“If you’re Beyoncé, social [media] is optional. If you’re not, you need to be on it,” says artist Justina Blakeney. “It’s the most powerful marketing tool we currently have at our disposal—and it’s free.” The straight-shooting, social-media savant is right: Many industry professionals—AD100 designer Young Huh among them—cite Instagram as their number one source for acquiring new clients. While it may not be a definitive line item on your marketing budget, creating content, maintaining a regular posting cadence, and keeping up with ever-changing algorithms does have time and energy costs. Efficiency is key: Read up on the best practices design professionals rely on for their social media strategies.

On creating a visual identity

• Assemble a network of collaborators. “Have an army of [stylists and photographers] that you regularly use so that you have a visual identity that feels consistent. We’re in the business of beautiful: How you curate and put your work together on a feed is just as important as how you put a room together.”—Athena Calderone [Social Media Strategy: Dial Up Your ROI]
• Consider use cases for each vertical. “Think of the feed as a magazine spread of your work, and stories as more personal and behind the scenes—and keep it consistent.”—Ariel Okin [28 Ways to Get the Word Out About Your Firm]
• Plan ahead for having to hold whole-home photography, per client or publisher requests. “Even if you can’t share whole project photography, you can share schemes or elements of the architecture and process.”—Young Huh [Social Media Strategy: Dial Up Your ROI]
• Think like a brand partner. “If a brand’s products are often used in your work and consistently have helped bring your vision to light, connect with them and inquire about content creation partnerships or offering your followers a commissionable discount on those products.”—Reena Goodwin [Ready to Monetize Your Social Media Account? Here’s How to Get Started]

On defining your voice

• Never delegate your POV. “As you grow and need support for social media, it’s important for captions and ideas to still always come from you. Especially as you’re building your brand, voice, and community, it should come from that guttural sense of what you want to share.”—Calderone
• Ask yourself: Is this a brand fit? “​​If you have a disconnect and it sounds too corporate or too promotional, then people know it’s not authentic.”—Charlotte Moss [Should Your Social Media Be Personal, Professional, or Both?]
• When writing captions, “think of it as something you’re trying to share, which has a narrative arc that tells a story. That’s how you engage people, that’s how you bring people in, that’s how you get people excited about what you’re doing.”—Blakeney [How to Develop a Meaningful Social Media Following]
• Be ready for criticism. “If I get fired up [from a comment], I’ll respond: ‘Thank you so much. I value your opinion. The one thing I’d recommend is to lead with kindness next time. Have a beautiful day.’ Just kill them with kindness.”—Calderone

The bottom line

• Don’t worry about being all-business all the time. “Because we have personal posts, that space between a client calling me and deciding to hire me is really short because they feel like they’ve already gotten to know me through my Instagram.” —Huh
• Don’t waste the valuable real estate below your email signature. Direct people to your social pages, website, or particular products. Via 28 Ways to Get the Word Out About Your Firm
• Don’t focus solely on getting great stats. “Less than 5% of your followers on most channels will be true followers, but that 5% can change everything. Those small but mighty connections are often where the magic happens.” —Erich Ploog [28 Ways to Get the Word Out About Your Firm]