Social Media for Designers: The Best Channels to Share Your Work and Score New Clients - By Tessa Wegert

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It’s no exaggeration to say that social networks are an integral part of modern-day designers’ professional lives. Combining a captive audience with a quick and easy method of sharing visual content, these networks are an excellent platform for showcasing your work. They also provide an avenue to potential new clients and can help you build a following of enthusiastic and supportive fans. Some networks are great for general use, while others exist solely as social media for designers.

The trouble is, maintaining a presence on social media takes time, and some social networks are more likely to yield results than others. Before you can maximize the social media opportunity, you have to identify the best playing field.

With that in mind, here are the eight social channels suited to creative professionals.

Instagram
Debbie Ridpath Ohi, aka @inkygirl uses Instagram to promote her most recent work and increase her exposure through contests and hashtags.

Instagram is, in many ways, the perfect social media app for designers. The mobile photo-sharing platform lets you upload images of your work, then tag them to get maximum exposure through search and the ‘Explore’ tab. These features also help you connect with similar designers and find inspiration within your craft. You can get more experimental with your posts, sharing ‘making-of’ process videos, or multiple images within a scrollable album. Even better, Instagram lets you simultaneously post to Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, so you can maintain a steady social media presence from just one platform.

The mobile photo-sharing platform lets you upload images of your work, then tag them to get maximum exposure through search and the ‘Explore’ tab. Tweet

As an image-based social network, Instagram has caught the eye of countless creatives, including Debbie Ridpath Ohi, aka @inkygirl. An illustrator of children’s books by authors like Michael Ian Black and Judy Blume, Ohi uses Instagram to promote her most recent work, but she’s also found another way to demonstrate her creativity. Ohi turns everyday objects like vegetables and coffee stains into doodles and shares the results with her 5,800 fans. To increase her exposure and attract more followers, she launched a #CoffeeStainChallenge encouraging others to create doodles of their own, and runs contests offering her fans the chance to win her artwork.

Facebook
Brazil-based graphic artist and illustrator Marcelo Schultz uses Facebook to share images of his typography projects.

As the largest social network in most countries with close to two billion users, Facebook is an important platform for designers simply because of its colossal popularity. By creating a page for your graphic design business, you can share updates on your work and connect with fans and potential clients. Unlike Instagram, Facebook allows for a more fleshed out profile and seamless link sharing, so you can lead users to your online portfolio/official website. It’s also a great platform for professional networking, as you can join professional groups related to your craft.

Brazil-based graphic artist and illustrator Marcelo Schultz uses Facebook in combination withInstagram to share images of his typography projects, and he also takes fans behind the scenes with exclusive content. In December, he shared a sketch related to a new (and not-yet-finished) project. Offering followers a sneak peek at your work process adds credibility, which can be helpful when your goal is to recruit new clients.
Twitter

Because Twitter is a hotbed of cultural conversation, many designers choose to use it to express their personalities and sense of humor. Tweet

As with Facebook, the benefits of being on Twitter are largely related to reach, and it’s an especially great choice for designers given that tweets featuring images stand to get triple the engagement of text-based posts. Because Twitter is a hotbed of cultural conversation, many designers choose to use it to express their personalities and sense of humor. It’s where people can go to get to know you better, which is important for your freelance clients as they may not ever get a chance to meet you in person.Take a cue from designers Timothy Goodman and Christoph Niemann, who alternate work-related posts with funny, random thoughts and image-based comments related to current events.

Pinterest
Freelance logo designer Graham Smith’s Pinterest page includes boards on typography, brand identity design, specialty coffee, and his works in progress.

Using Pinterest as a designer isn’t so different from relying on it to help you plan your wedding or kitchen reno. The power is in the pins, which are easily organized, viewed, updated, and shared (“repinned”). Pinterest can be used to supplement your Behance or Dribbble portfolio, or to show off your personality like you would on Twitter. It’s an easy way to display your work and and effortless way to curate inspiration from all over the Internet – a great resource when you’re starting on a new project.

Freelance logo designer Graham Smith’s Pinterest page includes boards on typography, brand identity design, specialty coffee, and his works in progress.

Tumblr
If you’ve got a ton of work to share and a unique artistic style, like Creatr Thoka Maer, Tumblr is the place to be.

Yahoo-owned Tumblr is a go-to for design inspiration, but it’s also a great place to get noticed by agencies and brands looking for freelancers and new recruits. The vast majority of the content is visual, and the blog format allows designers to share a mix of evergreen and timely content to show potential clients their range. Those who are especially active on the platform might even gain access to a whole new pool of clients. Tumblr’s Creatrs network, launched in 2015, pairs designers and artists on Tumblr with brands to develop custom content for marketing campaigns.

If you’ve got a ton of work to share and a unique artistic style, like Creatr Thoka Maer, Tumblr is the place to be.

Dribbble
Designers on Dribble can share what they’re currently working on and see what their peers are up to all over the globe.

Self-dubbed the “show-and-tell for designers,” Dribbble is another image-based network, but unlike Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, it’s all about getting you jobs. Designers can share what they’re currently working on and see what their peers are up to all over the globe, while prospective clients who pay the annual fee can search the For Hire section to find a designer that meets their needs. One caveat: individuals can sign up to investigate Dribbble free of charge, but unless you’re part of a design team or agency that’s paying for an account, sharing your work on the site requires an invitation from an existing member of the Dribbble community.Dribbble’s advice to designers? Be patient. “The longer you’re on Dribbble, the better your chances are of receiving invites,” the social site writes.

Behance
Behance has become a behemoth in the decade since it launched, generating more than six million project applications per month.

A free portfolio builder that can also be transformed into a fully-functioning website for a monthly fee, Behance is the social network of choice for many a freelance creative. Besides using it to show off what you can do, you can explore curated galleries related to illustration, photography, motion graphics, and more, as well as search for creative jobs. Behance has become a behemoth in the decade since it launched, now generating an average of 82 million project views and more than six million project applications per month.

See how designer and technologist Joshua Davis, or former art director Nicole Martinez, who now works as a creative strategist at Facebook, use Behance to their benefit.

LinkedIn
Designer and art director John Van Luu named LinkedIn as the social network he prefers above all others.

To a designer, LinkedIn may appear to lack visual flare, but with more than 90 percent of recruiters turning to the site when they’re looking to make a new hire — including agencies and brand marketers seeking creatives — it’s a must. Offering the ability to share your resume, link to samples of your work, and collect positive recommendations and endorsements that are visible to clients while they’re perusing candidates, the platform really does have it all.

For designers and other creative professionals it’s the most overlooked and probably the most powerful tool you can have in your personal branding/digital marketing toolkit. Tweet

In an article for The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), designer and art director John Van Luu named LinkedIn as the social network he prefers above all others. “For designers and other creative professionals it’s the most overlooked and probably the most powerful tool you can have in your personal branding/digital marketing toolkit,” he wrote.

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