First of all, we want to start by thanking the 270+ people who tuned into our first-ever Designer Talks Twitter Space. Your participation made the event a success, and we're excited to make this the first of many Designer Talks we host! (full recording below)

During our session, we focused on strategies for designers to grow their social media following and attract clients to scale their freelance businesses. The response and engagement we received were phenomenal. If you could not join us, here’s a recap of the insightful conversation we had with Philip, Rakan, and Tim!

Freelancers are increasingly leaving traditional marketplaces due to high fees and intense competition, opting instead to find clients directly through social media platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn. However, this shift brings its own challenges, particularly with managing international payments.

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Now, let’s dive into the highlights of the discussion.

Introductions and Backgrounds

Philip, a seasoned UX designer from the Netherlands, shared his 20-year journey in the field. He’s worked with major brands like Adidas, Lego, PwC, and Vodafone. Philip emphasized the importance of building a personal brand and effectively leveraging social media for client acquisition.

Rakan, a talented graphic and motion designer from Saudi Arabia, at only 18, has already landed clients like Under Armour and Fabrizio Romano. He started designing at 14 and highlighted the role of Twitter in reaching clients and growing his business.

Tim, a product designer from Nigeria, has a rich background in both product and graphic design, having transitioned from brand design after studying software engineering. Tim focuses heavily on community building and mentoring other designers, a passion that shines through his work on social media.

Choosing the Right Platform

Tip 1: Don’t separate your personal and business account

Philip explained that he only started taking social media seriously in 2023. One of the early mistakes was to create too many accounts and having to manage them all. He shared his experience of merging his personal and business accounts for better engagement, emphasizing a consistent approach instead of keeping the two separate. At the end it’s more important to build a personal brand as well.

Tip 2: Twitter is the best for attracting clients

Rakan uses multiple platforms, including TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, Behance, and LinkedIn, but finds Twitter particularly effective for reaching clients and showcasing his personality.

He also agreed that keeping the story consistent under one personal brand is easier and more coherent than diluting it across multiple accounts.

Tip 3: Building publicly is a great strategy

In the span of a year, Tim was able to move from 1K to 10K+. For Tim building publicly and sharing his design process is a very rewarding strategy to connect genuinely with your audience. He highlighted the value of building communities and engaging with followers, using social media to share his process and insights.

Building and Marketing Your Personal Brand

Tip 1: Tell your own personal story and clients will come as a side effect

Philip mentioned that he started to invest in social media late and felt he was missing out on that opportunity. He stressed the importance consistency and maintaining a content calendar to help building a personal brand to make client acquisition easier.

Tip 2: Building a niche by being curious

Rakan started by posting videos of football on YouTube and Instagram, until he got banned. At that point he decided to focus on creating designs for football. He said it was probably the best thing that could have happened to him. It was almost as a happy accident that he found his niche in football design after experimenting with various types of content. He also shared that building an niche on Instagram is easier because of the hashtags and all the groups. On Twitter you really have to adjust to posting at the right time.

Tip 3: Be genuine and make friends along the way

Tim underscored the power of referrals and delivering excellent work to build a strong reputation. He mentions that he typically has different kind of content: educational ones, entertainment ones and inspirational ones. Through that strategy he met collaborators that became close friends and helped him get new gigs.

Rapid Fire Round

Favourite tool to showcase your work?

• Philip: Love shots.so to create show quick fancy mockups

• Tim: Focus on high quality mockups. It’s less about the tool and more about the story.

• Rakan: Behance is the simplest. For a more professional portfolio, Framer, Figma or Readymag. Linktree is also a good way.

Something that you discovered recently that amazed you?

• Philip: Using Tally.so instead of Typeform because it’s a lot more cost-efficient.

• Tim: Recently he has been exploring glassmorphism or gradient style.

• Rakan: New browser that uses A.I called Arc Browser

  
  

How to keep up with the latest design trends?

• Philip: Follow best practices of major e-commerce platforms.

• Tim: Uses the curated list feature on Twitter to follow specific designers.

• Rakan: Also focuses on curating his feed and keep track on designers outside of his niche for inspiration.

Full Recording available (here)👇

In closing, we want to extend our gratitude once again to Philip, Rakan, and Tim for sharing their invaluable insights and experiences. Your contributions made this space incredibly enriching. And to everyone who joined us, thank you for being part of our first Designer Talks Twitter Space. We look forward to hosting many more sessions and continuing these important conversations.

Stay tuned for updates on our upcoming beta release, and make sure to sign up to experience Sorbet's seamless global payment solution. Let’s keep the conversation going and support each other in growing our creative businesses.

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