This is a chapter from my Photographer’s Guide to Marketing.
Alright, getting featured on large Instagram accounts. This is one of my favorite Instagram Marketing tactics because it’s a free and an organic way to grow your followers on Instagram.
By the way, this will take a while to do properly. But it’s more or less a one-time thing. Once you know which Instagram Accounts you should target and you know how to tag them, you can keep using that – if your content has a consistent theme of course. If your content is changing a lot, then it’s a different story.
What does it mean to get featured on another account?
It’s basically when a large Instagram account reposts one of your photos and tags you in the photo.
This brings new followers and engagement to your accounts.
There are a lot of large feature-accounts on Instagram that promote other people’s work. Here are a couple of examples of my recent features on other people’s Instagram accounts, with a link back to my account. This has helped my account grow a lot – but there are some things you need to know before you start pitching your photos.
Three examples
Because my Instagram account is strictly street photography photos, I can keep tagging the same large street photography pages and it’s not crazy time-consuming. See the examples here: 1, 2 and 3.
So how do you make other large Instagram accounts feature you?
First, you need to find accounts that will feature your type of photos
If your Instagram is about photography, you are in luck, since there are a lot of crazy big accounts featuring photography. Click here to scroll down to see a list of feature-accounts.
To find feature accounts specific to your topic, do this search on Google and replace “travel” with your topic.
When you have found your feature accounts, you should ask yourself:
Why would they feature your photo? What is in it for them?
And this is tough because we sometimes think our content is great and then we look at the feature-account and see that our photos are not even near the quality of the average post.
And here it’s important to be real with yourself.
If an account has 100.000 followers, you will need some really good content. And if the profile you target has 1M+ then it’s very unlikely they will repost your photo, because of the competition (other people tagging them, wanting to get featured) and they therefore also have a crazy level of quality.
Find out how to get featured on each account
After that, you need to browse every single account that you have listed and find out how they pick which photos they repost. Every account tells you how to get featured in their bio or in their individual posts.
- Some accounts want you to use their hashtag.
- Some accounts want you to tag them in your photo.
- Some might even ask you to follow them first (I don’t like this).
Another more sneaky tip is to see who manages the account you want to get featured on. You will either find this information in the bio or in the posts they upload. When you know who manages their account you can follow them and message them to build a relationship with the admins.
By the way, I just finished reading this e-book about Instagram Marketing. By now, I’ve spent about$1000 on Instagram Marketing Guides, and this was easily the guide that givesthe me most value. It’s only $37, which is way cheaper than it should be, and the author is a guy who manages a lot of Instagram accounts with +1M followers. Check it out here.
Feature Accounts on popular categories
To find feature accounts specific to your topic, do this search on Google and replace “travel” with your topic.
Black & White Photography.
@bnw_greatshots @bnw_planet @pocket_bnw @s0mbrebw @bnwsouls @bnw_rose.
Street photography
@storyofthestreets @streetphotographyinternational @streetfeat @urbanandstreet
Food photos
@foodprnshare @foodporn_xox @ohmygodfoodporn @the_daily_bite_
Travel photos
@stayandwander @worldplaces @earthfocus @fantastic_earth @theglobewanderer @discoverearth @passionpassport @awesome_earthpix @awesome.earth @bestvacations @world_shotz @beautifuldestinations @ourplanetdaily @earthofficial
Fashion Photos
@wearethepeople.magazine @human.edge @sticks_and_stones_agency @tcl_theclassylifestyle @waitingontheworld @hypebeast @fashiongoalsz
Photography Photos
@illgrammers @way2ill_ @heatercentral @theimaged @moodygrams @createcommune @thevisualcollective @livefolk @globalcapture @artofvisuals @ig_color @instagood @VSCO @mobilemag @fatal.frames @thecoolmagazine @weekly_feature @igpodium @igshotz @thebest_capture @gallery_legit @bravogreatphoto @visualambassadors @folkgood @feedbacknation
Geographic-based feature accounts
Every country has Instagram pages showing the city. Say, you live in Denmark and you have a great photo showing what Denmark is like, then it’s obvious for you to tag @visitdenmark and if you also live in Copenhagen @visitcopenhagen.
The less obvious one is the niche accounts. In Mexico for example, we have an Instagram account called “ChilangoMetro”. It’s metro shots from Mexico City.
If I lived in New York, I’d do a Google Search like this to find feature pages.
Managing expectations
If I were to take a guess, 5% of my photos are getting featured. It’s not something that happens a lot, but when it does it pays off. So when you have found your targets, keep tagging them and be patient. If your content is great, it will come.
If your photo gets featured on a page and gets, let’s say, 1500-2000 likes, you can expect to get around 40-80 followers. It’s not anything crazy, but it adds up if it happens regularly.
This post is from my Photographer’s Guide to Social Media & Marketing.
