How to use social media to improve your product design career

Four years ago, I was in an uncomfortable position in my career. I worked in a company, but wanted to move and work elsewhere to continue my product design career. I sent my portfolio to many companies and applied for various job opportunities.

Despite my best efforts, I failed. I was frustrated that I couldn’t shift my position and move to work elsewhere, regardless of all the places I sent my CV and portfolio. It took me a long time to move to another place.

Because of that, I wanted people to know me, making it much easier to change my work position whenever needed.

I decided to write a blog about my experience in UX design and that blog got many views. Suddenly, something interesting happened: companies started sending me messages asking if I would be interested in working for them.

Before, it was difficult for me to get my foot in the door, but suddenly, I received product designer job offers without applying for any job offer.

In this post, I want to share how you can do this yourself and leverage social media to help you find your next opportunity, promote yourself above others, and continue your career path.

We live in a very competitive market

The job market for product designers is becoming increasingly complex and two things help make this happen.

First, many product design schools have opened their doors. Second, companies have less money and open fewer product design positions. As a result, the supply of product designers is much higher than the demand and finding a job is getting harder.

It can be uncomfortable to remain in the same place if you have a job, but want to change. You’ll notice it more if you’re unemployed because you’ll feel pressured to find a job in a competitive market.

Although it’s more complicated for junior designers, senior designers will also find a complex market.

It’s not enough to have a portfolio

It becomes more difficult to sell commodities when everyone has the same thing because their value drops. In today’s job market, a portfolio is a commodity.

All design positions, including user experience design, user research, and, of course, UI design and graphic design positions, require a portfolio; no one hires someone without one.

Once you have a portfolio, you must ensure employers look at it first. If you apply for a job with more than 150-200 applications, the chance someone will take a look at your portfolio is lower, even if you’re a skilled senior product designer.

And that’s the point. Even if you have the best portfolio, competing for attention with 150-200 people is very difficult. You need another way to get your foot in the door and show your abilities in product design.

You should always share your knowledge

Since every designer has a portfolio, and getting someone to look at it isn’t easy, you should always share your knowledge, not just when job hunting.

We all use social media (LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and other platforms). By sharing your knowledge there, people will see your work consistently, not only when you’re looking for a job.

Then the magic happens: when a product design manager or an HR recruiter is looking for a new team member to join the design or product development team, they’ll remember you and be able to send you offers before they publish them.

For example, during the last three years, I have received over 80 job offers without saying I was looking for work. Some offered me a great salary, exceeding the average product designer salary.

In addition, when you share your knowledge, you’ll get invitations to speak on podcasts and participate in conferences so more people will know you. This exposure can help build your job title recognition.

Just imagine being invited to speak on a podcast with 500k followers. It’s unbelievable how many people will know you just because you participated as a guest on that podcast.

Getting opportunities doesn’t require a lot of followers

The more followers who engage with your posts and are interested in your content, the more influence you can have. But it’s not always necessary to have many followers to feel the impact.

If your goal is to be an influencer and help companies promote their products, that is one thing. However, sharing content to improve your market possibilities for hiring as a graphic designer, an associate, or a principal product designer is another.

The more followers you have, the more people will see you, but you don’t need too many to be in a good position in the market and get opportunities. I started getting opportunities six to eight months after sharing my knowledge and I only had 1000 followers.

We can illustrate this through the process of choosing a car:

• A basic car will do if you only drive to the office once a week.
• A 4×4 is the best choice if you also want a vehicle that can handle weekend trips into nature.

Even though you can drive a 4×4 once a week to work, it’s not necessary. Choose the car that works best for you.

The same applies here: to help you find a job, you don’t need to be the number one influencer; do what you need to reach your goal.

The key to success is consistency

Consistent is the most challenging part of sharing content and being active on social media.

You have your day job and life, and adding another task is hard. Because of that, calculate well how much you can work on it every week. You can publish one blog post every two weeks, write on LinkedIn three days a week, and publish five times a week on Instagram.

The most critical thing is that people will see you repeatedly in their feeds so they can recognize you.

It’s like walking by a chair store every day. You’ll go to the store you pass daily when you need one because it’s in your head. It’s the same with social media: if people see you share consistently, they’ll remember you, and when they have an offer, they’ll contact you.

And one more thing. With consistency, you will also create better content and produce it in less time.

People see your content

Although only a few people comment on or interact with your content, be aware that people see your content and remember you.

You will see in your posts how many people view them. So, if 500 people look at your post but you only get one like, it doesn’t mean people are ignoring you; it just means they didn’t interact with the content.

Of course, creating better content is much more powerful. However, because we have limited time and sharing content isn’t our main job, do what you can; you aren’t in competition with anyone.

Most of the opportunities I got were from people who did not interact directly with my content. Suddenly, they sent me a message and said they saw my content about different design topics, such as design thinking, interaction design, design systems, or design decisions, and were interested.

So again, the fact that you do not have many likes does not mean people are not interested in your content.

Start with one big social platform

I advise you to select one platform and focus on it. There are several reasons for this:

1. Each platform has its personality and nature. YouTube is different from Instagram and LinkedIn. You have to learn how to speak the platform’s “language” and interact with the people there, not just about the content type like videos or images.
2. You can start your blog and also make a newsletter, but it can be difficult for you to get traffic right away. However, if you share content on a big social platform, the audience is there, and the algorithm can help push your content, so it requires less effort.
3. We have limited time and energy each day. Sharing on multiple platforms can be challenging, especially if the content is different, like video and text.

Select a niche

I recommend you focus on one niche because:

1. It’ll make it easier to find ideas.
2. People will know that you always talk about this topic, so they will speak with you when they have a related issue.

To illustrate, let’s take design systems as an example.

Suppose you only share your knowledge about design systems and post many tips and tricks, from writing design system documentation to creating design tokens.

In that case, people will remember that you’re the expert on that, not because they read your portfolio but because you share information about it consistently.

So the moment they have an issue with a design system, they’ll talk with you directly because you will jump into their mind.

Here is a list of topics you can write about. Make sure you choose a topic you are passionate about so you will continue to feel motivated after one month of sharing content:

1. Design systems
2. Complex products
3. Website design
4. Typography
5. Figma
6. Framer
7. Accessibility
8. Prototyping
9. Design trends
10. Portfolio building

What social media platforms are most beneficial for product design career opportunities?

There are many platforms where you can share your content to find opportunities. It depends on your preference for the medium and where the people you want to influence are.

For example, if you like to make videos and feel that this is the medium you want to use to communicate with your audience, you can use YouTube for long videos. You can also use YouTube Shorts or Instagram Reels to make short videos.

On the other hand, if you prefer to write, you can use LinkedIn or X (Twitter), which is more focused on sharing short-written content, but you can also write on other platforms for longer-written content.

That said, remember the following four points:

1. You should be good at sharing information. The better you create videos or written content, the easier people will consume your content, so learning how to use your medium well is essential.
2. Consider where the people you want to be in contact with are and where they consume the content. If they’re design managers, they often use LinkedIn. If we’re talking about visual content, Instagram can be a better platform, so before you start, research to see where the people you want to talk to are.
3. Some platforms, like LinkedIn, focus more on finding job opportunities because HR and design managers are also there. But this doesn’t mean it’s the only platform. People will also interact with you if you share videos on YouTube and include your LinkedIn profile link or portfolio. I get many opportunities from people who read my blog posts, not my LinkedIn posts.
4. Although everything looks linear, it’s not. You should run tests and iterate with the content to determine the best medium for you to communicate and to determine where the people you want to contact are. It’s not magic, and finding these two points takes time. Be patient.

How to come up with content ideas

When you start sharing your content, you’ll come up with many ideas. However, finding ideas isn’t always easy, especially over time. There are some techniques you can use to inspire yourself:

• Share your personal stories with the readers — You don’t have to tell a big story; a small one is fine too. Write down your working experiences so you can reflect on them and create content about them.
• Share software improvements — You can write about your tools and share updates when they release new versions. You can tell people what it does, how it works, and why it’s good. Product companies release many improvements, so this is an excellent place to get ideas.
• Take ideas from other people’s content — You can use them as they are, but you can also tweak them. Let’s say someone shares a video explaining how to use design tokens for big products; you can share how to do it for small products.
• Latest industry news — Share news and information about your industry, such as upcoming events, new products on the market, and new regulations you must consider when developing your product.
• Create content based on people’s questions — You can answer questions people ask in communities and forums. For instance, if you see many people ask about how to create auto-layouts in Figma, you can create a tutorial explaining exactly how to do it so you know there’s a demand, and it’ll be helpful.

You can also write comments

If you don’t have time to create content every week, you can also use comments on other people’s posts to show your expertise.

Your comment should be interesting and add value; things like “Thank you for sharing” will not have an impact. Instead, share your experience and your opinion in the comments. You’ll see that people and the person who shared the content interact with you and share opinions.

For example, you comment on a post about the collaboration between the product manager and UX designer during the design process.

If people like your comment and the post suddenly goes viral, many will likely read it, especially because you added value.

Therefore, the algorithm puts it at the top of the comments, and you demonstrate your insight into the topic to more people.

Another option is to comment on forums like Reddit. For example, if you join a community that discusses typography and shares your expertise while answering questions, you will become the person with the information.

If someone asks a question and sees that you are on top of things, they will recognize your quality:

How can engaging with other people help with job opportunities?

An important point to mention is that social media is not one-directional. It’s not just about sharing your content and people interacting with it; it’s also about commenting and sharing your knowledge on others’ posts.

Once you share your thoughts on other people’s content, you’ll see that they become your friends. From commenting on another person’s posts, you’ll begin talking with them through direct messages.

They share opportunities and knowledge with you when they know you, so you grow your network and have a better chance of finding new opportunities.

Final thoughts

This article showed how leveraging social media can improve your product design career opportunities, whether you are a staff product designer or a lead product designer.

First, I explained that the product design market has many designers, but fewer job opportunities and that your portfolio today is insufficient to find a job unless you showcase good product design skills.

Then, I explained why the key to finding new job opportunities is to be active on social media and share content there.

I explained that consistency is the key, but consistency doesn’t mean sharing every day. Even sharing twice a week for a year is consistent.

We discussed social media platforms, how to choose them, and the importance of focusing on a niche and creating content in a format you enjoy, such as images, videos, or writing.

Then we saw how to find ideas for new content, like searching for questions people ask in communities, seeing other people’s content, or sharing your personal stories.

Finally, I shared how you can engage with people by sharing information, commenting on others’ posts, and adding information to them, as well as how it can open doors to direct messages with them.