How Interior Designers Can Use Social Media To Amplify Their Voice
January 12, 2022
Jacqueline Green
CEO & Chief Strategiest at Behind the Design
Don't leave your business out in the rain in a world where 80-90% of business is run through social media.
Endorsing interior design on social media might be tricky, as you have to strategically maneuver hundreds of colors, words, tags, and graphics. But, as interior designers, we take typical spaces and tell a beautiful story through them. The same aspects just need to be translated digitally.
We have some chart-topping tips that have worked wonders when promoting GAI’s Behind the Design. So, let’s get started!
How Social Media Works For Interior Designers?
Before you begin learning all the greatest methods, you will need to be aware of how social media is helpful for interior designers. You must be thinking, how is that even a question. However, if you don’t know the purpose behind how something works, it’s pretty much useless.
Social media includes platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Youtube, etc. Endorsing your interior designing ideas over these monstrous tools might seem a piece of cake, but is it really?
Keep in mind, we are all fairly new to these platforms as they only just hit the market ten years ago or so. Sometimes using all the right visuals and most efficient forms of communication will still cause your brand to experience minor to major hiccups. Even experts have to face adverse consequences when tackling a certain angle due to a lack of proper strategy or hasty moves.
The most prominent thing to take away from this is that a business plan will never fully fail when thoughtfully curated. You have the power at any given minute to alter the direction it’s going in the industry.
Especially during these times, many of you might have opted for online shopping compared to going to malls and consulting someone. This convenient yet effective way of shopping from the comfort of your home has made social media so in-fashion with just about every generation.
Millions of users are already scrolling on these platforms, so there has never been an easier time to sell online. Because that’s widely known worldwide, we as marketers and business owners need to give our audiences something freshly unique from the others who showed up to the party.
Let’s be honest there are thousands of interior designers on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook if you search for them. We will need to implement a higher level of quality in our distributed content stemming from our incomparable service to catch the eye of our targeted audiences. Social media directly influences your ROI generated through website traffic as a free tool.
How to be Unique as an Interior Designer when Voicing Your Skills
“The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.” – Tom Fishburne
To accurately voice your interior design business, you will need to work in a specific niche on social platforms. It’s much easier these days for your business to drown quickly in the massive sea of businesses using the exact same business model. Try not to follow all the current trends, and that’s exact of your content. On social media, standing out is proudly welcomed.
Follow the tips below to position your brand at the top ranking on social media platforms.
Targeted Audience And Their Purpose
Your highest priority should be researching and discovering the most fitting targeted audience and their purpose for an interior designer. What appeals most to our senses through advertising is buried deep in our psyche. Triggering your desired target audience is a science in itself, but because we are all humans with similar emotions and brain structures. So, consider yourself already an expert in this.
When you have a crystal clear understanding of your audience, what’s most likely to draw their eyes, and what stirs them, you can manipulate their minds and buying power. That genuinely sounds malicious but not when used for pure intent. Understand the ability you have to drastically shake up the market.
The Right Platforms
After deciding on your audience, you will need to choose suitable platforms for your interior design business. There are several avenues for social media, but choose only those that align with your marketing plan and business goals. Not all platforms are meant to sell your services; they aren’t based on all the same things. And making content for these accounts isn’t always a walk in the park.
Base where you advertise simply on the age range and overall purpose of the site. For example, you would have more success running a LinkedIn and Twitter campaign for a financial consultant than Tik Tok or Pinterest.
Each platform is opened for a particular reason by the user. Are they using social media for information? To relax after a long day? To learn a new skill? To laugh in times of hardship? Whatever it is, fly above their expectations by moving with the tone of the apps. Don’t waste your time producing quality content for places it’s not well-received.
Every social media platform has different demographics and algorithms. One platform might be good for business purposes, while the other works best for communication purposes within friends. Your desired target audience will play a key role here.
After analyzing the demographics of age, gender, interests, and statistics for all social platforms, establish some unbeatable marketing personas. We, as humans, seek out businesses with a personal touch.
I believe that Pinterest is a great opportunity for a residential interior designing business. You can instantly become a significant inspirational piece for thousands of people. In addition, most creative people are already on it for personal and professional ideas. Commercial interior designers will find LinkedIn as a perfect platform for reaching their target market.
Voicing Your Interior Design Business
Now that you have decided on your audience and platform, it’s time to do some real work. At this stage, you need to be familiar with branding and voicing. Both are distinct entities, and you will need to clearly understand the difference.
Branding is something you work on for your business’s visual appearance. As an interior designer, try to stick to the same aesthetic using a specific theme across all your marketing pieces and platforms. This will instill more brand recognition for your audience.
Voicing is how your thoughts are translated through written form and creative expression. For example, imagine taking a random picture when walking into a strikingly white foyer. You could caption it with a ten-step guide to keeping your house sparkling with kids or a story about how lighter spaces brighten the mood. Both speak through different narratives and determine what type of audience it attracts.
Active Engagement
Not only does actively engaging with your audience online show you are present and care about their concerns. It also boosts your analytics and pushes your content out further, making it the name of the game. Try to engage as much as possible with your audience or hire someone to hear their opinions and answer inquiries.
One helpful tip I got when first starting was to create a hashtag for my services. For this, you just need to post pictures using the hashtag, and gradually your clients will too. Then whenever you open the hashtag page, you will see who has used your services and if they have any questions or feedback.
Be sure to always get confirmation from your clients before sharing anything on social media. They are usually more than happy to be featured. This strategy also generates a new level of trust as the review is coming directly from personal accounts and not just from a testimonial anyone could’ve easily forged.
Influencer Marketing
Another thing to build your brand image on social media is through influencers. If you’ve spent any time on these platforms in the last two years, you probably already have a good idea about what these individuals do and how they have become so popular. So it’s a pretty safe bet for companies who communicate their brand through influencers. They endorse your services, knowing millions of viewers will show up to watch every day.
It has been found that people tend to be more affected by influencers and motivators than standard business reviews. For this purpose, try to build a friendly relationship with them, offering something in return for their work. You may think that an influencer is competing but look for complimentary subjects, such as fashion. For example, if you target women who want their homes to look amazing, those same women are most likely into fashion.
Superior Visuals
Strategically working with visuals is a critical measure in the interior design industry. Never produce hasty content because of time restrictions; no one will judge you if it is published a day or two later. However, one crappy post can put a bad taste in the mouth of potential clients. Instead, carefully play with colors, mix, match, and edit. After all, your digital presence is seen as a direct representation of the quality your clients will receive when hiring you. All through some impressive visuals!
Action-Oriented Advertisements
There are more ways than ever to advertise your services. Just a few years ago, we had only a couple of ways to advertise: through television, radio, newspaper, buses/subway, magazines, and mail flyers. Unfortunately, most of those were relatively unreachable for the average small business owner. Now, there are literally thousands of methods, and each has a different format to generate income. So, if every small to large business is running digital ads, how can you be successful just starting out?
Consumers are looking for ads that meet their physical and emotional needs through the products or services being sold and the journey to get there. Create ads that are simple to navigate and cater to your audience’s tastes and demands. If they have to jump through a million hoops from discovery to purchase, your ads probably will not have a strong conversion rate.
Keep in mind, the only factors to prioritize when looking at your analytics are the following: cost per conversion, cost per lead, conversion rate by marketing channel, open/click-through rate, website traffic from ads, and return on investment (if captured).
Final Words
Social media is an incredibly powerful tool when used correctly. Nothing can feel more rewarding than reaching your target audience and seeing business growth through these free tools. If you are taking your passion for interior designing to these platforms, be creative and consider all the points mentioned in this article.
At the end of the day, social media is about telling your story through a shared design platform. That’s our bread and butter, so we were made to do this.
If you found this article helpful, don’t forget to join our community of interior designers below. When you sign up, you will have free access to many of our videos and tools, plus receive an email each week with the latest educational articles.
Author Bio - Jacqueline Green
Jacqueline Green is the driving force behind Behind the Design, a company dedicated to helping interior designers, architects, and creative entrepreneurs thrive through education, training, and marketing services. As founder, CEO, and Chief Strategist, she combines education, coaching, and marketing to empower business owners to achieve their goals. Her leadership is transforming how creative professionals build successful businesses, creating a community of empowered entrepreneurs.