Website: The main starting point for any creative is to have their own website. Not belonging to any social network or pre-made site, it must be completely your own. If you’re a creative then this should be easy, even if web is not your area, you can still design it and pass it onto a web designer to put it together coherently. Keep it simple and let your work  speak for itself. Don’t have too many gimmicks as it can be distracting to users trying to see what you do. Keep the branding on the site consistent and have simple navigation, don’t make your work hard to find!

As a creative you will have lots of images, check out one of our previous blogs about optimising your images for some vital tips! Don’t forget content of course. Write descriptions bout each project and a solid biography and about you and your skills. Do it in real text, not images or Flash so that Google can find it easily. It’s always good to add your location so if any prospective clients are looking for a design in XX they’ll find you!  Use a site/page title that contains keywords describing who you and what you do, many designers make the mistake of putting “~~~~~********Krista Harrison Portfolio***********~~~~~” no-one is looking for stars and bizarre decorative punctuation!

Social media: Once the main site is ready, it’s time to start on social media. Use Twitter and Facebook to attract followers to your new site. Even if you just start with telling friends and peers, they will check out your site and possibly pass the information and link onto someone who might be interested. It’s a viral way of spreading information. Every time you update the main site, inform your Twitter followers and Facebook fans. Twitter is better in general but if you think Facebook can help too then go for it.

Portfolio and creative community sites: Sites such as DeviantART are great for posting work quickly and receiving critique from other creatives around the world. You wouldn’t use it as a main site as it is more of a community for keeping in touch with other artists and getting inspired from other peoples work. it’s ideal when you’re feeling a bit of the old creative block, you can search other people’s work and save them to a favourites folder which you can check out to become inspired when you get stuck!

Blogs: Yes we’re always going on about blogs! Blogs are an easy way to post work in progress and sketches that probably wouldn’t make it onto the main site. they humanise you and make seem more approachable. If you are short of time to update you main site, using a platform such as Blogger or WordPress is an easy way to post new work until you have time to add to the main site. People who follow you on Twitter can follow your blog in the same way, by posting regular links to new posts. Try to blog everyday, it’s good motivation to do new work, however minor the project! You don’t just have to post your own work either, you can write about anything to do with your industries such as other creatives or work you’ve seen and really liked.

There’s probably a million more things you can do… but I hope this small selection helps for starters. Explore every avenue and you might discover the best way to promote yourself in a way no-one else has. And then there’s all the offline ways you can promote…but that’s for another time!

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