thatwasfun.: April 2010 Archives

Graphic Designers are like aesthetic dj's. We draw from a whole bunch of different styles for inspiration, our work requires us to research many different cultural images, and we get to combine these styles and images into our own creations. In social marketing, we combine our own ideas and style with those of others to form something that is unique in it's own right. Social marketing in design can mean many things, to me social marketing is basically marketing a product and/or idea in a number of mediums. When people hear the word "social", they think of a continuous interaction between people. With design, I think the meaning of "social" goes beyond just people to people interaction and includes people to technology interaction. It's easier than ever to be social with all the options we have today. The process in which we design on our own is similar to the way that social marketing is done, just on a larger scale. As graphic designers, we will work with many different companies that fit into very different lines of work. The marketing tools that we have available to us will help us understand how to design better. To quote a line from my favorite television show, The Wire, there's a saying amongst the cops, which is, "A cop is only as good as his informants". With design, I think it's fair to say that a designer is only as good as his resources. Lucky for us, there is almost no limit to the resources we have available to use, because of social networks, the internet, and the many different ways there are to get information.

The idea of "social" always makes me think of openness. Because in most social platforms that exist today, the reason they are so successful is because everything is out in the open, it's there to be seen and commented on. It allows for creative expression in a way that has never been easier. But I believe the key thing to remember with social marketing however, is the design shouldn't be persuaded by the social platforms. I look at a lot of design blogs online for inspiration and I am amazed at how inspiring it is to use those social platforms and see great design work. There is so much of it out there that looks cool, that it's easy to go from one awesome idea to the next. This act of going from one cool design to the next is a great example of how we should all be using our social resources. Sure what we're looking at right now is cool, but we need to be thinking about how we can make our own designs the next cool thing to be looking at. The real power of social marketing is that it pushes us to be better. Social marketing allows people to share what they think is cool, and we then, can take that and run with it.

I recently participated in AIGA's Portfolio One-On-One, which personally was a great experience, but socially was a completely different event of it's own. The idea of the event was to put yourself out there and show your work to professionals, but it was much larger than that. All the attendee's of the event were marketing themselves. It was the purest, most honest, and best form of marketing I have experienced so far in my design career. No one could hide behind their work, they had to stand right next to it and sell it. No one could recreate or front their "personality" via blogs, tweets, and facebook, because we were all there, in person, standing next to people we wanted to impress. And the only way to impress them was to actually talk to them and be yourself! The point that I'm trying to make here, is that I think personal marketing should come natural. When it comes to personal marketing, my motto is "Don't tweet about it. Be about it!" Actually, one of the things that really upset me about the portfolio one-on-one event was that they encouraged people to tweet about what they were doing at the event. That seemed ridiculous to me! Here we are standing with hundreds of other designers, actually standing with our so-called "community of designers" from minneapolis and the surrounding area, and they want us to communicate to some other community of who cares who?!? Why not just go and talk to someone in the room about how cool your studio tour was, instead of freakin' tweeting about it. Tweeting in this case, almost comes to a point where it's more anti-social than social. We all paid good money to be here at this event, so why not acknowledge the fact that you're at this thing instead of being somewhere off in cyberspace. Connect face to face, not tweet to tweet is all i'm saying.

This is what makes personal marketing way better than social marketing. Personal marketing is getting yourself out there and having real conversations about things that you care about, whereas social marketing is a totally surfaced form of communication and interaction. So minus that little twitter thing, the portfolio one-on-one event was great. I actually wish there were more opportunities to personally market yourself. I think personal marketing gets down to stronger connections that you have with people, and ultimately is the best form of marketing because of those strong connections.

I understand that twitter and even facebook provide great advantages when it comes to becoming part of a social circle and keeping up on what's going on. But while there are big trends in design being spread all across the internet, most likely there are big trends in design happening elsewhere that will soon be the next biggest, most awesome thing to ever happen to design that everyone will be spreading over the internet! I still haven't bought into the whole twitter thing, and I don't think you need twitter to personally market yourself. I'm not saying twitter is bad, but for me, I spend enough time sitting at my computer, that I don't care to waste more time at my computer tweeting about what I had for breakfast (lox bagel with herb neufchatel! yes it was awesome. no, i'm not jewish). Of course, people don't always tweet about how good their lox bagel with herb neufchatel spread is, i know there is lots of inspiration to be found in connection to design. But personally, I think you would have a stronger connection finding that stuff in real life, than you would on the internet. For example: think if you saw Shepard Fairey's "Hope" poster on the web for the first time vs. seeing it at a rally or somewhere while walking around in the streets. I think you would have a much stronger connection and feel something more by seeing it first hand, rather than on someone's blog. The way that this relates to personal marketing is that by doing and seeing things that are more meaningful or more tangible will help your work. Personal marketing is doing things/ designing things that you care about and are interested in.

So when it comes to personal marketing, don't use twitter. I think twitter is fine for social marketing, but not personal. If you have another form of personal marketing, you will be better off. Personal marketing should be exactly what it sounds like, personal. Market yourself honestly and in a way that speaks to who you are. This will help you decide what type of place you want to work at as well. One common piece of advice that I've heard for getting an internship is: "be cool." Meaning, be someone that people want to hang out with. You're portfolio may kinda suck, but if you seem like you would be a good fit with the personnel at a firm, they're much more likely to give you an internship opportunity. And the way that you "be cool", is by personal marketing. Just let yourself stand out a bit and if you mesh with a design firm, then you'll have a good shot of getting an internship. Some firms will think you're cool and some will think you're too silly for them or not the right fit, but it's better for you to figure out what firms you'll be best with by being yourself.

Overall, I don't think you should have to try too hard with personal marketing. There is a place for personal marketing and a place for social marketing. To me, they should be treated separately, but don't have to be completely separate. A marketing teacher would probably lecture me for an hour about how marketing is marketing, and one type flows into the other. But I think personal and social marketing can be different. The more fun that you have with your personal marketing, the more likely it is that your social network will open up (so i guess the marketing teacher is kinda right).

Don't tweet about it. Be about it.

Resources: * the "being cool, be yourself" bit. Advice from every design person I know.