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BrandBrandenHarvey-smlen Harvey is one busy guy. This jet-setting, humanitarian photographer is racking up air miles as fast as he is Instagram followers. This Portland resident and recent college grad has stamps in his passport from Zimbabwe to Israel – and he’s only 22-years-old.

He started taking paid shooting gigs when he was 16. Now, thanks in part to his Instagram account, big brands and international humanitarian organizations pay him to travel around and tell visual stories.

How did he find such success? Every time he picked up a camera, he turned to Instagram to share his work. After using the visual platform for a few years, he has more than 102,000 followers. An audience this size has opened even more doors for the talented artist, who says 75 percent of his work is a direct result of people seeing his photography on social sites like Instagram.

“Instagram is an incredible marketing tool,” he says. “It has really helped my career take off. If it has done that for my career, imagine what it can do for small businesses looking to market their products or services.”

The key, Harvey says, is to start building a loyal audience. To help you amass a following, the self-described “photographer with the goofy hair” offers these tips:

Offer something unique

A lot of photographers have Instagram accounts, but few are like Harvey’s. His site isn’t just a place to “look at pretty pictures.” It’s a place to learn about unique peopleand their stories.

For example, here’s a picture of a police officer in Zimbabwe. Rather than just posting the picture, Harvey wrote a mini biography along with the post. All of the posts like this have a special hashtag: #storyportrait.

Harvey suggests that small businesses should follow suit. Find a way to set your Instagram page apart from your competitors. Try offering a continuing series that focuses on your industry and give it a reoccurring hashtag.

If you standout, media outlets and influencers will take notice and share your work. That’s one of the ways Harvey’s page has grown so quickly.

Reach out to influencers and potential customers

Harvey doesn’t just sit back and hope followers come along; he researches and follows social media influencers in his niche. He builds a relationship with these industry leaders that eventually leads to shared content.

In the social media game, getting your posts shared is like passing go and collecting $200. It’s a big boost that results in added exposure and more followers.

Don’t just seek out influencers; find other companies that could benefit from your product of service and engage with them. By doing this, you can grow your following while putting your business in front of potential customers.

Cross promote everywhere

To boost your audience stats, the name of the game is cross-promotion.

“I cross-promote like crazy,” Harvey says. “A lot of my Instagram traffic is referred to my page from Twitter.”

All of Harvey’s social sites have links to other social channels. For example, if you go to his Twitter account, you see a lot of links to his Snapchat account, which is his latest social love affair.

“Small businesses should have an Instagram icon on their website, post links to their account on other social sites and hang signs in their storefront to encourage people to follow you,” he says. “Do anything you can to get the word out about your site.”

With a little work, Harvey says you’ll not only see your Instagram audience grow, but you’ll end up with an audience that actually cares about you and your work.

Lisa Furgison is a freelance journalist and co-owner of a media company, McEwen’s Media. Find her on Twitter @lfurgison.