Is Instagram a new business tool?

Instagram is a quick, accessible and visual social media platform used by many designers, but why? What’s the strategy?
We asked four designers we know use who Instagram regularly (and well) to ask why they use it, and whether it’s ‘working’ for them…

Research

What does the rest of the world think about Instagram?

What client’s think UK research

We often quote the UK Up to the light What client’s think research because it’s recent and it’s relevant.

It’s a survey done by a third party PR agency commissioned by a variety of agencies to interview their clients about working with designers. The designers ranged from solo-operators to large agencies and the 675 clients ranged across title, sectors and markets.

Here’s what they found:

• only 18% said they had ‘any level of engagement’ on Instagram (and only 8% on X) compared to 25% on LinkedIn.
• that said, engagement is growing (slowly) compared to previous years
• people with the title ‘design manager’, those in the retail sector and aged under 35 were the most common users.

Neil Patel

Neil Patel is an author and digital marketing specialist. He cites the following about instagram users:

• more than 75% are under 44
• 61% are under 34
• 90% of users said they follow at least one business (the comment didn’t stipulate whether these were businesses they bought a good or service from).

So, it’s fair to assume from these findings, a majority of users are under 50 and are browsing rather than ‘using’ instagram as a research tool.

How four Australian designers use instagram

Here’s four designers in our network who all use Instagram regularly…

Jessica Dimcevski, Founder, Creative Director Blurr Bureau

IG for Blurr is more for attracting talent and sharing current work with current clients or potential clients scoping us out.

We have had the odd occasion where we will get new client leads through IG. As they see other brands we’ve worked with tag us in their work. That’s how they discover us.

A local restaurant for instance found us through another restaurant’s branding we created, because the founders reposted and tagged us. I find founders/marketers/decision makers reposting our work works better for more followers and potential leads, than the brand we’ve created itself posting or tagging us. They have a different audience that we may not serve or may not be interested in branding or product design. They are on their page for their product/service. Not ours.

Dan Rowell, Founder DSR Branding

Instagram has delivered very little in terms of new business. However, it has been a good tool to keep our existing audience engaged and abreast of what we’re doing as it’s “always on” but “low involvement”.

I continue to invest in Instagram for two reasons: 

• Vanity/ego – I want to have a ‘cool looking’ studio.
• I think it’s good for potential recruits. 

For new work it’s another form of validation, however I don’t expect to get any good leads from it.

Linkedin on the other hand is brilliant for expanding our network and generates much more engagement – we tend to get better leads from LinkedIn – for example, we recently completed a new brand for a guy I worked with 10 years ago at a previous agency who re-engaged us via our Linkedin.

Rikki Clarke, Founder, Director Creative Spaces

I think colleagues and potential clients seem to check in to see what we are up to, but I don’t think it’s a new business tool. I don’t get any DM’s from potential clients on Instagram, so we use it for awareness building only.

Lach Ryan, Founder, Ruck Agency

We haven’t had direct leads from Instagram per se of quality (plenty of low level stuff) but we do get quite a few insights from new clients that they’ve been following along for a while, seen us, liked the work etc.

I think it is all just part of the marketing mix for agencies, something you need to keep throwing your darts at. We see it as a great place to not only demonstrate capability through our work, but also our Brand persona.

So, is it worth putting energy into Instagram?

Instagram has values other social media does not:

• The numbers – one billion plus accounts use Instagram every month – mean that even as a ‘spray and pray’ channel something might stick.
• Images tell a story and IG is predominantly a visual medium. Words are secondary. It’s a designers natural home.
• Images are engaging, they do foster comments and conversations
• It’s another form of credibility/capability document. When a junior marketing assistant is scrolling through IG, you want them to find your account and show it to their boss.
• FOMO – your competitors are probably using Instagram, and that leads to…

It’s the perfect place to check out your competition. It’s easy to see who follows them, what they post, what words and what doesn’t. Like the best AB test ever.

How to better use instagram

If you commit to investing time in instagram, make every moment and every post count:

• Include instagram in your communication/marketing strategy and post regularly with intent. A strategy makes it easier to post because you’re not reinventing the wheel every post, but it also gives you a goal.
• People buy from people but if you are trying to build credibility in a client sector, banish the children pics and the cooking disasters to separate account (that you share with clients once the relationship matures).
• The aim is to get off instagram and meet/speak to clients directly, so make it easy for potential clients to find your website and/or email.
• Curate your audience (don’t follow other designers, intentionally follow prospective clients and their followers)
• Don’t post and flee. Instigate conversations with your followers – the end game is to get off the platform and meet/speak with potential clients.

The so, what

Instagram has 1 billion uses, making it difficult to ignore, and it’s fun to use, but…

Instagram is a third party app with algorithms that change frequently and randomly. You account could be deleted or hacked at any stage, so it’s dangerous to make it central to your marketing strategy.

Finishing where we started, the UK Up to the light What client’s think also found clients prefer to ‘find’ their design partners, not be sold to – Instagram is another place to be found. Added to that, when clients want to find a designer they often ask colleagues for referrals. And they found clients are happy to refer their designers to colleagues.

So, remembering Jessica’s experience:

A local restaurant for instance found us through another restaurant’s branding we created, because the founders reposted and tagged us.

don’t be afraid to clients to share your work on their feed.

 

---

Want more?

Here’s more information on designers making change to stay head:
1 Marketing – getting more work from existing clients
2 Marketing – how to market your studio to clients
3 Marketing – what to do when clients don’t understand branding