Understanding Social Media For Freelance Designers
Irrespective of whatever one’s opinion on social media might be, it’s almost compulsory now to publish our work online.
It plays a crucial role in getting our work noticed, engaging with the community, staying up to date with trends, finding work and boosting our online presence.
But if you’re self-employed like me then you should be looking forward to only a handful of the reasons…
- Generating leads for projects
- Building an audience for credibility
- Networking with other designers
- Establishing a personal brand
And that’s pretty much it actually.
As someone that understands dark UX patterns and how all companies are hell-bent to gain an ounce of our attention to sell us ads and steal our data while we are distracted, stay away from consuming content.
With all that being said and done, here’s a more in-depth look at different social media platforms for designers and how I approach them…
What Platforms To Start With ?
This depends on two main factors i.e who is your target audience and what kind of content you want to post.
So take some time, step back and consider these very seriously before you even start posting.
However, if you are still clueless, I’d help explain what type of work…works… best on different platforms.
Medium
Perfect for anyone who wants to explain design topics in depth, or showcase their process, or just rant their heart out without having to ever record a video.
Engagement is very up and down though, and once you gain traction, your best bet is to migrate your followers onto other platforms.
What works — opinionated articles, case studies, resource articles.
Behance
A fantastic place to get local clients, and perfect for anyone that has a sense of visual aesthetic (and skills too) and loves to arrange their designs uniformly.
What works — literally anything, the algorithm picks up randomly there.
Dribbble
The platform is dead and bot-ridden, but a really good substitute for a portfolio to visual designers who mostly make one off designs.
What works — UI designs, motion design, animated prototypes of designs.
Not exactly for designers per se, but there’s a massive community although toxic and the discourse there is trash mostly.
But if you can just mind your own business, schedule content, interact with others and leave, then I’m sure you’ll enjoy here.
What works — Design threads, polarizing and engagement bait tweets, self tooting your own horn, shitposts.
I have no personal experience to share here, but from what I noticed, if you have a very happening and flashy life with a well-lit studio space with mostly Apple tech, you’ll grow quickly.
Otherwise you can always recycle junk educational reels and carousels!
What works — reels with CTA, carousels.
Now hear me out.
I get 2k+ views and 10 outbound clicks to my socials monthly, which is actually better than many other platforms.
And the only time I spend here is for mood boarding and uploading my designs. It’s media without the social and the algorithm here is S-tier!
What works — any vertically long pins.
The meh-est platform of all, but if you know your game well then it’s an easy lead generation mill where you don’t need to be active.
All my posts here are scheduled for months in advance and I don’t engage with anybody unless it’s an inmail, and I still gain 60–70 followers and 2 leads per month.
What works — long posts with images, carousels, one/two liners with CTA.
YouTube
Saving the best for the last, the goat of all other social media platforms.
If you gain success here, all your other socials will grow automatically — the personal connection and niche audience one can grow here is unparalled.
But the value you’re providing and the video production quality has to be really top-notch too. No fruits to bear without hard work!
What works — design tutorials, vlogs, sharing insights, design challenges.
My Personal Strategy
My aim is to attract two very different sort of clients for two very different services with no corelation whatsoever — UI design and Illustrations.
Thus I post in two different content formats, pictures for both illustration and UI designs and articles for UI design clients again.
I aim to generate 3–4 leads per month right now, because the conversion rate for me is somewhat 20%, and that’s really good.
And here’s how I divide my attention and importance for platforms…
- Medium (60%) — it’s my golden goose, almost 80% of my income this year came from clients I got from here, and 95% product sales too.
- Twitter (25%) — I only recently started gaining leads here, I have spent years trying to just build an audience and figuring out my brand positioning here.
- LinkedIn (10%) — I’m really being honest, I don’t know how this place works but all I know is clients reach out to me here and I get decently paying work.
- Behance (4%) — Very rarely do I get inquiries for illustration gigs from studios, low pay but I take it anyways.
- Dribbble (1%) — I have only received one job offer here this year, and that’s it. Crickets otherwise.
And I don’t do cold mails anymore — I used to back in the day but realized it’s not worth the effort anymore.
My time is better utilized in making products and content online, I gain clients and audience at once ;)
Generate Leads
The goal at the end of the day is this.
Not everyone stays relevant on social media for a prolonged period and there’s nothing wrong with being business minded — get the bread.
Post work for getting work, it takes a while to switch into this mindset from a normal person’s mindset whose only goal is to doom scroll.
It’s not an uphill battle, just requires some effort and you’re good to go — for example, look at how my content has changed here compared to last year.
Limit Your Consumption
No conversation about social media is finished without discussing its negative side i.e. consuming content.
If you plan to create a lot and run a business, step one is to protect your brain and sanity by limiting your consumption.
It’s of no use unless its for upskilling. Social media rots your brain slowly without you ever realizing it.
The better your state of mind, the better your output is going to be.
Now I don’t mean you shouldn’t ever watch videos or memes, I do it daily myself, but I am well aware of what I consume (just politics and pop culture) and keep a check on myself.
