
Most people think that social media is free. Those people are wrong. If you are a user, then you are the product. You are feeding the system data while enabling them to sell advertising. If you are a business, such as an interior designer, then you are going to end up paying one way or another. This article considers the benefits of social media for interior designers, but the fact that social media is “Free” is not one of them.
Think about it. Think about how a 16yr old girl dancing with her dog on the lawn can go viral when marketing teams spend weeks on a project that never sees more than 10K users. It is because social media is built to hold down businesses so that businesses are forced to spend advertising money. If it were easy for businesses to gain a real impact using social media, then social media networks would never sell any advertising services. There are several benefits of social media for interior designers, but the fact that it is free is not one of them.
Some Social Media Networks are Perfect for Interior Designers
There are websites like Instagram and Pinterest, and various niche networks, where the content you post has both mass appeal and direct appeal to potential customers. There was a phenomenon called “Van Life” where people gained hundreds of followers per day on Instagram because they were living in a van and seeing the world. It was highly orchestrated of course. You only got to see them standing next to perfect waterfalls. You didn't see images of them bathing in a bucket of water. Nevertheless, these people gained a massive following because people saw an idealized version of something on social media and they wanted it. The same principles apply when people see interior design shoots. They don't even care if the images have been photoshopped. They are looking for the romance of the idea, and that is exactly what they find. These people are prime candidates as potential customers.
Some Social Media is Useless For Interior Designers
Let’s ignore the fact that several social media networks are not suitable for interior designers, and consider the fact that people do not search on social media for interior designers. This is a big downside for grabbing buyers who are actively searching, but that doesn't mean social media plays no part.
You could embed your ideas and your brand into the mind of your potential buyer, and you could do it months before they even consider interior design. When people think of interior design, there is a chance they will recall an old image they liked on their Instagram page. Added to which, if a potential buyer is trying to vet you and check your work, then being able to hop onto a robust and active social media account can only be good for your company.
You Can Buy a Potential Audience
Is this the same as buying bot likes and followers? We all know you can cheat your way to the top, but the likes and follows you receive are not from real people. Ergo, marketing to them would be like yelling your offers into a warehouse full of toaster ovens.
There is another way to buy an audience. You use a social media marketplace, and you buy other people's accounts. You then use them to spread your message out to real people. There are websites like https://fameswap.com/ where just about anybody can put their social media accounts up for sale in the same way that people sell websites. The difference is that when you start posting on those website accounts, you are communicating with real people. They are all potential customers for what is essentially a small acquisition fee.
On the contrary, if you were to pay influencers to make a comment to their audience, you may gain wider exposure, but it would cost you more and you would have far less control. In terms of social media market penetration, there is more you can do with a purchased audience than you can by paying off influencers. Think of it like how it was in the old days when you would buy an email list and market to it. This time, you are buying a social media audience and marketing to that.