For my sixth week in IXD with designing with content we discussed Promotional Strategy and how we can go about this in the currently digital world and also the importance behind promoting our portfolio sites as well a ourselves to get the most out of working in a interactive world.
We went through the methods of using social media for storytelling such as Instagram, how to build relationships through your content and the best way to break up areas of our portfolio for the usage of social media.
We also had 2 placement talks in this week with Steven from Global Payments and another talk with Michael Williams from Rapid 7.
Promotional Strategy
This weeks lecture I thought was an interesting topic to discuss as its a area that as a digital creator I am aware of the important of promoting myself as well as my work to allow me to get out into and noticed in the industry, however I’ve never truly understood good methods of practice behind this.
Currently I have my own Instagram account dedicated to my designs and creations that I set up at the beginning of my level 5 Web and App Development course. This account started off with being an account to store my progress in this course and to have a quick go to catalog of my pieces of work or tasks that I was completing in college. However, when the pandemic hit and in the first lockdown I spent the majority of my free time designing illustrated quotes and learning new skills on Illustrator and because of this I thought it was best to incorporate my fun lockdown designs with this account. But even with a range of different designs, story posts and shares and daily uploads in lockdown somehow I still haven’t been reaching a lot of feeds or other design account and because of this I was intrigued to hear what Kyle was going to speak to us about in this weeks class to help me in this particular area and with the promotional strategy that come with social media at this current time.
What is Promotional Strategy?
Promoting something is the attempt in marketing communication to inform, advertise, promote or persuade a target audience of the potential product, services or brand that you can offer to them. A Promotional Strategy can be chosen based on the product type, marketing budget and target audience. Increasing product or service awareness is the overall successful method behind Promotional Strategy as the more people that know the more people spread around what you offer.
Promotional Strategy is a crucial element to the success of a brand, product or service as the only way to make outsider aware of what you can offer is to promote everything that you can do for them which is something that I can use to my benefit when creating my portfolio website. There are many digital designers out there that are older and have more experience than me and there are also tones of student designers surrounding me daily that are working hard to get to where I am aiming for also. That means that it is crucial that in a forever competitive environment that I can promote and sell myself and my work to the highest standard to show outsiders why they should consider me and what I can do over the many offers in this every adapting and growing industry.
Social Storytelling –
Kyle discussed with us the importance behind storytelling and how we can manipulate this into our social media to help us build connection with other designers in our frame of work in this industry. The use of social media alone in todays working world is so highly influenced its hard to find anyone out there that doesn’t use the platforms available to them to promote what they offer to reach out to their audience. Which does make it a competitive area to jump into but also by using social media to my advantage I have an open field to connect with other individuals in my field of work all of the world, something that hasn’t always been so accessible when looking to build relationships. Having active and appealing social media will allow me to engage with my market clients as well as give me the platform to promote who I am as a designers and the process on projects and pieces of work that I’ve completed with idea generalisation etc.
Specifically Kyle mentioned to us in class the importance of telling our story with our Portfolio website and the best method out there for us to share this information and to not keep it locked away almost for just him, the class and potential placement offers to see. This piece of work should be widely shared using the social platforms I have to promote what I’ve made on my Instagram discussing my process of this project, updated versions on my LinkedIn, keeping up to date with research blogs and even uploading to boards on Pinterest or Dribble. The platforms in a whole should merge together to tell the story behind my range of work.
When my portfolio is completed it is my chance to tell the story about me as a designer, about my future, about what I am bringing to this industry. This was something I hadn’t thought too much into especially with how far I can push this portfolio out to get the attention of those I am aiming to reach.
Getting Social –
To get started with being socially active Kyle discussed how we should understand that if we are wanting to make the connection with other people in the industry, it has to be us to start the conversations and engagement with our audience because we can’t solely depend on our audience coming to us if they are unaware of us in the first place.
We went through the most influential social tools that are used today and with these tools getting connected has truly never been easier with having everything that we need at our fingertips and in our pockets. Some tools to consider include:
Twitter – I can use Twitter to engage with others with hashtag in particular conversations.
Instagram – Allows me to have open access to post content that is related to a certain topic and being able to use tags and hashtags to connect my post with certain individuals and other accounts.
Pinterest – Gives the opportunity to connect with other designers not always on a personal level but on an inspirational level to design and the creation of content.
Facebook – Even though in todays sociable world this platform isn’t a strong contender in comparison to Instagram but its still one of the most interactive methods to keep in contact with others through messenger or group pages related to specific areas that includes chat rooms for tips and ideas.
Kyle demonstrated to us how we could get sociably connected on a local level by liking, adding, sharing and following individuals that are in connections to our placement offers and using this to our advantage to show our interst in the the company and their work.
And after class this week I got straight onto this and followed a range of local designers and design company located in Belfast on my design account and personal account to ensure I don’t miss anything. Specifically I was interested in following ‘Rapid Agency’ a Digital Marketing and Web Design business in Belfast.
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With having access to their Instagram also gave me access to their Facebook and when having a look around I discovered they were advertising for a Junior Designer placement opportunity for next year which is an opportunity I could have potentially missed out on if I hadn’t been looking on their socials. I also got the chance to see their other links with members within the business and got the chance to see their current placement designer Megan from UUB studying Graphic and Illustration. I also got to link onto other members within the business from Rapid Agencies Instagram and got access to their individual accounts and got to have an understanding and feel for the people that work within this company which got me excited to apply as overall it seems like a fun atmosphere. To my surprise Rapid Agency have recently followed me back which means that I could possibly be on their Instagram feed and they can also view my posts and stories etc which allows me to give them closer access to what I offer.
When being active on social media I will want to aim to:
- Sell what I can offer as a designer and as an individual.
- Showcase to other designers such as placement opportunities what I can add to their businesses.
- Build up an audience to allow me to introduce my work to other as well as building up networking connections for inspiration, sharing information, creative collaboration.
- Showcase case my wide variety of skills to show what I can do to the wider audience.
Instagram discovery Engines recommendations:
- The design kids
- Jessica Hische
- Emma Corbatt
I wanted to include a section within my blog of two designers that I am currently connected with and individuals that have inspired me from the beginning of my interest into design and the creative industry. Both of the designers live, work and showcase there work locally in Belfast and around Northern Ireland and over my journey into this industry I have loved watching their career movements and design element adapt over the 2-3 year period I have been following their Instagram accounts.
Dani Simpson
Dani is an Australian Illustrator and Commercial Mural Artist that has lived and worked here in Belfast for around 5 years. Dani’s passion and talent for design has open her opportunity to showcasing her art in projects such as the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Illustrated Mural art for cafes, bars, restaurants in cities all over the world. With her Mural work she also has worked alongside top high street labels creating their digital illustrations and designs having collaborations with Jameson Whiskey for example.
Dani is continuously active on her Instagram and I love keeping up with her regular posts and stories on Instagram. Her work overall of floral illustrations, focus on city landscapes and her method of showcasing her talent is so interesting to me as she genuinely shows on her profile that she loves what she does and what she gets to create whether this is digitally or on post boxes and buildings.
At the moment Dani has her own stall at the Belfast Christmas market and I am excited to get down to chat to her face to face instead of over messages on instagram and hopefully get to see her digital products and designs in person
Sasha Ferguson
Sasha Ferguson is a local artist that is born and raised in East Belfast. Sasha has a range of work that she creates and produces solely and sells her product on her Etsy account. Currently her main products she designs, produces and sells is illustrated design concepts in the form of badges, patches and her recent creation is a Northern Ireland based illustrated travel book.
I have been following Sasha for around 3 years now firstly grabbing my attention with her personal profile where she bases her personal Instagram on images of her travels around the world but mainly trips around Northern Ireland and Ireland. Sasha regularly posts on both accounts and also include demonstration illustration on how she creates and produces her pieces of art.
Both of these designers have influenced me hugely in finding my concept for design and also my love of creating designs. Having both these artists focus on the beauty that comes from my local city is a key influence in what I aim to create and showcase as a future creator and designer.
Just last year with the second lockdown I entered a competition with Jameson Whiskey where I got the opportunity to entry some designs that had the opportunity to be used on their t-shirt design as well as around local establishments. I unfortunately didn’t get the chance to work with them but getting the opportunity to design freely with my own designs and ideas was one of the most influential experiences that I really loved getting stuck into.
When creating my designs I took influence from both the designers above and decided that I would try my hand at my own local monument illustrations. I created my design using my pen tool on Illustrated which was a frustrating process but allowed me to develop the skills in this area further and also made me feel proud when I had accomplished my final designs.
For next week Kyle set us a fun task to create a series of stories and one instagram post to promote a piece of work. Its about showing process to drive people to your portfolio.