If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen that I took part in The British Craft House January Instagram challenge. The idea is that you follow a set of prompts everyday throughout the month, helping you to create content and engage with your audience. With March seeing the start of Meet the Maker from Joanne Hawker, and it maybe seeming like a bit of a daunting challenge, I thought I’d share my five top reasons why it’s worth getting involved!
1. It provides you with content ideas and encourages you to think outside the box!
Hands up if you sometimes sit staring at your phone, drawing a blank on what to post for the day? I know I certainly do! With daily prompts throughout the month, these challenges do a lot of the thinking for you! They provide inspiration for daily posts and a chance to be creative – it’s completely up to you how you interpret the prompt! From prompts such as ‘packaging’ and ‘logo’, to ‘daily routine’ and simply ‘favourite colour’, you can post as little or as much about your business or personal life as you want!
2. It helps you get seen and gain followers – in an authentic way!
Most Instagram challenges suggest a hashtag that you can add to your posts such as #TBCHJanChallenge or #MarchMeetTheMaker. That way people can scroll the hashtag and see everyone that’s involved. So it’s a great way not only for you to find fab new businesses and accounts to follow, but for new people to find you too – and hopefully if they like what they see they’ll become a follower and at some stage, make a purchase!
3. It gives you an opportunity to show another side of your business
Quite often we can fall down the trap of only showing product photos, or only talking about our services. Personally, I think that’s totally fine if that’s what you want to do, but if you’re interested in branching out and sharing new content but not sure how, this is a great way to start. People do love to see a bit of the ‘behind the scenes’ and to get to know the person behind the brand – it helps build trust with your customers. People buy from people, or so they say! My most popular posts over the last year have been ones about gardening and dahlias, rather than my cards, and that’s fine! But hopefully when the people that enjoy those posts need a card, Crofts Crafts will be the first place that springs to mind!
4. It’s fun and boosts your engagement!
What I find great about these challenges is the sense of community and fun they create. If you’re posting content that’s different to usual, it can spark some interesting conversations with your followers in your comments and DM’s, which helps boost your engagement and in turn helps you get seen. It’s always fun to find out more about your fellow makers or even just to share thoughts on prompts you struggled with or weren’t so keen on!
5. You don’t have to post every day
Yep, you read that right. As mentioned above, these challenges are supposed to be fun – if you are struggling to come up with an idea, are too busy, or simply don’t like a prompt or want to share what’s being suggested – that’s ok! I’ll let you in on a secret – I’ve taken part in a few of these challenges over the last few years and I am still yet to complete one fully, posting everyday. And that’s totally fine! If you are taking part, it also doesn’t mean that you can’t post other stuff if you feel like it either. The accounts that host these challenges do it to help you build your online presence, but one of the things I love most about them, is being able to dip in and out as I choose, without any pressure and just make the most of the inspiration and motivation when I need it!
I’ll be attempting to take part in this year’s #MarchMeetTheMaker with Joanne Hawker over on Instagram starting on 1st March if you fancy joining in or just following along – but no promises I’ll be posting every day! 😉 Find out more about it here. Will you be taking part? Have you joined challenges in the past? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!