freelance brand designer using social media

Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Spotify, Clubhouse, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter Spaces, Snapchat, Substack, Medium, Telegram, Reddit, LinkedIn…that’s 16 platforms where you could get graphic design clients on social media, and there are others too!

 

So how do you know where to start? Is it possible to be on every platform at once? And as a freelance graphic, brand, or web designer, which platforms are the best for you?

 

You might even wonder if your freelance business should use a social media scheduling tool, or if you should be integrating your social media with other tools like Constant Contact, Mailchimp, or ConvertKit.

 

It’s enough to make you dizzy! You’ll likely experience choice paralysis if you overthink this one. In this blog, we want to simplify your freelance graphic design business decisions regarding one major area of worry and wasted effort: your social media involvement.

 

For those of you who don’t know much about Aventive Academy, our entire purpose is to show you how to grow your graphic design business and make money as a freelancer. Let’s dive in!

 

 

Why is Social Media Important to Your Freelance Business?

Here’s our simple advice regarding social media: you need to be there. You are a creative, pushing the edges of public engagement through graphic and branding design for your clients, so you have to be where the action is. That means you have to be on social media.

 

Here’s ‘Part B’ for our simple advice: narrow things down to a couple of platforms and do a great job on the ones you choose. Don’t try to be everywhere, or else you will burn out. Let the social media universe do the heavy lifting. Trust us, and if you do, you won’t be stressed and you’ll have a steady pipeline of new clients.

 

Some of your upcoming clients will find you through social media, and some will feel better about your website once they’ve seen the social media platform you also directed their attention to. Some will appreciate your direct interaction with your viewers, customers, and comments.

 

freelance graphic designer using instagram

 

Others will love the design of your social media posts. Everyone will see that you are relevant, that you have your finger on the pulse (and they don’t need to know that you are focusing on one pulse-point, not the forty-two different options out there!).

 

Social media is critical to businesses now, although we would argue that it is essential for a creative-industry business. (And, while we’re on the topic of what is essential for your business… you need a great website and a well-curated design portfolio, too!)

 

improve your portfolio workshop kady sandel

 

If you want to know the power of social media for business, look at Wendy’s. They have capitalized on a unique Twitter voice and here are their metrics.

 

Immediately after Wendy’s took to Twitter with its sassy-voiced fun, net income shot up 49.7%. That’s an unbelievable rate, year-over-year. Think about it this way… think about what you (roughly) took home last year. Now, multiply it by 1.5 (50% growth).

 

That’s what Wendy’s grew in one year, take-home wise (based on worldwide sales of over $10Bn… there’s always room for a dominating design agency, so don’t say never!). Social media, clearly, has business impact.

 

freelance web designer holding a sign that says linkedin

Should You Try to Post on Every Platform?

We’re hoping the answer is clear to you already…. no! So, which platform(s) should you engage on? Here are our guidelines:

 

#1 Keep It Simple!

Whatever you’re going to do, do it well, and be focused. After you decide, then engage and make the most of your decision.

 

#2 Where Are Your Clients?

Wherever your ideal clients are, that’s where you want to be.

 

Spoiler alert: for many creative businesses and freelancers, the no-brainer, simple-choice platform is LinkedIn, but we’ll talk more about ‘why’ this is the case a bit later in this article.

 

#3 What Floats Your Boat?

Where do you want to be? Is there a platform you love more than the others? Is there one where you know your industry is rocking it?

 

You’re going to post and interact, so it’s critical to pick a platform (or, possibly, two) where you really want to be. For lots of designers, Instagram is where we see, hear, and interact with our kind.

 

Simply put… where are your clients hanging out on social media, and where do you gravitate to yourself? We think these are highly likely to be two different platforms (for our agency, they are!), so let’s say that those will be your two choices.

 

You will disregard every other distraction and kill it on those two! That’ll be enough content and interaction work (PR, branding, marketing, advertising, sales…) and your focus will bring in customers. That means increased revenues and profit… just like Wendy’s experienced!

 

graphic designer writing instagram content

 

Writing Content for Your Clients, Not Your Competition!

Our next bit of advice has a “look forward, then apply backward” kind of logic. But it’s really easy to understand once we explain it in more detail.

 

Looking forward, here, means anticipating your next customer’s needs. They are going to come to you with a need. That’s a given. So, what is it?

 

You might focus on what services you provide. Why have past clients come to you? What is featured on your website? Who are your portfolio projects highlighting?

 

Or, you might need to explore this more, if you’re just starting out. What niche will you fill? What does your ideal client need to move their business forward, using your services as a catalyst? In the industry you are targeting, what are the customer needs that your type of creative business satisfies?

 

You will focus your social media content on two things:

  • The answers to the questions above (what need will your next customer have?)
  • Public engagement (responding to comments, commenting on others’ posts, getting into DMs, linking for networking, etc.)

 

how to get freelance clients workshop

 

Your content will focus on those two core areas. The first means you need to generate engaging posts. The second is a choice to be active on the social media platform(s) you have determined to focus on.

 

So, looking forward, you are anticipating the likely need of your next client and creating content that demonstrates you understand, can solve, have experience with, and generally are an expert concerning the need’s solution.

 

Now, let’s “apply backward.” This means that you will design the specific content for the platform you enjoy using first. This may not be the one where your clients hang out (remember our #2 and #3 action points from the last section about choosing which platforms to be on).

 

freelance designer working at a coffee shop

 

Because you like this platform, you’re going to feel really creative. And you’ll draw ideas and inspiration, likely, from that platform. It’s also likely that you will choose themes, trends, concepts, angles that are working for others on the platform and this fruitfulness is going to be really helpful for cross-pollination.

 

Now, once you’ve got your content designed and written, move to the platform where your clients are hanging out. To recap, you’ll have a great post (or series of posts) created for the platform you love using, but the content itself will be focused on the needs you can meet for your ideal clients.

 

And you’re now going to move this same content over to the platform those ideal clients are gathered on. You’ll need to tweak the post design, for sure, but the essence will be the same across both platforms you are focusing on. Using this procedure will save you time and will naturally develop consistency (more on this in a minute).

 

 

At this point, you might want to learn how to schedule posts (you can purchase an additional app for this or learn how to use the platform’s native features). It’s best to be creating content ahead of time and scheduling the posts to go live later, so you aren’t feeling under-the-gun as you are creating new ideas/posts/themes.

 

Once your posts are scheduled and you engage with your audience, you can also repurpose the content on your own graphic design blog – but that’s another topic for another day.

 

At our graphic design agency, we focus on LinkedIn (because that’s where our ideal customers are active on social media) and Instagram (because that’s where we love being with other designers).

 

We can’t overemphasize how significant LinkedIn is if you are hoping to attract corporate customers. Every business and professional is on LinkedIn.

 

Many are not on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter… but they are all on LinkedIn in some way (executives, business profile, individual staff members, etc.). You need to be there, too!

 

graphic design clients using social media on a bench

Create a Plan for Consistency and Engagement

We’ve already touched on this, but let’s highlight some design elements for your social media content and posts.

 

Going back to Wendy’s, where their focus is Twitter (and, think about it, where would a huge population of potential burger buyers be hanging out? Sounds like a Twitter crowd, to us!)

 

Now, let’s think about Wendy’s again. They have a pithy, not-afraid-of-anything tone coming out of a female-branded franchise chain. And they stick to the tone, day in and day out.

 

That’s what you need to do. Find your “voice” and then keep it consistent. Remember, you are in a creative industry and your ideal customer is likely entirely different than Wendy’s burger-buyer.

 

So, pithy and shot-taking isn’t likely the tone you’ll be going for. You’ll need to decide, but it should be notable, expert, confident and, most significantly, relevant to your client.

 

 

In terms of engagement frequency, set yourself some goals and then stick to them. Here’s some suggestions from our experience:

  • 2 posts per week, per platform (content can be very similar, or even the same, as we mentioned in our time-savings tip above)
  • Like or otherwise interact appreciatively with 2 other social media users/posts per week, per platform
  • Connect as directly as possible with 10 other platform users every week (DM connections, links, at the very least, following)
  • If someone comments or interacts directly with your posts, interact back
  • Peruse the platforms (your ideal customers, other designers, trending ideas) once a week and note 5 ideas on a list of future content possibilities (so your well never runs dry when you sit down to compose your upcoming content)
  • Work ahead and have 2-3 weeks advance posts ready and in the sending queue

 

freelance web designer standing in front of plants

Why is Social Media Important to Your Success?

It’s pretty easy to get lost in social media for the sake of social media itself. Some would even argue that it’s designed and coded to be annoyingly addictive.

 

So, let’s jump off the social media gerbil wheel for a minute and ask a profound question… why do it at all? Why be on social media? What is its value?

 

In our opinion, social media is one of the gifts of our age for creatives. Other eras haven’t had this digital and grassroots advantage and we are so grateful that we can handily maximize our contact with our next customers, even while we stay connected and relevant to our existing customer base, too.

 

And, it can be “fun” in that networking, feel-good, gamification way. At its core, social media is the path along which you will find your next client waiting. They are waiting for you to be light, professional, fresh, ready, nimble, relevant… and they are waiting for you to introduce yourself.

 

 

They have a need and they are looking for you to meet it! And, at the end of the day, this process of introduction and engagement is what will pay your bills. Social media equals revenue growth.

 

Have fun, start it off. Try to ignore the social media platform’s metrics (ie. their enticement numbers and like-button dopamine rewards).

 

Instead, focus on your business’s metrics like how many posts you have this week, how far in advance is your content queued, how far in advance are your services booked out, how is this year’s revenue shaping up compared to last year…

 

Don’t get sucked into the high school-like games of the social media platforms but leverage their viral networks to your business’s advantage.

 

Drop us a line on Instagram and let us know where we’ll find your content! Let us know how this article inspired you to build a consistent social media presence, a stress-free implementation plan, and an introduction to your next client!