Collaboration in social media marketing can be a game-changer for your business. In a competitive online space, fostering connections and working alongside other business owners who share the same goals and ambitions as you can lead to successes you never thought possible.
I'm not promising you 6 figure overnight success- but getting your name onto more platforms can point you to more leads and exposure. It's a long-game strategy, friends! Let's unpack the importance of collaborating with other brands and a few practical ways to put yourself out there.
The Benefits of Collaboration
Expanding Your Reach- Collaborating with others allows businesses to tap into new audiences they may not have reached otherwise. By leveraging each other's followers, all participants can expand their reach and increase brand visibility.
Leveraging Diverse Perspectives- Collaboration brings together individuals with different backgrounds, experiences, and expertise. This diversity fosters creativity and innovation, leading to fresh ideas and unique approaches.
Resource Sharing to Increase Impact and Achieve Common Objectives- Collaborators can effectively share resources, skills, knowledge, or promotional channels to achieve shared goals. By working together, businesses can amplify their impact and achieve greater success than they could alone.
Okay, now that we know the importance of collaborations, let's chat about a few ways you can seek it out in your marketing efforts...
Co-host an Instagram LIVE with a brand in your industry or one relevant to your audience
Instagram has made it super easy to reach multiple audiences at once by utilizing the Collaboration feature. One of you just has to go LIVE first, while the other one watches the live and taps 'request to join LIVE video.' When the other creator accepts, you both appear on the screen, and the video is shown to BOTH audiences.
After the video is over, the creator can choose to keep the replay of the video on their grid and send the other person a request to accept and allow it to live on their grid, too. I did this recently with Kinsey from Feel Good Social. We chatted all about content trends, discussed opinions about whether or not people still read captions, and how to properly use AI for content creation. You can check out the replay here.
Do a post collaboration on Instagram
Yes, I'm bringing up the collaboration feature on Instagram again because it's just sooo handy!! This option doesn't require you to get on video and be all 'put together' - so if that's your preference, keep reading.
There are probably a ton of people in your network that you already like, know, and trust. Yes? Great. Reach out to them and ask to create a post together. You would pick a topic that resonates with both of you and create a graphic, carousel posts are a good format for this type of collaboration. You'll have to coordinate to figure out the logistics of who's branding you'll use for the graphics and who's going to write it. I say play to your strengths here and do what you're good at and let the other person choose, too. One person will have to post it on their page first, then choose 'add a collaborator' (this is different than just tagging someone). This will allow the post to be pushed out to BOTH audiences and show up on BOTH Instagram grids.
*If you're in an industry that does in-person collaborations often for events, you can always post a picture of the event and invite collaborators who were involved in the event. This gives you the benefits of the collab feature without having to come up with value to share in a carousel format.
Tag people, often
Tag other Instagram users as much as possible, but make sure it's relevant. I'm not talking about tagging famous people in a post that has nothing to do with them, in hopes of it getting pushed out to more people, that is very cringe and we're not here for it.
What I mean is if you share a post to your stories of a friend/ account you love and follow, tag them when you reshare it and add some context. Put some text on your story about why you wanted to reshare that post and what it meant to you. When you add heartfelt context and tag the original user, they'll most likely re-share it to their stories.
The same goes for feed posts. If you share something about a recent experience with other businesses, talk about it in your post and tag that account. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten new followers from story re-shares. It's a great way to find new accounts you resonate with because people trust their existing followers.
I know I'm your social media bestie and I usually only talk about Instagram, I also want to touch on a few ways you can collaborate with other businesses, off of social media.
Guest On Your Favorite Podcasts
Have you ever listened to a podcast and found someone you had no idea of beforehand? This happens to me all the time, I'll be listening to a business-related or personal development pod and learn a ton of valuable info from the host and the guest they're interviewing. Then, if I really like their vibe, I'll go look 'em up on Instagram and follow them, too.
This is the power of podcast guesting. Your voice, opinions, and brand message get shared with all the loyal listeners and your name is spread wayyy faster than you could organically market yourself on social media. These people could turn into potential followers, raving fans, and maybe even clients one day. Another cool thing about podcast episodes is that they're keyword and SEO-friendly and live forever on the podcast platform as long as the podcast isn't deleted. This means that if I were to talk about social media authenticity on a podcast and someone searches for that on Google, that podcast episode can come up. Or if someone goes to Apple Podcasts or Spotify and puts in those same keywords, that episode can come up. It's free marketing!
The only downside is that you do have to put yourself out there and pitch yourself. This takes courage, but I promise the benefits outweigh the initial fear that you have to push past. Before pitching yourself to podcast hosts, I would take the time to actually listen to multiple episodes and make sure that you're aligned with their interests and values. This will ensure that the collaboration will benefit everyone involved.
Be a Guest Blogger
Similarly to podcasting, blogs are considered long-form marketing and can help you reach more people through SEO (search engine optimization). An online article, blog, or podcast can continue to gain reach forever thanks to people searching for things every single day.
Guest-blogging allows you to tap into the audience of the hosting website, driving traffic back to your site from different sources and expanding your reach beyond your usual channels.
When reputable websites link back to your site through guest posts, it can enhance your site's authority and visibility in search engine rankings-- this means more eyeballs on your content.