable.
Release Information - Simply identifies when the information is meant to release. Most commonly it will be "For Immediate Release".
Contact Information - should include a name, title, phone number, and email
Headline - Headline Here (this should be similar to a headline you read in the newspaper, it should be short and grab attention. This is often the most important aspect of the release. If a headline doesn't grab a writer's attention - they may not read the rest of the release.
Sub-Head - a little longer than the headline and usually rounds out the information found in headline with a little more information. The sub-head is optional.
Place Line - The Place line identifies where the story is coming from. This is very important information for a reporter. If the reporter is based in San Francisco and the story is from Idaho, and covers a local news issue - they will probably not be interested. But if it's from San Francisco, they will most likely read on.
Date Line - Simply lets the reporter know when the release was issued.
Lead Paragraph - paragraph one is the information that is meant to hook the reader (hopefully a journalist). This paragraph included the five W's (who, what, when, where, why). It should present information in a manner that is compelling, and thus makes the reader want to read more. It should include the shop name and URL.
Body - What typically follow the lead paragraph are three to five paragraphs - the body of the release itself. The most important information is placed in the first paragraphs, and it gets less important as you continue towards the end. This is known as an inverted pyramid. If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Think of an upside down pyramid, the shape represents the information you are trying to explain. The width of the pyramid directly relates to the weight of the material - its importance. So, the most important info goes at the top, and the least at the bottom. There is a very logical reason for this writing style: editing. When an editor needs to cut a story they simply cut from the bottom up. Since the least pertinent info is at the bottom - there is little lost.
The body should include a quote or two about the subject matter from someone in the company, an expert in the field, or a client.
The last paragraph should wrap up the story with contact information.
Boilerplate - This is a description of you company that goes at the end of your release. It is usually identified with a header. For instance "About CafePress.com". The information that follows is the company history, and services. Reporters look for this to get a quick understanding of what exactly your company does.
End Mark - All press release end with a standard ### or -end-. If a press release is more than one page the end of the first page should have be noted with -more- at the bottom. Note: in general a press release should be kept to one page when possible (400-600 words).
More Information - You can add an editor's note after the end mark. Anything that follows the standard ### is meant to be unprinted material.
The Art Of The Headshot - A Guide
The three golden rules and six simple steps to take the perfect professional headshot.
The headshot that you submit with your portfolio is usually the first face that a casting director uses to identify you. It is your avatar, your stand-in, and it helps speak for you when you’re not present. It is very important, therefore, that you have a good headshot, as you want to make a good first impression.
What Makes A Headshot Different From Other Photographs?
A headshot is a photograph that mainly features an individual’s head and neck. While there are some creative elements that can be added, a headshot is not a form of fine art photography. A headshot is used in commercial or professional settings as an accurate representation of the subject.
Keep in mind these three themes (Golden Rules) while planning and taking your headshot: Keep it Simple, Clean & Professional.
Simple
Your headshot should not be complicated. This is not the time to exercise your artistic proclivity. Headshots have a very specific format, and this is something that you should follow closely.
Do not confuse your headshot with a body shot: all that should be included in the frame is your upper-body from the collar bone up.
For the most part, you shouldn’t fill the frame: the background should be visible behind you. And, yes, keep that simple, too. A single color backdrop would do perfectly.
Because only your shoulders and head are included, there is no need to “dress up” for your headshot. A simple shirt should be visible, ideally a color that contrasts well with your skin. Do not wear a strapless shirt for your headshot, or the photograph, when cropped, will look like you aren’t wearing any clothes at all.
There is no need to use heavy makeup. A headshot should look natural and minimal. Remember: keep it simple.
Clean
Make sure that your clothes are neat, with no wrinkles or stains on the portions that will be visible in the photo. There should be no logos or words on your garments that can be seen in the photo. A headshot is about you, not what brands you support.
Comb or style your hair (including facial hair) neatly. If you have a hair appointment coming up in the near future, you may want to schedule your photoshoot for right afterwards.
Your background should be plain: only minimally textured or patterned so that it doesn’t distract from your face.
Professional
It can be tempting to go through your old photo albums and crop down a snapshot from a party, or one of your recent vacation photos. Don’t fall into this trap: serious art professionals will be able to tell, and your “easy” headshot won’t be taken seriously.
There is no need for silly faces in a headshot, even if you believe that it represents you and your work. Sometimes, the headshot is the first thing somebody will see of you, and if they have no context, your “silly” photo may just make you look more manic than fun.
On the other end, it is equally important that you not look excessively serious, either. Remember, this is a headshot, not a mugshot. You want to look pleasant and welcoming: present yourself as a person who others would want to work with.
If you are submitting your headshot to a gallery, artist agent, or publications, they will likely be needing a high-resolution digital photograph. Professional printers for magazines, ads, and catalogs will need images of a certain size and/or resolution for professional-quality printing. Always check to see if there is a recommended or required size before taking the photograph. If you mess up, you will either have to send a new photograph or you just won’t be considered for that article, ad, exhibition, or job.
With this information in mind, here are the 6 easy steps to follow in order to create the perfect professional headshot for all your portfolio and art promotion needs.
Stay in touch with us! Our Newsletter is packed with tips, tools, technology and trends to help you grow and success as a performance artist.
Step 1 - How To Get The Perfect Headshot
The Big Question: To Selfie Or Not To Selfie?
Today, almost everybody has a camera installed on their cellphone. It’s natural that your first impulse is to take a “selfie” and use it as your headshot. After all, it’s quick, easy, and inexpensive.
First, let’s just define what we mean when we say “selfie.” While, technically, any self-portrait can be defined as a “selfie,” we’re specifically talking about a photograph you take of yourself from arm’s length. If you’re ever on social media, you’ll be very familiar with this format.
Remember that one of our keywords was professional. It can be almost impossible to make a selfie look very professional – especially with a hand-held camera/phone. Selfies are usually too much of a “close-up” to work for professional use. Additionally, they typically have very poor lighting, and are unfocused.
And, we shouldn’t need to say it, but we will: a “mirror selfie” (snapping a picture of yourself through a mirror) is not an option. Just don’t.
That said, you don’t necessarily need to hire a photographer. You can get some good shots when taking a self portrait, if you have the right set-up:
Place your camera on a tripod or flat surface at least 3 feet away from where you will be posing.
Use your camera’s timer, and give yourself a long enough period to walk over without rushing.
If you have a setting that allows you to take several pictures at once, use this. It can be called “photo burst” or “fast burst” or “continuous shooting.”
A shutter release cable, if you happen to own one, will let you take several pictures of yourself from afar. But for this, make sure you’re tightly secured to a tripod, or you may end up turning or shaking the camera.
This equipment is fairly easy to get and relatively inexpensive, but why go through all the trouble if there is someone available to help you? You may not need to hire a professional photographer, if you have a friend or relative willing to lend a hand.
Of course, if you want the best headshot possible, a portrait photographer will offer you more resources: studio lighting, professional backgrounds, and photoshop retouching. This level photography is recommended whenever possible.
Step 2 - Plan Ahead: Pick A Time And Place.
Your next step is to block out a good time to take your headshots. If you are working with somebody else, then work together to schedule this. Make sure you leave yourself plenty of time for setting up, taking multiple shots, and for review. You may want to retake the photos if the first try was unsuccessful, so you should set aside between half an hour to 45 minutes to take your headshot. If you know that you’re very particular about this sort of thing (as many of us are!) then allow yourself a little more time.
Next, pick your place.
If you don’t have a professional backdrop, your best bet is to stand in front of a blank wall. Remember the keyword “simple.” A blank wall is the most similar to the screens that portrait photographers use. A dull or neutral color such as grey is usually a good choice for a headshot, as it doesn’t distract from your face. Avoid bright or saturated colors for backgrounds, and never use anything that could be described as ‘neon.’ Not only are these bright colors considered “unprofessional,” they can also overwhelm you as a subject, shifting the focus from you to the wall behind you.
Try and pick a background with a tone that contrasts to your hair or skin: light for darker complexions, and vice versa. This will keep you from appearing “washed out,” in your headshot. If your hair and skin contrast a lot already, a neutral/middle tone always works well.
Next, try to find a location with good lighting. Always know what type of lighting you’re using, so that you can adjust the white balance on your camera or edit the color afterwards.
Natural light is sunlight (technically, also moonlight, but we don’t recommend this for your headshot). Natural light can be direct (unfiltered) or through a window. This light is usually warm and soft, perfect for taking pictures, when you have a good light source available.
Artificial light can be from light bulbs, computer screens, or any other man-made source. Artificial light can have many different tones: digital monitors have a blueish tinge, while incandescent light looks a little yellow.
Never light your headshot with a flashlight. Use lights from further away; a close-up light source like a flashlight creates very high contrasts and casts unattractive shadows.
Whichever lighting you use, make sure that the source is coming from behind the camera, so that it doesn’t create a glare in the photo.
Step 3 - Say “Cheese!”
Posing for a headshot can seem scary, but it’s easier when you remember our #1 rule: stay simple. There are a few very simple poses you can do that will almost always look great.
THE BASIC PORTRAIT
This is the simplest of all poses, and is the same type of photo as you would take for an ID, a straight on shot of your face, neck and shoulders. It is perfect for identifying you and putting a face to your work. It’s the easiest, but it doesn’t show much personality.
Stand up straight. (Hunching over will make you look tired and sickly.)
Lean your forehead toward the camera. This will make you appear taller, and it will add attractive definition to your jawline.
Examples of The Basic Portrait and The Shoulder Lean
THE SHOULDER LEAN
This is a clever variation on the basic portrait, wherein your shoulders are turned ¾ to the camera. It’s great for any headshot, and adds more personality without sacrificing any professionalism. You can do this turned either to the left or to the right, depending on what you consider your “good side.”
Push your head out in the direction that you’re facing.
Follow the angles of your body to make a loose line from your shoulder to the top of your head.
When taking photographs:
Make eye contact. Look at or into the camera lens the way you’d meet the eyes of a prospective buyer. Your photos should always be able to make connections whenever you are unable to be there in person.
Take multiple shots. Even if you’re pressed for time, take as many pictures as you can in various poses. Later, you can sort through them to find the best. This way, you don’t have to set up another session later.
Try different angles with lighting. You should not only move yourself when posing, but also move around your light source. The results may surprise you.
Do not take photos from too low or too high of an angle. How can you tell if your angle is too low? Well, can the viewer see up your nostrils? Too high? They can see down your shirt. Position your camera at the same level as your face, and you’ll be fine.
Want to get creative? Rest your chin on your hand. Try a head-tilt. Experiment with lighting. Rules are meant to be broken, but try to only break one rule at a time. Too many and you’re going to lose the simplicity, cleanliness, and professionalism that your headshot needs.
Step 4 - Harvesting Headshots
Once you’ve got a good bunch of potential shots, evaluate them.
Your best photograph will:
Show you at your best.
Accurately represent you.
Be in clear, sharp focus (no blurry pictures, no matter how ‘flattering’ they may seem).
Have a friend or family member look at your photos with you. Somebody you trust, who knows you well. They’ll know best if a photograph is a good representation of your personality, and they’ll typically be less harsh. After all, we are all our own worst critics.
Step 5 - Edit Your Headshot
Don’t go crazy with the editing softwares. Do not add color filters or draw anything over the picture. You aren’t editing the picture to add a fun border or photoshop Kanye West into your headshot.
Remove or minimize any errors, such as red-eye or glasses flare.
Improve contrast or brightness – ONLY if necessary.
Crop the photo, if needed, to fill the frame with your shoulders and head.
Adjust the color, if you hadn’t white balanced.
Adobe Photoshop is the most commonly used program for this kind or editing, but some preloaded programs on Microsoft and Apple computers may have the types of tools that you will need.
Step 6 -Save & Submit Your Headshot!
Once you’ve taken, chosen, and edited your best headshot, make sure to save it in the highest quality possible. You can always shrink the image later, but you can’t enlarge it. Save a few sizes – one thumbnail size (200×200), one medium (500×700), one large (800×1200), and one original size. Save a black and white version, and a color version. Make sure to label them all and keep them in a backed-up folder where you can easily find them later.
If you are submitting your headshot in a job application, you can send a thumbnail/medium image along with your CV.
When submitting your headshot for a museum/gallery, you should submit the large version.
If you are submitting your headshot for publication in a print or online publication, send the highest resolution possible.
Again, always check the individual guidelines before submitting your headshot. Good Luck! Let us know if this helps.
How did you do? Show us your headshots in the comments!
This blog was originally published by The Agora Gallery. With over 30 years of experience representing artists from around the world, Agora Gallery offers artists the opportunity to present their work to a broad range of national and international art collectors and buyers. Looking for an opportunity to enhance your career? Visit their Gallery Representation And Artist Promotion page for more information.