Handmade in Norway has an Instagram gallery – An Instagram profile where I find and share other people’s Instagram posts.  Before I tell you how you can get my attention and be featured, let me tell you the benefits to being featured in an Instagram gallery like ours.  Posts that I share on Instagram are also tweeted, posted to the Handmade in Norway website, to our Facebook page and sometimes shared in the group too.  So it is a good way to get your products seen.

Instagram is basically a library, a very very large library – probably the largest library you will find anywhere.  But it is a library where it is ok to borrow things without giving them back.  Except it’s not called borrowing, it’s called sharing.  And in my case that is basically what I do.  I share images with my followers because I want to show other people how amazing your work is.  But I can’t show everything.  Why?  Well, because I am building my own library too.  The Handmade in Norway Instagram profile is a library of makers, and I need to keep my library organised and aesthetically interesting to attract more followers, followers that will hopefully start following the artists and creators that I feature.  That is why I share, because one of my jobs as the founder of Handmade in Norway is to keep people interested, to keep other people’s eyes on us and admiring your work.  And to help other artists and creators in Norway to find us, and join us.

So, to keep things organised and attractive I have to pick the images I share quite carefully.  When someone looks at the Handmade in Norway profile I want them to look for as long as possible, to see and experience the work of as many of our members as possible.  To achieve this I’m looking for images that are in a certain style, that will work cohesively with the rest of the library.

So how do you get my attention, and get your work featured?

Here’s what I am looking for;

• Light backgrounds – preferably white or pastel colours.
• Not too busy – I want all eyes on your product, so not too much else going on.  A few props are ok, but nothing that will fight for attention and keep the viewers eyes from fully taking in the details of your product.
• Properly focussed images – no blurry pics please.
• I want to see the whole product, not small close up details, no images cropped so tight that you actually chop off part of the product or make it so the viewer has to guess what they’re looking at.  Because the won’t – they’ll just look at something else instead.
• Air – Leave some space around your images so it doesn’t feel claustrophobic.
• I also often post in colour groups – so here’s a really good tip.  Look at the Handmade in Norway profile, what colour am I posting?  What colour is the theme?  Which colour might come next? (The next colour will not clash with the last, I’ll go from grey to blue to green for example, not grey to pink to mustard.  If you think your product will go well with the current colour pallet tag me #handmade_in_norway  I always check the #s before I select the next group.

I’m pretty sure these points will apply to a lot of other Instagram gallery type profiles.  So have a close look at what other galleries are posting before you # them.  Are there any similarities between what they are sharing?  If you have a key-date product that you would like to share around the appropriate key date, like Easter or 17.mai that’s a great time to # a gallery.  It’s a brilliant time for us to attract new followers with your products so we will normally share more frequently before and during the key date.

I personally always post in threes too.  I will share three images one after the other.  This is working for me as a strategy to attract followers.  It also means that more new followers are seeing your work.  So don’t get disheartened if I don’t pick up of your # straight away.  I plan a few days ahead normally, so you might have to wait a few days.  I also don’t like to share a post the same day it is first posted.  This competes with your own post.  It’s best, I’ve found, to share a few days after the original image is posted.  That way you get your likes, and then Handmade in Norway can help keep the interest going and directing people back to your own profile.

So now you have a clearer idea of what I am looking for and how I choose what I share and when.  check in on our profile before you #hashtag us, keep your images clean, focussed and most importantly keep the #hashtags coming.   As long as you keep in mind the aesthetic criteria of the HiN profile, you will be featured sooner or later.

Until next time

Kelly x

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