Design Doctor No.4
Dear Design Doctor
I have been a textile designer maker for over ten years. I want to start using social media, but don’t know where to start. I’m not strong in marketing or using computers, but I feel that I need to ‘keep up’ with the younger makers! What’s the best way to start and not waste too much of my precious time?
Welcome to the world of social media! You are definitely not the only craftsperson to wonder what is going on. In the last couple of years there has been a major boom in social media, which can be a wonderful tool for creative sole traders. The first thing to know is that it isn’t just for selling your work. If you work by yourself all day it lets you stay connected with the (creative) world, to build your tribe, to network with (potential) clients or suppliers, to announce events, do market research, or just to find out what is happening in your niche – and then across the world.
What are the main social media tools?
Twitter is my favourite. I only started using it a year ago, but I now use it daily to find out about events and opportunities for our newsletter and to stay in touch with our many followers. I use clickable links in most tweets to generate traffic to the Design Trust website.
Twitter helps find people with similar niche interests, and has put me directly in touch with potential collaborators and journalists. You can share creative ideas or opinions, images of work in progress, or invite people to your website or show. You have 140 characters to create a message (a ‘tweet’), which you send to your followers. You follow people and get their tweets.
Facebook is very popular, but as most people use it for personal conversations it isn’t the best platform for business. But you can set up a business page with your branding, and separate your private and business profiles. It can work very well as an online record of images and exhibitions, or if all you want to do is sell to consumers. The Design Trust has a Facebook page, but we rarely use it – its layout constantly changes, and I don’t find it user-friendly.
LinkedIn has become a more popular social media tool for creatives, especially if you want to work directly with people in specific jobs or organisations. It has a corporate feel but as so many professionals use it to network and promote their skills, it is a good tool for creative businesses too. You put together a short profile and a CV, and then connect with others who can find out about your specialisms, skills and career history. It is very easy to find and network with specific job roles or people in museums, retailers, press, universities, or other freelancers. A great benefit of using LinkedIn is that your name will come up very high in any Google search. You can ask for recommendations for your work or skills. These will be publicly displayed, which helps your reputation. There are specialist groups with discussion forums, where you can ask or answer questions related to your expertise. Signing up is quick, but make sure you spend a bit of time on creating a good profile and CV.
Pinterest is one of the fastest growing platforms, aimed at visual creatives: you ‘pin’ (share) images with your followers in beautiful and inspiring boards. When it launched, it divided opinion – there were major issues with sharing images without providing details of the intellectual property owner, but these seem to have now been settled in better terms and conditions. The site is a great way to promote your products, your design and composition skills, an online shop window connecting back to your website, and potential sales. You can also identify and network with others with similar tastes. It will stimulate you visually and creatively, and before you know it you’re spending hours looking at gorgeous mood boards.
So where to go from here? Take a quiet day off to explore these various tools. Sign up for each (all are free, and it only takes a couple of minutes) and try them out. See if you can find some useful people on there. Ask yourself these three questions:
• What do you want to get out of social media? Networking? Driving traffic to your website? Inspiration? Your answers will help select the most appropriate tools for you.
• Do your potential clients, suppliers, collaborators use these tools? It is very easy and quick to find out.
• Which tool suits you best, and how much time do you want to spend? Some of them need more and regular time investment than others, to build your profile and to learn how to use them.
Please don’t try to use them all! It is far better to use two or three regularly, than to spread yourself too thin. Have a go, and enjoy your social media journey and start building your own online tribe…
Patricia van den Akker is the director of the Design Trust. For more advice from the Design Doctor, see www.thedesigntrust.co.uk.
If you have a business problem or challenge, email thedesigndoctor@thedesigntrust.co.uk and you might be featured in the next issue.
