Interior Designers and Home Decorators have many more self promotion options available to them today than of the years past. With the proliferation of social media, interior designers are able to promote themselves online to prospective clients by posting photographs, tips, question & answer sessions…the possibilities are endless. This post will discuss two popular social media networks that home decorators can use to grow their business – Pinterest & Twitter.
Although it is relatively new (founded in 2010), Pinterest has become incredibly popular, gaining over 25 million users and growing. Around 1.36 MILLION people visit Pinterest every day!
Pinterest allows users to share images of interest from around the web, by “pinning” them onto boards shared with their followers. Users can then organize their “pins” into boards in categories of their choice. Pinterest is one of the most popular social media networks in the United States. It also has a significant global presence in the UK, Japan, Canada, and Italy.
Pinterest is extremely popular among women aged 25-44 in the United States; in particularly with the Mom crowd (Moms are 61% more likely to visit Pinterest than the average person in the USA). And many of these Pinterest users are well off (making $100K+). Of note to interior designers and home decorators: Referrals are highest in Home & Furnishings categories on Pinterest – it accounts for 60% of all social traffic. If you’re an interior designer and you’re not on Pinterest, you definitely should be!
Here are a couple of tips:
Install a Pinterest Button on your website. This will allow your web visitors to pin images from you that they enjoy. It will also help you build up a network of followers.
Pin the best images from your best work. Did you just design an incredible living room? Pin it! Are you working on renovating a bathroom – pin the pics of the process (for non-top secret jobs, of course). Be sure to attribute any work that isn’t yours to the correct person or company.
Follow other pins and interact within various communities. Use hashtags (#) to participate or start public conversations and the @ icon to address a pinner directly. This is a social network after all! One of the best ways to get people to follow your boards is to follow others and be an overall active member of the community.
Twitter is a microblogging community that has become a wildly popular global social network. Users share everything from thoughts to news, to images, video links, and much more – all within 140 characters or less. Hashtags and @ symbols are popular on Twitter, just as they are on Pinterest, as they enable people to communicate with each other. People all over the world use Twitter to keep in touch with friends, promote their business, stay current on the news, and to be entertained in general.
There are over 100 million active members on Twitter. While Pinterest is certainly growing, Twitter is a much larger social network to date.
Unlike Pinterest, Twitter has a broader split between male and female users. It also is popular with a younger target demographic (the 18-29 year old set), while Pinterest appeals to a slightly older crowd. Also most Twitter users live in an urban setting geographically. With Pinterest, your audience is made of suburban Moms who shop. With Twitter, your audience is made of young, urban trend setters who are early adopters. Both audiences are incredibly valuable – though quite different.
For an interior designer or home decorator, Twitter could be a great space to connect with local vendors and artists, and an excellent way to keep on top of fashion trends that can be used for fresh ideas in home décor.
Here are a couple of tips:
With Twitter, you absolutely must follow people in order to gain a following yourself. Otherwise, no one will see your Tweets! Start by following friends, clients (as appropriate), industry leaders, artists, etc. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how many of them follow you back.
Reply to conversations. This is another great way to build followers and to get people interacting with you. When people are talking about home interior design, chime in with your thoughts, ideas, and tips. You’ll introduce yourself to the Twitter community, and people will love getting your useful information.
Be real. Let your personality shine through. Tweet images from your latest project, or a new tip you just learned. Host a Q&A session. Twitter gives you a chance to really set yourself up as an expert on home design.
I hope you’ve found this discussion of Twitter and Pinterest helpful. Make sure to check out next week’s post, where I’ll be talking about the current state of social media in the interior design industry.
insidehomedesign 
It’s funny you mentioned that Pinterest is more popular amongst women, especially mothers. I find that a lot of mothers use this form of social media, to share experiences, products, etc., with each other. Last week, I bought my daughter’s school uniforms and the site had a pop up that urged me to pin the site. I realized that after sharing that site on my pinterest. a few of my friends who are also mothers of school aged kids, also shared that they went on the same site to buy uniforms for their children.
The power of social media I tell you!
I do not have a Pinterest account, but after reading what you say, I might apply one and see why it attracts so many female users. It is nice that you analysis two different consumer group according to Pinterest and twitters in Interior Design area and gives some tips. As a twitter user, I get ideas from the post (whose post I am following) and get suggestions back from my friends and relatives. I still love the way to share my new stuffs.
Pinterest is definitely a great resource for connecting with a female target demo. Some of the pins people post are really amazing – and give good insight on what people in this target demo are all about these days.