Social Media Tips For Artists!

Social Media Tips For Artists

So you’re an artist and you’ve been creating work for a while but you are struggling to get people interested in the photos you post of your artwork! It’s most likely not because your work is at all ‘bad’ or uninteresting, it’s more than likely the time you are posting, how frequently you post, your audience, and the way your photos are taken. While there are a few other factors such as different algorithms implemented in sites like Facebook & Instagram (which are constantly changing), these are some quick and easy ways to improve your engagement! Let’s dive in!

Tip #1: Post Good Photos That BEST Represent Your Artwork!

One of the most common problems I see on popular social media sites like Instagram & Facebook is that artists share horrible photos of their artwork. That’s definitely not to say that their work is horrible! Almost every time the work is amazing! It’s the way they photograph the work that is not.

One of the most common problems with photographing artwork is that it’s often taken in a dimly lit setting and/or under yellow lights. Ideally you want to photograph your artwork under neutral light. While I personally prefer to use studio lights and my DSLR, you don’t necessarily need fancy studio equipment and a high resolution camera to do this! (Unless you want to make prints)
Sunlight is a free and neutral light source. My recommendation (especially for those artists that glaze or varnish their work) is to not take photos of your work in the direct sunlight. The direct sun is too harsh to accurately photograph your work and can even damage the work if left in direct sun for too long.
Instead try to go under a tree, or on the side of a shaded building or house to get all of the benefits of photographing in neutral lighting without over exposing the photo! I’ve included an example of a photo taken in ideal lightings VS dimly lit lighting.

This is so much better! You can accurately see the colors and details of this piece. Under neutral lighting, the colors aren’t altered.

notice the photo is dimly lit making it difficult to see the true colors of the piece and blowing out details that you may have spent a lot of time working on, but no one can see!

Taking good photos of your work is important, not only for ‘likes’ in the social media world, but to make sales in the real world (assuming that is the direction you want to go in with your art).
Notice in the ‘bad’ photo it’s got a blue tint to it. While it looks cool and artistic, it doesn’t accurately represent the drawing you actually created. This could easily spell trouble for someone who wants to sell a piece; It could hurt you because your work is not represented in the best way it could possibly look or it could make a potential buyer think there are certain hues and colors when really it’s just reflective light creating a blue hue on the work. Either case, it’s easier to hold back from posting that new photo on instagram, and instead take a few extra minutes to correctly photograph your brilliant work!

Tip #2: Posting At The Right Time!

This is another issue I see many artists struggle with and it is so easy to fix! One of the reasons you may be struggling to get your name and work out there is due to the times you are posting! Luckily, Instagram comes in clutch to solve this issue! If you go to your Instagram app and go to your profile, at the top right of the screen you’ll see three little bars (the symbol to open a menu). [side note: this may be different for Apple users, but I’m using a Samsung Galaxy S9 as I write this]. Once you click on the bars and open the menu, you’ll see an option called “Insights”. Upon clicking on the Insights option, you’ll need to click on “Audience”. Once you are there, you are able to see a bar graph of when people are most active on your profile, right down to the day and the hours of high activity. Additionally, you can also see where in the world the majority of your followers are from! Knowing this will give you an advantage on when to make your posts.

I would definitely recommend using this information to your advantage! For example, if you know your followers are most active on Fridays, Tuesdays, and Sundays and that heavy activity occurs between the hours of 9am and 6pm, that should give a lot clearer of an idea on when to be making your posts! Part of this also comes down to ‘common sense’ too. For example, if you know the majority of your audience lives on the east coast of the United States and is generally between the ages of 18-34 and that most of them probably have jobs and go out on the weekends (during which, they would almost certainly not be on their phones), it would not therefore help boost your post if you uploaded at 2 or 3 in the morning or in the middle of dinner time on a Saturday!

This is another one of those situations where it’s worth waiting to make a post during high activity times to maximize the amount of people viewing your work!

Tip #3: Are You Posting Too Much? Or Not Enough?

It’s sometimes all too easy to get excited by a project and over post! Some people even like to organize or give an aesthetic to their Instagram profile by posting white squares to separate photos or create interesting effects on their profile feed. This can often cause the following posts to get lost or ‘bumped down’ by Instagram, as it’s seen as being spammy. Generally you shouldn’t post more than 3x per day and if you do choose to make multiple posts a day, be sure to prioritize your posts! For example, what post is most important? Which do you want people to see and have the most engagement with? This is the photo or artwork that you will need to post first, because after you’ve already made a post for that day, the chances of reaching the same or better levels of engagement on following posts, decreases significantly! So make every post count! Be mindful of what photos are most important to you and which you want to reach the most people.

Now on the other hand, maybe your engagement levels on your posts don't do well because you aren’t posting enough! That’s right. With websites like Instagram & Facebook, people that do not frequently post also have their posts ‘bumped down’ and have a lesser chance of being seen. You may think posting once a week or once a month is enough to keep your feed active and flowing, but unless you are an already popular or have a huge following, that’s not going to be the case for most people. The rule of thumb is that you should be posting at least every other day if not, then every 2-3 days to remain active enough that sites like Instagram will prioritize your posts. This might sound like a lot and you may be thinking “there is absolutely no way I can make art that fast!” but it’s not so bad, here are some tips to help you out!

1) People buy into art just as much as they buy into the artist! If you’re unable to post new artwork, consider posting something about yourself! What sets you apart as an individual from the sea of artists on Instagram? What about you makes you unique and interesting, something that people would want to buy into? Is it that you volunteer at animal shelters in your free time? You have a crazy collection of rocks, pop culture figurines, or do you go hiking? Share something interesting about yourself that would be interesting for your audience to see and learn more about you.

2) Share your art materials or do a studio/desk tour! If you can’t share your artwork, then share your supplies! What materials are your favorite? Which would you recommend to fellow artists? What is your art studio like (if you have one)? Or what things do you have in and on your art desk? These are all extremely interesting things that could allow you to still engage with your audience and keeping active on your social media!

3) Post your older artwork! There are a few ways to go about this method. You could post some of your older recent works (not too recent or it may come off as spammy). Maybe you take a lot of commissions and can’t share certain ones with people because they’re a surprise. Instead, post old ones you’ve done and let people know they’re getting new content soon. Another way to go about this is to do a comparison of your own work from two different times in your art career! This is something I have personally done. I’ve shared work from my childhood, to highschool, and now. This gives your audience an interesting perspective on how you have progressed as an artist and will make you appear more interesting to them.

There are a lot of ways to keep active on social media without posting new content everyday! And likewise, make sure you are not over doing it! No one wants to follow accounts that ghost their followers for months or that spam the hell out of their newsfeed. Find a good balance or formula that works for you and your audience and do your best to stick to it! You can do it!!!

Tip #4: Knowing Your Audience!

This one seems to be the most challenging for people to grasp but is the most crucial in obtaining a steady following with people who are genuinely interested in what you are sharing with them!
So the big question: Do you know your target audience? Who are the people that are most interested in your work? Who are the ones commissioning you and leaving you comments? These are the people you need to retain if at all possible. You can revert back to tip #2 if you need to see some insights on who your audience is as far as gender, location, and age. For me personally, I know the majority of my audience is between 18-50 (So adults), the majority of them live in the United States or the United Kingdom, and almost all of them have an interest in pets, primarily dogs. Knowing these things will be beneficial in helping you grow your social media & your brand.

So why is knowing your audience such an important aspect in doing well on social media? Well let me give an example! So let’s say I draw animals (which I do) and one day I decide that I just don’t really feel like drawing animals anymore, so I draw some cars, some landscapes, some superheroes, and some other random sketches. You may think you’re doing something to appeal to everyone but in reality, you’re not building a solid foundation with any one group of people. The people who originally followed you because they enjoyed your animal artwork most likely followed you because they enjoy that kind of work. Now that you’re posting random cars and people and other subjects that aren’t cohesive, those people are going to lose interest and most likely unfollow you, especially if they are people who do not know you personally and don’t feel any sort of connection and would not feel bad in unfollowing you. This happens so often and more than that, it’s most likely because the artist hasn’t come to fruition and decided on what kind of work they want to do yet (which is very typical and normal for new artists!! don’t fault yourself for this. If this sounds like you, keep trying different things and find out what you enjoy doing best and go for it!) But for more established and novice artists, it’s important to know who your target audience is and create work and post things that will peak their interest!

Hopefully this article was helpful to you and will give you something to consider next time you are ready to post on social media! I’d love to know what your thoughts are, if any of these things helped you, and what things you do to promote your work successfully on social media! Let’s discuss and help one another improve and be our best selves. Thanks for reading, I’ll be back again soon with more tips for artists!