Using social media to market products and services is not a new practice. But in recent years it has increased exponentially with the massive popularity of channels like TikTok and Instagram. That proliferation presents new opportunities for interior designers, but it also presents some challenges. With so much competition for consumers’ attention, you need a consistent, coherent strategy if you want to reap the benefits.

In this episode, Gail talks with Darla Powell, director and self-proclaimed Head Wingnut, with Wingnut Social, based in Leonardtown, Maryland, which specializes in providing social media management and marketing services to the interior design and home decor industries. Darla ran her own interior design firm, Darla Powell Interior Design, for many years. During that time, she became interested in the commercial use of social media and how she could apply it to growing her business. Following a break up with her partner, she decided to close the design business and devote herself to helping interior designers use social media to market themselves and their services.

Social media marketing involves leveraging social media platforms to share content, build networks, and engage users with the goal of growing a business. Darla pointed out that while we hear a lot about social media celebrities and influencers and how many followers they have, the best metric of success for social media marketing for businesses is growing reach and awareness. You want to increase the number of potential ideal clients who are viewing your content.

Darla explained that to see meaningful results from social media marketing requires a long-term, organic strategy. You have to have great content, keep refreshing your content, be responsive to inquiries, and be consistent in doing so week in and week out. You are working on building relationships with potential ideal clients. “It takes three to six months of doing everything 100 percent before you really start building up momentum,” she said.

Darla said there was no set formula or pattern for the way one should do social media marketing. It is different for each designer. She said that while, in her experience, Instagram is currently the best platform for interior designers to market on, for some designers LinkedIn, Facebook and Pinterest can also produce results. TikTok is growing for business use, she said, but is not currently a major focus for her firm.

Darla also talked about the services her firm offers, what type of firm is a good fit to work with her firm, what kind of budget one needs, what qualities to look for when outsourcing social media marketing, and why you need to be able to scale your business quickly in preparation for the influx of new clients. For all that and more, listen to the entire podcast.

If you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, view the full shownotes here: https://thepearlcollective.com/s11e8-shownotes

Mentioned in This Podcast

To learn more about Wingnut Social and the services it provides, go to the firm’s website at wingnutsocial.com. You will also find there a link to Darla’s podcast, Designed by Wingnut Social.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO_MEZmpPoY&pp=ygUYcGVhcmwgY29sbGVjdGl2ZSBwb2RjYXN0

Episode Transcript

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Welcome to the Creative Genius podcast, Darla. Hi, Gail. Thank you for having me. It's my pleasure. it's pleasure having you. So tell us about Wing That Social. How did that come to be? wow. How much time do you have? My goodness. Okay, well, let's settle in. I was born. So long, very long story. I'll make it very short for you. I was a police sergeant for the Miami-Dade Police Department in Miami up until 2017.

And I retired early because I wanted to follow my love for interior design, which I had been doing off and on in an amateur semi professional kind of way over the years.