Although LinkedIn is currently a place to connect many professionals, this platform cannot yet equally serve professionals from all industries.
Resumes and portfolios may be sufficient to show, for example, the knowledge and skills of bankers or managers, but they may not serve artists as well as these professionals.
“There is a significant gap in the market because existing professional platforms are built from another era,” said Shermaine Wong of A cult creative simply told the Vulcan Post.
Using social media to present their work is not enough
“Many artists currently depend solely on Instagram to present their work and make connections,” Shermaine shared.
Earlier, we even wrote an article on the topic “yellow pages“For artists Buttermilk which was created to help them easily discover them through their social networks like Instagram and Twitter.
While using social media to achieve appeal is not entirely ineffective, the scope of a platform can still diminish one’s visibility when their virality subsides.
So, the existence of a platform that people can turn to just to check out the artist’s work and connect with each other is necessary, because honestly, I also can’t imagine mixing work and life on Instagram 24/7.
Professional tinder for creatives
Cult Creative, in layman’s terms, is a platform that works like LinkedIn for creatives from any industry, but its user interface works almost like Tinder.
It was founded by Shermaine Wong, Manisha Jagan and Lina Esa, who are the CEO, CEO and editorial director of Cult Creative.
Although your profile would not be as detailed as LinkedIn, where you can extensively fill in your skills, achievements, experience, etc., it has a section where users can attach photos or videos of their work, which is more useful for a creative professional.
There’s also a directory section where users can check out creators from other industries, almost like Instagram’s Discover section married with a meeting-like user interface.
Once you find a creator you like, you can star his profile to save it and connect with them privately via DM.
One thing I found quite likable about the app is that you can include both your astrological star sign as well as your MBTI personality type, which Shermaine explained was a cheeky and fun way they wanted to define themselves as the app.
In addition, the app also has sections highlighting workshops, mentoring and discussions, as well as a job section.
Currently, Cult Creative is still in its beta and now has 70 users since it started in March 2020.
Joining the membership
If you want to be a member, you have to pay a fee. Membership fees are subscribed to the way this team earns from the application, with interested users paying 40 RM per month or 400 RM per year.
They regularly feature local creatives on their Instagram page under their hashtag #CreativeCrushWednesday, as well as local businesses and products.
They also work directly with brands, SMEs and businesses to create marketing content for their followers Instagram, similar to something like influencer marketing.
If you’re part of their Instagram community and wonder what you can get on their app if you’re a paid member, you’ll be able to access:
- Other creatives from a variety of industries like entertainment, music, film, literature, content creation, fashion, cooking, design, photography and videography in one place.
- 4 months of digital experiences such as workshops and panel discussions.
- Exclusive download resources.
For example, if you were to join one of theirs network events, members can attend for free, while non-members would have to pay RM35 just to attend that one event.
The same goes for online workshops like legal mentoring on how to protect your IP rights as a creative.
Therefore, if you actively want to network or collaborate in your work with other creatives and maximize attendance at these workshops, membership would be helpful.
Community through creativity
“Our platform has also dealt with difficult topics like how to protect your creativity with a trademark and IP, how to price your creativity and design, etc. The usual struggles of creative professionals are, but there are often no answers to them.”
From what Shermaine shared, I thought this platform was almost like Reddit for creatives.
“We recently discovered that our members have experienced zooming from zooming with business-related return video calls.”
Therefore, the team innovated its Cult Mixer, an online network event in the format of quick connections (each person gets 2 minutes with another person) to better engage users.
Every first Friday of the month, creatives would meet other creatives via a virtual format for quick connections, which also comes with music, art interference, boarding sight, and more.
“We also want to fully develop a professional networking app and introduce new features like creative business portals and e-commerce add-ons,” Shermaine shared with Vulcan Post.
In addition, another of their upcoming plans is the Cult Creative Festival to be held in Q4 2021, which aims to connect creatives with entrepreneurs.
- You can learn more about Cult Creative here.
- You can read about other art-related initiatives we’ve written about here.
Credits for featured images: Shermaine Wong, CEO of Cult Creative
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