Forum, Graphic Design Gallery, and Social Network

Social Networks, Portfolio Networks, What's your preference?

Everyday we are inundated with different networks we can subscribe to, create portfolios on, communities to join. It seems that everyday a new one is found or introduced.

Personally, I am overwhelmed. I am a designer/developer therefore I feel obligated to get my name out there as much as I can. I've come to realize that this is a foolish task. So I started to wonder, "If I were to just focus on 3-4 network/communities/portfolio sites, which would those be?".

I tried to come up with some criteria to define a good set of networks to push into, but really fell short.

I turn to you, what communities/networks/portfolio sites do you use to promote yourself, to support your professional goals, or turn to for help? Why do you use the ones you use, what makes them special?

I am asking this because I am not only in the process of setting up my own network of sites, but I also want to study the efficiency of specific networks and the combination of certain networks.

I look forward to your responses!

Oh and I wasn't sure where to post this. If you feel it belongs in another forum, let me know.

Tags: blogs, design, networks, portfolio, social

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by 0hq9ba6ttieky on July 11, 2011 at 12:08pm

I'm not sure. What do you need, anyway? I, myself, own more online accounts that i can handle. I only use a few. Say, I use FB to keep up with my family abroad, Stumble Upon to entertain myself when I am bored, and well, UCreative to get in touch with designers like myself. As for portfolio sites, I use DevArt, and only because Behance doesn't fit my style. And I just upload stuff there and not necessarily do networking. I personally quite enjoy myself here.

I guess it all boils down to what you need. If you've found one that already suits you, I guess there is no need to make an account everywhere.

However, I guess you should consider the community. I think DevArt is for people like me who creates art that's not exactly as serious as branding and marketing materials. It's a community for fun, everyday artsy stuff. Flickr comes in second. If you are more into more commercial art, then you must consider Behance and Coroflot. Another portfolio, or perhaps your own blog, is a must. But I personally think that you should only keep no more than one.

Was I of any help? Hope I was. Anyway, I'll be off to lunch now. Good day, or evening, to you. ^_^

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Permalink Reply by Anthony Schultz on July 11, 2011 at 8:16pm

Thanks for your reply. To be honest, I am not looking for what I should do, I am looking at what others are doing. In the end this will help me to decide which networks are most used, have the best communities, and have the best "return on investment". I will divulge my plans after I have some good info to work with.

You bring some good points. Community is very important for certain portfolio or networking sites. But sites like Twitter, does community matter as much?

There are other sites that are really just contact card sites as well. Sites like Zerply,or IdentyMe. I wonder if these sites matter. It does get your name out there and your contact details, and I must assume that the more places you are, using good content, the easier you'll be found.

One could argue that they may not want to be found. However, someone like myself does want to be found. I would like to build a network of peers and clients. I would like clients to be able to find me, even if they do not know they are looking for me. Granted a website/blog is a good thing to have, but these other networks and the like have SEO advantages that may be priceless.

Again, thanks for your replies.

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Permalink Reply by Jacque Huang on July 12, 2011 at 10:20am

There are a few good sites where i try to be as active as possible. I try to make sure that my stumble upon account is up to date with my latest works or works that I adore, since i get to meet exciting people with the same interests as mine and it does produce good traffic. Next thing was on linkedin. Although i admit that my profile is not that updated at the moment but it is one of the best place where true professionals interact.

I try to interact by commenting on some design related or business related sites where in i can leave a mark/link going back to my site. It helps specially because it leaves a first impression of what i can do and how i think. I'm also a member of some answer and question sites like blurtit, allexperts.com and webanswers. It's not too direct but it gives me an option to get in touch with potential clients who's looking for things that i can do.

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Permalink Reply by Adam Palethorpe on July 12, 2011 at 5:58pm

I tend to use different accounts for different purposes. This is now one of my favourite networks, but I also use twitter (@adampalethorpe) and linkedin for business purposes and to stay in touch with clients and other designers, I find linkedin is a bit lacking at the moment though and imagine I will drop it soon. I use facebook just for friends, and have a business page on facebook called palethorpedesign.

Its nice to have a good balance and split your business and friend groups.

Now I just have to wait and see if google+ has anything to offer me...

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Permalink Reply by Anthony Schultz on July 12, 2011 at 8:40pm

Great stuff guys, keep it coming.

@Adam: Good point about maintaining some sort of separation. I agree with this completely, the last thing I want is for one of my friends to post something they think is funny and have a potential client see it. Real good point! Thanks!

@Jacque: You make a solid case ofr interaction being key. You can have as many accounts open as you'd like, but if you are not actively involved in them, then they will do nothing for you.

It's curious that one of you list LinkedIn as your #2 go to(or relatively important) and the other feels it is pretty useless. I have to admit, I fall into the latter category. I just do not see the benefit in creating a network of folks who have no vested interest in me professionally or we do not share a common interest. I suppose the same could be said about any network, but I get returns from investing in other networks, knowledge, entertainment, I have never receive a job from LinkedIn.

Thanks again for your replies!

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Permalink Reply by Gabriela Schechter on July 13, 2011 at 1:40pm

I am overwhelmed too. A lot of distraction but I know like you said.. I need to put my self out there.. so.. I am sticking so far with facebook...and now ucreative seem to be my next move. I am here already:)

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Permalink Reply by Anthony Schultz on July 13, 2011 at 8:53pm

That's the hard part.. the distraction. That is what I am hoping to solve with the information I get here. I was hoping to get more responses so I could get more of an idea what people are using and for what purpose and how its working out for them. I really want to use that information to define what networks/social/portfolio sites/apps are the best for designers/developers to use professionally. Which ones have the best ROI, be it clients or knowledge.

Thanks for your reply!

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Permalink Reply by Geno Solido on July 13, 2011 at 3:46pm

I use www.behance.net for my folio, lotta bigtime creatives live there. Well, I'm just pretending to be biggy too, lol. It's a design community where you could always have a big chance of getting noticed, and even getting comments from Peter Jaworowski and Jerico Santander. yihaa!

For design forums, (I'm not much of a forum guy)

Social Network, I only use Friendster. Haha! Nah, I also share some of my works on Facebook.

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Permalink Reply by Anthony Schultz on July 13, 2011 at 8:51pm

What do you think about behance? I am a ui designer/developer. I don't create beautiful works of art, I create usable user interfaces, well and web design. My strong suit is ui development though. Behance, to me, seems kind of groupy-ish, or hmm.. what am I trying to say here? Well, do you get what I mean?

\

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Permalink Reply by Linda J. McGuire on July 27, 2011 at 3:35am

I've been looking more at the content management systems available, and have gotten set up with a Joomla site. That's probably the practical way for a non-developer designer to go (I envy you your developer chops!). My challenge will be learning how to customize it, develop my own templates, plug in functionality that *I* choose rather than what someone else's template dictates, that sort of thing. Then, post links to it from LinkedIn and other locations. The portfolio collection sites are a good idea to be a part of, I think, but I also think it's worthwhile to have one site where you're not fighting for front page with everybody else.

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Permalink Reply by Anthony Schultz on July 27, 2011 at 8:21pm

I couldn't agree more with your comment "I also think it's worthwhile to have one site where you're not fighting for front page with everybody else." But then again, creating your own portfolio site puts you in the SEO fight which could very well be a greater battle. I think that adds weight to the interconnectivity of things. having your personal portfolio, linkedIn, Behance, or what-have-you type of networking site connected to each other in every possible way, dropping links to each other, definitely will go along way in helping you to become "found" by a potential client. Does this mean that we should be jumping on every site imaginable and interweaving them as much as possible? hhmmmm... There needs to be an app for that! Imagine being able to programatically choose the connectivity of your different profiles/networks/portfolios/community. The increased SEO from all that link juice should proved a significant boost in findability.

You, my friend, have stumbled upon a great concept! Thank you for your feedback

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Permalink Reply by Garry Hillton on July 27, 2011 at 12:46pm

Social Network these days have good influence on the web and i have also got some benefits from there so i am in the side of social networks.

Thanks,

Garry Gill

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