Haskin Studios

16/07/2024

While on assignment with Peace Parks Foundation, I took a flight with local Mozambican pilot Edson, to capture some photos from the air. It was super exciting flying in a small aircarft like the Savanah we were in.

Edson, who now flies for Peace Parks Foundation in Limpopo National park, also runs his own YouTube channel where he documents his journey being a pilot in Mozambique. Check it out at Moz Aviation .

12/07/2024

Last year we started working with Alexander Swart Property Group on their social media presence.

By the end of 2023, their Instagram grew from 280 followers to just over 20 000 followers. TikTok grew from 0 to 16 000 followers. Facebook grew from 3 000 to 14 000. YouTube from 0 subscribers to over 1000. Most of this growth was organic.

What we learned out of this process?

Working with the right client is key.
By the ‘right client’ I mean a client that is aligned with your values and views on marketing. Straight out of the gate, Rowan Alexander's reason for going into social media was to create brand awareness. He saw the importance of having a presence where people are focusing their attention. He understood the long-tail on conversions from social media accounts and saw the value in investing in online marketing. He let us do our job. This is a big one. Rowan giving us the freedom to experiment, to play, and to figure out what works was a huge factor in the growth of their accounts.

Provide value to your audience
For more than half the year, we didn’t promote anything or create any sales posts. We primarily provided value to their audience. Through that approach, we could organically grow their accounts. The side effect of this approach was sales – it was not the goal. When sales is the primary goal, people see through that and you won’t get the kind of organic growth you might want or be able to build a large community. After the first half of the year, we did start including more promotional posts or talking about actual products, and the response was great. It has been incredibly satisfying to have Rowan call us to talk about how many people have contacted them about a house for sale or a development they are interested in.

Don’t be afraid of criticism.
A great example of this is a post we created mentioning the price of a certain house in a certain area. Comments blew up on how ridiculous the housing market is currently, how terrible the area is and how no-one would want to live there. On the flip side, the agent we posted the video for was flooded with calls from people interested in the property. All the negative comments on the post only created more engagement which ended up increasing its visibility. From there, more of the ‘right’ people saw it and took action on the CTA at the end of the video. Just because a post might be getting negative comments, doesn’t mean it’s not doing its job.

Keywords over Hashtags | Using keyword in titles and in captions.
Keywords give an audience an immediate synopsis of the video and act as SEO for the video. Including keywords in your caption, especially on Instagram, will send it to the right audience. Currently most of our Instagram content does not making use of hashtags at all. As with everything though, things on social media are constantly changing which leads me into the next point.

Tweak your strategy along the way.
When we started working with Alexander Swart at the start of 2023, we had a certain strategy in mind. After a month, we saw the strategy wasn’t really working, so we adjusted how we did things. Once we found what was working, we honed in on that. Social media is an ever-changing landscape and it’s important to be constantly adjusting as you go. What works today is not necessary what’s going to work tomorrow.

Reply to comments
Engage with your audience! Reply to comments as much as you can. Don't just leave them there. I would even got as far as to say that replying to comments is more important than creating new content. A great way to engage is to create video replies to questions from the comments and use them as a new post.

Just start.
Marketing on social media does not have one right way of being done. The trick is to simply start. Start creating something. If you have the drive to provide value to your audience as the main goal, your account will grow and as a side effect, sales will come too.

A big thank you to Rowan Alexander from ALEXANDER SWART PROPERTY GROUP for his trust in letting us at Haskin Studios run with this and for working together with us over the past year and a half.

Dylan

Writing credits :

Written by Dylan Haskin
Contributions from Tyla Storm Barker.
Edited by Sandi Brunel.

No AI tools involved.

11/07/2024

28/11/2021

Looking for a Cape Town based junior video editor for a project . Contact me at [email protected]

09/08/2021

Video screen grabs of some recent work with Peace Parks Foundation at Kruger National Park. www.dylanhaskin.com

03/06/2021

Video screen grabs of some recent work with adidas for Run For The Oceans

12/05/2021

Some behind the scenes moments from the shoot with Cape Union Mart yesterday 🎥

10/05/2021

The next episode of the BMW South Africa and Wits - University of the Witwatersrand Art Collab is out. In this episode, Tzung Hui Lauren Lee talks about her work and her thoughts behind art and creativity. Really enjoyed editing this project.

https://youtu.be/YqeC_ekHRZU

04/05/2021

More editing work out for the BMW South Africa and Wits - University of the Witwatersrand Art Collab. In this episode Shayna Rosendorff shares her art work from the project. https://youtu.be/wTbK8kpo2_A

“Creativity is about being brave, it’s about challenging one's mind and also the minds of your viewers.” – Shayna Rosendorff. In the third episode of the BMW...

23/04/2021

Something I really appreciate about my work as a photographer and videographer is that each project is different . Here are some highlights from the past 3 weeks of work .

20/04/2021

The second episode of the project I edited for BMW South Africa is out. This time Micaela Wentzel shares her insights behind her art work. https://youtu.be/NmDjQnXBetQ

“It’s incredibly fascinating how much nature can change based on the weather, the light, the shadows that are falling onto leaves and foliage. I try to think...

15/04/2021

Fun day taking photos with local businesses Greyton Optometrists and Lightspeed Wireless 👓⚡️

14/04/2021

14/04/2021

Some recent editing work with BMW South Africa with the first episode featuring artist Hedwig Barry.

This is the first episode of a series of videos I edited for BMW that will be released over the next few weeks. I found these projects challenging, rewarding and inspiring to edit. To try tell the story of another artists vision on a project they have been working on, or thinking about for years, in just a few minutes was a daunting task.

For me, the most important thing was to try my best to do their work the justice it deserves. I know at the end of the day, it still only touches the surface of their thoughts, but hopefully it gives the viewer some insight into their mind and how they see their art.

Also I found working on these projects and listening to the artists thoughts and views, was super inspiring . Thanks Kevin Sawyer for the opportunity to contribute in telling their stories.
Filmed by Kevin Sawyer , Anthony Churchyard Henry Marsh.

https://youtu.be/0ntSA82oABU

Hedwig Barry, a Wits Master of Arts in Fine Arts graduate, describes the “Crumple” as a poetic reminder of the fragility of life and an interpretation of str...

13/04/2021

Some recent work with Ultra4 Racing - South Africa and Maniac 4x4

06/04/2021

Some Ultra4 Racing action I shot this past weekend Ultra4 Racing - South Africa

How EPIC was our first RECCE of KOT? This epic! Check out the pics below 👇 A huge thanks to Dylan Haskin for capturing all the memorable moments.
For those of you who are new to what we are doing, go check out ULTRA4 racing and King of Hammers hosted yearly in USA. This racing series is coming to South Africa and our first official race will be held in 2022.
The past weekend a handful of invitees from around the country descended upon the Tankwa to shake down their vehicles in race conditions and provide ULTRA4 South Africa with some much needed feedback about the track, race conditions etc.
Even though this wasn't an official race... Someone has to win it.
A big congrats to Riaan Swanepoel (Jeep Wrangler) our fastest car on the day and Dylan van der Merwe (KTM 300) our quickest moto on the day. Hope to see you guys back for our first official race

Photos by www.dylanhaskin.com