Discussion Sessions on Photography: Broader Perspectives Explored
Post-COVID Era: In-Demand Skills for Content Creators and Social Media Managers
In the post-COVID era, the role of content creators and social media managers has evolved drastically, requiring a blend of creative, technical, and strategic competencies. Here's a breakdown of the most in-demand software and skills for these digital creatives.
In-demand Software
- Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro): These industry standards remain essential tools for photo editing, graphic design, and video editing.
- Canva and Figma: Quick and collaborative graphic design and layout work, especially on social media graphics, is made easy with these popular platforms.
- Generative AI tools: Tools like ChatGPT, DALL·E, MidJourney, Gemini, and Claude are increasingly adopted to accelerate content creation and ideation.
- Social media platform tools: Familiarity with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn management tools, and analytics dashboards is critical for scheduling, posting, and performance tracking.
- Digital Audio Workstation software and compositing tools: Creators branching into multimedia content will find these tools useful for video/audio editing and production.
Key Skills
- Storytelling: Creating emotionally engaging content that hooks and retains the audience is fundamental.
- Audience Research & Planning: Understanding your audience demographics, preferences, and behaviors to tailor content and campaigns effectively is crucial.
- Social Media Marketing Skills: Managing multi-platform campaigns, writing effective captions and posts, engaging with followers and influencers, and using KPIs, SEO, and web traffic metrics for optimization are key.
- Generative AI Proficiency: Leveraging AI to improve productivity, test variations, and generate diverse content types quickly is becoming increasingly important.
- Content Production: Photography, graphic design, video editing, and sometimes basic copywriting, especially for social media posts without dedicated content writers, are essential skills.
- Critical Thinking & Problem-Solving: The ability to adapt, analyze trends and data, and optimize content strategy accordingly is vital.
- Entrepreneurial Skills: Understanding digital marketing, branding, and business aspects to scale your presence or services is essential.
Photographers and Graphic Designers - Specific Emphasis
- Mastery of Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom for photographers.
- Adobe Illustrator and Figma for graphic designers.
- Integration of AI-generated imagery and design variants to streamline workflows and enhance creativity is becoming increasingly important.
- Combining technical proficiency with a solid understanding of digital marketing to ensure content reaches and resonates with the target audience is crucial.
The increasing role of AI and data in content creation and distribution means that professionals who combine creative skills with tech fluency—especially in generative AI—and marketing strategy will be most competitive in this landscape.
For more information about Photography majors at the institution, visit the Digital Photography programs page. A social media presence, such as an Instagram profile, is essential to demonstrate marketing skills. If a portfolio includes enough motion and video, a YouTube channel can be created. A polished online presence is important for photographers to showcase their work. Internship experience is highly recommended for students to develop a strong work ethic.
The COVID-19 pandemic initially led to a shutdown of people-oriented photography, but a new demand for pandemic photography arose for marketing on the web and social media. Many with photography skills have expanded into augmented reality assets and motion graphics. Product photography, architectural, and interior residential photography continued to thrive during the pandemic. Photographers can get involved in the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) as content creators. A print portfolio should be created for face-to-face meetings, while a web page can be created using Adobe Express.
- In the post-COVID era, graphic designers would benefit from developing proficiency in generative AI tools, such as DALL·E or MidJourney, to augment their creative process and keep pace with the industry's evolving trends.
- For content creators and social media managers, it is essential to curate an art portfolio showcasing their photography, graphic design, and video editing skills, as well as highlighting their prowess in leveraging AI for content creation and marketing on platforms like Instagram and YouTube, as part of their education and self-development.
