The story behind the scenes of when my photo went viral on the Italian news (tips on going viral below)
Have you ever woken up finding yourself on the Italian news during your holiday? I certainly did not. Well, that was until a couple of days ago. My photo of a flooded San Marco square went viral on Italy’s largest newspaper Corriere della Sera. Ever since I started travel blogging in 2015, I dreamed of taking beautiful travel photos with a “real” camera. The blog took me to South American Jungles, deserts in Africa, and snow-capped mountain peaks in Mexico. But barely any good photos were taken. For years, I used a smartphone. I was afraid to waste the little money one has as a student. But a year ago I scrapped together €1.500 for a second-hand Sony. It turned out to be a waste, a waste of the time I had spent dreaming – or postponing(?). Thousands of bad pictures later, this one ends up on your screen and the tablets and smartphones of millions of Italians. The point of my story? Stop dreaming, go out, fail and try again. Waiting for €1.500.. What a waste, a waste of time.
How to get viral features as a (travel) photographer
1. Content is king, period.
First of all, it begins with creating content that stands out. As a travel photographer that is capturing unique circumstances (at famous places) or having a unique storytelling photo (like those beautiful portraits of locals you see on Instagram).
2. Connect with local feature accounts, tag them and use the hashtags of your locations
My feature in the Italian newspaper happened because @igers.venezia featured my photo. That is an account with “just” 2.3K followers. Quite insignificant and useless to tag right? Well actually not, because they are connected to @igers.italia (268K followers). Basically, the newspaper found out via this community about my picture. The Corriere della Sera reached out to me via dm because they just started to do a series portraying the beauty of Italy and wanted my photo to be the first. Sometimes you have to be lucky, but is it really? I’ve been tagging and hashtagging accounts for a long time. Patience and proactivity are key(see tip 3).
3. Don’t be afraid to slide in the dm’s
As a social media manager myself, nothing is nicer than sitting on the couch and having a creator ask if I can share his or her beautiful content. Yet, why are creators so dreadful of reaching out to accounts to feature their beautiful photos on other accounts that have a reach? It can be a win-win for both! You expand your reach, and the social media manager has an easy afternoon because he doesn’t have to search for good content. 😉
4. After being featured: utilize that stuff!
People love recommendations and acknowledgments, it builds trust in you as a creator. Especially if the source is well known and respected. It helps you to get more features and can be a decisive point when pitching to potential clients. Every Italian social media manager reads the Corriere della Sera, how much more trustworthy can my pitch be stating that I actually got my content featured by the most respected newspaper in the country? Having that said, getting featured feels very good. But don’t get ahead of yourself, stay humble and keep creating beautiful content that people want to see and support.
Cheers.
