Building Your Brand and Social Media Presence

Building a brand can sound pretty daunting – especially if you’re still studying! Having said that, with social media playing a huge part in our everyday lives the sooner you start to build your presence online the stronger your brand and following will be when you graduate. 

What does it mean to have a brand? – You’ve made a promise to everyone.

Did you know 63% of customers actually expect companies to offer customer service via their social media channels, and 90% of social media users have already used social media as a way to communicate with a brand or business? (Source: Smart Insights).

Meaning if your brand or services don’t have a presence on social media, you could be missing out on a number of opportunities! Communicating with customers through your social media can make things quick and easy plus you can usually do it while you’re on the move! 

With social media playing a massive part in our day to day lives, it’s important to get yourself set up on the right channels as soon as possible – otherwise you could be missing out on getting seen by potential customers or clients. 

Tips from ISCD graduate, Caine Hodder of Caine Anthony Design:

We caught up with Caine Hodder to find out his tips for using social media in the design industry, from his experience.

“The main social media platform I use is Instagram. Being a visual platform in a very visual industry, I think it is important to be conscious of what you’re posting and plan out your feed to make sure it is clean and representative of you and your brand.

“It is sometimes challenging to keep content up, especially when you’re starting out and don’t necessarily have your own work to showcase yet, so it is always great to go through things like Pinterest and find images that work into your style and brand and inspire you and your work (just be sure to tag the original where possible).

“Posting regularly keeps you current and keeps engagement higher, but shouldn’t become your full time job! I always try to set my posts once a week for the entire week. I use an app called Planoly, that works well for me as I can see how the images play on my feed and they automatically post on my set date and time.

“I’ve found social media to be extremely useful for my business, I have picked up clients through my social media. I offer an e-decorator service, and have clients now from the US that have found me through Instagram. It has also been a great way to reach out to people I look up to in the industry, that has resulted in meetings, engagement and mentoring.”

Check out more of Caine’s gorgeous Instagram feed @caineanthony_

A few words from ISCD educator Emily Macalpine on her experiences with social media for her own business, MARG. Studio:

“As a small business in the age of social media we are really lucky in some ways as we have control over our marketing and don’t necessarily need to spend huge amounts on our strategies. Having said that it has been a big learning curve about how to use social media for my business because although it can often look effortless there is a very targeted way in which we do it. I was lucky enough to have Emily Osmond working on my branding from the initiation of MARG. Studio and as a follow on I have joined her group The Modern Marketing Collective where she takes you through lessons about how to use Instagram for your business. It is mostly about forming good habits and repeating them over and over again, from using the right hashtag sets for your business to engaging with other relevant accounts (everyday!) by commenting on their stories or posts.”

Why would you say it’s important to build your brand and social channels in the design industry?

“Having a brand means you begin to make yourself recognisable to people and therefore reputable. Someone said to me the other day that while you may not be getting that much direct work through your Instagram you want to position yourself so that when your followers actually need the service you are providing they immediately think of you. For example, I get a fair few of my ideal type of client following me on Instagram but not necessarily getting in touch with me right away. If they are following me they allow me to strengthen my brand to them with regular engagement and position myself as the ONLY person they would want to use.”

Check out more of Emily’s fabulous Instagram feed @margstudiointeriors

Important things to consider when establishing your brand 

• USPs

Unique selling points – what makes you and your business unique? This is a very important one! Why should people choose you over any of the other companies out there? Establish these first up and you can use them to build your brand, its story and sell your services. 

• Name

Names can be one of the hardest things to decide when setting up your brand. Ideally you want it to tell people what you do but also be personal to yourself. It’s also important to keep a consistent name across branding and social media platforms.

• Logos

After your name, your logo should probably be the next thing on your list. Along with making your brand look more professional, your logo will usually be the first thing a customer will see and first impressions are important!

Now for the benefits of building your social media presence

• Visual

Design businesses benefit from social media due to the majority of their products being visual which rank highly on social channels, especially Instagram. Visual content performs much better than just text and copy.

• Drive to your website

Social media is another way to drive customers to your website, all social platforms allow you to share links in posts and on your profiles, which makes driving customers to your website easier!

• Reach more customers – for free!

Social media is free, you don’t have to pay for social adverts to get seen on social media. Use hashtags on Instagram, encourage people to share your posts on Facebook – simple and easy ways to get seen by more than your following.