Hello,

I'm new to modeling and MM and was hoping for some social media guidance. I, of course, still get super excited every time I get photos back from a shoot and immediately want to post them all to IG but I feel like that may be over-saturating my feed and causing some credibility loss on my part. How much is good for promotion (and just bragging because I'm really proud) and how much is too much? How much do you post? What do you save for portfolio vs. social media and how do you choose? Do you post the best and your favorites or do you save those for your portfolio? I'm trying to maneuver and master the nuances and balances of social media and modeling and maximize exposure on both modeling and social media platforms with the crossover. Thank you for any input!

Savannah R. McCarthy

I'll give you my opinion as a consumer. Don't show too many or too often. I think 1 or 2 postings a day is enough and try and mix it up. You want to have some variety in what you post. If you have 20 pics from one shoot, if you post them all, after the third one I'm no longer interested. If you post 2 from that shoot every week you can keep them going for a couple of months.  Keep in mind, this is coming from a guy with like 10 followers.

Where was that ice cave shoot? That is stunning.

There is only ever one best shot from any look. I break that rule and sometimes post 2 or 3, but generally not more than that, and not ones that are very similar to each other. Be ruthless in culling your shots so only your best work is displayed.

I agree with other folks that only post the best of a shoot and no more than two. If there were multiple costume/theme changes, then post the best of each group as long as the images are varied. To me, the mark of an amateur trying too hard are those who post one shot after an other of the exact same shoot with ever-so-slightly different variations. Examples: Eye brow raised, slight grin. Both eyebrows raised, sullen and pouty lips. Brow knitted in consternation, pressed together lips. Eyes wide and bulging, mouth wide open. Mouth wide open, eyes closed. Intellectual pompous ass expression with I'm the Lord of the Manor pose... but without the manor. And the perennial go-to... the eyef**k down the barrel of the lens with trembling, slightly parted lips.

Here's my question to everyone.  It seems like we are talking about IG here and all the input is very sound and the advice can be applied to all social media, as well as MM portfolios.  But what about quantity on MM? On IG it appears that posting can be infinite without oversaturating, as long as images and models are varied.  I hazard to guess that you can take your first ten images from a while back and no one would notice they are reposts.  But with MM can you over saturate since you are only limited to 500 images with VIP?

On MM: I post 1 image per look, I try to have a mix of professional finished images & more simple images that show me as a model.
I do NOT not want to show off the photographers lighting/retouching skills for example: no silhouettes, no heavy body paints, no excessive retouched images....

On Instagram: I post 1 image per look, BTS shots, personal images, bits of sets, props.

Since I have a pretty hard rule about only choosing 1 image per set for Portfolio Use I don't worry about saturation.
I just toss all my portfolio images in a desktop folder & rotate them in & out as time goes by.

Unfortunately MM keeps increasing the image amounts I still stick with 20 or less, I've been hired thousands of time with a 20 or less book, so I see no need to post 50 to 500 photos, 500 photos is NOT a portfolio, it is an un culled mess.

On Instagram I'll post more, and delete more often, I go back & delete old images to clean up the look of the feed, and I repost many of the same images over & over again, each different years, months, new followers each time I post new people see the work.


Upon occasion, someone may request "to see more work" after rolling my eyes at them, Ill ask them to be more specific, then put together a web page of 9-12 images of the style they want to see.


Pro tip: You can delete images then re post them a day later, sure you lose all your lists & comments, but you will gain new ones & if you've been on this site for years all those old tags of defunct members does you no good anyhow. I also use this  delete & repost on dating sites, adding "new" images pops you back to the top of the pile. This also works for your bio, just take 5 minutes & re word your bio then you'll be back at the top of the "new updated" same info, but more eyeballs.