Social media is such an important element to use within a business these days. Today I wanted to come in and just give you a few tips for using social media in your designs business.

If you are starting to set up your design business and are wanting to set up your social media it can be quite challenging getting your work seen and building your following. Here are a few little tips to get you started using social media within your business.

Set up a business account

The first thing that you really need is to make sure that you’ve got business accounts for all of your social media, particularly for your Instagram and Pinterest account. For Facebook make sure you’ve sent up a business page. It’s really easy and simple to do but also very important. The reason you want to do this is that it’s going to open you up to so many new features that don’t have access to when you just have your own personal account.

One of the features you’ll get access to is analytics which will allow you to see which posts are doing well, which posts aren’t, which posts are getting engaged with the most, which time of day your users are most engaged and so on. This will really allow you to plan the best way of posting moving forward because you have data to work from.

Consistent posting

One of the most important and key things that you need to think about when you are using social platforms is consistency. There are various rules you will hear different strategies for posting, including how many times a week you should post and that sort of thing but what is most important is that you are keeping up to date with the latest rules and algorithm changes for each platform as they are always changing.

In my business, I’ve tested different ways of posting and what works well for me and my business so while it’s important to listen to what experts are telling you in terms of posting, you also want to watch, see and test works well for you and your following.

The most important thing though, with your social media is that you’re posting your content regularly. Social media platforms reward you for consistency and engagement on their platforms. They want to see not only that you’re posting regularly, but that you’re engaging with other people. When you regularly and consistently use and engage with their platforms you will be rewarded by your posts being seen by more people.

So there’s no point in posting a lot of posts one week and then no posts the next week. They’re not going to favour that as they want to see consistency in your posting. Therefore what you need to do is think about a strategy that you’re going to be able to maintain going forward. So even if that is only posting once or twice a week, you’re better off to do that than to sporadically posting here and there. The best way is to set yourself up a schedule that you regularly adhere to.

Batch and schedule

A great idea is to allow yourself a scheduling day once a month or something like that and you can then batch schedule all of your posts. That is a great way to be able to thoughtfully think about what you’re going to post and when you’re going to post.

There are also plenty of different apps out there that will enable you to be able to batch and schedule your posts ahead of time so you don’t have to be posting in real-time. You’re able to batch and schedule them in advance and then they will, they will post those for you. So particularly with my Pinterest account, I batch and schedule large amounts of posts at one time and I don’t have to be on there that often at all. It’s really great and to be honest, I get most of the traffic to my website and a lot of people sign up to my website through my Pinterest account.

With your Instagram account, it is recommended after your post goes live that you are available for the next 30 minutes or so to be actively engaging with your following so also keep that in mind.

Engagement

Think about how you’re posting, what you’re posting and when you’re posting and make sure that you have consistency in how you’re doing it to ensure that you’ve got the greatest chance of having your work seen.

This includes thinking about engaging on Instagram and Facebook with other people as this will definitely help get your work seen more by more people so you will have far greater reach.

Also, think about using multiple features on individual platforms. For example, on Instagram, think about using stories, lives and Instagram TV and putting your face out there. Being visible will help with engagement because people like to see the person behind the brand especially if you are your brand.

You can also think about doing Facebook live and stories on Facebook

Choose one horse to start and ride it well

It can feel so overwhelming just the thought of consistently posting and showing up on social media so my biggest tip, if you are starting out, is to pick a platform, do that well and then once you are comfortable add in another platform.

For me personally, I started with Pinterest, got that all working and then I added in Instagram and Facebook. There was no way when I first started that I could have managed all of those platforms at once.

I would advise getting systems in place and working on one platform and then adding the next platforms.

Most importantly, just make sure you’re consistent, you are regularly showing up and engaging so that you have the best chance of growing your social media following.