I’ve created a professional Instagram for the past year to enhance my freelance work as a sound designer. However, that decision was made without exploring the best ways of making a professional Instagram. In this post, I will go through an article provided by UAL called Marketing and promoting yourself online, and most specifically, the chapter on Social Media. I will also try to update and integrate my social media pages into my website.
Choose relevant social media platforms.
The article recommends selective choosing of the platforms used. Instagram is meant for visual practice, LinkedIn is for networking, and Pinterest to boost online shopping. I don’t need a Pinterest, but I do need the other two.
Personal vs professional
Balancing work with personal life is suitable for both worlds. Either your friends won’t feel you’re spamming them with your work, or your employers will see your social life mixed with your portfolio.
Scheduling Content
The problem that I have the most is inconsistent content upload. Keeping social media updated is a complicated task. As for now, I haven’t updated my Instagram since July 2022. Same for Linkedin – I don’t know how to share or update that platform. The article recommends the following scheduler apps to help out in these situations:
1) B U F F E R
Buffer is an app designed to manage social media ( Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Instagram Stories, Pinterest, and LinkedIn) and analyse community engagement results. Buffer.com is actually divided into three separate groups of features: Publishing (schedule social media posts), Analytics (posts performance reports), and Engagement (focused on more prominent organisations to manage direct conversations with clients).
2) L A T E R
- Upload and collect media in the Media Library
- Schedule and publish media posts for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, and LinkedIn
- Analyse post performance
- Drive traffic from your Instagram bio to your sites using Linkin. bio
3) H O O T S U I T E
The first social media management platform aims at social marketing (Creating, scheduling, publishing, and managing content), Social commerce (AI-led direct Engagement with clients), and Social customer care.
Content creation
The article also suggests that creators should block out time daily to dedicate to their social media by blocking 20 minutes daily.
Research of sound designers’ social media
Tim Harrison
Tim Harrisson’s Instagram works almost as a monthly diary of his work but is consistent. The posts focus on Tim’s jobs rather than what he is doing. There’s no WOP or videos of himself working as if it was his portfolio. There’s no organisation of contents. But each post has excellent descriptions, and the images and videos that he picks are somehow very representative of his work.
Frederica Viera Campos
Frederica Ferreira Campos is a Portuguese artist from Porto that studied at RCA, and I came across her work after seeing her name at Coliseu do Porto concert. She is a multidisciplinary artist (harpist, sound artist, dancer, performer, educator), and on her Instagram, she shares a panoply of content from all the areas she practices. This is one of the things I fear from being multidisciplinary – the overwhelming content of many things. As we can see from Francisca’s Instagram, there’s an inclination towards dancing. Here and there, there’s a post dedicated to her harpist self and some others dedicated to her sound artist “persona”. I don’t think it is wrong. I only think it is confusing. However, regarding her consistency, Francisca publishes quite constantly. Her latest post was made a day ago, and the one before a week ago. I like her Instagram because it is a diary and transmits much of her personality. Her post descriptions are brief and objective but very personal and intimate.
SAM AUINGER
Sam Auinger is a sound artist (composer and thinker), and what I like about his Instagram is how true it looks. The material he posts is very gallery-like. All his posts are worthy of a digital exhibition of his work; one can be hooked by scrolling down his material. There’s little to no interaction with his community, however. No BTS, No WOPs.
Pedro Tudela
Pedro Tudela is a sound and visual artist from Portugal, based in Porto. His Instagram works contrary to Sam Auinger’s. His material resembles the BTS and his thinking process to achieve his art pieces, or who were the people involved or the people he works with. Pedro also shows his learnings through gatherings or collaborations with other artists, lectures, books, etc. I would very much like to have an Instagram like his.
Simon Hayes
Simon Hayes is an academy award winner and works as a production sound mixer. He is also a very beloved personality among film professionals, especially in the sound department. I like the type of posts he has. It reminds me of Tudela’s Instagram, but because Hayes is not an artist, he shares his experience in the film set and the gear he uses. His post descriptions are very informative, which can explain why he is beloved in the sound department – his posts are beneficial for some. You can also see that he engages a lot with the working scenario that he is in – taking pictures with actors and other professionals and even posting reflective material of his opinions about the industry and so on.
Sofia Matrosova
Sofia Matrosova is a sound designer and artist. Sofia’s approach to her Instagram is very similar to Tudela’s, Harrison’s and Hayes’ Instagram because she presents her BTS, shows her work in a portfolio way, and tries to engage with other communities by writing exciting descriptions and asking her followers about their opinions.
My Instagram
A to-do list to improve my Instagram
- Create a schedule of posts through one of the apps suggested
- Create a link tree
- Find a formula for centres that work in the long term.
- Make a showreel.