Best Social Media Platforms For Interior Designers And How To Use Them
Being on social media and developing a strong marketing strategy around it is now a big part of your business growth. Your social media profiles, the interaction you are having on them, and the posts you are creating and sharing are often the first steps in the journey that your clients will take to find you, and eventually hire you.
From your visual branding and the overall coherence of your interior design style to the content and value you are sharing on a regular basis, these are important factors when it comes to social media.
When people love what they see and feel connected to your brand, that’s when they will be open to hiring you for their projects.
For you to get to this stage, your audience needs to be able to find you on social media.
So, where do you start? It’s important to focus on what you can nurture, so try not to sign up for every single social media platform all at once. Whilst they all have benefits, you want to channel your energy into the ones that will truly serve your business and help you build a thriving community.
Top tip: Only focus on creating media and content for 2 social media platforms at a time to avoid burnout and overwhelm. If you are just beginning, pick 1 platform to focus on for the next few months only. You can always add more later on when you’re feeling more comfortable.
2 best social media platforms to use when promoting your interior design business
Focus on social media platforms that focus on creativity and design
Your social media profiles are an extension of your brand. As an interior designer, visual is highly important in your industry, therefore focus on social media platforms that prioritize visuals, creativity, and design.
Spaces such as Facebook and LinkedIn can be useful for finding clients or work opportunities but if you want to create a space where clients come to you, can clearly see your work, and connect with you personally, you want to be focusing on the top two prime creative platforms: Instagram and Pinterest.
Getting eyes on your business is known as Brand Visibility, and both Instagram and Pinterest are great places for you to improve your brand visibility. Why? Because that’s where potential clients go for design inspiration!
Pinterest - what is it and how to use it
One of the top platforms for interior designers to focus on is Pinterest. Yet, Pinterest is often overlooked! Pinterest is an excellent strategic tool. As an interior designer, don’t miss out on the opportunity to use this platform! Let’s find out why:
Visual Search Engine
Pinterest is actually less of a social network and more of a visual search engine. Unlike other social media such as Instagram and Facebook, people use Pinterest like they would use Google. People can come to Pinterest with a specific question and their question is met with visuals and an impactful title. In a blink of an eye, they can decide if they want to read an article, watch that tutorial or keep searching.
Since they are actively looking for an answer, your article doesn’t come as a disturbance in their feed but as the solution, they were looking for!
Pro tip: Make a list of questions you can answer for creative content! What is your audience currently looking for? Which questions are they asking themselves?
Pay attention to frequently asked questions or check out tools such as Answer The Public. This can help you find common questions related to your keywords.
Drive Traffic To Your Site
Another benefit is that Pinterest drives a lot of traffic to your website, more than other platforms. If you have a blog, for example, this is a great way to promote your blog articles and drive people back to your blog page! The platform is intuitive and easily links back to your site It’s a great way to really position yourself as an authority in your field. It’s going to help you build trust and increase the opportunity of landing new clients.
Driving traffic to your site is also going to help grow your SEO (search engine optimization) which means search engines, such as Google, will take notes of everyone coming to your site. The more visits you have, the more trustworthy you will become, and the more Google will reward you by putting your website higher on their search list making it easier for people to find you.
Inspiration
Pinterest is THE place to come for inspiration.
It's the number one platform that potential clients go for images and inspiration when it comes to decorating their homes.
When they come to Pinterest, they haven’t made a lot of choices yet. They are looking for help and for inspiration. Imagine how important it is for you to show up during that phase and support them during these times in their life.
Posting on Pinterest puts you and your work directly in front of the people who are searching for your style of design and expertise. It’s a great way to increase your visibility.
It’s also one of the biggest online libraries of interior design images on the internet. In fact, one of their biggest search categories is home and interior design.
Highly visual
Pinterest is a platform that allows users to visually share, and find new interests and inspiration by posting (known as ‘pinning’) images or videos to their own or others’ boards (i.e. a collection of ‘pins,’ usually with a common theme) and also browsing what other users have pinned. Using a visual orientation, Pinterest is very much focused on the concept of a person’s lifestyle.
This means this is a great place to share your portfolio and show off your work to a new audience.
It’s important you share high-quality and vertical images that will attract more attention on the platform.
How-To’s & Tutorials
Since people are looking for tips, Pinterest is a great place to share your expertise in a fun format. Infographics, step-by-step videos, or using their newest format the “Idea Pin” which allows you to create a video or put together multiple slides to go over one specific topic. This can really help you establish your authority and expertise while providing really useful information to your audience. Check out templates on Canva to help design great visuals!
Want to learn more about Pinterest. Check out this article: “PINTEREST: THE UNDERRATED SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM TO PROMOTE YOUR INTERIOR DESIGN BUSINESS”
Instagram - what is it and how to use it
Instagram, much like Pinterest, is a visual app that offers a great space for designers to share their work… but not only!
It has a very different goal than Pinterest.
If Pinterest is a visual search engine, Instagram is fantastic at community building. Followers can easily interact with you, and vice versa, and you can really build a strong and supportive community of people who are fans of what you do!
Instagram allows you to build relationships with existing and former clients, to connect with potential clients, all that while raising brand awareness.
Why is building a community important?
Building a community instead of just an audience of customers can be both really fun and smart! Moreover, your community doesn’t need to be only potential customers. It can also be other interior designers you like to collaborate with, influencers that could help promote your work or other people in the industry who could recommend you to potential clients.
Starting, building, and growing your own business can be really challenging and can feel lonely at times. Building an actual community that is supportive and that you can interact with will really help you feel heard, will spark your creativity, and give you the energy you need when it gets a little hard!
It can also really help you in your business when you take advantage of the platform to get to know them better: ask direct questions, make them vote on which color/design they like the best, ask their opinion before launching a new service, etc.
The more you’ll know your audience, the more equipped you will be to answer their needs!
Which content to share
Instagram offers a multitude of different ways to share media, from video to ‘reel’, to IGTV, live streaming, and still imagery. If you’re a true people person, you love interacting with people and you want to share more of your lifestyle and behind-the-scenes footage, we highly recommend opting for Instagram.
There is plenty of content you can share on Instagram. Here are some ideas to get you started:
Show your past projects
Show before/after pictures
Share your expertise: explain your point of view on a specific topic, how you would resolve a tricky situation
Talk about your services and why it’s a great investment
Give tips on how to do some things on your own
Share your “behind the scenes” – how you prep your work, how you get organized,
Talk about creativity: how and where you find your inspiration
Share something more personal: who are you, why did you choose to be an interior designer
Inspire your followers: share a quote, a beautiful picture, and talk about why interior design is important.
Repost and give credit to other work and share why you particularly love this design
Give more technical tips and advice
If you’re feeling uninspired to post on Instagram check out these ideas to give you a bit of a starting point to get the creative juices flowing again. Click here for Instagram inspiration for your interior design brand.
To find out great hashtags to use for interior designers, click here.
Show the person behind the business
Today’s customers want to connect with other human beings, not just brands and companies. Instagram is a great platform to share both about your business (your offers, your portfolio, etc.) as well as you as a business owner and as a person.
You are at the core of your business and your personality influences the direction of your company. Customers are eager to know that person, to learn about why you started your business, and to get to know your values. The more approachable you will be, the more people will be able to feel closer to you and will feel more inclined to trust you.
Whether you are a product-based brand or service-based, telling the story of how you came to be is a great way to build the trust factor with your audience. This also helps people to identify with you and relatability is important in today's world.
Learn more about brand storytelling and why i’s so important to grow your business!
If you aren’t sure which platform to choose, consider your desired outcomes. Do you wish to create a stylish portfolio on an app where people come to seek inspiration and design ideas, or do you wish to be more front-facing and build a community online?
We recommend starting with one platform, with the intention of building the next one after you’ve gotten to grips with it. You want to be on both platforms to really increase your visibility and brand recognition.
Take care of yourself when showing up on social media
We wanted to close this article by reminding you that social media can be a tricky tool to use. It’s easy to get trapped in the numbers game, to compare ourselves to other business owners, to put a lot of energy into it, and end up with more anxiety.
Showing up consciously is going to be really important to keep both your sanity and your authenticity on these platforms.
Social media are great TOOLS. It’s up to you to decide how you want to use them. There are a lot of toxic practices out there that will more hurt than help grow your business. To learn more on the subject, check out our article: “how to reduce anxiety when posting on social media”
If you want help growing your business online, we’re here to help! Click here to schedule a Complimentary Brand Consultation.
Like this article? Pin it now! 📌
