Comparing Notes on Social Media Platforms

Key Takeaways:

• All social media platforms are not for every designer or every audience;
• Sharing valuable data about how many viewers you reach helps build relationships with potential advertisers and sponsors;
• Authenticity is still the best policy.

By Dianne M. Pogoda

Instagram, TikTok, Reels, Pinterest, Facebook — what’s best for designers, and why?

To get a handle on the nuances of these platforms, and share strategies about what works for design firms, Jennifer Bertrand, AKBD, moderated a panel on the KBIS NeXT Stage with designers Sarah Robertson, AKBD, and John McClain, and celebrity chef Damaris Phillips, a brand ambassador for the session’s sponsor, GE Appliances.

The panelists were quite frank about their experiences with the platforms.

“I use all of them, and I post the same thing across all the websites,” said Phillips, who won the “Food Network Star” competition in 2013. “I don’t love any of them, but Instagram is the most intuitive. Facebook is the easiest to use and to post to your website, and TikTok is probably the future.”

McClain, whose namesake design business has offices in Orlando and Los Angeles, admitted he is not a fan of TikTok — “every time I open the app, someone is yelling at me to do something!” — but said he “loves Instagram. I’m very visual, and I like it because I can zoom in and move around the photo and see details. I might adopt TikTok later, but Instagram is my favorite right now.”

Robertson said she was a late adopter, but likes Instagram and TikTok, noting that both drive traffic to her website. She is having an especially good reaction to Reels — short videos that she creates for Instagram.

Bertrand, who has her own design firm and is currently starring in “Military Makeover” on Lifetime TV, asked if designers should use all social platforms or focus on one and work to be great on it.

“I think you should use all social media and take the same content and put it across all channels,” said Robertson, founder and principal of Studio Dearborn in Mamaroneck, N.Y. “Be sure your content is evergreen, that it will be useful today and a year or two from now, that it has longevity. I create content for TikTok and Instagram Reels and post the same day, then carry it to Pinterest. It eventually feeds to Facebook, but that’s not a priority for me.”

The panelists offered some pointed advice about getting started in social media.

• “I know ‘authentic’ is overused, but you need to be yourself,” said McClain. “When I started on Instagram, I thought I had to keep up with whatever other people were posting. But once I started posting my own stuff, everything changed. I post from my heart. When you post, you should think of who’s listening/watching, what the public is getting from it. My tip is that I post as if I’m talking to my best friend.”
• “You don’t have to be in front of the camera — create a style that works for what you’re comfortable with,” said Phillips. “You can show your imagery with a voiceover, there are ways to include your personality and brand without having to be on camera. Some people aren’t comfortable in front of the camera, and that’s OK. No one is paying as much attention to your posts as you are, so it’s more important to have a message and have that message come through.”
• Robertson concurred: “I’m not comfortable on camera, so my posts are mostly voiceovers with images. I don’t go over a minute. Most of my videos are 15, 30 or 60 seconds. If you want to get started, go on TikTok and see what other people are doing to get an idea about the types of things you might want to do.”

Phillips acknowledged it’s not easy to keep coming up with fresh ideas, so she suggests thinking of branding as a series. For instance, she posts a series called “Five Easy Meals to Cook This Week,” so she doesn’t need new ideas to put up fresh content.

Robertson added, “I started with a series called ‘Just Makes Sense’ – five things that just make sense in the kitchen. It took about 10 videos for one of them to go viral.”

Phillips noted that going viral is all relative. “If you have 2,000 followers and get 200 hits, that’s 10 percent — that’s great! That’s viral for you. Think about why someone would want to share this — why would other people want to be attached to this post. And you have to keep working on it, and making content you believe in. Eventually people will watch.”

Bertrand asked the panel what their goals are, what they are trying to accomplish, and what they’re driving people to do.

“My goal is building my e-design business as well as creating content to sell,” said Robertson. “It’s so important to know what your goals are, and if you’re not sure you’re going to monetize it [social media], maybe you shouldn’t spend too much time on it. Collecting followers is fun, but it doesn’t pay the bills!”

McClain concurred: “Before you start a social media endeavor, think about it as a business, what you’re looking for, what’s your ROI. If you want to be Insta-famous, that’s fine, but do you want sponsorships? How does this relate to your business?”

Building business is the ultimate goal of using social media for most designers, and figuring out how to monetize these powerful advertising platforms is what will pay off. Using analytics built into the sites is a way to share the valuable data about how many viewers you reach.

“I only work with brands that I love, and I hashtag them to show it. I want my brand to be associated with their brand,” said Phillips. “When I think about why tagging a brand or even showing a brand label in my video is important, it’s because I can go to that brand and show them that my video got 2.4 million views. This compares to a cable network show that might get 800,000 viewers — which is considered good — but you can show the brand your numbers, and why it’s better to advertise with you. That’s why this is important. No brand reaches out to me because I’m on TV, they want to collaborate because of social and because I can introduce people to their brand.”

To watch the full session, click here.