Why Instagram has become a vital tool for interior designers

It’s not surprising that interior designers love Instagram. In many ways, the social media platform shares the same ingredients – it’s aesthetically driven and can offer immediate creative inspiration. As the app has grown, the opportunity to build a professional following has rocketed.

It’s the perfect marketing tool: influencers are able to bring their followers into their personal sphere (read, their beautiful homes we all drool over) and in doing so, build an authentic relationship with their audience – while also promoting their products. When this is done well, it can happen without their followers even noticing.

Users are so used to the perfect, clean-cut world that Instagram brings – that a beautiful feed full of interiors is bound to attract an audience. The app also reflects the very nature of design itself, that inspiration can come from anywhere – creatives, artists, designers and homeowners alike can all curate their own collection of images to pull inspiration from.

But, it’s not just the safety in follower numbers that designers want. Gaining the right attention on Instagram attracts a pool of clients that they perhaps would have not encountered otherwise. It can put a new designer on the map in a competitive industry at an unprecedented pace, gaining likes and hitting the popular explore page can, quite literally, find you your next big client.

Since Instagram tweaked their promotional tools, it has become even easier to make a photo advertising your products less obtrusive to your followers. A simple sponsored icon appears, which helps promoters to avoid those clunky, advert heavy captions that we all roll our eyes at. If the balance is right between promotional and personal content, designers can harness the hub of clients that are waiting at their fingertips. With this new world of advertising content on social media, flaunting products has never been easier. Interior designers are lapping up the chance to get a slice of the promotional pie.

Shutterfly recently researched the world of interior design on Instagram, by splitting accounts into two categories. The mainstream accounts who have more followers from the general Instagram sphere than within the interior design industry, and the insider account that has more industry followers than general.

They found that famous brands, such as Prada, have a large following from within the interior design space, alongside a significant number of mainstream followers. Other mainstream accounts include the likes of Victoria Beckham, Louis Vuitton and Gigi Hadid. Brands such as Dwell Magazine and Vogue Living fall within the insider category as they have a greater proportion of in-network followers.

They also curated a list of Instagram’s top ten insiders within the interior design space. Feast your eyes on the top contenders in the design world on social media right now:

1. @markhamroberts – Markham Roberts, interior designer and architect

2. @harbingerla – Joe Lucas, interior designer based in California​

3. @matthewpatricksmyth – Matthew Patrick Smyth, interior designer

4. @peterdunhamdesign – Peter Dunham, interior designer based in LA

5. @sararuffincostello – Sara Costello, designer, decorator and writer

6. @joeyluke – Joe Lucas, interior designer and owner of LucasStudio and Harbinger Showroom in LA

7. @amandanisbet – Amanda Nisbet, mum and designer, Charleston, Richmond, New York

8. @davidnettosays – David Netto, interior designer and writer

9. @tomscheerer – Tom Scheerer, interior and architectural designer

10. @robertpassal – Robert Passal, interior designer, retailer, product and fabric designer