8 Social Media Portfolio Strategies Every Creative Should Know

For many professionals and brands, social media can serve as an excellent marketing tool. For visual designers and creative professionals, it can serve as a portfolio that attracts the attention of new clients and generates work opportunities. When your profile and its contents are optimized correctly, your social media profile can open plenty of doors. Making mistakes, however, can close doors, so you’ll want to make sure you create a social media portfolio with the right strategy.

Choose a Fitting Platform

Depending on the type of creative work you do, not all platforms will sufficiently showcase your skills and hard work. While LinkedIn is an excellent platform for professionals, it doesn’t prioritize visual design as much. Instagram has a highly visual grid format, whereas platforms like BlueSky often automatically crop and limit video posts to specific sizes, making it less than ideal for visual creatives. Take a look at the platforms you’re on and ensure they allow you to tell your story and showcase your work without issue. Photo- and video-focused platforms are your best bet for most creatives, although writers will need text-based platforms unless they are converting their works into video or visual content. You can start with one or two platforms to build your presence before growing to other locations for visibility.

Showcase Your Process

While you can use social media to display your best work, highlighting your process and journey through each piece is also ideal. In addition to your finished pieces, you may want to occasionally include the design process and work involved to allow audiences to connect with you more effectively. Include behind-the-scenes videos, step-by-step processes, workspace tours, and guides on the tools you use. You can let viewers get to know you and your creative process, rather than just the final pieces you produce. Behind-the-scenes peeks feel more exclusive and authentic to profile viewers as well. If you don’t want to expose yourself to cameras, you can use AI video dubbing or editing tools to help you make interesting and engaging creative posts.

Tell a Story Through Your Work

The pieces in your portfolio should tell a story, rather than just showing the final product without context. For whom did you create the designs and why? Tell an authentic and transparent story in your videos, photos, or captions on social media. You’ll provide the necessary context for viewers while showing the heart and soul behind each of your designs. Keep group projects or series together on the platform. Organize your best work in a carefully curated manner, much like a museum. Provide samples of themes or aesthetics in which you excel.

Diversify Your Designs

As a creative or designer, you will likely have a broad range of pieces to show off in a portfolio. While you should include your best work, ensure that you diversify your portfolio to show off your strengths in various areas. If you’re a visual artist who works with multiple mediums, include them on your profile. If you’re a writer who excels in both fiction and non-fiction, provide examples of each. If you’ve designed for clients with extremely different aesthetic preferences, add examples to illustrate your work. The more you increase diversity to your portfolio, the more you can show adaptability and a wider skill set.

Optimize Through Captions

On social media, captions help explain what audiences are seeing in the post and optimize it for searches and algorithms. Learn how to describe each piece in your portfolio, including relevant hashtags (if applicable on that platform) or keywords that can help more audiences find you. Certain platforms, such as Tumblr, allow you to tag each post with a different category on your own profile; for example, posts you tag as “watercolor” will have their own tag on your page. Think about optimization as you write your caption. You can describe each piece and the story behind it, as well as keywords that direct more users to the post. Try to make each post sound natural and authentic, however.

Use Highlighting or Pinning Features

Many platforms, including Instagram, allow you to “pin” or “highlight” a post to keep it at the top of your profile at all times. You can use this feature to introduce yourself in a post or highlight your top work, no matter how many pieces you add afterwards. If you have a particular piece or post that you want people to see as soon as they visit your profile, consider using highlights or pins to make it more visible.

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Engage With Others

You can’t just post on social media and leave. The primary purpose of social media is to connect with others, so the algorithm favors users who both post and engage with others. Connect with other industry professionals, colleagues, and mentors you look up to. Leave a “like” and comments on other posts to make sure your profile is active. Reply to topical DMs or comments that are left on your profile. On some platforms, you can even “like” a comment for immediate engagement. Research relevant trends, memes, or challenges specific to your creative medium to make your portfolio fresh and engaging.

Flesh Out Your Profile

A portfolio profile should contain a wealth of information about you or your brand. If viewers don’t know how to get in touch with you, you’ll miss out on valuable partnerships, jobs, or other connections. Ensure your profile is fully completed with your name, biography, and contact details. Create a professional email so clients or interested parties can stay in touch with you. Include your availability if you’re interested in being booked, hired, or commissioned for services.

Conclusion

A social media portfolio can act as a live representation of your skills as a creative artist or professional. Including a diverse collection of your best designs or artwork can make it easier to find work or connect with others. You will need to ensure that you choose the right platform and complete your profile fully with contact information, making it easier for clients to find you. Tell a story behind your work and showcase behind-the-scenes footage to appear more authentic. Learn how to use the algorithm and features of each social media platform to your advantage. With tailored effort and a winning strategy, your social media portfolio will be the key to landing the opportunity you’ve been waiting for.