Minotti + Design Panel
Photo Credit: Stefanie Keenan
Photo Credit: Stefanie Keenan
Photo Credit: Stefanie Keenan
Photo Credit: Stefanie Keenan
Photo Credit: Stefanie Keenan
Photo Credit: Stefanie Keenan
Photo Credit: Stefanie Keenan
Photo Credit: Stefanie Keenan
Photo Credit: Stefanie Keenan
Photo Credit: Stefanie Keenan
Photo Credit: Stefanie Keenan
Photo Credit: Stefanie Keenan
Photo Credit: Stefanie Keenan
On June 5, members of the design world gathered at Minotti’s Beverly Hills showroom for a panel on social media, particularly the relationship between design and Instagram. Moderated by C’s Design & Interiors Editor, Andrea Stanford, panelists Jane Buckingham, Wendy Haworth, Tamara Kaye Honey, and Anne Sage dished their expert advice. Below, the top four takeaways from the evening.
Gaining Followers
“If you want to gain followers you have to ask,” said Buckingham, the founder and president of the consumer-insights firm Trendera. “At any event you should say, ‘Follow me.’ You should have it on all of your materials. You should turn to the person next to you and ask them to follow you. It is a give-and-get economy. There are people that have 2 million followers and follow 110 people and that’s just mean. Only Beyoncé can get away with that.”
Find Your Instagram-Worthy Spot
“In terms of Interior design, for restaurants it needs to be Instagramable,” notes Honey, founder and principal of House of Honey. “How do the table and the plate look for Instagram? We spend time figuring out the lines of the table with what the ceramics should be so the food really pops. It’s a really interesting design element. Look at your hotel. Where’s the Instagram moment? Where does it pop? Everyone is on Instagram—you can get it to go viral and drive traffic.”
How to Use Hashtags
“Around five is ideal,” according to design influencer and cofounder of Light Lab, Anne Sage. “This is for the goal of getting followers and getting your picture noticed. You know how you when you start to type something it will auto-fill and you can see how many other posts are there? You should choose one that is a lower number. That way your photo will get noticed. If you use the hashtag Los Angeles, there are billions of photos and yours will be a drop in the ocean. Put it in the captions and not the comments below. Instagram is reportedly penalizing posts that have hashtags in comments.”
Apps to Download
“I like Snapseed from Google,” said interior designer Haworth, whose namesake design studio is behind many Instagram-worthy eateries across California, including the new Felix restaurant in Venice Beach. “You can take a really crappy photo and make it like really good. Trust me.”
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