The Art Institute InSite Interviews Skybox Creative on how designers can effectively use social media to promote themselves. Read the Q&A below.

1.   Why do you use social media platforms?

We utilize social media to build relationships online that we further strengthen offline and vice versa. Say we go to a networking event and meet a few people, we usually try to add them as a friend on our company Facebook or LinkedIn, this allows us to stay in front of them and open up ongoing dialogue. We also search social media sites for companies/people with similar interests, for example being eco-friendly. We will add them as a friend and then post specials for our green printing company, this way the message is more targeted.

2.   What is the best way for an artist or designer to use these outlets?

Well, a lot of the sites are interwoven now, so it’s important to do a little research and make a list of things to do/profiles to set up/link together. For example, Behance.net allows you to display your portfolio on LinkedIn.com, that’s huge. LinkedIn is still the top Professional social media site, so to be able to have your portfolio displayed on your profile is huge. LinkedIn also offers the option to share your updates on Twitter, we linked this feature, now we primarily use LinkedIn and it will automatically keep our Twitter up-to-date. There are a ton of portfolio sites, like CarbonMade.com, Behance.net, Coroflot.com, etc. I think a designer looking for work should be on all of the top portfolio sites and actively add friends, get involved in discussions, join groups, etc.

Another smart thing to remember is that “to give is to receive”, its a good idea to give recommendations to people you know on LinkedIn, then you can ask for the same in return. Or help a friend get introduced to someone via LinkedIn, these kind of selfless actions can really help in building relationships and helping you get more recognition for yourself. Also when posting updates and links on Facebook for example, try to offer an idea or resource that will help others instead of only being focused on your work.

3.   How has Facebook and other social media outlets affected your business?

It has helped keep us in the forefront of people’s minds. Whether they are a potential client or not, if they are thinking about us, they tend to refer their friends and clients to us when they mention “web design” or “cost effective printing”. We host a lot of networking mixers and this has been a great way to promote the events as well.

4.   Are there certain social media musts for artists and designers or does it depend on the individual?

I think you should pick a few and focus on them. It’s very easy to become overwhelmed with social media because it can really be a full time job. As technology moves, more and more sites will pop up too, so it’s important to try to watch the trends. Sites like Mashable.com help keep you up on the latest trends. There are sites like Ping.fm that allow you to update several profiles at once and other applications like Tweetdeck.com that allow you to streamline the Twitter process, schedule tweets and sort your contacts into groups. One thing we’ve done several times is submit our designs to the Designer Spotlight on iStock. If you used an image from their site in a design, you can submit the artwork. If they accept the design, you get free iStock credit, but more importantly it is a form of recognition you can use to help promote yourself (as profile updates, blog posts, etc.)

5.   Any tips and tricks for successfully using social media for art/design work?

Networking is key to success online and offline. Sites like Meetup.com have great niche groups like “Web Design San Diego”, I would recommend finding groups that have similar interests and attend an event or two each month. Even if you are surrounded by your peers, you might be surprised by how many clients you can get from it. We’ve gotten quite a few clients from web design meetups. Not only can you learn from your peers but since people typically have a specialty, they often need good referral sources for everything they don’t do (and are asked for all the time).

Hope you found this information helpful! Feel free to add us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn!

Meetup.com is an extremely powerful resource for people in all industries looking to collaborate on a wide variety of topics in a relaxed meeting setting (the groups often get together monthly or bi-weekly).

Skybox Creative recently attended a Meetup for Refresh SD, a group that includes web developers, internet marketers, techies, etc.. The topic: discussing client management and client requests – yes, a complicated matter. This topic often comes up in the web design and branding industry, because it is important to clearly define project scope and rounds of changes before starting a project that has been estimated out.

A few good tips and resources:

• Give clients a questionnaire prior to starting a project (Skybox uses a Branding Analysis Questionnaire, which discusses demographics, target market, competition, look & feel – and more!)

• Project Management tools can be key to balancing work flow – Action Method is a good one, VUE is a good way to describe logic or the development of a back end system

• OfficeTime is a great tool for tracking hours

• Clearly define client deliverables (copy, photos, feedback)

The San Diego Entrepreneur Meetup Group is responsible for hosting a variety of networking events and seminar luncheons for San Diego business professionals.

“Power Lunch: 5 Ways to Massively Increase Your Income” was the topic of today’s luncheon. Karie Kaufmann, Certified Business Coach with ActionCoach, presented the group with a variety of practical ideas to help grow your business. Prior to meeting Karie, we learned that we shared a mutual client, David Dent of CodeB San Diego, small world! By eliciting responses from the group, we were able to create a list of ways to; create more leads, increase your conversion rate, increase the number of transactions per customer, increase value therefore increase the average sale (DON’T DISCOUNT was a strong message she wrote out in large type) and increasing your profit margins by looking at ways you can cut costs.

One of the strongest messages I was left with was the importance of forming strategic alliances – creating and nurturing relationships with people who share your target market but don’t compete. One method to find out who the right strategic partners are is to draw a circle on a piece of paper with your target market/potential client in the middle, from there draw lines outward and think of all the possible people they come in contact with. Once you have your list of potential people/industries, find some local companies and introduce yourself. As long as it is a mutually beneficial relationship, they will most likely agree to meet with you and discuss the possibilities.

Prior to listening to the speaker, we played a game of Networking Tic-Tac-Toe, a first for me! We got to find out more about each other’s businesses and target markets by filling in squares on a tic-tac-toe board. Then as the luncheon coordinator, Doug Means, drew business cards out of his pocket, we put x in that square, the first person to get 3 in a row won a gift certificate for a free lunch at Seau’s Restaurant (where the event was held). It was a fun way to make sure you met at least 9 people at the event and really sparked conversation throughout the room.

Skybox Creative and Skybox Ink ♥ networking! We immerse ourselves in networking and learning all we can about business growth and development. The lunch drew a diverse range of business owners/professionals including, Stasia Shimkus of Arbonne International, Kirk Nigel of KNG Construction, Dave Brodwolf of Domination Marketing, Adrienne Moch – Copywriter and President of NAWBO San Diego, Carol Galloway of PartyLite, Ashley Sellers of National Life Insurance, Jan Naylor-Smith of JuicePlus, and of course Karie Kaufmann and Doug Means who put the event together! We would definitely recommend attending one of their events if you haven’t yet!