Use Instagram for More Than Just Images
Vol. 036
4 Ways to Use Instagram for More Than Just Posting Work
The power of storytelling and how it can help you refine other skills, hone in on your brand messaging, and build confidence.
A quick bite:
Instagram is an incredibly powerful resource. However, its frequently used (or avoided) as a just an image-posting app. I have gained so much clarity and direction through using instagram as a testing ground for my work, and below are 4 amazing benefits to using this platform.
Continue reading below…
Have you ever considered that what you post on instagram is oftentimes about WAY more than the work itself?
Instagram should be viewed as a tool to be used for marketing and networking, not just a picture/work sharing platform.
While yes, getting your work seen is valuable in itself, the value truly lies in learning to talk about your work and process, build your brand voice, market yourself, and build creative self-confidence.
1. Use Instagram to talk about your work and process
Just like your college critiques, posting your work on instagram gives you an opportunity to talk about the process, the work and the result. The more you talk about your work, the more comfortable that process becomes.
Think if you’re in a meeting or presenting to a client and they catch you off guard with a question asking why you chose a particular color, typeface or illustration style. If you’re in the habit of regularly talking about these choices, your response to their question will flow naturally and confidently as opposed to catching you off guard. This builds your clients trust and further positions you as an expert.
Additionally, talking about that work and process regularly opens the opportunity for your audience to be more connected to your work. This helps you remain top of mind and ultimately gives you a higher chance of being hired for a job or project. You see where I’m going with this...
2. Build your brand voice
I’ve talked with countless creatives who feel intimidated by posting their work because they’re unsure what to say or how to talk about it. I absolutely experienced that pressure when I first started promoting my work on a consistent basis.
When you force yourself to regularly produce and promote some sort of content (in this case, your work on instagram), you’re also forcing yourself to talk about something. In a situation where you’re unsure what to say, you’re likely to lean on what you innately care about. Over time, you’ll start to see that there will be themes in your storytelling.
3. Market yourself
We are all so over inundated with ads, content, noise, and visuals at all times. Consider this: there are over 160,000 graphic designers in the US. If you’re not putting your work out into the world (you should consider doing a lot more than just posting on Instagram, too) how the hell are business supposed to find you? Not only is there a lot of competition, but there’s so much noise… sometimes you have to be LOUD to get noticed. Loud means showing up consistently. Loud means showing up in a lot of places. Loud means thinking about how to get yourself in front of your ideal customer (small business owner? Agency creative director? etc.)
Sometimes “marketing” feels intimidating, because if you’re like me, I never really learned anything about it. But don’t let it overwhelm you — start with developing your brand voice and getting work out there on a consistent basis, and it will start to flow more naturally.
4. Build creative self confidence
All of these factors will lead to more creative confidence. You’ll quickly realize that putting your work out into the world is not only easy, but beneficial. Very rarely are there haters/harsh critics (at least, early on) and hopefully you’ll see that there’s literally no reason to not be regularly posting work.
The concept of practice makes perfect applies beautifully here — the more you produce and talk about work, the better you’ll get at it. This translates to pitching, presenting, and talking to clients, and you’ll find that doing this all becomes easier as well.
Instagram is more than just images. The value of this platform truly lies in learning to talk about your work and process, building your brand voice, learning to market yourself, and building creative self-confidence.
There are other ways to develop all of these skills and practice, but IG is one of the lowest lift, lowest impact ways to experiment. If you’re not using this tool regularly, I highly suggest you schedule it in. It’s done wonders for me.
