Why Designers Should Invest Time in Their Social Presence

Be active on social platforms. It’s important.

3 min readFeb 24, 2014

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As Lead Designer of iCapps I challenge myself to be good in more then just designing nice pixels. Of course designing awesome Mobile User Interfaces is the most important task. But for me, this is a wide term. It’s taking the client on a inspiring journey: conceptual thinking, wireframing, User Experience Design, User Interface Design, prototypes, build & test the app and adjusting.

There are so more other things: meetings with clients, manage our social media, following up projects, working together with 2 great designers, following new trends, …

All this above would be way more difficult if I wouldn’t be active online. For me it’s very important that I can build a network. My network keeps me up-to-date. I love Twitter. I love the people that I follow and the ones that follow me.

If you search for my name on Google you’ll see in one glance that I’m a designer. You can see what I do. Day in, day out.

3 things where many designers failed

2 months ago we placed a job opening on our website for a Mobile User Interface designer. I received many applications.

Here are 3 things that bothered me.

You are a designer, so I want to see your portfolio. Give me your portfolio URL as one of the first things in your mail. Not on page 3 of your PDF resume.
You don’t place a ‘See my work’ link at the bottom of your website on page 3, right?
Even if you are finishing school, you should be able to show me mobile designs of projects you worked on. It can be fictional projects. It can be real projects for clients. Take a look on Dribbble. 50% is fictive.
When I read in your email that you want to join our team, it‘s good that you’re telling me how passionate you are. But when I search your name on Google and I can’t find any networks you are active on. Then I don’t expect you to be passionate.

For me a passionate designer is someone who breathes design. Someone who tweets more than once a month, posts shots on Dribbble or Behance, shares articles or write them. Someone who is online.

Being passionate doesn’t mean you are a good designer. But it reflects the eager to learn every day.

In the past years I had many job offers because of a few Dribbble shots that hit the popular page.
San Francisco, New York, London, Barcelona… Many of them were great opportunities but I luckily I had some chances in Ghent and Antwerp too, because I didn’t want to leave Belgium.
-> Opportunities because I’m active on social platforms.

In the past years I’ve made many connections with designers from Belgium, but also from all over the world. Some became good friends.
-> Opportunities because I’m active on social platforms.

In 1 year, 2 iOS developers joined iCapps because I found them on Twitter.
-> Opportunities because I’m active on social platforms. And they are too of course.

My network is growing, day after day. There are many opportunities out there. Many information. Many connections. I have the chance to connect with all of that. And the other way around.
-> Opportunities because I’m active on social platforms.

All startups are screaming: Stop talking, start building.
Let’s give that a little twist.

Start talking. Tweet more. Post more. Follow interesting stuff. Just, be active online.

Dennis Covent

My Twitter:
https://twitter.com/denniscovent

Website:
http://denniscovent.com/

Dribbble:
http://dribbble.com/denniscovent

Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=292376981

Follow iCapps on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/icapps

Thanks Maxime De Greve to double check and proofread my post.
And thanks Nick Looijmans to improve some parts.

Why Designers Should Invest Time in Their Social Presence

Be active on social platforms. It’s important.

Start talking. Tweet more. Post more. Follow interesting stuff. Just, be active online.

Dennis Covent

Written by Dennis Covent