Which social media should you use for your online design biz?

Business Tips

Aug 23

Social Media has well and truly cemented its place in everyone's lives, and if you’re running an online business, you can’t really avoid it.

Social Media has completely opened up the way we run businesses these days, and has also made starting and running your own business so much more accessible.

It’s completely free, direct access to millions of people around the world. How cool is that? And if you run an online business, it’s an advantage you’d be silly to pass up.

But which social media should you be on if you’re running an online design business? There’s Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn… and those are just the popular ones.

Not only are there a gazillion social media platforms, but it takes A LOT more than just signing up to them to start seeing the clients and money rolling in. You have to invest time and strategy. And of course, the strategy for each platform is different.

Honestly, it’s totally unrealistic for you to master all of the social platforms for your biz, especially if you’re just a one-woman show. You just won’t have that much time or energy, along with running the rest of your business.

I always aim to keep everything as simple as possible in business, because it can become complicated and overwhelming really fast.

So, I strongly believe that it’s best to give your time to only one or two platforms (max!) and master these, rather than giving less energy to all of the Social Media platforms, and not getting the benefits that you could be.

For example, when I started my business, the only platforms I committed to growing were Instagram and Pinterest. That was it. I didn’t sign up for YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter or anything else. I did have a Facebook page, but I didn’t do anything on it. I just focused on Instagram and Pinterest.

And guess what? Years later, that’s still all I do. I get a lot of clients through Instagram and Pinterest, and I put zero effort towards any other social platform still to this day.

So now that you know you’re only going to commit to one or two platforms, how do you choose?

Well, as an online design business, there are benefits of using basically any social media platform.

But your number one question should be…

Where are your ideal clients hanging out online?

If you’re thinking, “what’s an ideal client?” then you need to take a step back and figure that out first.

Your ideal client (also sometimes called ‘target audience’ or your ‘ideal client avatar’) is basically a dream client, someone that you enjoy to work with and also someone who needs and can benefit from your services and offerings.

Everyone’s businesses are different, and even online design business can be completely different depending on who you want to serve (your ideal client) and what you want to design (your services).

So there’s no cookie cutter answer here. I can’t tell you if your ideal clients are hanging out on Instagram or YouTube, that’s something that you need to figure out for yourself.

You need to know exactly who your ideal client is, so you can see exactly which social media they’re using.

Every social media platform has a different demographic.

Which means that you should choose the social media that is most aligned with your ideal client.

This website lists the common social media demographics, so you can check that out to get a good idea of who is where.

From there, I recommend physically going onto those platforms and just looking for your ideal client. Can you see them hanging out there?

Or working backwards, choosing some real-life ideal clients and see where they are online. Are they active on Instagram? Facebook? Twitter?

Try not let which platform you prefer affect your decision making here.

For example, as a designer, you’re probably all about the visuals and showing off your work, so Instagram may seem like the perfect fit.

But, if your target audience is hanging out on LinkedIn, you need to put aside your love for Instagram and pick up LinkedIn, because that’s where your audience is at.

This doesn’t mean you can’t sign up to other Social Media platforms. If you love one platform and want to share there, go for it. But make sure you’re putting more energy into your one or two chosen platforms.

Where is your competition?

Think about an established professional who is in the same industry as you, and has the same target audience/ideal client as you. What Social Media platforms are they on?

If they’re on every platform, dig a little deeper and do some more research. What Social Media platforms do they get the most engagement on? If their Facebook is blowing up, but their Instagram is stagnant, then you will get a good idea of where they’re getting the best results.

But as always, this comes back to your target audience. This strategy will only work if your target audience is the same!

Strategy

No, I’m not going to go into every single social media strategy because:

1. That would take forever

2. It’s going to be different for every business

3. I’m not a social media expert by any stretch!

But I do run a successful online design business and have a great return from my social media efforts. And what I can say from my personal experience with social media and business, is that one of the most looked over “strategies” of social media, is to simply show up regularly and consistently with helpful and useful content.

When, where and what you post is up to you -- but if you’re consistently showing up with helpful information for your ideal client, you’re already going to be doing better than most businesses on social media.

If you want to know more about your chosen social media and its strategy, Google will be your best friend. Social media is constantly changing and so are the best strategies, so it’s something you need to stay on top of.

Find some social media experts to follow, sign up to their email newsletters or read their weekly blog so you can learn the best strategies to put into place now, and so you can keep on top of them when they change (because they will!)

So, let’s recap:

If you want to know which social media you should be using for your online design business, you need to define your ideal client first and figure out where they are. Everything comes back to your ideal client.
Only choose one or two social platforms and give them 100%!
Show up regularly, consistently and with helpful content for your ideal client.
Use Google to find an expert in your social media that you can follow, learn from, and continue to learn from.

Sorry that I couldn’t tell you exactly which social media platforms to sign up to for your design biz, but hopefully this was helpful!

Want more social tips? Check out the posts below!

Social Media Metrics: The Basics! What is the bare minimum you should be tracking and why
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How to Create an Organic Pinterest Marketing Strategy for your biz
How to Grow your Business and get Clients with Instagram in 2022
Our go-to tools & techniques for scheduling content
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