Networking & Community Building
Building a creative community is an essential part of your creative career. Networking (or building relationships) is central to this. These relationships will help you gain insights into how your industry or field works, and hopefully they’ll lead to new contacts and employment opportunities. Below are some ways to develop your creative network both virtually and in person.
What are the Benefits of Networking?
Learn career insights from creative professionals in your industry.
Build connections with peers and mentors for support.
Establish relationships with other creatives and create long term rapport.
Share resources, information, and contacts.
Develop a marketing strategy to connect with jobs or internships.
What Does Networking Actually Look Like?
Make new friends in your classes.
Chat with faculty who teach your classes.
Join a club on campus to get to know people.
Take part in Creative Careers’ Mentorship Program.
Join a Discord or Slack Workspace about a topic that’s important to you.
Reach out to someone on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, etc.
Attending formal networking events.
Mapping Your Network
You already have a creative community, whether you’ve thought of it that way or not. Mapping your network also lets you see connections and where to put effort into further developing your community.
How to map your network
Start mapping your creative network by identifying the people around you. Brainstorm and write down your connections. During the brainstorming stage you can use a bubble diagram where you put yourself in the middle and add bubbles with the names of your connections and how they can help you. For example:
Faculty can provide you with industry insights, identify professional associations, and share industry event information.
The Creative Careers team can guide you in your career path by helping you with the internship process and searching for job opportunities.
Supervisors, colleagues, and classmates can share insights about their process, career path, and other resources.
Why it is important to build relationships to develop your creative community
Building connections is important because it expands your network and you can tap into your network for advice, resources, and contacts. Think about building your network as a two-way street where you and your connections have a shared goal to get from point A to point B. To accomplish that goal you can support each other.
Getting Started: Where to connect with others, both on and offline
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Every term Creative Careers hosts a series of professional skill building workshops and student panels that cover topics such as freelancing, interviewing networking, Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI), resumes, internships and more. Attending workshops and panels are a great way to meet creatives and ask questions about specific topics. Whether the event is in-person or virtual, you can research the panel list to prepare questions to ask during the event.
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Every term Creative Careers invites professionals from various companies to talk about their experiences, opportunities, recent projects, and how you might be able to connect with the company or get involved in the industry. It is an opportunity for you to ask questions and learn from professionals in your industry. Some speakers share their contact information, and you can follow up with them after the event.
Remember to keep it professional and avoid personal information. Leave out any information about your visa status or age. You can also include. a professional photo on this page.
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Follow organizations online to learn about events specifically designed for interacting with peers and industry leaders. Any event where people have a chance to talk and ask questions is an opportunity to network.
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These organizations exist to help creatives in various fields. They usually charge a fee, but membership provides access to events, conferences, webinars, resources, job boards, and other creatives. Many have discounted student memberships.. View our full list of professional organizations.
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Use social media platforms (and even old-fashioned email) to connect with people. You may reach out because you find their work interesting, or because they’ve had an interesting career path, or just because you think they’d be cool to know.
Networking Online
Learning how to network online involves using the right social media platforms for your goals and crafting your online presence. Below are some of the most common places people connect online. For help with your messages when you reach out, see our Outreach Resources.
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With over 740 million users around the world, LinkedIn offers ways to expand your network. It is the most professionally focused platform. Use LinkedIn to connect with creative professionals, research companies, search for jobs, and RSVP to events. Once you’ve found creative professionals, you can request informational interviews to learn about their experiences in your field. You can also post and share content with your connections on LinkedIn. LinkedIn also has a recommendation feature where you can receive or give recommendations for people you have worked with in the past or that you are willing to vouch for.
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Built around sharing photos, videos, and captions, Instagram has grown to over 800 million users. Many people use Instagram to promote a business or service. Instagram is a great way to build your creative network, as it’s such a visual medium. Follow and send direct messages (DMs) to creatives whose work is interesting to you. Commenting on others’ posts can help you stay engaged with your followers. Remember to use hashtags when posting a photo or video to help people discover you.
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Since it went worldwide in 2018, TikTok has rapidly become one of the top social media platforms in the world, and the fastest growing. People are still figuring out the best ways to use Tiktok for business and networking, but like any social media platform, you can use it to connect with people whose work you admire.
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People enjoy staying connected with friends, family, and peers. Discord allows you to communicate with other people via text, voice or video. It lets you chat with others either 1:1 or in a group chat. Although it was initially used for gamers, today you can find various discord groups about almost anything. Join Discord servers on topics of interest to you, both personal and professional.
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Over 10 million daily active users utilize slack to communicate with coworkers or to be part of slack groups organized around various topics. The purpose of slack groups is to meet new people and learn about topics you are interested in. It is another opportunity for you to expand your creative network and get direct access to people in your industry. Consider joining slack channels that discuss topics within your field. Reach out via direct messages to people you’d like to connect with. Some professionals think that slack might be the future of networking.
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For talks and panels, research professionals who will attend the event, and prepare engaging questions.
Practice introducing yourself and your creative philosophy in a short, concise way. This is sometimes called your elevator pitch.
Organize your social media links to share with others.
Prepare business cards or digital business cards. Digital business cards can be shared with anyone globally. They are a cost effective, interactive, and sustainable way to share your contact information.
Dress to make a good first impression. When choosing your outfit, pick one that is comfortable and presents you well.
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Introductions are important when you meet someone new. If the networking event is in person you can introduce yourself by giving a firm handshake, making eye contact, smiling, and stating your name. During a virtual event make sure you have a headset, test your tech, and have a quiet space available.
Listen. This is almost more important to the kind of impression you will make than what you say. Everyone likes to be heard. Listening helps you form questions that will build the conversation and develop an organic connection.
Ask questions that keep the conversation engaging. The best questions to keep conversations going are open-ended questions. Some examples are:
How did you get started in your field?
What projects are you working on right now?
What advice do you have for someone who wants to start in this field?
Where do you see the future of this field going?
Bring a small notebook. After mingling with a few people, take notes to follow up with creatives you connected with. -
Organize and categorize your contacts using our template.
Send a follow-up email or social media message.
Develop connections and build relationships. Like all relationships, professional connections need action to maintain them.
Share resources or information. These could be articles, favorite podcasts, insightful online posts, good books, etc.
Send them holiday greetings.
Comment on their LinkedIn/Instagram/TikTok posts.
Set up a meeting (in person or virtual) to catch up.
Networking at Events
Outreach Messaging
You can’t get a yes if you don’t ask. Outreach can seem scary or even pointless, but the effort pays off. The key is to be professional and get right to the point. People most commonly reach out through email or LinkedIn.
You might reach out to ask about job or internship opportunities, request an informational interview, ask for more information about or a recommendation for a posted job or internship, request mentorship, or to build your professional creative network.
RESOURCES
Email Etiquette
Whether you're applying for internships, reaching out to galleries, pitching your work to studios, kickstarting a freelance career, or simply working remotely, email etiquette is a crucial skill for all artists and designers to know. In this quick 30-min workshop, we cover the basics of professional email communication, tips for cold outreach, and best practices for pitching your work to potential employers or clients.
