How To Use Social Media For Artists

As discussed in our How To Sell Art Online article, an artist’s website is the central hub for selling your brand. In this day and age of vast social media presence, the next step to reaching out to your target audience is via as many different platforms. This guide should give you the right strategies for success online with all social media outlets from Facebook to Pinterest. 
Where to post
Instagram should be the first place you look to for gaining social media recognition. Art is a visual experience and your work must be seen before the viewer reads into your own profile. Instagram has slowly become the leading photo-based media platform on the web, amassing over 700 million users worldwide. Your Instagram account can become your own private gallery of your art career. By letting people in on your day-to-day life and how you create your art, you become better known and supported. Instagram is only accessible via a mobile phone or tablet on the go. It makes the process of people checking out your artwork all the easier and likely due to its photographic content. When searching for art to buy, it can be frustrating for collectors to see the work before they have to read all about it first. If you can gain a powerful Instagram account through learning from other artists, reaching out to people and incorporating your business into your bio, it will soon become your major generator of sales and popularity.
Pinterest is another photo-based social media centred on visual experience. Yet, it differs from Instagram through its bulletin styled posting that connects a picture to its description. Artists have an opportunity to promote their artwork in a categorised manner by posting to any board they create. Through using specific tags and repinning posts, your artwork can be found by multiple viewers at any time. In order to gain a strong following on Pinterest, it’s absolutely pivotal the artist stays active and consistent with their posts.
Tumblr differs from other social media platforms for its blog-like forum where telling a story is as important as showing your work. Despite having a strong emphasis on visual representation, it’s often considered the most successful artists are the ones who are unique in what they say with their posts. The fashion and design worlds enjoy great success with the platform, but any artist can create connections through being clear in what they share.
Facebook is the largest social media platform on the web with over 2 billion users now holding profiles. For social media strategising, artists should use Facebook for absolutely everything. From creating events to posting albums of art onto their own pages, artists can be personally accessible to their followers and interested buyers. It’s important to make your art easily found on Facebook, given its huge network. If an artist can find innovative ways for politely inviting people to see their art, it becomes a match made in heaven.
Twitter has over 325 million monthly users and can be a useful marketing tool for reaching a larger audience. Limited to only 140 characters per tweet, attaching photos, links and briefings to your website can draw significant interest. You have the freedom to follow and retweet other art that results in connections and expanding your online network.
What to post
People who follow you on social media want to enjoy your art, not be harassed about sales promotions. Consider taking 80% entertainment content, 20% promotional. Posting fun and engaging content can become your marketing strategy for creating goodwill towards your business. If somebody likes you for the selfless work you do, they will be more willing to buy your art. Keep your ideas unique and interesting with interactive posts and up-to-date information on your latest projects.
How to post
Each social media platform is different so it’s important the artist mixes up the content they are posting. If you were to post a link to the same art piece via Twitter and Instagram, try changing the wording and preview photo so it looks unique. This may be time-consuming but wholly worth not boring your followers. For example, Facebook gives you more freedom to post a full album together as opposed to Pinterest. It’s all about getting a feel for each channel and understanding the marketing strategies that work.
For the sake of your artist brand, it’s crucial quality over quantity is your ultimate strategy. If you attempt to run on as many channels as possible, chances are it will be difficult to maintain popular content. Accounts will be neglected and lose you potential suitors. Become well-informed of successful strategies via your own research in analytics or through free business account insights.
When to post
Before you set your usual business of posting content, stop and set aside some time to plan what and when you’re going to post. As with anything, organisation is the most important priority before about a task. Schedule ahead of time via Buffer and Facebook tools that will release your posts at assigned times in the week. This will free up more time for the artist to get back to doing their art without worrying about how to maintain their brand online. Although these sites will help you continue your social media marketing, it doesn’t mean you should completely ignore everything. You must regularly check your accounts each day and do the all-important thing; socialise!