Influencers scratch each other's backs -- and get results. Indie hackers, why not do the same?

TL;DR: The social media "micro-partnership" strategy (used by small biz and influencer accounts) on instagram is very intriguing. I think Indie Hacker projects could benefit from the same type of micro-partnerships

I've seen friends start small businesses that gain decent followings on their social media in a short amount of time. I've also seen people in my hometown gain hundreds of followers week-over-week for many years until they get a pretty decent "influencer" account.

I am not embarrassed to admit that I am influenced by influencers. Honestly, social media has changed the way I shop, the way I find new brands, and the way I find other people to follow for outfit and home ideas, but overtime I have also learned something from influences that I didn't expect to, specifically: the power of the "I mention you, you mention me" marketing strategy.

Here's how it works.

Influencer and business social accounts are usually after one thing: eyeballs. The more eyeballs they get the more power they have for sponsorships, advertising opportunities, and selling opportunities. Let's say the owner of SocialAccount A has 4000 followers, and the owner of SocialAccount B has 5000 followers. They find each other on Instagram and realize that they have brand overlaps. They casually DM each other, and agree to an "I help you, you help me" good faith commitment. They commit to helping each other get more followers in a quick, high-quality "micro-partnership", which in it's simplest form looks something like this:

• Tagging each other in content so that SocialAccount A's followers get more exposure to SocialAccount B's account (and vice versa) in the hopes of gaining more followers on both sides.

Once the cross-promotion content goes out, they move on.

Usually, the two accounts are around the same size at the time they collaborate, and cross-promotion content has to seem like it is natural, and fit with the brand of the accounts; otherwise it seems out of place, even spammy.

But hey, leveraging each other like this works. It's not going to get an account 1M followers overnight, but doing these micro-partnerships (aka "I scratch your back, you scratch mine") over and over again overtime is a way that social media accounts can ensure a steady state of new followers each month.

I think about this a lot.

Especially now that I am trying to launch a side-project of my own, and am looking for new ways to get people to see my site. Here's the thing, I'm not in need of social media followers for my side-project. I have an early stage MVP of a web app and what I am in need of right now are some quality backlinks to improve my search engine results, and I bet there are some other cool, worthwhile side-projects that are in the same boat.

Why not partner with a few other indie hackers who have projects that are in need of the same thing (in this example, quality mentions with backlinks) and agree to mention each other like the influencers do?

It could be something like a few Indie Hackers each committing to writing a short Medium post that mentions each other's projects (remember, has to be high quality). Spin it in a way that makes sense for your presence, and is authentic. For me it would be something like "Three side-projects I learned about on Indie Hackers" with a link to the site, and a short blurb about the site, and maybe a cool fact about the founder.

I know I know, it's not exactly a 1:1 mapping of influencer accounts just sharing pictures to indie hacker projects and blogs on Medium, but I can see how these types of small partnerships could benefit projects

I want to clarify, that I am NOT advocating for excessive link-sharing, link farms, or anything that could get you penalized by Google rankings.

I'm more advocating for thoughtful ways that we can practice "I can do something for you, and you can do something for me" as a community of founders.

Here are some other examples that I could think of:

• "I review your website/product and give feedback, you review my website and give feedback": Set up a 40 minute meeting where I give you 20 minutes to show me your website and I provide some of my initial thoughts, and then then I show you my website and YOU provide initial thoughts and feedback for 20 minutes

• "I take your survey, you take mine": If you have created a survey (to gauge interest in your product, get user insights from potential users, etc) that you are trying to find participants for, then I can take your survey and in return YOU take my survey.

• "I test your product, you test mine": If you need someone to test out the "beta" product, then I can do that for you if you agree to also test out MY beta product.

Those are just some examples. I am sure there are many other ways we could help promote and help each other. Some of the strategies (like a Medium/blog post about cool projects for backlinks) could easily come off as inauthentic or spammy, but you could also be really smart and thoughtful about it and only partner with other projects that you are genuinely excited about, and post a thoughtful blog post.

I'm curious to hear if anyone has tried something like this before? I am just trying to brainstorm different approaches of how we can materially support one another as indie hackers - not just with advice, but in ways that also help promote the great projects we are working on.

Has anyone tried this before? Would anyone want to try it out?