How Plann helped Architecture Photographer, Ronnie Fey build his Instagram to 30,000 engaged followers and expand his business earnings

After being laid off from his retail job during the pandemic, Ronnie Frey turned to his passion for photography and committed to growing and monetizing his Instagram account, Doorways to Chicago.

30,000 engaged followers.

As a photographer, Ronnie knew what it meant to capture a “good shot” and with his keen eye loved showcasing specific angles of a building or detail of a structure in a really unique way. However, when his ‘Doorways to Chicago’ Instagram account was more of a hobby, Ronnie posted on a whim and had no actual plan or strategy to speak of.
With his account now his principal source of income, he knew he had to get much more strategic about social media.

Expanded business.

One of the first things Ronnie identified was that consistency was key to growth. He never stopped posting and showed up every day – even before any monetization opportunities presented themselves. Plann made it easy for Ronnie to show up every day.

It was also Plann’s companion app that meant Ronnie could be on the road while still having a firm handle on his posting strategy.

“Having the desktop version that syncs with my phone app is so wonderful. I do a lot in the mobile app but sometimes I enjoy working on the desktop version and to know that everything immediately syncs is priceless.”
Doorways to Chicago is a photography account, so looks are very important. Plann’s drag and drop editor is the perfect way for Ronnie to visually plan out his account’s feed.

“Since I was able to predetermine what my feed would look like, I noticed a definite uptick in followers. You only have a few seconds to capture someone’s interest when they visit your profile and for them to decide if they want to follow you, so I realized my feed needs to look amazing at all times.”

Social media primary revenue stream

Thanks to the growth of his account, Ronnie has been able to expand his offering to include content creation, influencer promotions, photography prints, greeting card collections and architectural walking tours in Chicago and more. Today, with over 30,000 followers, social media is the place Ronnie sells most of the tickets to his tours and also photo prints and greeting cards. He uses Plann’s handy results and analytics feature to inform his media kit to attract even more clients.

Ronnie’s top social media learnings:

• Do the work.

  Show up every day. Ronnie rarely misses a day, so consistency is the key. It has been a lot of hard work, learning about social media algorithms, hashtags, new platform features, and how to organically grow an Instagram account. Plann makes things much easier.

• Engage with people.

  Be social! If someone leaves a thoughtful comment on a post, respond. You’ll see a lot of growth through meaningful interactions with your followers.