If you are a creative business then you will want to communicate with your audience in a visual way about your service or product. Red Desk works with a variety of creative clients so here’s a guide to the essential social media platforms for creative businesses.
Although Linkedin is not a very visually exciting social media platform, it is widely used in the creative industries. As an individual you will need to have a personal profile, make sure you have a good head shot, a well written summary (include relevant keywords) and links to your website or other examples of your work. If you run a business then you can create a Linkedin Business Page. The business pages are slow burners and can be harder to gain followers but use your personal profile to push your business page. There are also other features on Linkedin that you can used such as SlideShare a simple way to create a visual portfolio to display your work.
Houzz
Houzz has become a community of more than 35 million all focused on home renovations, so if your business is in Interior Design, Architecture or Landscaping, Houzz is definitely for you. It allows business owners to showcase their work so good visuals of your work are essential.
What we love about Houzz is that the audience is already engaged. Homeowners sign up to Houzz because they want to make improvements to their home or garden and are looking for ideas and can ask questions directly to experts about their projects.
As a professional, you can create ideas books reflecting the styles of past projects. There is also an opportunity to collaborate on ideas books together with other professionals.
There are also over 10,000 editorial guides written by industry professionals and contributors. If a home owner can’t find what they are looking for, they can post a question and receive lots of advice on how to tackle a problem or what colour to paint their bathroom!
Pinterest is essential for the creative business not only allowing the creation of themed boards displaying a portfolio of their work but also allowing users to pull together images for inspiration and research.
For example we work with a fine jewellery business and before their website was up and running, the best way of showcasing their work was on Pinterest. We created boards for rings, necklaces, bespoke jewellery or ready to wear jewellery.
Pinterest can be used as an individual or as a business and if you happen to have set up a personal profile rather than a business it is quite easily converted.
Our Pinterest Queen, Jacqui has this to say: “Pinterest gives you the opportunity to make an impression by using eye catching visual media to engage a new audience. Commonly used as a vision board/wish list for those window shopping, it can be a great way of introducing your service or designs. “
Social Media Examiner also has some good advice on Pinterest.
This free mobile photo-sharing app is all about being caught in the moment and sharing that image, it is a great app for photographers and stylists and those businesses that work with any kind of live event.
We have recently been working with a book fair and the immediacy of Instagram made it the perfect tool to use during the fair. The images on Instagram can then be shared to other social media platforms such as Twitter or Facebook.
A couple of local businesses that we have worked with in the past swear that the biggest growing audience of theirs is on Instagram. They tested an image on Twitter and then on Instagram and got a better result with Instagram.
Twitter and Facebook
Both Twitter and Facebook are still two of the most popular platforms for any industry but both have their pros and cons. You should be aware that it is almost impossible to gain likes on a Facebook business page unless you pay. It need not be a huge amount but you will need to pay to promote your page to gain followers. Twitter on the other hand is free (although advertising is available) but Twitter can need a lot of attention, it’s very fast moving and many people will unfollow a dormant account very quickly.
Each business we work with is different and we listen to their needs before suggesting social media.