Friends

A couple of weeks ago I did a crazy thing. I ran an Instagram competition for two free places on a tour. I sent out the details which were set to increase my followers, and went off to Pilates. As I rotated and stretched and engaged my pelvic floor I imagined my phone giving a little ping every so often, a comforting affirmation that many people are as interested in my art tours as I am. And so when I fished my phone out of my bag at the end of  the class, I maybe wasn’t expecting the response…

Two people. Well, three if you count the person who replied before I went into class.

Honestly, I’m laughing now that I thought this call to action would trigger if not a frenzy of activity, then at least a steady trickle. The thing is that I am pretty new to both marketing and Instagram so I only had 62 followers as a starting point; OF COURSE I wasn’t going to be flooded. Beyond the Palette is my passion and even though I put my all into creating and conducting great art tours, everyone has a life of their own and stuff to do and frankly no one is just sitting around waiting for my latest social media post to enliven their day.

So, I put out an SOS to friends. Can I just say how much I love you all? People who didn’t even know they were on Instagram (until they were reminded) got involved and the net result was that I doubled my following. But more importantly, the solidarity and support and sheer wonderfulness of not only close friends but of my wider support network completely blew me away. Thank you.

The irony is that the winners couldn’t come in the end but I’ll arrange another date. Support like that deserves to be rewarded.

By the way, the group photo is from that tour, guess which one is my Mum?!