In this instructional video, the presenter explains how ArtBnB—a boutique B&B on Blackpool’s seafront designed by local artists—uses collaborations with the local art community and Instagram to expand its audience, support artists, and attract new tourists. By showcasing artists’ work, tagging them, and employing art‑focused hashtags, ArtBnB taps into the followers of each creator, turning a niche artsy crowd into potential guests who might not have considered Blackpool before. The speaker demonstrates a practical workflow using a “Navy” engagement account: creating a grouped list of artists, monitoring their recent posts, and systematically liking, commenting, and resharing content. This streamlined approach lets ArtBnB maintain active support for artists without manually following each account, while also discovering new talent. The overall message is that strategic local business partnerships, amplified through social media, can drive mutual growth, increase tourism, and build a vibrant creative ecosystem.
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Today, we're looking at how working with local businesses can increase reach and engagement, benefiting the whole place. This is artbnb. They're located on Blackpool's iconic seafront and the whole hotel has been designed by local artists, by local artists and gives back to the growing art scene. Instagram is used to showcase the work of the local artists and designers as well as the rooms and facilities, which appeals to and engages a very artsy crowd that are going to be looking for a UK staycation who might, to be honest, never have previously considered Blackpool. So with this, as you can see, they've worked with a bunch of local artists to create this B and B. They therefore want it to appeal to a very specific type of people. And then what they've done is, is they have celebrated all of the different artists that they work with, showing how it's done. And by doing this, they are supporting the local community, they're supporting the local art community, they're celebrating art. And obviously by tagging in any of the artists, then what they can do is they can, you know, build their little empire, if you like, off the back of the talented artists, because they'll have a lot of followers themselves or, or indeed if they are a brand new artist and they don't have a lot of following, then anyone who's following ArtBnB, they would naturally then start following the artist as well. So it basically shows that collaboration works and by then using some of these hashtags, they are going to then maybe start appealing to people, as I said, that maybe had never considered Blackpool. So by looking at art, hotel, co creative spaces, artwork and having, you know, the more arty style of hashtags, they'll be coming up to people who appreciate art, who might be looking for somewhere to go and just wouldn't have considered Blackpool because they might not have thought it was their scene. So it's just a great way of working with other people or businesses within an area, which naturally will drive tourism, will drive new people to the place, but also people. It's also building each other's businesses or building each other's following to increase everyone's reach as well. Now, if I was ArtBnB, then I would want to continue to support the artist. Therefore, what I would do is go into my Navy account, I would go into Engagement, engage and click on group. I would add in all of the artists here, then I would create my sponsored group. So I would create my group and then what it would look like is a bit like this. So in this group, for example, would be all of the artists. And then what it would do is it would show me all of their posts, all of their more recent posts over these certain dates. And then what I can do as that ArtBnB is I can go and I can like their post, I can comment on them, and then if I go into them, I might want to actually go in and reshare their posts. But basically, this means that I can continue to support them. I can reshare some of their stuff to keep things relevant, to show them, you know, the type of artist that they might be able to feature. I might even find some new artists this way as well. But it means that I'm not having to sit and follow them all on social media. I've got them all right here. Now, if you've got any questions whatsoever, please click on the little blue button. We love to help. You.
