Social networks are what you make from them: they can be a way to waste time, but also a useful tool to grow your business and reach people. In this video, Chelsea Nicole tells you more about how to do the latter. She offers some bulletproof strategies that will help you reach more Instagram users and turn them into your clients, even if you don’t have a large follower base.
The trick is in what Chelsea calls “Other people’s people” or “O-P-P.” This essentially means other people’s social media audiences. This doesn’t mean that you should just go in and poach other photographers’ followers and clients, but form genuine connections and be kind. Chelsea shares some of the strategies you can use to get there. I’ll share the basic ideas with you, but make sure to watch the video as it’s filled with plenty more useful tips that go more in-depth.
1. Celebrate others: find other creatives who align with your ideal client and their needs. This doesn’t have to be other photographers. For example, if you’re a wedding photographer, it will be vendors, make-up artists, hair stylists, florists, etc. You get the idea. Be genuine and kind, and connect with people whose work you appreciate too.
2. Freely share your images: after doing a shoot, Chelsea recommends that you freely share your images with other creatives who were a part of it. Just as in the previous example – if you photograph a wedding, you want to share your photos with the florist, make-up artist, bridal shop, and the like. Make sure to take photos that highlight their work too, and share them without a watermark so they can use them to promote their work. Of course, tag each other in your posts.
3. Create a free micro-guide and include tips from others: another way to reach more people is to create a micro-guide with other collaborators. Reach out to them, let them know that you’re making a guide, and ask them for some tips and tricks to include in it. Once you put everything together, share your guide and tag everyone involved. This is another good way for all of you to reach a wider audience and offer them something useful.
4. Tag others in your stories: if you share the content from other creators you admire and who align with your work, make sure to tag them. From there, they can easily reshare your story and make it reach their followers. But remember – make them the hero of the story, not you. Appreciate others and be genuine about it.
5. Host an “Instagram takeover”: swap your Instagram profiles with another creative for a day. Make sure to plan and prepare the content in advance to make it relevant to their business and their followers.
6. Host an Instagram Live collaboration or an interview: this is another way for both you and another creative to get the attention of each other’s audience. Work together to make a helpful, informative Live that will be useful to people who follow either of you. You can even let your followers ask questions in advance to make sure that the Live is perfectly tailored to their needs.
Honestly, I never viewed any of these as marketing strategies – yet I’ve done some of them intuitively and genuinely. There are many people on Instagram whose work I like, and I even know some of them in person and appreciate them greatly. I try to celebrate them and give them credit that I think they deserve – and I hope you do the same, regardless of the marketing side of it.
[via FStoppers]
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