Two audiences are better than one

Molly Cahill, a marketing and Instagram coach for health and wellness professionals, teaches us about what makes a successful Instagram collaboration and how you can use this strategy to grow your audience and get more visibility. Collaboration posts are one of the most powerful ways to get in front of more people and grow your Instagram audience.

Molly Cahill gives us great tips and insights on how to become more successful on Instagram with collaborating with other professionals.

“Collaboration posts are one of the most powerful ways to get in front of more people and grow your Instagram audience. But simply tagging someone in a post is not a collaboration. ”

Listen to this episode of Holistic Marketing Simplified, Two Audiences are Better Than One: Don’t Sleep on Collaboration Posts on Instagram; WEBSITE / APPLE / SPOTIFY

What are collaboration posts on Instagram?

If someone tags you on Instagram, the post winds up in never, never land behind a hidden tab on your profile that no one will ever click on or see.

Go see if you can find the “tagged” tab on your own profile. Most people don’t even know this section exists!

If you “mention” someone in your post – meaning you write their handle in the caption – it doesn’t even show up in the tagged tab. 

But when you add someone as a collaborator, that’s where the magic happens. 

When you click to add someone as a collaborator, it will send that person a request that they can either deny or approve. 

If they approve it, your post will show up on their main grid. 

Instead of living behind a closed tab no one ever looks at or getting lost in Instagram space like a tag or mention, a collaboration post is positioned directly in front of your collaborator’s audience. 

How can I use collaboration posts on Instagram?

Here’s an example of how you can use collaboration posts.

You’re a postnatal yoga instructor and you write a post educating new mums on pelvic floor health. 

You want to recommend your favourite local physio who offers new mums postnatal health checks and add them as a collaborator so all of their patients and followers see your educational post and are introduced to your services!

You could create a carousel post titled “Our recommendation for ______” so you can fill in the blank and share a few slides of your favourite postnatal professionals and collaborate with up to 5 of them on a single post. 

Tip: You can also add collaborators on reels.

Molly Cahill's tips for successful collaborations

Because an invited collaborator has the option to decline, you need to make sure you’re giving yourself the best chance at getting approved so you can get in front of a new audience. 

Use neutral images

If your post has really bright colours or a very strong brand vibe, it may stick out like a sore thumb on someone else’s grid. If they care about their aesthetics and branding, they may reject the collaboration.

If you’re targeting a specific collaborator, you can even create your graphic in their brand colours or to fit their overall aesthetic. Otherwise, use neutral images and tone down a collaboration post so it could fit in pretty much anywhere.

Target your local audience

If you invite a completely random, out of town coffee shop to collaborate on your post, they may say no because they have no idea who you are.

Invite local businesses and professionals to increase your chances of being accepted. Even if they don’t know you personally, they have probably heard of your practice or will recognise the name. 

Create multiple posts

If you really want to increase your reach, create multiple posts with the same collaborator. 

We recently did this with a client who interviewed a local naturopathic doctor. We cut the interview up into 4 different clips and invited the doctor to collaborate with each of the 4 posts across a week or two. 

This got so much visibility for our client! 

Always send a DM

You don’t need to ask someone’s permission to add them as a collaborator ahead of time. They can always decline if they’re not interested. 

But I do recommend sending a DM to anyone you request as a collaborator to say something like: “Hey! I just added you as a collaborator on this post. No pressure to accept, but if you do, it will live on both of our pages and double our exposure!” 

You don’t have to go into a big, long explanation. It’s more about giving them a heads up and letting them know this request is waiting for them, as many people may not even know about collaboration posts.