You never know where you may find a creative idea for promoting your shop –  your social media feed might include a baseball team offering a giveaway on Fan Friday. Mine led me to an interesting Fan Friday post by identical twin sisters.

Perhaps you haven’t heard of the Harp Twins, also known as Camille and Kennerly, whose photo accompanies today’s blog.  They are a popular duo performing their own arrangements of music, especially heavy metal, on concert and lever harps.  And while that may sound a bit esoteric, Kennelly and Camille are both classically trained musicians and consummate performers. They have a huge following on YouTube, with almost 10 million views for some of their videos.

The Harp Twins are pros at using social media, which is why their Fan Friday promotion caught my eye. Their astounding 633,000 followers on Facebook are offered an invitation to get personally involved:  “If you want to be a possible future “Fan Friday” honoree with your photo featured in our album, 1. Be a “fan” of this page, and 2. Email your photo, name, and country to [email protected].” Several hundred people have done so.

Many of the photos sent in are selfies that don’t have anything to do with the Harp Twins, but you could adapt this promotion to your store by asking customers to send a photo using or wearing something from your shop. You could even specify the item — or ask that the picture be taken in the store.

One of the key elements that makes the Harp Twins promotion work is the fact that they receive the photos via email. This allows them to decide which ones to post and to remove any personal information about the sender.  But it would also make it possible for you to reward your customers for any photo used without worrying about the rules for a Facebook (or Instagram) contest.

The regularity of a Fan Friday posting makes it a great way to set up a repeat event on your social media calendar.  Hopefully your customers will look forward to seeing it, and be excited about participating.

Happy Retailing,

Carol “Orange” Schroeder