The Top 10 Social Media Tips For Designers in 2026

Social media has never offered more ways to reach clients & it has never been easier to waste an entire afternoon scrolling. We break that tension down with 10 practical social media tips for 2026 built specifically for design professionals who need results without burning out.

We start with the foundation, consistency. If a potential client checks your Instagram or Facebook and your last post is months old, trust drops fast. We talk about what “consistent” actually looks like, why one strong post per week can be enough, and how a simple schedule keeps your brand visible while you stay focused on projects. We also share a batching workflow that takes about an hour a month.

From there, we get into community and content strategy for design and remodeling businesses growth. We explain how joining the right groups and engaging with like minded pros helps you earn shares, comments, and long term momentum. The goal is to give people a real reason to keep coming back to your page. We close with the part nobody talks about enough: your relationship with social media. We share how to avoid spreading yourself too thin, set a weekly engagement window, & stop the death scroll so you can stay sharp, healthy, and consistent.

Subscribe, leave a review, & share the show with a friend. See all 10 tips below:

1. Trust-First Content — Authentic content that builds credibility and trust now outperforms overly promotional posts. 
2. Short-Form Video Storytelling — Educational and story-driven short videos generate the highest engagement and reach. 
3. Authority-Based Content — Businesses that consistently teach and share expertise attract higher-quality leads. 
4. Local SEO + Social Integration — Local keywords, geotags, and city-focused content are critical for visibility in 2026. 
5. Personal Branding — Owners and leadership teams who are visible online build trust faster than company brands alone. 
6. AI-Assisted Content Creation — AI tools are helping businesses create faster, more consistent, and scalable content. 
7. Community Engagement — Meaningful interactions and conversations matter more than follower count. 
8. Educational Carousel Posts — Informative carousel posts are driving strong saves, shares, and audience retention. 
9. Consistency Over Virality — Consistent posting and messaging outperform occasional viral content. 
10. Full Buyer Journey Content — Successful brands create content that supports every stage from awareness to conversion.

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Designer Discussions is a partnership of three experts: Jason Lockhart, CEO of KABMS; Maria Martin, founder of DesignAppy; and Mirjam Lippuner, founder of Get Ink DIY

Episode Transcript

Mirjam Lippuner (00:00):
Hello and welcome to Designer Discussions.
Um, today Jason is going to talkto us about the top ten social
media tips for 2026.
Welcome to the DesignerDiscussions podcast with Jason
and Miriam.
Tune in each week where we talkabout marketing PR and business

(00:24):
advice for design professionals.

Jason Lockhart (00:28):
Hello, everyone.
This is one of the topics Iactually hear from a few of our
clients about social media andhow to use it this year.
So there are 10 tips, but I'mgoing to only share five.
If you want to know what theother five are, you're going to
have to visit our website.
So this, this is, I know I'mhaving you do a little homework,
but this is something where I'mgoing to have you head to our

(00:50):
website for the other five.
Where I'm going to start isnumber one, is you want to have
some type of consistency withanything that you do.
And this applies not only tosocial media, but to everything.
But with social media as youpost, if you do it, whether it's
once a week, once a month,however often it is, you should

(01:12):
have a consistent flow of howyou post to your social media
accounts.
And I'm going to talk a littlebit about because one of the
tips also is health, and I'mgoing to talk a little bit about
that at the end.
But on the tip side, just on theon the consistency side, making
sure that you're consistent onwhatever you do.
Because what happens is as youbuild a community following,

(01:34):
they're going to expect to seeit however often that you,
whether it's once a week, once amonth, I would say at minimum,
this is just my suggestion, atleast four times a month, once a
week.
Okay, so that that should be howoften, because what I often tell
clients is that you want toensure that if anybody does
research on you, that you have apost that is no less than a week

(01:58):
old.
So if you could do one a week,that's really all you need to
do.
But whatever it is, beconsistent in it, and that'll
help you on that aspect as well.
And with the consistency, youshould honestly automate that
aspect of it.
So suggestion is you shouldspend an hour a month.

(02:18):
That's really all you need todo, and then create the post and
then actually use a platform toschedule out the post, whether
it's whether it's Meta and usingtheir platform, whether you have
a posting platform like HootSuite or Zoho Social or any of
those out there, use a platformto help you out.
Okay.
Next tip I would say after thatwould be community.

(02:41):
What happens too often, there'sa lot of areas in the social
media space where you have uhthe NKBA groups, you may have a
community groups of designers inyour area that host.
You want to be involved in thatbecause what happens as you
share and like there thathappened with you, and over time
you'll build a community thatcan help you grow your social

(03:04):
media platform.
You can easily head to any ofthe platforms and type in groups
of you know designers ormodelers, whatever it is,
whether you do sustainabledesign, whether you do aging in
place, whatever it is for you,type that into the social media
platform to find that group.
So you can find your community,whether they're local to you,

(03:25):
regional, or national, it'slike-minded in your area, and
they can also hand yousuggestions to help you as well.
But what'll happen is thatyou'll build that community,
you'll like and share.
They'll most likely like andshare as well, and then that'll
help you grow.
Okay.
Number three, you want to haverelevant content for your

(03:48):
audience.
So whoever your audience is.
So if you're posting about agingin place, if there's anything up
to date, have that on therebecause what'll happen is that
as you grow your community onyour own social platform, your
shares and follows, they'regonna look to you.
If you have up-to-dateinformation, they're gonna view
you as an expert and they'regonna continue to look at your

(04:10):
information because you haveup-to-date content.
Honestly, like I said, if youspend an hour a month, that's
really all you need.
If you don't know what'sactually happening in your area,
in the industry, nationally,whatever, you could look at the
relevant websites and see what'sup to date at the time and then
create posts around that becauseyou're creating up-to-date

(04:31):
information to help youraudience stay up to date on
what's happening.
And that helps you stay relevantover time.
That helps you get morefollowers, subscribers to your
platform.
Okay.
Next, this is the fourth tip,you want to inform.
With the up-to-date information,you want to inform your audience
in terms of what's happening inthe industry and what's

(04:54):
happening in your area.
And oftentimes, as they findthis information that's up to
date and informs them, it'sgonna help you stay relevant and
it's gonna also give others areason to follow you.
Because if they find up-to-dategood information from what you
do, now they're gonna, when theylook to do any of the services,

(05:14):
they're gonna look to youbecause you have that
information that's up to dateand it's also giving them
information.
So good, relevant informationthat's timely at the time.
So that's something else thatyou want to look at.
Give your audience a reason toactually follow you.
And by having up-to-dateinformation that's informative,
that's gonna have them say,okay, I want to look at your

(05:37):
information when it's that time.
Okay.
One of the things I actuallyhear from a lot of design and
remodeling professionals is thatthey spend too much time on
social media.
So what you want to do is notspread yourself too thin.
And that's why I said have aroutine where I talked about at
the start with the consistencyof the post, but also in how you

(06:01):
uh develop the post, have aroutine there where, like I
said, you spend an hour creatingeverything and schedule it, and
then you can plan out how oftenyou're either in the groups or
whatever, whether that be onehour a week or whatever, but
you're not always on it.
And then that that's whathappens off the time is you you
get on social media and you dothe death scroll.

(06:23):
You just scroll over and overfor information that's not
relevant, but you're justlooking at it.
But if you can actually planout, okay, I'm gonna spend an
hour on Instagram or a Facebookor whatever it is this week just
to engage my community.
Now you're actually planning atthat time and you're not wasting
time on everything else that isnot relevant to you grow your

(06:45):
audience and to your business.
So it's helping you stay healthyon the social media platform
because what happens is you getinto it and then an hour has
passed and you don't know wherethe time went.
And you're like, I'm spendingway too much time on social
media because I'm hearing aboutwhat happened to my uncle and
cousins and what happened to myfriend here, whatever.
But it's not a healthyrelationship with social media,

(07:08):
but by actually allocating thattime where you're gonna say,
okay, I'm gonna be in here onthe time.
And then I know this is not easybecause oftentimes the social
media platforms are made to haveyou stay on them because the
algorithm learns what you likeand it's gonna present that to
you so you can stay on thereforever.

(07:28):
But by actually creating a habitof only spending X amount of
time on it, now you can have ahealthy relationship, you won't
feel so overwhelmed by having tospend hours on it all the time.
So having that healthyrelationship is important to
help you create good content andfeel like you are adding to your
own platforms and not goingoverboard because you you're

(07:51):
spending hours and hours onthere for no reason.
That was five that I went over.
Like I said, there are actually10 tips, but I want to have you
go to the website and see thoseother five tips.
I'm gonna have the link in theshow notes so you'll have a
chance to look at what they are.
One of the tips is about how youcan grow your shares and follow.

(08:12):
So I'm not gonna get too deepinto that, but like I said, head
to the website to learn moreabout that.
And also, we talk about a lot ofthis in the academy.
So I'm gonna have a link to thatas well.
So if you want to learn moreabout that, I'll have that link
in the show notes.
So if you have any questions atall, let us know.
We hope to hear and see from youin two weeks on Designer

(08:33):
Discussions.
We hope you enjoyed this episodeof Designer Discussions and all
of the helpful information.
Subscribe to our podcast, leaveus a review, and share it with
your friends.
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