Finding the key to maximising engagement online can feel pretty tricky. Working out what does and doesn’t work, what makes great content, what attracts attention, how to keep that attention – let’s be honest, can get kind of confusing… Luckily, this week we’ve got you covered! We invited the super-talented folks over at @typespire/Typespire (Ben & James) share their top 15 most popular posts, as well as some exclusive tips on how to ramp up your engagement and following.
Founded by Ben during his university years at University for the Creative Arts (UCA) back in 2013, Typespire has grown into a super successful platform which shares loads of amazing design inspo. ‘He initially setup the page as a resource for inspiration and to showcase the best typography by featuring all the great artists he found’, James tells us. ‘Roll onto early 2020, life had definitely taken over… With Ben juggling several businesses and clients, Typepire had taken a slight back-step. So, along came James (me)! Ben and I went to University together and had been working on various design projects for the past couple of years, so it made sense to team up and work on Typespire together. So, we formed a new company, Spire Media, and started working together’.
The Typespire community is now huge – and it’s got to be one of the best places to find inspiration out there. So, we asked James about Typespire’s secret for building such a prominent and successful community… and his first comment? ‘Consistency, consistency, consistency’.
‘Typespire started strong in 2013 with very little competition on the ‘gram’, James tells us – but, that’s not to say it hasn’t taken a lot of good work. ‘The page has a niche and has always stuck by that. In the early days, Typespire worked with Procreate, Stefan Kunz, Grace Cali, and many more – now all big players in the Instagram space. We’re proud to have created a community and opportunities for artists and companies over the years… But engagement is a tricky one. Instagram is always changing algorithms and adding new features’.
Typespire’s top-rated posts are generally those which ultimately spark conversation, one way or another, or provide practical help and support to members of their community… ‘If you can create content that generates conversation, whether it be topical, inspirational or controversial, the more saves, comments, shares you can get will ultimately boost your content and get it to reach more people… We try to strike a careful balance on Typespire, as we don’t want to just pick artists work based on those factors. We want a share a wide variety and breadth of work and sometimes artists who are brilliant and deserve the spotlight don’t always create viral work. Having said that, we love a good carousel and are constantly exploring ways to bring value to our audience via those’.
Consistency, interactivity, finding your niche and balancing content choices all seem pretty key here. Plus, making sure that your community is intentional and carries the culture and atmosphere you want to create goes hand-in-hand with finding that success – figure out what you want you space to look like and then stick at it!
The future of Typespire is looking pretty exciting right now. ‘Now with the collective creative power of both of us running Typespire it has definitely meant the page to can grow faster and create more opportunities’, James explains. ‘So far this year we’ve worked with some great clients and artists, along with setting up our print shop, where we want to create an inspiring collection of our partnered artists work, putting money back into their pockets with every sale… ‘
‘Further to this’, James adds, ‘We want to expand Typespire’s community; so more prints, new merchandise, more opportunity, more clients etc…. Our ethos is to create opportunity for our community, so every new venture we embark on we’re always thinking of how to benefit the community directly, whilst making an economically viable business that can directly give back to artists, the wider community and to charity’.
Thank you so much to Typespire for chatting with us today and giving us this valuable insight into your engagement tips – it’s been a pleasure! To see more from Typespire, and to hear about their exciting upcoming projects, check out their website and Instagram.
