4 FREE ways to support your maker friends!

Hey there! If you have landed on this blog post you are probably a pretty awesome maker of things, who is looking for good ways to support your fellow makers for FREE! I am here to share all the GREAT ways I have found to be the BEST supporter in town 😉

I am sure you have heard “the basics”. By that I mean “Like photos, and comment on posts” that most people tell you to do. Which do not get me wrong this is a VERY important thing to do! Liking and commenting on photos/posts helps the account grow and be seen by more people and ultimately that is what we are all looking for, right! But let’s dive a little deeper.

I have a crochet/knit/yarn type of account on instagram. The yarn crowd is a crazy supportive community, who’s always there to cheer you on, inspire you, and team up with you to create some really amazing content. Honestly communities like this are hard to find, but we have our own little spot in the instagram world and y’all its pretty freaking special. Because of this close KNIT (get it, knit lol) community, we are always searching for better ways to support one another, because we sincerely love to see fellow makers succeed and grow 🙂 So I am here to share all my secrets with you guys! All the things I have done to support fellow makers, and all the things y’all have done for me that has really helped my small crafty journey.

1- Subscribe to their email list!

This is my number one suggestion for so many reasons! Subscribing to someones email list helps them build the most valuable thing in their business. Plus doing this costs you $0! It’s simple, fast, and easy to do. Just jot down your name and email and boom, you have just helped support a maker!! Plus this isn’t a one sided deal, you are now signed up to get emails from that awesome maker! So when they work so hard, and put out some new content they are gonna email YOU to tell you all about it! There are so many pros to signing up for their email list, and the only con is, if you don’t do this step, you are missing out on fun emails and you aren’t helping ya friends out… so as nike would say “just do it” 😉

2- Sharing Their Content on ALL platforms!

This one is obvious, but extremely helpful! What do I mean by share content? Well there are lots of ways to share. You can share their recent post in your IG stories. You can just shout out their whole account on your stories, like “hey this person is doing big things, check them out!”. *Be sure to always TAG them ;)* If they posted a really great picture that speaks to your soul, you can reshare it on your grid, directing people to the greatness!

But Instagram isn’t the only place we can share their content. Does this maker have a blog? (Like the one you’re on right now?) If they do, chances are they probably have a Pinterest linked to the blog. Sharing the blog photos on Pinterest helps SO MUCH! For example, the photo below is a “Pinterest Pin Picture”. Meaning this is a photo I created just for Pinterest to put in this blog post, so my readers can PIN it to their Pinterest boards.

When you save a pin from a photo like this to your boards, it helps the blog get traffic. Which in turn helps the person behind the blog succeed! Naturally the more traffic, means more content, and the more great stuff you get to see from them. So again another WIN WIN. You sharing content inspires YOU, but also HELPS your maker friend get views, traffic, likes, follows etc. All because you took a few minutes out of your day to share a photo, pin a photo to your Pinterest, or just a quick shout out in your IG stories.

3- Checking them out on other platforms

Does your friend do podcasts? Youtube videos? Write blog posts? Have a facebook community group? If they do, CHECK THEM OUT! Instagram is great, I love it but these other platforms can really help your friends grow, and you can explore new sides of your friends business or hobby. For example I have this blog, a youtube channel and an Insta, but I do different things on all of these. They are all still in my niche, but some patterns I only do youtube videos for, some blog posts are informational (like this one). So by checking someone out on all the platforms, it really helps you see all the cool stuff they are doing, and all the different types of content they offer. Just following along on one platform can get stale, so it’s fun to mix it up! I personally love watching peoples youtube channels, and being apart of facebook community groups with other like minded people all helping each other out. Pretty pictures on instagram are great, but going out on these other platforms can help you build a better bond and understanding of your online friends. Just don’t forget to follow/subscribe/join them on these other platforms to show your full support 😉

4- Read their captions & comment on posts!

As you all know, with every Instagram Post we have the option of writing a caption. Now for the most part everyone I follow writes longer captions, talking about their day, how they came up with the shot for the photo they posted, or something along those lines. Now I know some people put up short and sweet captions like “Make today great! XOXO” or just emojis. But no matter the length you should be READING THE CAPTIONS! Personally I typically write long ones, I think it helps my followers get to know me better. Now once you have fully read the caption, COMMENT on the post! Start a conversation. Make a connection. These comments mean the world to the posters, for a few reasons. If they are anything like me, they love hearing from you! Even if it’s something as simple as “I totally love this picture. The yarn you used is gorgeous. Where did you get it?” Now just a heart emoji is great, lets the person know you extra loved their post, but not much to respond to. So be sure to comment things that can spark a conversation. Yes I know, not EVERY post is the best, and will inspire everyone to write epic comments, but when you read something that you can relate to, or something that you can truly comment on DO IT! The best comments are those where someone clearly read your long caption, related to it, and started a convo about it. Now I am not saying never comment just emojis, or something short like “Love it!” because those comments are great too, and always help with engagement, and the better the engagement the better the chances that photo will get seen by non-followers. Reading the captions lets you get to know them better, but commenting helps them get to know YOU better!

That’s it folks, those are my top 4 free ways to support your fellow makers! Practicing these 4 things in my business has helped SO MUCH! I totally encourage you all to put them to good use, so we can all keep shinning bright!

If you have some free supporting ideas please comment below, or message me on IG so I can compile an even longer list to share <3