Don't Let Instagram Become an Echo Chamber and Kill Your Creativity.
Vol. 015
A quick bite:
Instagram is a great place to build a portfolio, an audience and even a network. But Instagram is not the only and/or best way to market your business or to find new business. Especially now, you may need to think outside the box, and approach your business differently...
Continue reading below…
Don't Let Instagram Become an Echo Chamber and Kill Your Creativity.
The danger of giving too much merit to creative feedback in a space that fosters confirmation bias.
I had an awesome little chat with my buddy Gianna Andrews last week. If you aren't familiar with her work, you need to check her out—she's an amazing painter based outta the PNW, and I had the fortunate pleasure of meeting her this year at Outdoor Retailer (through our mutual partner, Inkwell) where we vibed over art, design, and adventures.
Our conversation last week revolved largely around licensing, which we are both continuing to navigate, but we also digressed into the importance of thinking outside of what everyone else is doing and trying to be progressive and proactive about our new business efforts.
Essentially, what Gianna and I were spitballing was how to break out of the noise through more intentional business and brand positioning, especially during a pandemic. Amidst our chat, Gianna commented something to the effect of: "...Instagram can be an echo chamber, and I'm trying to think bigger..."
To give you context, we were talking about two things:
The importance of investing time into and putting your work on platforms more catered towards actually generating more business leads, not necessarily just providing visual satisfaction or pursuing likes and follows, and
The necessity to find new ways to market ourselves/find new business outside of the "create, post, repeat." Insta-cycle.
Which of these sounds like a better way to sustain your business: in the long run:
Regularly post something on Instagram — your peers — and focus on getting lots of likes from other designers
Intentionally position your work (let's post something on LinkedIn for sake of example) in front of your ideal client that talks about the strategy or thought process behind your project and directs traffic back to your website.
From what I see, the creative scene on Instagram seems a lot of designers and artists supporting each other and giving ample positive affirmation (it's amazing!) It's a lot of our own peers. BUT, if you get too caught up in the likes, the kudos, and the flame emojis, you might become a bit complacent and bit less focused on pushing yourself. Oftentimes Instagram encourages us to continue to do the same thing over and over, and that's how the likes and followers grow—the echo chamber—and that's where it gets dangerous.
In this example, I see LinkedIn as a place where business executives, decision makers, and the money spenders are allocating their time. I'm not necessarily suggesting that you need to be putting your work on LinkedIn (you probably should though) but what I am suggesting is that there are likely way better ways for you to spend your time than putting your work on IG.
Our second topic of conversation was: doing more for than just posting on Instagram or just waiting for referrals in order to find new business. This is a no brainer. While yes, it's possible to have a successful career without ever marketing yourself, that's like hoping to win the lottery. You MUST be thinking creatively (crazy thought, eh?) about how to get your work in front of your ideal customer.
A few weeks ago I told you guys about the newspaper I created a few years ago. At the time of sending this out, my thought process was as follows: I am a graphic designer in Denver, and I want to be doing hand lettering, logo design and packaging design with design studios and design agencies. My hangup: how do I get in front of them? Ultimately, I decided to send an old-fashioned newspaper to a bunch of agencies and that led to over $36k in work for the following couple months.
Why did this work? Because I was thinking outside the box and marketing myself differently than those around me, I was able to rise above the noise and land work with my ideal clients! I thought differently, and I was treated as such.
Today, I hope you take away this: if you're feeling like you're stuck or you're hitting a wall, it's likely time to try something new. You've heard it before: you can't keep doing the same thing and expect different results. If you're new to graphic design or if you're a seasoned art director, don't allow yourself to get too settled into your ways that you stop doing what you set out to do in the first place: think differently, think creatively, and problem solve.
Extra, extra!:
I recently chatted with a new buddy, Cole, and we discussed Art and Business on the Backcountry Marketing Podcast.
I get into the weeds a bit on how I balance art and design, but we also dive into conveying the value of art in a business world. Lot's of golden nuggets in here! Listen Here.
Cheers
- Adam
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