For the members of today’s budding creator economy, there are few things more important than having the right platform for showcasing your work. For decades, creative professionals have used portfolios to demonstrate their expertise in their field, build credibility, and earn clients.
Today, having the right portfolio is more important than ever.
Whether you’re an Instagram influencer, a TikTok star, or a budding YouTube streamer, it’s not enough to rely exclusively on your chosen content channel to display your work. You need a way of carefully curating whatever you produce into an eye-catching and engaging asset.
Here’s how you can transform your website into a portfolio that not only boosts your reputation, but also paves the way for better sales, more clients, and a stronger fanbase.
Why You Need a Portfolio: An Introduction
Photographers, artists, fashion designers, and even web designers typically use portfolios as a way of connecting with clients and demonstrating their expertise to potential employers. However, as the creator economy grows, there are countless other individuals who can benefit from a portfolio.
If you’re already gaining views and engagement on Instagram, TikTok, or Twitter, you might assume these platforms are the only way you need to showcase your work. However, a portfolio delivers benefits you can’t access anywhere else. The right portfolio will:
- Give you more control: Even if you follow all the rules and guidelines laid out by a social media platform, there’s a chance the channel will delete or remove your content when algorithms change. Your own portfolio gives you ownership over your work, so you can ensure you don’t lose access to the assets you need.
- Aligns different pieces of content: If you’re promoting your work across multiple channels, from TikTok and Instagram, to Pinterest and Facebook, this requires potential fans, clients, and followers to visit multiple locations to see the full scope of your abilities. With a portfolio, you can combine all of your best work in one place.
- Demonstrates professionalism: A portfolio, like a business website, is an excellent way to improve your reputation. Creatives with a professional portfolio are more likely to appear credible, authentic, and trustworthy.
How to Create a Compelling Portfolio
Like many things in the professional world, building a fantastic portfolio starts with proper planning. It’s important to think carefully about what you want to convey with your website before you start building. Here are some quick tips to get you started on the right track.
Step 1: Decide What You Want to be Known For
A portfolio is an excellent way to showcase your professional brand for the world to see. It can help you to cultivate the ideal reputation, and influence what people think about you. However, if you want to achieve the right results, you’ll need to think first about what you want to be known for.
If you’re an artist, you may want to highlight your work in a particular medium, like oil paint or chalk. Photographers may need to highlight their expertise in a specific field, like wedding photography. Fashion designers may want to focus attention on the sustainability and longevity of the clothing they create. Here are some of the examples of content you can showcase:
- For Photographers: Use your portfolio to highlight some of the best photos you’ve taken in a specific niche. Include quotes from happy customers to demonstrate social proof.
- For artists: Use different sections of your portfolio to showcase your expertise in different mediums, or concentrate on the area where you have the most skill.
- For fashion designers: Show off not just your latest collections, but all the clothing that has achieved significant recognition or success in the past.
- For Instagram Content Creators: Pull attention to the posts you’ve made with the most likes and shares. Showcase your unique aesthetic and brand image.
- For TikTok Content Creators: Highlight your unique attitude, and the type of content you create. Draw attention to the videos that achieve the most likes and shares.
Step 2: Use the Right Technology
Once you’ve decided what you want to be known for, and what kind of content you need to showcase on your portfolio, the next step is actually transforming your website into a curated collection of your work. There are various ways to do this, but the easiest option is to leverage the right technology.
For instance, tools like Juicer.io allow content creators to quickly and conveniently curate content from all of their social media platforms into one website feed. There’s no coding required, and you have complete control over how you moderate and display your work. This means you can specifically focus on removing any content which might not promote the right image.
With the hashtag function on Juicer, you’ll be able to instantly showcase all content related to a specific tag on your portfolio. What’s more, you don’t have to worry about constantly coming back to your website to update it with new content. Your feed will update as you add more pieces to your social media platforms. You can then use your portfolio as an up-to-date example of your expertise whenever you want to work with new brands or partners.
Step 3: Update and Optimize
The best portfolios are always relevant, up-to-date, and capable of showcasing your best creations. A tool like Juicer.io will ensure you don’t have to focus excess time and effort on constantly updating your site with new content. You can simply focus on building your brand presence across your chosen social media channels, and your portfolio will update automatically.
However, it’s still worth keeping a close eye on your campaigns, so you can determine whether you want to make any adjustments to your social stream as you go. For instance, you may decide to start showcasing new work related to a particular hashtag at one point if you want to attract a partner or client from a specific industry.
You can also use Juicer to moderate your posts, and remove anything that you feel isn’t representative of the image you want to create for yourself as a professional. You might even decide to add new sources to your portfolio as you spread out into new social media channels.
Create the Ultimate Online Portfolio
An insightful portfolio is one of the most powerful tools any content creator can have. It’s an opportunity to showcase your best work, and improve your chances of online success. However, it’s important to ensure you’re making the most out of your digital presence.
Using a tool like Juicer.io to convert your website or blog into a portfolio is a fantastic way to ensure you’re always highlighting the most recent work you produce for the creator economy. Visit Juicer.io today to start developing your professional image.
Further reading related to creating an online portfolio as a content creator:
