An Interior Designer’s Guide to Crafting a Successful Social Media Strategy
Original photography posted at Unsplash by Georgia de Lotz.
Original article posted at Design Manager.
One thing we’ve learned over the past year is that so many parts of our life can take place online. The interior design industry is no different: As the industry begins to adopt remote work and consultation, there is a growing need – and opportunity – for interior designers to successfully market their businesses online. And, surprise, a major part of that marketing will take place on social media.
For interior designers, social media is not only a place to virtually show their work and expand their network, it will increasingly become an e-commerce conduit, making it all the more important for interior designers to have a polished presence on the relevant social channels.
Instagram Basics and Tips
What is Instagram? It’s a digital platform where interior designers can post photos of their work, inspirational images, action shots or video clips from events, and text promoting upcoming events.
How does it promote user interaction? It provides the ability to initiate communication with any other user on the platform. Justina Blakeney, designer and founder of the home-goods site Jungalow says, “Increasingly, more opportunities come via my DMs (Direct Messages) on Instagram than they do into my email inbox."
If you look at examples of interior designers who are super popular on Instagram, you’ll notice they do a few things:
They post visually interesting content that shows off their work, but also gives credit to their sources of inspiration.
They also make use of hashtags, which allows platform users who do not follow their accounts to more easily find their content.
They post regularly, usually 1-2 posts a day.
Your Instagram account also has an important sub-platform called Instagram Stories. Modeled after Snapchat, Stories show up in a separate section at the top of the main Instagram news feed, and are only visible on your page for 24 hours. Note that technically speaking, the content you post in Instagram stories will not affect your ranking in Instagram's algorithm. However, if you want to build a loyal base of followers, Stories are important.
Why invest your time in Stories? Stories are the perfect place to post lighter content meant to show off your personality, interests, or design details you come across spontaneously that you would like to share with your followers.
What to post in Stories: The best Stories integrate some “behind-the scenes” shots that show viewers exactly how a designer works, plus an occasional lifestyle shot showing a designer in a social setting, which creates a more intimate connection between the view and the designer.
How to make your Stories content live longer than 24 hours: You can always promote a Story to become part of a Highlight, which are curated collections of Instagram Stories available at all times on your profile, and serve as great opportunities to build a narrative around specific projects, sources of inspiration, or any other themed content you would like to showcase. Experts expect short-form content like Instagram Stories to become increasingly popular, as users’ attention spans become shorter.
One more important thing to note is that as of May 19, 2020, Instagram and Facebook launched an e-commerce feature with Shopify that allows users to buy products directly from the platforms. This is a revolutionary change in how interior designers can use social media to grow their business and will be discussed in more detail in the Facebook description.
Pinterest Basics and Tips
What is Pinterest? Pinterest is a close second to Instagram in the ranking of most important social media platforms for interior designers. One of its greatest benefits is that it acts not only as a social media platform for marketing your business and interacting with your network, but also as an electronic file cabinet for keeping and sharing your design inspirations.
What makes Pinterest special? The site allows you to easily assemble digital mood boards, traditional staples in the interior designer’s toolbox, which you can post publicly or share directly with contacts of your choosing. Other popular content on Pinterest are infographics and step-by-step photo guides, similar to “how-to” videos interior designers would create for YouTube, but in still-photo form.
Pinterest and e-commerce: Recognizing that people use Pinterest when they are in research and buying mode, Pinterest has savvily partnered with Shopify, adding an e-commerce component to the site. While a business account is not necessary to increase your potential gain by using Pinterest, paying for a business account will provide access to Shopify plus analytics that help identify your target audience. It also allows for sharing promo pins and “rich” pins that can have longer descriptions than regular pins.
What to post on Pinterest: Keep in mind that providing exclusive content is part of successfully using Pinterest to promote your business, so be thoughtful about which images you post on one social media platform versus another. Using Pinterest effectively for business requires an average of 11 pins per day, making it one of the more labor-intensive initiatives. Use meaningful keywords and create multiple pins around one idea to maximize SEO.