The Basics
Piper began posting “Rares”, as she coined them, on her Instagram story as a way to more meaningfully interact with her countless fans. If you comment the most clock emojis, you could get an exclusive look at the blurred photo, a follow back, and even a chance to be in her upcoming music video.
Now anyone can make a Rare thanks to Piper’s new app, exclusively on the Koji app store! Rares offers all creators a fun and customizable way to provide premium content to their fans.
Simply choose a photo or video to lock, blur it, disguise it with a sticker and some text, and then decide how you want your fans to unlock it. Maybe they have to enter a password, pay $5, or complete a short quiz—it’s all up to you and your imagination.
Let’s Get Started
The Rares app is free to use and available on the Koji App Store. Setting it up is easy, and there are a few choices to make depending on the type of experience you want to create. If you don’t have a Koji Profile yet, check out our guide on How To Customize Your Profile.
Create the Rare
First, you have to make your Rare! Choose whichever photo or video you want to ‘Rarify,’ then disguise it. You can add a sticker and whatever text you want, and if you want to make it really hard for people to see what the image is, you can also pixelate it! Now is also the time to give your fans a hint on how to unlock the Rare.
Set the Unlock Condition
So you have an awesome (or maybe super embarrassing) photo or video ready to be unlocked. You can now choose to have people unlock it by doing one of three things:
- Entering a Password: This unlocking method has tons of potential. The password could be your catchphrase, the name of your dog, or even a secret phrase you share with close friends. Here are some ideas for password unlocked Rares:
- Hide the password in your latest YouTube video to drive watch time.
- Choose a password by selecting a word you say in one of your older videos on YT or TikTok to drive views of catalog content.
- Gate access to the password via a ‘fan club’ or email newsletter
- Donating: This one is pretty straightforward. Set a price that you think the Rare is worth and there you go! You get to keep 85% of all transactions.
- Answering Quiz Questions: This is a multiple choice quiz, so if you want to be a little more forgiving with your followers, this is a good place to start.
Pro Tip: Increase YouTube or TikTok views by basing the Quiz answer off of your latest video.
You can also include an optional message that fans will see after unlocking your Rare: congratulate them on a job well done, or maybe include a special hint to the password for next week’s Rare to keep your fans looking forward to the next one.
For even more ideas on how to use these unlocking methods, check out our “5 Creative Ways To Use Piper Rockelle’s New Rares App” article.
Finishing Up
There you have it: a basic guide on how to use Rares. We hope anyone can find a way to use Rares and experiment with all the ways it can help you grow your following and create hype around you and your content.
Is Rares Right For You?
Rares is for everyone—from high-profile influencers to growing artists to casual social media users. We think all kinds of creators will find a way to use Rares that enhances their content and their brand.
It’s simply about giving your fans an exclusive experience that they earned through their support of you. That said, there are a few things you should keep in mind when deciding whether Rares is right for your Koji Link in Bio:
Time Commitment
To make your Rare a success, you need to make sure you can set aside time to create an interesting way for your fans to unlock your content—if you choose to go the password and quiz route.
Test your fans and friends on how much they really know about you with a quiz about your favorite color, the last vacation you took, your least favorite food, or any other fun trivia you can think of. Or hide a secret code in one of your old posts and send people on a scavenger hunt to unlock the Rare. The possibilities are endless and you can get really creative with how to make Rares work for you and your followers.
Moderation
You’re in control of what is posted and how your fans can unlock it, so be respectful and have fun with it!
Make it Worth It!
The biggest thing that separates strong Rares from weak ones is the quality of the locked content. Knowing your audience and the kind of content they want to see will be critical in getting good engagement with your Rares.
Ask yourself, what exclusive experience am I giving to my fans? Is it an embarrassing moment that I only trust my truest fans to see? Is it a sneak preview of a new music video that I want to reward devoted followers with? A Rare is special, so it’s important your fans feel that too!
Promoting Your Rares
Koji makes it easy to make the actual app and get started creating Rares, but what comes next? Promotion!
Everyone is different, so there’s no one-size-fits-all recipe for promotion, but here’s our favorite tip for getting the most of your Rares:
Set A Schedule…or Not
Consider making Rares a regular part of your content calendar. Maybe every Friday is a Rare day where you can post an exclusive video or photo from your week or start promoting a bigger project.
Alternatively, take a cue from the app’s title and make your Rares…rare! Keep your followers and fans guessing when the next Rare will be released and what it might be. This can build anticipation and create a lot more hype for whatever you end up posting.
Final Thoughts
Rares is a powerful, versatile app. We know the experiences you create with it will be truly magical to some of your followers, and Piper is excited to give you the tools to make that magic happen!
We’d love to hear your feedback, ideas, feature requests, and bugs. Instagram is the easiest place to get in touch – we’re @withkoji, and we can’t wait to see what you do with this new app.