Instagram for Interior Designers: Turn Followers Into Clients - Garin Michelson
Social media strategist Garin Michelson helps interior designers transform their Instagram platforms from portfolio showcases into conversion machines with a strategic content approach that prioritizes DMs over likes and actual clients over follower counts.
Your beautiful portfolio images might get likes, but they probably don't generate client inquiries. Over the course of working with a LOT of interior designers, social media strategist Garin Michelson knows why some interior designers convert Instagram followers into clients, while others…don’t.
The key difference? Strategic content that drives direct messages.
"I think a misconception that designers have is that everything has to be perfect and professional and polished," Garin explains in our recent interview. "When somebody is following you and they're thinking about maybe hiring you, they're also looking at other people... if they get a chance to feel like they get to know you and the person behind the brand, that's kind of what makes them really choose you over somebody else."
This episode breaks down the exact framework solo interior designers and small design firms need to transform Instagram from a portfolio showcase into their most effective lead generation tool.
Key Takeaways
The ideal Instagram content mix balances portfolio content with behind-the-scenes process and personal elements
Behind-the-scenes content generates significantly more client inquiries than perfect portfolio posts
Direct Messages (DMs) represent the most valuable metric for business development, not likes or follower count
Engagement (commenting on others' content) is equally important as posting your own content
Showing your face and personality is essential for converting followers into clients in a relationship-based business
Many successful interior designers generate significant leads through strategic Instagram content
Listen to the podcast…
Apple - Youtube Music - Spotify - Youtube
Watch the podcast…
Chapters
01:02 Origin Story
02:54 Instagram Success
07:03 Week in Review Carousel Post
08:39 Strategic Instagram
09:25 Interior Design Superpower
11:13 When the bleep Hits the Fan
12:49 Instagram + Referrals = Clients
13:45 Instagram Misconceptions
15:48 AI Fakery vs Human Authenticity
17:43 Let's Get Personal
20:24 What's New on Instagram
26:14 Best Practices for Designers
30:50 Follower Count
32:55 Who, What, Where, When, Why
38:51 We'll Do It Live!!!
40:58 Collaborations
41:57 Tagging
44:42 Engagement
46:03 DMs
47:08 ManyChat
48:15 Re-Using Content
49:34 How to Get Social with Garin
52:31 What's It Like Working With Garin?
54:38 How Long Will It Take?
56:03 Ideal Client Avatar
59:14 Real-Life Instagram Data
1:00:46 Link-in-Bio vs ManyChat
1:04:00 Outro
Read the transcript…
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Garin, before we dive into everything Instagram, can you tell me a little bit about how you got into Instagram, how you became a social media strategist?
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: Garin Michelson: I would be happy to. This is actually my third career. I started this one after having kids and wanting to find something I could do from home, but also still be a presence for my children.
And I was looking for something that I could do remotely and I could do online. And I came across social media management sort of randomly and dove in headfirst and started little by little building my clientele and started with my personal connections, people in my community.
And about a year ago or so, I started to niche into interior designers. One of the reasons I chose to work specifically with interior designers is because my mother was an interior designer for years, for decades. And I used to go with her to the D and D building in New York City for her clients.
I would go to client clients, houses with her. We would go through fabric samples together. We would, I would watch her drawing out floor plans by hand. And I loved it. And I didn't want to do it. I, I did do it a tiny bit kind of on the side here and there when I wasn't working.
But for the most part, I decided it wasn't the right move for me. But working with interior designers felt like a good step. I understand the industry well, having grown up around it. And so I specifically work with interior designers because I know their industry, I know the jargon, I know what they're looking for, I know what their work is like.
And so I feel like I can help market them.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: So obviously, interior designers, Instagram is their number one social media platform of choice and not just for promoting their own business and building their own brand and potentially getting client leads from Instagram, but personally, they enjoy it.
And obviously Instagram changes over the years. The TikTok coming in has made huge changes in terms of video versus just still images. Could you possibly share some stories of interior designers who have done or do Instagram well and maybe they've transformed from something not so well and you've helped them do it better.
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: So in anticipation for that question, I did look up some interior designers that I follow. Obviously I follow a lot of interior designers and I'm engaging with them regularly. And I thought about a bit like a interior designer with a large following, with a medium sized following, with a smaller following.
And I was looking at what they're doing. Well now none of them are my personal clients. I'll be talking about some of my clients and their successes as well, but I will talk about these three. So the, the large designer that I, that I wanted to mention was someone I just discovered this week.
And her name is Lindsay Calhoun. And what I love about her account is a couple of things. One, she, her grid aesthetic feels really cohesive and really aligned with her personal brand.
So I'm looking at it and I'm like, okay, this is, this is coming from Lindsay, right? When I see a post of hers, I know it's hers because I know the aesthetic is hers. Something else that she does really well. And this is something I'll be talking about probably too often, but she shows herself a lot in her content and that is something that I preach with my clients and with my followers a lot.
Because when somebody is following you and they're thinking about maybe hiring you, they're also looking at other people and maybe thinking about hiring them as well. Right. And if they get a chance to feel like they get to know you and they get to know the person behind the brand and not this polished professional version of you, which of course that's some of it, but a little bit more about who you are, how you work, your processes, your quirks, your personality, that's kind of what makes them really choose you over somebody else.
So something that Lindsay does well is she does show herself a lot in her content. So those are a couple of things that I loved about her. Now a medium sized account that I love is Dara Beitler Interiors. She does a phenomenal job of some of the same things I'm talking about with Lindsay.
She shows herself, she shows her personality. She talks directly to the camera all the time in stories. So she's giving you insight into what her day is like. She is currently working on a new construction and she has a hashtag for it design. I think it's Design on a Hill or Design Build on a Hill.
And so every time she posts about it, she's also using that hashtag. So you know what, when what her, what she's working on. And she's really bringing us behind the scenes of that job. So in her posts and, but mostly, even more importantly in her stories, she's walking us through the process.
So now we're understanding as a potential client what it's like to work with Dara because we see the process and we see her personality and we see what she's doing with this client. And so to me, that's really, really effective. And then the third one that I would mention is a much smaller designer, somebody that I've been connected with on Instagram.
And her name is Molly Miller, Molly Miller Interiors. And the reason I thought of her is because something she did I thought was so brilliant. She posted her stories throughout the week and in her stories she was explaining the decision she was making and what was going here and what was going there.
And these are the choices for this window treatment. And she's really walking you through her thinking and her behind the scenes. And here's the smart part. At the end of the week, she took those stories and she put them together as a carousel post. I thought it was brilliant. It was like, here's my week in review and you don't have to.
And this is a nice way to sort of save time when you're. When you're creating content as a designer, you've got these stories. You've already done them. Just remember to save them to your phone. They're already almost in the right format. I mean, you may have to adjust them slightly in canva or something, but you can put them together and you're.
Now you're showing people, this is what a week looks like in my life. Here are the decisions I'm making, here's my personality, here's what I'm doing behind the scenes. And it kind of gives people a chance to get to know you better. And so I thought that was really brilliant. So she's a designer. I think that is doing it really, really well.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: All to me, all three of them, they sound very similar in a few regards. That one, they're entertaining, right. By doing things that are creative and not entertaining in a TikTok, you know, popular dance kind of way. But. But also the idea of showing themselves.
I love that idea. And as someone of a certain age, like getting in front of a camera and doing this, like, the first few times I did this was painful. Was painful. Right. So I get that a lot of designers like to stick just to static images of their jobs because, I mean, it's such a visual industry.
Why do you think designers aren't doing those smart things? You just, like even just using the hashtag, every designer, they have a job name for each job, whether it's an address or a. Whatever. That's right. Why are they not, like, it's such a. Like, why.
Why were they not doing that? Like, that's great.
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: I just think that. And this isn't just designers, but this would really be anybody. But it certainly applies to designers. They don't really understand necessarily, like, the strategy behind social media. So they're just kind of out there, like, posting their work.
And like you said, like, it's really easy to post static images of your work. And there's absolutely a time and a place for that. That's very effective. But it's not effective if it's the only thing you're doing. You have to show up. You have to show behind the scenes. You have to be a little bit vulnerable.
I'm not saying you have to share everything about yourself or your life, but you have to show a little bit about your personality. You have to show a little bit about who you are, how you work behind the scenes so people feel like they have a chance to get to know you and the person behind the business.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Sure. I mean, it's such a personal industry, interior design.
Right. The designer is going into the homeowner's home. Like literally they're in their business for months at a time. They know stuff about their families, all this kind of stuff. And a big part of selling any job. Right. If the homeowner is talking to three or four or five different designers, they've looked at everyone's work.
I mean, how much of that is the interpersonal stuff ends up selling the job anyway? So by doing this on Instagram, you know, you're pre selling that part of you, that slice of your personality that has already been successful in your business and getting you clients. I mean, it really does seem like a no brainer.
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: Yeah, I mean, exactly what you said is what my mom always used to say to me. She was like, this is such a personal job. I am in the bedrooms of people's homes. Right. Your most sacred private space. So when you're looking to hire somebody to come into your home and spend all this time in your home and see your life, you kind of want to know who you're, who you're dealing with.
Right? Sure. The images that are beautiful are great. You want your home to come out beautiful, but you also have to spend time with this person. You also have to trust them. You also need to get to know what their processes are like. And you want to get to, you know, in marketing we call it, you know, no trust. And like, you want, you got to build all of that.
You got to build the know factor, the trust factor and the like factor. And you do that by showing up in a less polished way from time to time. From time to time? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it, it should still be attractive, but. Absolutely.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: And it may be showing things that aren't going well. Could you imagine that story if someone said, like, you know, we're working on this project and this has happened. Right. And then showing, you know, how we're going to rescue the situation. Right.
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: Because in this industry, I mean, maybe you don't know this.
People who aren't in it wouldn't know it, but things go wrong all the time, constantly. How is the designer that you're hiring handling that? How are they solving it? How are they fixing it? Right. That's a really important part of choosing who you're going to hire, I think.
And so using social media, it's a free platform that anybody can use. Seems like a no brainer to use it in this way where you're really Showing how you work and how you deal with, you know, adversity. And I don't really see a ton of interior designers showing things that go wrong, but I think that would be brilliant because it happens in every single job.
So how are you handling it? How are you making it right? How are you dealing with it so that the homeowner doesn't have to do that themselves, which is why they hire you.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Right? For sure. With my wife's company, she does an exit interview with. With all of her clients, and it's informal, and they sit down over some wine and it.
But the whole thing is recorded and transcribed now. And always one of the bigger things is when the client will say, you know, we had this hiccup or this hiccup during the job, and then how you handled it.
This. This was important. This is the kind of thing that makes us want to refer you to our friends. Because when something goes wrong, are you the expert? You're the one that's going to make sure that, you know, it gets fixed
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: , right? Absolutely. Otherwise, they could. And something you said there that I want to touch on for a second is referrals. Right. Interior design clients often come to you from referrals, but then what they do is then they start checking your Instagram, they start following you, they start getting to know you, which is why I talk to people a lot about having, you know, your Instagram may not be.
I know we're moving in a different direction, but, you know, your Instagram may not be enough to sell you to someone who doesn't know you. It just might not in this industry. But what it does is it might solidify the deal. Right. So it's like somebody's been refers you, and now they're going to check out your Instagram, they're going to binge your content, they're going to follow your stories, and that might be what puts it over the edge and makes them hire you.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Or. Or go the other way.
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: Yeah. Or choose not to. Right?
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah. Right. Okay. So we've looked at some of the things that designers could be. Should be doing with their Instagrams. I want to get into some of, like, the misconceptions that interior designers have about Instagram.
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: Yes. So one of them that we sort of touched on a bit is that everything has to be perfect and professional and polished. Now, 100%. There has to be an element of that. There's no doubt about that. Because, you know, you get these professional photos done of the work that you do as a designer, and you want to put them out there because they're stunning.
But that has to be mixed with some of the less polished and less and less professional and a little bit more, again, of yourself. And so I think a misconception that designers have is that everything has to be perfect, and if it's not, I can't post it.
I disagree with that. I think you can post, you know, oh, a project that you're working on that isn't finished yet. I think there's a lot of value in that because it shows not only your process, like I've been saying, but it also kind of builds excitement. Like, you know, I'm going to the bar is going to go over here.
Like, here are the colors we're using for it. Here are the finishes we're going to choose. And then people are kind of excited. They want to see the finished product. So I think it's really important for designers to kind of get away from this idea of any everything having to be perfect and polished and really having a little bit of a mix.
So I'd say that's one misconception. Another misconception, and again, is something that I, that I preach all the time, is if I'm looking at an interior designer's feed and all I see is photos and I don't see a single image of them, that's a red flag to me.
Because you're the person behind this business, right? You're the face. You're the person that we need to get to know. I need to see you in at least, you know, if you're looking at a grid, maybe of nine or 12 photos, I want to see you in at least a couple of those, because I want to know who the person is.
If I'm communicating with you, I want to be able to talk to a person. I want to know that I'm talking to a person. I don't want to feel like I'm just talking to a business that doesn't have a face behind it. So it's really important to sort of show yourself so that we can build that relationship and that rapport on there.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: A couple of questions. From what you were just saying, with. With the advance of AI and image generation, right. You could, even a designer could take a picture on their smartphone of one of their jobs, run it through, you know, an AI filter and make it look perfect.
At a certain point, the public is going to be fully aware of that, and we're going to distrust. Distrust almost everything we see, right? So coming back to what you said about the designer showing their face. Right. And talking like a human being. If, if we're going to start not being able to trust images.
Right. How are designers going to get by on Instagram if they've just got a grid of beautiful pictures that people don't trust?
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: That's exactly. That's exactly right. And the only thing I will definitely say about AI is that I think it's really important to be clear about when you're using it.
Like, if you're do. If there's a. And I think a lot of people are. And I think a lot of designers are, for the most part, and what I see. But if you're, you know, if you're creating something on AI, like, just, you know, be, be, be honest and be clear about it, there's nothing wrong with it. I think a lot designers have a lot of different views on AI.
Some are pro AI, some are anti AI, But I think there's a time and a place, and I think if you're using it and you're clear about why you're using it and that you're using it, then I think it's okay to use it.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Right. I've seen a few people do, do reels or TikToks or YouTube shorts where they're either students or beginner designers who don't have a portfolio really yet, and they've created these images using AI mid journey or whatever they were using.
And then they. But then they would talk about it, right. So you'd see this image in the background and it would be used as a green screen. And then they would come on and say, this is what I would do. And, and I'm like, okay, so, like, now you're not. We don't really care about that image per se as much as your interpretation and how you could possibly bring this to real life.
And these designers had zero experience.
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: Right. I think that's a brilliant way to use it.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah. Yeah. And also I wanted to touch on what you're talking about. Things not having to be perfect and to get your face on the camera.
How do you feel about. Not personal, personal stuff, but like, you know, maybe you out for a walk or going to the gym or at the coffee shop, like those kind of things where it's not design focused but you focus. Like, I mean, you know, nobody should be showing their kids on Instagram and stuff like that.
I mean, some people do.
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: Yeah. I always said to people, like, you know, being personal doesn't necessarily mean you have to show your family and Your kids there's Right. But what you're saying about going to the coffee shop and going to the gym, one of the things that I would say about that is that's the kind of B roll that I like to see.
And B roll is, you know, if somebody isn't sure what. It doesn't know that term. It's just like the cutaway footage. Like if, you know, someone's filming a movie or whatever, it's the cutaway stuff that they don't use necessarily. Right. It shows the behind the scenes. It shows like, just like the day in your life.
I use it all the time on my personal account and I also like to use it on my interior designer client accounts. You walking down the street, walking your dog, you going to the gym, you having that coffee, but then taking that video and putting some text on top of it. And really like the text obviously would be directed at whatever our goals are.
We always have goals. Every single post I do for myself and every client starts with goals. So it would be strategic. And the goal could be, you know, just showing people behind the scenes of your life and getting to know you better. And that could be, that could be enough. I think there's a lot of value in showing your day to day life in a strategic manner.
I wouldn't just do it and throw it up there with nothing else on it, but I would, you know. You know. You know, it could be something like going to the gym, you know, getting my endorphins in before I start my workday, you know, before I have all these things I'm doing with my client, whatever it is something that's just a little personal because you, you want to build that connection with people.
Oh, you go to the gym? I go to the gym all the time to kind of workouts. Do you do. Oh, you love iced coffee in the winter. I like coffee in the winter too. Right. It starts these conversations that are more valuable than just everything's perfect and polished. I'm not going to show you anything else.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah. And I mean, I would say every designer knows that has worked on a project of any considerable length, that you end up discussing things with the homeowner that, you know, maybe you didn't think you were going to discuss.
And it's not just about them because you're a human being and you share. They tell you something that's personal, you generally reciprocate with something else. And. Yeah. So I mean, it just gets that relationship started in advance. Oh, this is a real person, not just some Instagram designer person.
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: Exactly. Yeah.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah. Okay. I'm going to switch tax just a little bit and get like, start diving into Instagram. Obviously, the start of this year has been some pretty considerable changes to the platform.
How TikTok obviously influenced it, as TikTok influenced all social platforms. But recently they've Instagram's done a few things where they've extended the length of reels to three minutes. They're trying to, because it seems reels is more getting used by creators and less by normal consumers of Instagram.
It looks like they're trying to tie your friends into your real feed, not just your static images. That. And also that this new editing platform that they're talking about doing, which kind of smells really much like their version of Capcut.
Can you. I realize this is all brand new, but can you speak to some of this stuff?
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: Yeah. So the first thing I'll say is that there are always new things coming out on Instagram. And if you're not already following Adam Mosseri, Mosserri, that's who you should start with, because he's the head of Instagram and he puts all this stuff out first.
And I like to hear it right from the source, not just from people that are analyzing it. So I like to listen to what he has to say. So there's always going to be changes. Now, that doesn't mean that as soon as something rolls out, we need to immediately adopt it. We can take our time, we can think through it. Let's talk about some of those specific things. So reels moving to three minutes.
Now, I will tell you that before, when it was just when it was capped out at 90 seconds, I would rarely use all of that time just because people have an attention span that's a lot shorter than that
Now, that doesn't mean there's not a time and a place to use it. I do from time to time use it. And giving me up to three minutes is just helpful in that I don't have to cut things off. If a client sends me something that's, you know, a minute and forty seconds, I don't have to figure out how to cut out 10 seconds. So that's nice. But here's the thing I will say about that.
The best reels, the ones that perform the best and get in, you know, depends on what metric we're tracking. But if you're looking at just views or reach, the best reels are always the shorter ones. But if your goal is to import, impart some kind of knowledge or Some kind of provide some kind of value.
If that's your aim, then talking to the camera reel, that's up to three minutes can be very effective. You're not going to get the same number of views, you're not going to get the same amount of reach, but that's okay if that's what your goal is. Maybe you're going to get more saves on something like that or more profile visits or link in bio clicks.
Right. So it just depends on what your goals are. So having the up to three minutes is helpful, but it's not a game changer for me. They're obviously rolling out that new cap cut lookalike. I'm a big fan of Capcot, as I know most people are in my industry. I use it every single day.
I have a hard time believing that I'm going to find something that I like better, but I'm open to it. We'll see how it goes. I think that when they thought that TikTok and Capcot were going to be out of the US then, you know, then there would definitely be a need for that. I think it still remains to be seen how, how effective it will be.
And then something else I want to mention which came out, I think it was last year, is Threads, which is this new app from, from the Meta as well, which I actually use all the time. And I find it to be incredibly effective because it is less saturated, so I have an easier time connecting with people on there and then I bring them over to Instagram, so I'll connect with them there and then I'll also connect with them on Instagram.
So, so I'll start the conversation there. I'll be, you know, you know, communicating with them and then I'll bring them over to Instagram where obviously more of my kind of funnels are set up in place. So I have been also starting to implement that with some of my clients as well, where we're using Threads more. So again, just to kind of circle back to the beginning of the question, there's always going to be new things that are coming out.
Doesn't mean we have to adopt all of them. But I think in time, you know, some of these things will continue to continue to soar where we're using them more and more and some of them, you know, might, might, might phase out. I don't know.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: I mean, I'm not going to obviously try to second guess Mossari, but it does seem like they're kind of trying to have it both ways in that, like, if you look at YouTube, right, you've got long form videos and you've got shorts, two distinct packages, right.
With bumping the reels to three minutes, it feels almost like they're trying to give you both options. Obviously you're not putting in an hour's worth of long form content, but. And they're definitely also, with the integration of your friends, what reels they like, they're trying to not be a complete clone to TikTok in that it's all about the interest graph.
They still want that social aspect, right. They want people to talk. And I mean, I agree with you about, like, what not focusing on what the pundits have to say about things, but. And I can't remember who it was that said something I saw the other day, Instagram wants people obviously to be on the platform as long as possible.
And for them, dms are a huge part of that because if they can get people DMing on there, right, then it truly does become social, not just consumption. Right. And so I think they're.
They're doing 10 different things at once. I mean, I've read, I've read stuff where people are saying it's almost like a conspiracy because, like, they knew that TikTok was going to get taken down or maybe it will, or maybe it won't. So how did they have all this stuff ready to go? And I mean, I guess it's, you know, for them, it's their, it's their existence.
Right. They have to provide something that, that we want to use. Yeah. Okay, let's not change tax, but let's get into, into best practices and strategy for designers. For your clients who kind of feel overwhelmed with Instagram or feel they're not getting as much from it as they.
As they hoped. What's typically the first kind of thing you see that interior designers do wrong? Instagram.
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: I think the. I think it comes back to what you just said about Instagram wanting you to stay on the app.
And that comes from, again, this social element, this personal connection. So it's again, it's showing yourself and talking to the camera and being present. It's engagement as well. And to me, engagement, and I've said this in my account many times, is just as important as posting.
And when I say engagement, I mean communicating with people. So it's likes, it's comments, it's shares, it saves DMs, right? It's all of that stuff is the engagement piece. So on my agency, I have an engagement specialist. That is how important it is.
And I can talk a little bit more about that and how we do that strategically, if, you know, later. But the point is, you got to be using it socially. It is social media, right? That social piece is building a community, talking to people, having DM conversations, you know, having them click on your links to get them off of, off of Instagram as well so that you can continue the conversation elsewhere.
So it's really sort of as long as you're being social, I think you're doing it right.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: And is that social, that engagement, only one way, like when people comment or like their stuff, or is it also the designer being active on the platform commenting or, you know, on other people's work and getting, getting conversations going.
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: So in marketing, we break it down into two parts. So there's inbound engagement and there's outbound engagement. Inbound engagement. I, I call it your customer service. It is somebody commenting on your post or somebody responding to a story or sending you a dm. Right?
You need to respond to that. It's really important because they want to know that there's somebody there. If you don't respond to them like, they're going to go elsewhere. So that's that, that's the first part of it. But the outbound engagement part, that's the strategic part. And that's why I have someone on my team that does this. So for an interior designer, the outbound engagement is finding other people and other accounts to start building relationships with.
How do you do that? You need to be really clear about who is your ideal client, who are you talking to? Think about that person. Give them a name, give them a gender, give them an age, give them an occupation, give them everything. Think about who else they might be interested in following.
So a typical client of a luxury interior designer, maybe we should think about some other brands that they're interested in. It doesn't have to be design related either. It can be coffee brands, it can be clothing brands, it can be athleisure stuff. Right. And maybe we're paying attention to that. And we're now going to be commenting on some of those accounts as well because we want to get noticed.
Right. Or you're interior designer and you know that your client is thinking about, you know, certain fabrics or wallpaper. Okay, so now I'm going to go in and I'm going to, I'm going to make sure that I'm commenting on some of their posts as well so that those people are finding me and we can start building a relationship.
So it's. There is definitely A strategic element of that outbound engagement that is so important. It's who do we want to bring over here and how do we get them to bring. How do we bring them over here? And that's through thinking about what their interests are, what their needs are, who else they're following. And that's kind of how we do it.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Earlier on, you were speaking about, like three different designers that you had identified as doing things correctly, doing things well on Instagram, like any social platform, if, if you've got a million followers and I've got six followers, if we were to post the identical post or reel or story yours is going to get, odds are more likes, more shares, right?
Yep. That is frustrating for designers who have the small followings. Yes. So obviously, do you have a message for those kind of people? How, how important one? How important is follower count to success on Instagram?
And if you're a designer who doesn't have a large following, who would like a large following? How do we get their best practices, what they can do? Let's talk about follower, Follower count for a second.
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: We have, we call certain metrics vanity metrics.
Follower count likes things like that views. They're very nice to see. They feel really good when you have a lot of followers, but they don't necessarily drive the bottom line. You can have, you know, a thousand, two thousand followers and have an incredibly successful business.
Now, yes. People look at the follower account when they first click on you. They do. It's. There's nothing we can do about that. Right. So I understand that that's important to some people, but my question is, why does it matter? What is the goal of that? If you're someone who's looking to become, you know, published in all kinds of publications, I understand that you want a big following because that helps with that.
But then you really have to have a PR presence as well. So that's another thing, you know, that's separate and that's really important also depending on your goals. So what it all comes down to is your goals. Are you somebody who is just wants to have a full roster of clients. Right. And you have a successful business and you're kind of comfortable with that, then I don't think the follower count really matters at all.
As long as you're finding the people that you want to find. And as long as, like, let's say you really want to work in your local area, Right. You're based in Toronto. You want to find people in Toronto and the surrounding areas. Well, then your hashtag should be should be geared towards that, and the outbound engagement should be geared towards that area, and your location tag should be geared towards that area.
That's all way more important than follower count, in my opinion. That is to say, I'm not going to say that follower count doesn't matter at all, because of course that's not true. But again, you've got to be first. The first thing you got to do is be really clear on your goals. And then you got to figure out, well, how.
How are we going to get there and what metrics we're going to track to get there.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: So let's say that someone was watching this and paid attention to all that and said, okay, good, you've made me feel better about my Instagram and the things you know, I don't need to be obsessed with those kind of numbers.
So I'm going to work on the strategy, I'm going to work on the branding. I'm going to identify that. That ideal client that I'm aiming for, for, whether it's the. The individual or the geographic area or all those things together. What would be if they're going to start doing this in a successful manner, how often should they be posting?
What, what type of content, what mix of content, what time to post? All of those little questions that, you know can drive us crazy. So give us some advice.
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: Yes. So the first thing I would say is in terms of your cadence and how often to post, if you're doing it all by yourself, it's going to be really overwhelming and stressful.
So you need to first think about how many days a week do I comfortably think I can post without burning myself out? If that's once or twice a week, that is fine. There's nothing wrong with that. You can always work it up from there. Now, I typically the lowest amount of posts per week that I do for clients is three posts a week.
That's often plenty for interior designers. And I'm not looking at it week to week. Right. So if I'm posting three days a week for a client, and that's four weeks in a month. Right. Then that's 20 posts. I'm sorry, it's 12 posts. Sorry about that. I was thinking five days.
And so I'm thinking about those 12 posts over the course of a month. I want to make sure that I'm aiming for all of my goals. So if one of my goals is brand awareness and one of my goals is increasing engagement, those are typical, typical goals, then I'm making sure I'm Kind of meeting the. I'm looking at those goals across the course of a month and then I'm getting even more specific and thinking about what metrics I'm going to track.
So if I am trying to increase my brand awareness, I want more people to know I exist. I am looking for reach, I am looking for shares. That's a big one. I'm looking for profile visits. That's what I'm aiming for. And so my posts are going to be geared towards those specific goals.
If I'm looking for an increase in engagement because I want to build this community right around my brand or my business, that's when I'm looking at likes and comments and link in bio clicks and I am in making sure that those 12 posts over that month include different calls to action, different metrics to track so that at the end of each month I can go back and say which post got the most shares, which post got the most saves.
I'm looking at six months, I'm looking at a year and I'm looking for those things as well. This is what's resonating with my audience and this is what I'm going to post more of. That's how you get strategic about social media.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: I'm going to give you two different scenarios. Designer A has just finished a job and has had a professional photographer come in and take some gorgeous pictures.
They've. They've taken their own pictures and videos along the way, but they've, they haven't done anything throughout the job. It's the end of the job. What's the most effective way to share this project? Like, do you just dump everything on in the next month?
Do you spread it out over a year?
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: That's a good question. So, and I've actually posted a couple of things on my Threads account recently, just about this. Like you get, let's say you get your photos back from your photographer, you've got 40 photos.
How do you handle that? Right? You can certainly save them over a long period of time if you want, if you have another, other stuff to throw in there. But you can also just like use them over the course of the next month. I plan everything a month in advance. I know that if you know people aren't doing this like me, they're probably not doing that.
But if I'm taking that now, I'm using those 40 photos, let's say, and the videos that you're taking there as well. And I'm ensuring that you're in some of those photos and videos and I'm making static posts, carousel posts, and I'm making reels. And I am thinking again about what my goal is for each one and what metric I'm tracking for each one.
And I can use, you know, photos of the entire room. I can use photos of little snapshots of the room. More importantly, I'm going to use video. So I'm going to video the. I'm walking into the space. I'm going to video the entire room. Then I'm going to video up close of certain parts of the room, and maybe some of my reels will be the whole space and some of the reels will be one little tiny section of the space.
Even better if you. If you have stuff along the way or you have the before and the during and the renderings, I'd love to see that all pieced together, both in carousels and in reels. But if you don't have that, there's still a lot you can do. You don't have to take, you know, all these photos and just dump them into a carousel and call it a day.
I would really be thinking about how I can use them in different ways to sort of spread out that content. But also to be really clear about this is these are the details and this is why they matter. So I would show them in that way as well. So that's. That obviously sounds incredibly strategic.
And I would assume that the average designer is nowhere near that strategic. That is probably true. And that is why they hire. They outsource to someone who is strategic with that. Now, if you're a designer and you really aren't prepared to do that, I would maybe, then I would maybe say, okay, let's start basic.
Let's do two static posts, two carousels and two reels. I think you can do way more than that. But if that feels palatable, that's how I would start. And I would give them each a different goal and a different metric to track and a different call to action so that they're not exactly the same.
And again, it's sort of a way to test for the future as well, see what works.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: So that's. That sounds. Still being very much strategic. It seems a bit more calming, a little bit like an easier way to dip my toes in there and not feel overwhelmed. So if we had a slightly different scenario, same designer, they've started a new job.
But after listening to this podcast and listening to you, they decide, you know what? I am going to start doing all this content from like the very, very beginning to the very, very end. So obviously, everything you just said, right? All these pieces, we can start now putting them on Instagram almost as they're happening.
But I'm also wondering about going live. How do you feel about a designer going live? Like, say it's. It's demo day at their. At their job.
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: I. The more content, the better. Like, if you're. If I have a designer that wants to do that, I'm thrilled. The more you can. Honestly, the most important thing is really just whipping out your phone as much as possible. Worst case scenario, you have stuff that you dump and you can't use. But you really want to get in the habit of taking out your phone to video.
You're walking into the construction site, right? I want to see that. I want to see you showing me in the video or in the photo. This is going here, and this is what we're doing here. I find that it's really interesting and appealing to people. I want to make sure you're involved. Get your assistant or your contractor to make sure you're in a couple of those videos walking through the house as well.
So I can see them. If you want to get on there live, I love that because I can take that and I can cut that into a bunch of different types of content. If you're a designer and you're not someone like me who's doing this for a living, that obviously that might be more challenging. But, yeah, I mean, the more the better, because then you can kind of use it down the road.
If I have a client who's coming to me and is saying, I'm willing to video and take pictures of everything, the whole process, I mean, that is my absolute dream client, because I. Then I can do a lot with it. If you're not outsourcing it and you're the one and you're doing it for yourself, throw them up on this, on your stories.
If you don't want to use them, if you don't feel like they're polished enough for your. For reels or for, you know, for your grid, that's fine. Put them on your stories. They're gone in 24 hours unless you save them to your highlights. And then the people that are watching your stories, well, those are your warm leads because those are the people that are seeing your stories, right?
You don't necessarily see everybody's stories that you follow. So those are the people that really want to see that. So throw them up on there. And then if you want to repurpose them the following month or the following week or whatever on your grid. You can, but you don't have to. Just really showing us what's going on in your world, taking us behind the scenes, even if it's just in stories and nothing else, really goes a long way
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: for sure. There's a couple of other Instagram features that we didn't cover yet. Collaborations. Like? Like, people love tagging, right? Like, they're like, oh, put this video up, put this image up, and they'll tag 15 different people. And I'm like.
And I was talking to someone last week and I said, well, have you used the. The collab feature yet? They're like, what are you talking about? And I'm like, what do you mean you don't. You. You are. And they have a great Instagram profile. I'm like, you haven't done this yet? And I'm like, okay, so this is. Right. How can you explain how collaborations work?
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: Yeah, the collaboration feature is absolutely brilliant and people should be taking advantage of it. It's so simple. Because you're an interior designer, let's say you're working with your contractor or whatever. If they have Instagram presence, and you are posting the exact same content on both of your accounts because you collapsed, right?
So the real or the carousel is showing up on both of their accounts. You're getting that many more eyes on your content. So if you want to grow your following or you want to grow your brand awareness, it's an absolutely brilliant thing to do. There's no reason not to. In terms of tagging for interior designers particular, particularly, which is really different from my other clients, you do want to be careful about who you tag.
I don't recommend tagging people that you didn't work with, but I do recommend tagging your photographer, your stylist, maybe your PR team, if you have one. You know any of the fabrics that you're using or the furniture, you know any of that. But not only tagging them, that's important.
I'm sorry. Mentioning them in the comments is one thing, tagging them is another because it goes to their DMs and they can easily share it. And if they share it now, their followers eyes are on it as well. And maybe they're like, oh, I need to follow this designer, and they click on you. So you want to be using those features from Instagram as much as possible.
Tagging, collaborating, mentioning. I would be doing that as often as I can. I would not skip that. It is so helpful. You just get more eyes in your content, which is the goal for everybody.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: I know a designer who used the collab feature a couple of weeks ago on a job.
They were putting up window coverings. And so they collaborated with the person, the seamstress, who put the all together and hung them and did all that stuff. That was great. But they also tried to collaborate with the, the company that made the fabric, which was a big company, and that company accepted the collaboration.
So this, this reel went out to like, you know, they had tens and tens of thousands of followers. Right. And it's like they didn't have to accept the collaboration, but it was like. Right, yeah,
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: yeah. There's no downside to trying.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah, exactly. So it was huge. I mean, but I think your point is you don't just want to tag people or do it willy nilly because, you know, you don't want to get someone ticked off and they block you and all that kind of thing. Right. Instagram probably would look at that badly as well. So.
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: But you want to make sure you're mentioning the others that worked on the account as well. Really? Or on the client. It's really important.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah. Especially if, I mean, when in the, in the caption they said something along the lines, you know, this amazing fabric from so and so. Right. And so the company is like, oh, cool, you mentioned us. That's fine. I realize your account only has 95 followers, but still, they accepted the collab and it was huge for them.
That's great. I mean, whether, whether it translates to new work, who knows? But I mean, can't hurt.
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: Again, that's the brand awareness piece that's just getting more people to see and know about you. Maybe you bring in a few followers from it who now you can start to, you know, showcase the rest of your stuff and bring them into your funnel. So there's no downside? There's no downside.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: I want to pivot slightly back to something we talked about, engagement. Are there ways that you found that designers can use their captions or maybe text on images or reels to encourage people to leave comments?
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: Yes. So again, this always comes back to the goal of the post. Right. So if the goal and the KPI is increasing engagement, that may be the metric I'm tracking on that post is comments. Now, my call to action is going to encourage comments.
So it could be, you know, which do you like better of a couple different choices? Or what's your favorite element of the room? Let me know in the comments. Or what, have you ever had an experience with something similar? Let me know in the Comments, something like that. You can also in Instagram use like the poll feature in the, in the caption, which is, you know, maybe six months ago it was a new feature, something like that, where it's an easy way for people to engage.
They can just click a little button without having to necessarily comment. But you have to make sure that if you're looking for more engagement or comments, you're asking for it. People aren't necessarily going to take it in action until you tell them to.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay. For sure. Ultimately, I mean, and, and while comments are great and likes are great and shares are Fantastic, I want DMs, I want people to connect with me and even if it's just something like asking a question, but ultimately we want to turn it into a conversation between us to potentially lead to a job down the road.
So with your clients, are there things you do to kind of spur that, to get people to actually reach out to the designer in a way that could turn into business?
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: Yeah. So I think you're absolutely right that DMs are sort of the best way to get conversions from social media again, if that's your goal.
Well, number one, if you reply to somebody's story, it automatically goes into your DMs, so you can use your stories in such a strategic way where maybe somebody is responding to a poll sticker or an emoji sticker or something like that, it goes into your DMs, then you can start the conversation there.
So that's one way, something we haven't talked about yet on here and something I use for clients is you can also use automations in your DMs, so, and of course it can be impersonal, but it's a way to start. So I use something called ManyChat, which is, let's say, say you are a designer and you know that you might want, that somebody might want to feel like they get a sense of what it's like to work with you before they work with you.
So maybe you have some sort of free offer or free worksheet that you offer. Now you can use many chat trigger words in a post or in a story. So the word could be like, you know, let's say, let's say something about lighting. Maybe they want to learn and the trigger word is lighting.
So on a post you can say comment or dm the word lighting for the guide or something like that. Then they'll end up in your DMs and then you can kind of continue conversation that way. Maybe they get on your email list that way. Right. There's all different ways to do it. But I would. But yeah, I mean, getting into the DMs is absolutely the gold standard.
It's the best way to build relationships and to have conversions. You know, the other thing you can do is you get into a conversation with somebody in your comment section, then you move it over to the DMs. I would. That would always be the goal.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: For sure. For sure. One more thing about Instagram strategies and tricks.
I'm wondering about reusing content, Right. You've had this great project, like we talked about earlier, and you've put up all your photos and your reels and whatnot. Can we reuse that in six months, a year from now? How does that.
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: Yes, I do that all the time. Well, first of all, you can reuse it in a different way and you don't have to wait that long. Right. You can use the same exact photos in a carousel and in a reel. You'll reach different people. It's a different format type. But the other thing is.
Yeah, I mean, if some. If you had some great content from six months ago, well, nobody's remembering it. You might be, but other people aren't. And they're not really going back and looking at it and being like, oh, they posted the same thing again. There's no reason not to. Especially if it's something that, like, you had a certain metric that you were tracking and did well on that metric.
Now, I would put a. Posted exactly the same way. Or maybe you were like, you know, this was a great image, but it didn't really get a whole lot of traction. People didn't really see it. I'm just going to redo it again. But maybe a different caption or something. Absolutely. You should be reposting content. There's no reason why you do it once and you don't have.
You don't use it again. You can absolutely reuse it again. Nobody's really paying attention to every single thing you post, only you are. So if it's something that you posted a while ago, chances are people won't remember, and that's okay.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay. For sure. All right, so you've sold me. I realize that now. I need an Instagram strategist. So if I. If I want to reach out to you, what's, like, what's the first step?
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: So the first step is to set up a call where we can talk about your business, your goals, what you're hoping to, you know, what you need help with.
Ask Me questions. I'll tell you about my business, tell you how it works, tell you how I work, and then we go from there. So my bread and butter is full service social media management. It's a large investment and not everybody's ready to do it yet.
And I understand that if you are in a place where you can do that and you want to outsource it and you want to sort of take it off your plate and have it run strategically, great, great. If not, there's a couple other things that I do with people. Number one, I can offer a social media strategy and that is, you know, a really detailed and comprehensive document that walks you through so much of what we're talking about today.
What are your goals, what metrics you're going to track, what's a posting cadence going to look like, who is your ideal client, what's an outbound engagement strategy you should be using, et cetera, et cetera. It's very in depth and then I would pass that off to you. Now my experience is it's really, it can be hard for people to implement it on their own.
So if that's something that you feel like you want to take the leap on and implement it independently or someone within your, your company doing it, that's a nice option. Another option, and this is something that I found to be more and more popular, is I run, I do consulting as well. I call them a power hour. So you can do one 60 minute call with me, you can do three 60 minute calls with 60 minute calls with me where I give a little discount.
And that can be kind of like just running through a bunch of questions you have, talking about your specific business and your goals. And then I, I type up like a whole big Google Doc of all the things we talked about with a ton of suggestions and I'll pass it on to you that way. And a smaller option, the smallest of them all is just a social media audit, which is where I would look through your account and I would say, here's some suggestions to update your bio.
Here's some, here's what I would recommend for pinned posts, highlights, profile picture, your grid, aesthetics, some things you can do differently. Here's some suggestions for content, that kind of thing. So there's really lots of different areas to learn from me or to work with me.
I also have some really nice free offers. Like I have a B roll and hook list where I can give you some suggestions for B roll video to take and hooks that you can use. On top of it. I have suggestions for photos and videos that you should get. For every project, that one is not free, but it's $1.99, so it's not very much.
So I have all these things that I've put together for people that are hopefully helpful. I also have an email list where once a month I send you an email. So it's really not spammy at all. And it's really detailed. It gives you like guidelines for things that you should be doing, people to follow, people who are doing it well, that you can look at things like that.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: So a wide variety of price points and, and, and how deep you're getting into their business. Right. Let's say I decided I want the full service. I, as we said before we started recording, I'm a big believer in paying for knowledge as opposed to trying to have to learn.
I mean, the amount of time it's going to take me to learn everything that you know about how to do Instagram for interior designers. Like, I mean, I would rather be doing other parts of my business. I don't need to do that. So say I can afford, I can afford you. And what would the, what would the first month look like?
Like, what would I have to provide? How do we interact?
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: Okay, so the first month is absolutely the most labor intensive for both of us. And that is because I am building your strategy in the first month. So I send my clients, once they sign on with me, they sign the contract, I pay the invoice, we're working together, I send them.
[53:19.0]
First thing I do is I send them an onboarding questionnaire, which is a bunch of questions about your business, your ideal client, your goals, all these different things. I take that and I create a strategy out of it. Then I present that strategy to you, we talk it through. If there's any tweaks or any changes, that's when I make them.
Then I, I have a whole system in place for how I request assets and what I need specifically, I have a list that I send to all my clients of all the different assets I need. You know, photos and videos per project, photos of you, et cetera, et cetera. Then I start building your first month's content calendar.
Again, I do it by the month. So like, let's say somebody signed on with me March 1, right. That would be the first month would be really building that strategy and building that first month's content calendar. It's a lot of work on my end to get it done in time. I present you with the content for the first month.
You look everything Over. Nothing goes out without client approval. You tell me where you want your edits, you tell me what your what is good to go, and then I'm posting it for you. We have, we do your engagement, and then at the end of every month, I provide an analytics report where I'm showing you, here's where your money is going, right?
Here's the return on investment, this is what's working, and here's what maybe we want to tweak to improve in the next month. And then it kind of, that's kind of the flow month after month.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Two questions. Obviously, one month.
Expecting one month to solve all of my Instagram woes is completely unrealistic. What's a more realistic timeline for? And it doesn't have to be like, my, my Instagram is awesome and I'm getting tons of. But there's got to be kind of yardsticks along the way of little things that we've done.
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: It can take six months or more to really build that, really reach the goals that you're aiming for. And that's a minimum. It can even take longer than that. And that's, I know, hard for people to swallow because they're spending all this money and they're like, well, I'm not really seeing the results yet.
Which is why I provide these analytics report where I'm really showing you growth. Not only am I providing the reports per month, but now I'm also providing graphs over time. So you're really seeing growth in all these different numbers that we're tracking over time. It does take that long because again, this is organic social media.
It's different than advertising. Advertising, if you have enough money to put behind it, you can get your goals reached much easier. But if you're using organic social media, which is. Can be done in conjunction with advertising, of course, as well, it takes time because you have to be measuring your success and you have to always be looking at what's working and what's not working and making adjustments and growing and this and that.
So it does take time and you have to have patience.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: The other question was you. You mentioned ideal client avatar, and we talked about brand. What happens when this designer who wants you to come and do all these things, amazing things for them, but they haven't really zeroed in on who their ideal client is, who their brand is, like who they actually are in a way that you can market it.
How do you, I assume you have people like that? How do you deal with that?
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: So when I send that questionnaire to people and they fill it out. We then have a call afterwards and if there's anything they haven't quite filled out or they're not sure about, that's when we would talk about it together. I have never had any problem with people identifying their ideal client before.
It's usually pretty clear. It's usually like, maybe they can't articulate it necessarily, but I can kind of guide them in how to figure it out.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay. I listen to a ton of interior design business podcasts and, and that idea is always being talked about, who's your ideal client?
What's your brand? And it seems to my mind a lot of the time they're always talking about, you know, my ideal client is the ultra High, ultra 1% luxury client, you know, working on, on their mansions. And realistically, that doesn't make sense because there's a ton of interior designers and there's a far smaller number of ultra rich, elite, super rich people.
So I think in some ways there, there are coaches and business experts out there doing a bit of a disservice saying that we all can service this same client because we can't. But so it gets hard maybe, I think, to really narrow down who your ideal client is.
And residential design is, is a very hyper, local business. And like you said earlier, you know, you don't need 10,000 followers to have a successful business marketing plan based on Instagram, right? That's right.
Yeah. So you end up, I'm assuming you end up providing kind of an education piece too, right? In terms of that?
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: Absolutely. I mean, if, if it's not, if it's needed, you know, it depends on the client that's coming to me. But yes, I agree that not every single person, every single designer is going to work with these Ultra, you know, 0.1% of clients.
That's impossible. But anybody that's hiring into your designer has to have some means because it's a luxury service. Right. So that's when I'm talking about thinking about what other, what are their, what are their other priorities?
What other brands and businesses are they working with? Are they like, likely to follow? And that kind of helps you paint a bigger, broader picture of who they are that will help us with our messaging so we're really being clear about who we're talking to and how we're talking to them.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: That is the end of my official list of questions, but I'm sure I've missed a couple of things. Are there any things that you would like to add, this discussion that we haven't really touched on.
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: The only other thing I wrote down, which I think was one of your questions was about like I was going to talk about one of my clients where I posted about this on my account recently.
But after six months of working together I have her growth numbers to show like what strategic social media management can do. Would you like me to talk about that?
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah, that sounds great.
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: So, okay, so I have this interior designer client that I've been working with for over six months and what I did was I went back and I looked at.
I always pull data for a client so that I have something to track it against. So now I want to be clear that it's not like she was posting as often as I'm posting for. So some of these numbers that are, are because of her lack of, you know, being able to post as frequently.
But after six months of strategy and implementing her strategy, these are the numbers that we grew in. And again they're according to her specific goals. We had a 9.6% increase in reach. We had 100% increase in content interactions. That's sort of your general engagement.
We had a 2.4% increase in profile visits. And this one shocked me. 100% increase in website taps. And I would say that is really important website taps because we want to get people off of social media onto our website and you know, maybe onto our contact page or looking at our projects or whatever it is.
How do we get an increase that high in website taps? Clear calls to action and clear strategy. I am sending people to the link in bio depending on what the post is because I want them to see something else or I want them to get in touch. So that is what happens when you have strategic social media management.
You see these numbers going up because you're just being really, really thoughtful about who you're talking to, how you're talking to them and what you're asking them to do, which is really important.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: That got me thinking, link in bio, right? Yeah, especially, especially.
I mean it used to be you only had one link with Instagram and now with all the different add ons and whatnot, even with Instagram itself you're allowed what, four or five links? Yeah. Where do you want to send people? Like I assume if someone's got a freebie that's going to attract a certain client.
But where, if you want to send a potential client, where do you want to send them? On their webpage, on their website? Sorry.
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: So first of all you can just say, like to learn more about my business or about me, like head to my link in bio and then go to your website. We haven't really touched on this. But it's important if you are in any press, which for interior designers it's really effective to establish your credibility.
That's a great place to send people to via your link in bio or even your link in stories. You know, a post that would be maybe about whatever article you were recently featured in. Head to the link in bio to read the article or then you also put it in your stories. So website, any press features and again, if you're doing any freebies or any other types of offers that those are the kinds of things I would put in my link in bio.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay. Because obviously people who are going to interact with my Instagram, they're not all, it's not a monolith. They're not all at the same place. Some might just be curious, some might be serious about starting a job. So you have to have more than one option and speak to different avatars in that at that point.
Right, right. That makes sense.
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: Yeah, absolutely. Which is why it's nice that they have so many links. I mean, you can also use Link Tree if you have a lot more stuff some people use that you just have out of necessity. Or you can just stop using link in Bio and you can instead use manychat, which again I mentioned it earlier, but it's something I use all the time.
You want to read an article, comment article on this post and I'll send it to you and then it goes into your DMs and then it sends them the article and it kind of works that way. So you don't only have to use link in bio, you can also use this manychat feature. Okay, that sounds really cool. Could you go maybe tell us a bit more about that and how you use it with your clients?
I use manychat all the time, but it depends on the client. If you are the type of client that is offering freebies or offering, you know, some like less expensive options for people to kind of get to know you, which I do recommend or, and this is even more recommended if you're trying to build an email list.
Email marketing is and has been for a long time the most effective form of marketing. Offering some kind of freebie or some kind of low cost item where you capture their email addresses and then you can send them emails is really effective. I love to use a manychat automation for this.
Again, I have tons of trigger words that you that will, you know, was sent to you, and then it. It'll. I'll either send you the link directly to your dms, or it'll be a continuation of a conversation. You know, what's your first name? And then it can give you your first name. And are you interested in this? You want people to opt in also, right? You.
That's how you can send them an email. So, you know, you can have them click a link in your DMs from your many chat automation as well to get them there. So I think it's really smart to offer freebies, to capture email addresses, to work on building your email marketing list, and to use automation to drive people in that direction.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: That's perfect. That is absolutely perfect. I knew I would learn a lot from you today. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. Okay, that's great. I really appreciate you coming on, on the podcast. Like, super.
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: Thank you so much for having me. It was fun to talk about all this stuff. You know, to me, it's all second nature, but I understand it's not that way for everybody.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Well, that's it. Right. Like I always said before I started recording, you know, it's. It's the. The idea that we don't know what we don't know. Right. And as much as designers love Instagram, they don't have all day long to dive into the minutia and the strategy and all that kind of stuff.
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: Yeah. And that's what I'm doing every single day, all day long. So it's obviously something I know quite well.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay. Perfect for everybody out there. I will be including links to. To Garin's website and all our socials and all that good stuff, plus all the.
The. The softwares and different things we discussed. And that's it for today. This is perfect. Hopefully. You know what? I'd really like to get you back maybe in six months, because I'm gonna. I'm gonna reach out to a bunch of different designers, and we're gonna talk about today's podcast, and I'm gonna see.
I'm gonna get them to try implementing some of the things, and maybe I can get one or two of them to join us on a group chat.
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: That would be fantastic. I love that idea.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay, brilliant. Thanks again.
Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin: All right, thank you.
Why Interior Designers Need Strategic Instagram Marketing
Interior design education rarely covers social media strategy in depth. Garin reveals that successful designers approach Instagram strategically rather than haphazardly:
Instagram represents a free platform that many designers underutilize
The "know, trust, like" factors essential for client conversion develop through strategic content
Perfect portfolio images alone generate minimal client inquiries without supporting content types
The highly personal nature of interior design requires personal connection before hiring
Residential clients extensively research designers online before making contact
As Garin notes, "This is such a personal job. I am in the bedrooms of people's homes. Your most sacred private space. So when you're looking to hire somebody to come into your home and spend all this time in your home and see your life, you kind of want to know who you're dealing with."
The Instagram Strategy Blueprint
According to Garin, successful Instagram marketing for interior designers depends on strategic elements that many overlook:
Clearly identifying your ideal client and focusing engagement activities on accounts they likely follow
Creating a consistent content mix balancing portfolio images with process and personality content
Showing your face regularly and building authentic connection through less polished content
Tracking meaningful metrics rather than vanity metrics like likes
Implementing strategic engagement practices that extend reach beyond your immediate followers
"Engagement is just as important as posting," Garin emphasizes. "It's likes, it's comments, it's shares, it saves DMs, right? It's all of that stuff is the engagement piece. On my agency, I have an engagement specialist. That is how important it is."
The difference between designers who generate leads through Instagram and those who don't isn't talent or project quality—it's having a strategic approach to social media.
Transform Your Interior Design Business Through Strategic Social Media
Interior designers who implement strategic Instagram approaches report meaningful business transformations. As Garin points out, Instagram should support your entire marketing ecosystem: "Interior design clients often come to you from referrals, but then what they do is then they start checking your Instagram, they start following you, they start getting to know you... your Instagram may not be enough to sell you to someone who doesn't know you... But what it does is it might solidify the deal."
The results of this approach include:
More qualified leads through content that pre-qualifies potential clients before they reach out
Stronger client relationships established before the first meeting or consultation
Enhanced positioning as the designer prospects already know and trust
Improved conversion rates from initial contact to signed contract
Expanded market reach beyond immediate referral networks
When done right, Instagram becomes a consistent source of qualified leads rather than just a portfolio showcase.
Connect with Garin Michelson - Get Social With Garin
If you want to develop an Instagram strategy that generates consistent client inquiries, connect with Garin at:
Join the Interior DesignHer Community
If you enjoyed this episode of the Interior DesignHer podcast, you’re going to love all the other business education resources we’re bringing to interior designers.
As designers ourselves, we created Interior DesignHer to bring top-notch business education to interior designers. We especially have a soft-spot for interior design solopreneurs & micro-businesses.
Subscribe now so you never miss our latest business guidance, guest interviews, and insider strategies specifically for interior designers.
