Finding someone local eats your whole afternoon
You need a videographer, photographer or creator in a city you've never worked in. So you search Instagram by hand, open profiles one by one, check who's legit, and in small towns you find nobody and start again in the next town over.
Without it
- Scrolling by hand Searching Instagram and opening profiles one at a time.
- Small towns come up empty So you repeat the search for every bigger city nearby.
- Guessing who's legit Wedding only shooters and dead accounts mixed in with the good ones.
- Messaging the same person twice Nobody remembers who was contacted last month.
With it
- Type a city A few minutes later you get a ranked list in Slack.
- Nearby cities included It adds the bigger towns around small places on its own.
- Vetted for you It keeps people who show the work you need and folds away the rest.
- One tap to message Your message is copied and their Instagram opens. Paste and send.
How it works
What lands in Slack
- 32 foundAcross the city and four bigger places nearby.
- Why each one ranksCommercial work, a video category, a business account, recent posts.
- Your message, readyTheir first name and city already filled in, editable before you copy.
- Messaged before?Anyone you contacted in a past search is labeled with the date.
- New applicationWhen someone fills in your form, you get a ping saying which search found them.
Sample report, for illustration.
What you get
- Your private search pageType a city, pick a radius and a message, hit search. Works on your phone.
- Vetting set for your tradeWe set what counts as a fit, and what gets hidden, from how you pick people today.
- Your outreach scriptsYour own messages, filled in per person, changeable without a developer.
- An application formEvery submission posts to Slack, matched to the search that found them.
- Hosted and watched by usIt runs on our servers with your search account, and keeps a log of every search.
- A plain English guideHow to search, send, and what to do if a search fails.
- A walkthrough videoRecorded on your live setup.
Who it's for
Agencies and businesses that hire local freelancers in cities they don't know, and find them on Instagram today.
- It fits if you book shooters, photographers or creators across the US.
- It fits if the people you hire show their work on Instagram.
- It fits if someone on your team spends hours searching and messaging by hand.
It's not for you if you want messages sent automatically. Instagram doesn't allow cold messages from tools, and trying puts your account at risk, so you always press send yourself.
Already built
- 33 vetted videographers from one test city
- 6 minutes from typing a city to the list
- 4 bigger towns nearby searched automatically
Built for a content agency that books local videographers for clients all over the US. One person used to search Instagram by hand for every new city.
Questions
What does it cost to run each month?
The monthly fee covers me hosting it and looking after it. On top of that, the search service bills you directly, well under a dollar a search, and its free plan covers a handful of searches a month.
How long does setup take?
About 7 days. Most of it is setting the vetting rules for your trade and testing real searches before anything is switched on.
What do I need from you?
The kind of person you hire and how you judge them today, your outreach messages, the questions for your application form, and a Slack channel for the pings.
Does it work outside the US?
Not yet. City search runs on US city data today.
Why doesn't it send the messages for me?
Instagram only lets tools message people who wrote to you first. One tap and paste takes a few seconds and keeps your account safe.
