What Photographers Need to Know

“Meta’s AI algorithm sees all interactions and engagement with the users that visit your page or interact with your content. When it sees pages or users that align with your page’s interests, in this case photography, it determines that your page is made for photographers and those users.

“Since the majority of your interactions are with those pages and users, your content is being shown to them as a priority over others.

“This is why your ads aren’t reaching your targeted audience and I completely understand your frustration.”

-Facebook/Meta Business Support Agent, Phone Support, May 2025

For years I have tried to tell other photographers and artists that this is how Facebook and Instagram was working. I started noticing it around 2020, as the majority of my accounts’ reach was to other photographers. I began to unfollow all photographers on Instagram and Facebook around that time, noticing that my reach to the people that book my studio increased ever-so-slightly.

This post is not for our clients, although we encourage everyone to read it – because this is the world we live in now and we have to make sure how we do things matches up with how things actually work.

I started teaching a lot around the country. This comes with a huge ego-boost when people fill a room to hear you speak. I found my self-confidence getting a good boost off of it (perhaps my head got a little big, too).

But with that boost comes something else: a lot of photographers looking you up on social media, including Instagram, Facebook, TikTok…the list goes on and on.

“Every time a photographer clicks on your pictures or reads the comment section of one of your posts, the AI is analyzing the time and interests of the user viewing the content, in addition to your content.

“When they react or comment on your posts, it creates more engagement.”

-Facebook/Meta Business Support Agent, Phone Support, May 2025

In February of 2021, I posted one of my high school seniors on Instagram. I don’t get a lot of traction over there, mostly because of what I’m telling you right now, but after about an hour I saw that it had received 10 likes and a comment. So I checked it out, sitting in a conference room full of other photographers.

10 out of 10 of the reactions were from other photographers’ studio accounts and the comment had come from another photographer.

So I did something that, to this day, I do not regret at all.

I went down the list of people I follow and unfollowed every single photographer and every single studio. I then went down the list of followers and removed every photographer and every studio (that I knew of). I deleted the post and reposted again.

Within minutes, the people that my pages are made for began to engage with that post, getting reactions and a few comments where I had not seen that kind of response in a long, long time.

“When someone searches your name and clicks on your page or profile, it sees that as engagement and the AI starts to suggest those posts and pages.”

-Facebook/Meta Business Support Agent, Phone Support, May 2025

Now, those photographers and studios I removed from my list began to start following my studio account again. I’d have to remove them every time. At one point, I removed the same photographer five time in one day.

As I continued to teach and travel and meet more people, more photographers, and achieve more accolades, this issue began to be exacerbated exponentially. So, in the spring of 2023, I posted to my personal and my business page with the following (loosely remembered):

“Hey everyone! We are so excited and filled with joy that so many photographers are following us. Please bare in mind that social media, particularly facebook, has started gearing our posts toward photographers instead of the people that we need to reach.

“We kindly ask that you unfollow our studio’s social media accounts so that we can get our page back on track.”

I tried not to make it sound horrible but that’s how a lot of folks took it, because this is what I got in my messages and in the comments:

“Fine! Ungrateful for all the support.”

“Okay! (upside down face, smiling emoji)” – this one blocked me and ended up having to unblock me less than a year later in order to be able to advertise something I was involved in for our national organization

“Ass!”

“Wow. Ok.”

“You could have been a little nicer to the people that supported you to get to this.”

This is what it has been like for the past five years.

In the spring of 2024, I created an ad on Facebook to book out of town. I narrowed down the interests and demographics, just like I was told to do. I created text and images that would appeal to that target audience.

I paid for a lot of money per day for the ad to run, knowing that it would reach as many as possible to get the notice that my studio needed.

Except every engagement, comment, reaction, and message came from photographers. The people filling out my studio form were photographers. The people applying to model were photographers. The people sharing the ad were photographers (all of whom I know).

I had to turn it off after only six hours.

And this is how my ads have worked for five years.

I began to make requests when I was teaching, starting the class off by asking all the photographers in attendance to NOT go to my social media pages to follow or anything like that, and I would then explain why. Everyone understood and even said, “That makes sense!” I of course tell them that my personal Facebook is where they’ll find all of my teaching information and whatnot for photographers and that they are welcome to follow there.

Except for several photographers, whom I won’t name but they are on a list, who did it anyway. I have one that was removed multiple times from my follow list.

“Let’s make your ad together and we’ll optimize it so that **it reaches the target audience you need to reach. We’ll apply a $50 credit to your account since you’ve been dealing with this issue for a while**.”

-Facebook/Meta Business Support Agent, Phone Support, May 2025

While Instagram has the ability to remove these followers, Facebook does not. As the years have gone by, more and more photographers have flocked to my studio’s business pages on Facebook. That page has gotten to the point where my own family doesn’t see information most of the time. My step-brother and sister-in-law didn’t even know about Team USA and the World Cup until this past weekend, when I mentioned Iceland. If you are aware of the non-stop announcements and excitement I’ve had, that should tell you how bad the reach has gotten.

Never in the history of my studio’s business page have I ever advertised any of my teaching or products for photographers.

My studio’s business page is meant to create buzz for my studio, to reach further and create new clients, invite established clients, and build a brand with the people who book my studio time-after-time.

Except since the beginning of 2021, my studio has struggled to get clients in the door. There are other obvious reasons for that as well, one that I think we’ve all felt. But for those of us who teach a lot, it’s much, much worse. We have a photographer following on our studio’s business pages and it’s starting to get in the way of us being able to run a portrait studio.

In 2023, I created a Facebook Group for my clients, where I basically post the same things as my studio’s pages, except there are no photographers (who haven’t been clients) in that group. Everyone sees it. I get much more out of the group than the page, especially with the ability to reach our locals. On occasion, there are photographers who try to get in but we have to decline their request for all of the reasons mentioned above.

As you can imagine, I hate even having to write this. I love my photographer friends. I love spending time with you, keeping up with you, and hearing about all of your successes. My photographer friends love doing the same not just with me but with ALL.

But social media doesn’t work like it did ten years ago, when we could all support each other and lift each other up. Now when we do it, we change our business, their business, and everything that we get shown because of it.

- Watch a reel for more than 6 seconds

- Tap on a picture

- Comment on a picture

- Read the comment section on a picture

- Tap on a Page

- Tap on a personal profile

- Search for a Group

- Search for a Page

- Browse a topic

- Browse a Page

- Browse a Group

- Tag a Photographer

- Like a comment

- Like a post

- Like a picture

- Share a post

- Share a picture

- Add a Page to Favorites

All of this counts. AI is watching every single action you take. Not to be creepy. Not to stalk you.

But to gear more content to who it thinks it was meant for. And it couldn’t be more wrong.

Now I’m sure you want to hear all about the phone call between myself and the Meta/Facebook support agent. That phone call was 4.5 hours long as we tried to find all the issues my ad account has faced over the years.

After the ad ran that Facebook provided a credit for, the ad continued to reach photographers and an audience that the agent and I did not define when we made it.

I provided some feedback to them and she passed it along, or said she did. I have noticed an increase in reach to my target audience in recent ads and posts, but unfortunately the number of followers that are photographers continues to rise on Facebook.

My regular, non-ad posts rarely get seen by my local audience and clients near and far (except for those clients that are photographers, too).

My suggested posts on Instagram are all photographers. They just released a new feature on Instagram where you can modify your interests in the content preferences, adjusting the algorithm that is run by AI. I took advantage immediately but every couple of days I have to remove a new photography-related topic from the algorithm, otherwise my page starts to drift to that audience again.

I know there are several photographers that teach social media and engagement. I’m not sure if any of them are teaching this or if any of them are even aware. I can’t speak to that.

What I can tell you is this.

The more you continue to follow other photographers, the more you are interfering with their business reach, your business reach, their client reach, your client reach, and the entire industry as a whole operating on social media.

As I’ve said before, I wish I could because there are so many of you that I love, admire, and want to support in all forms of communication. But because of how social media works, how these God-awful artificial intelligence inventions work, and how it all combines together, I cannot.

My studio’s business must always come before my industry interests. This is how I pay for my business, my house, my gas, my car, my bills…just like you.

So many of my photographer friends have asked me to share this publicly and as far and wide as possible this year. I debated for a while because there’s just no way of saying it without sounding like a you-know-what. That’s the last thing I have wanted to do.

But a friend recently reached out and said she thought the same thing when I told her. She started paying attention to her pages and how they function and soon realized that what I had told her was 100% accurate. A request was made of me to do something and I absolutely agreed because, as I’ve said, I love my industry and the community I get to be involved in. But my return request was not to mention my socials for it. This is an excerpt of the response (excluded for identity):

Them: I think it's so smart, ALLLLLL of my traffic is from other photographers and it kills real client engagement.

Me: 100%. I’m thinking of writing a blog post about it for the new year.

Them: You should. Until it’s happening to you…you wouldn’t know it’s a thing. I low key thought you were crazy when you told me this and then I started really looking at WHO was engaging and it’s ALL photographers, which is great for teaching, but that’s not my full time gig.

Me: (excluded for identity) …then I actually talked to a Meta customer service rep about my ads on the phone and she told me everything.

My friends, my colleagues, my dearest most wonderful supporters, we don’t have the social media we did when most of us first started. Gone are the days when we could have follow-chains and support each other. That time ended with the introduction of TikTok and Reels over genuine communications.

As much as I know it’s a pain and a sign of, “But we love each other!” but I kindly, respectfully, and lovingly ask that you begin to remove yourselves from the list of followers of other photographers and watch what happens to your ability to reach your clients and more.

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That time I spoke to Facebook on the Phone about Photography

What Photographers Need to Know

“Meta’s AI algorithm sees all interactions and engagement with the users that visit your page or interact with your content. When it sees pages or users that align with your page’s interests, in this case photography, it determines that your page is made for photographers and those users.

“Since the majority of your interactions are with those pages and users, your content is being shown to them as a priority over others.

“This is why your ads aren’t reaching your targeted audience and I completely understand your frustration.”

-Facebook/Meta Business Support Agent, Phone Support, May 2025

“Every time a photographer clicks on your pictures or reads the comment section of one of your posts, the AI is analyzing the time and interests of the user viewing the content, in addition to your content.

“When they react or comment on your posts, it creates more engagement.”

-Facebook/Meta Business Support Agent, Phone Support, May 2025

“When someone searches your name and clicks on your page or profile, it sees that as engagement and the AI starts to suggest those posts and pages.”

-Facebook/Meta Business Support Agent, Phone Support, May 2025

“Let’s make your ad together and we’ll optimize it so that **it reaches the target audience you need to reach. We’ll apply a $50 credit to your account since you’ve been dealing with this issue for a while**.”

-Facebook/Meta Business Support Agent, Phone Support, May 2025

My studio’s business must always come before my industry interests. This is how I pay for my business, my house, my gas, my car, my bills…just like you.

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That time I spoke to Facebook on the Phone about Photography

What Photographers Need to Know

“Meta’s AI algorithm sees all interactions and engagement with the users that visit your page or interact with your content. When it sees pages or users that align with your page’s interests, in this case photography, it determines that your page is made for photographers and those users.

“Since the majority of your interactions are with those pages and users, your content is being shown to them as a priority over others.

“This is why your ads aren’t reaching your targeted audience and I completely understand your frustration.”

-Facebook/Meta Business Support Agent, Phone Support, May 2025

“Every time a photographer clicks on your pictures or reads the comment section of one of your posts, the AI is analyzing the time and interests of the user viewing the content, in addition to your content.

“When they react or comment on your posts, it creates more engagement.”

-Facebook/Meta Business Support Agent, Phone Support, May 2025

“When someone searches your name and clicks on your page or profile, it sees that as engagement and the AI starts to suggest those posts and pages.”

-Facebook/Meta Business Support Agent, Phone Support, May 2025

“Let’s make your ad together and we’ll optimize it so that it reaches the target audience you need to reach. We’ll apply a $50 credit to your account since you’ve been dealing with this issue for a while.”

-Facebook/Meta Business Support Agent, Phone Support, May 2025

My studio’s business must always come before my industry interests. This is how I pay for my business, my house, my gas, my car, my bills…just like you.

Leave a comment

Archive

“Let’s make your ad together and we’ll optimize it so that **it reaches the target audience you need to reach. We’ll apply a $50 credit to your account since you’ve been dealing with this issue for a while**.”