Are you becoming discouraged with the lack of followers your social media business accounts are receiving? Are you finding that promoting your art on social media is taking up too much of your time and producing little or no sales? In today’s post, I am going to share with you some easy social media strategies designed especially for artists selling art online.
Social media is more than a place to showcase your artwork. It can create a strong community.
Developing a social media marketing strategy that compliments your business goals will help you to build a tribe that will help you to grow your business more abundant than you could have ever thought possible.
People need tribes or communities, and brands need people. It’s easy to see why many major brands have looked towards future-proofing their brands through tribes. Tribes are what famous marketer Seth Godin calls special or niche communities. “A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea.” – Seth Godin, Tribes
Source: Think Marketing
Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase by clicking on an affiliate link, Nevue Fine Art Marketing may earn an affiliate commission at no additional cost to you. Affiliate relationships include, but are not limited to, Bluehost, Tailwind, Skimlinks, SareASale and StudioPress. To learn more visit Affiliate Link Disclosure Policy
Easy Social Media Strategies For Artists Selling Art Online
How exciting is it when you showcase fine art on your social media accounts like Facebook or Instagram and you receive instant likes and comments?
How long does it take before you get discouraged because your fan base is not purchasing your products?
It is a nice feeling to know that people think about and appreciates your crafts but unfortunately, that does not pay the bills or put money into your bank account.
In today’s post, I would like to go back to the basics and share with you some effective social media strategies that have worked in the past and continue to work today.
Before we get started let’s take a minute to talk about social media.
What is social media?
Social media was created for people to connect with others online.
Social media was not created for businesses to sell products online. However, businesses have learned how powerful it is to make a presence on social media.
What is the best social strategy?
If social media is not a platform for businesses to sell products, how can you sell your paintings on social media?
This is a great question and is often overlooked.
To develop a successful art marketing plan on social media you have to use the platform for what it was created for, engaging with your fans.
Social media platforms will help you to build relations with your audience which will help you to build an online presence and sell more art.
How does engaging with your audience help you to build an online presence?
Discovering different ways to communicate with your fans will help you and your fans to get to know each other on a more personal level.
When you build relationships with people, you are building trust.
Those people will start to feel more connected to you and your artwork. In time they will become a part of your tribe and loyal art collectors.
Related Post:
How to Sell More Art by Building your Tribe
When people become a part of your tribe they will help you to build a larger online presence by talking about you and share your artwork with their friends and family.
Building a relationship with your audience is the best social media strategy out there.
It sounds simple but it works.
Below are some examples of how you can connect with your audience:
- If a person is interested in your artwork ask them why they like it.
- Ask them what connects them to your work.
- Is it the colors you use?
- Is it the message behind your artwork?
- Is it the subjects you paint or draw?
- Do they have an emotional connection to your artistic style and if so why?
The dialog will soon move from talking about your art to a deeper conversation.
You will learn more about your target audience and they will learn more about you which will connect them even more to your creations.
Related Post:
Simple Strategy For Finding Your Target Audience
Developing A Social Media Strategy
When your friends or family describe you as a person, what do they say?
Are you energetic or laid back?
Are you serious or do you have a good sense of humor?
Developing a social media strategy that will help you to reach your objectives starts with knowing who you are and understanding how you can convey that on your social media accounts.
Use the same language that you would use with your close friends and family. Just make sure that you are being professional.
There will be certain things you will want to keep private but you will want to share your artistic side. Find a happy medium and start letting your followers get to know who is behind the art they are admiring.
Social Media Strategy Examples
I am going to share with you some strategies I have found to work well for me and my objectives.
Keep in mind that everyone will not see the same results with the strategies outlined below.
Give them an honest try and see if they work for you.
- Keep post short and to the point. Most people are very busy and do not want to spend a lot of time reading posts on social media.
- Include a link for further reading. Some people will have a few extra minutes and they will want to learn more about what you are talking about. Always include a link to a blog post or a landing page.
- Showcase art in progress images. People love to see art come to life and there have been many times when someone has purchased my art before it was completed.
- Share the story behind a finished piece you have created.
- Post a schedule of events you will be attending.
- Post images of events you have attended.
- Add videos that show you working on a piece or a short tutorial about your techniques.
- Share with your audience what inspires you to create the art you create.
- Post behind the scenes images, your studio, packaging a painting for shipment, etc.
How To Get Fans On Social Media
How do you feel when you see followers counts climb?
It is a great feeling when someone likes your Facebook page.
But it can be destructive to your art business if you become obsessed with growing your follower counts.
The followers that matter are the ones who engage with your posts and purchase your products.
Just because you have five hundred or a thousand more fans than the next artist does not mean that you are more successful than them.
Would you rather have 500 followers that like, share, and comment on your posts or 5,000 followers who never read your posts?
If you want to build an online presence, you will benefit from 500 fans that take the time to engage in your posts.
How do businesses build a social media following?
It starts by producing a product or service that people want.
The next step is to make people aware of your product.
The last step is to publish valuable content that relates to your products or services.
Many artists fall short on creating content that offers value to their following.
I get it. There is only so much time you can devote to your art business, but if you spend your time wisely, you can achieve great things.
The best way to build your following on social media is by publishing content your audience will share on their newsfeed.
People who follow you want to see your art and learn more about you as an artist, they do not want to be sold to.
Succesful artists on social media benefit from the 80/20 rule.
The 80/20 rule is publishing 80 percent entertaining posts and 20 percent promotional posts.
Take the time to learn who your audience is and what will make them stop to read your posts and share it with their friends.
Once you have discovered what wows them, start creating it, and develop a scheduling calendar for your posts.
Which Social Media Channel Is Right For Your Art Business
Like I have mentioned earlier, we only have a certain amount of time we can devote to our art business.
I started selling art online before Facebook existed. Developing strategies that would drive traffic to my website was different than today.
Some things are the same, but social media changed the way people discover businesses.
Whenever I heard of a new platform, I would jump right on it, create an account, and start publishing posts on it.
It did not take long before I realized I was publishing posts on over ten different social media platforms, and my art sales were flat.
I was wasting so much time creating content and images for social media. I didn’t have time to devote to strategies that grew my art business.
I took a step back and asked myself, what are the top three social media platforms that are helping me to reach my goals?
I wrote down the top three and asked myself why they are helping me to build my business.
I realized the three platforms that worked for me were the ones that my target audience hangs out on.
I stopped using all of the other platforms and developed an 80/20 content strategy.
At that point, I saw my business grow because I was able to focus on marketing strategies that produced results across the board.
In my opinion, the best social media platforms for your art business are the ones that your art collectors hang out on.
What Are The Objectives Of A Social Media Strategy
Every artist will have different objectives for their social media strategy. However, they will all have one thing in common, and that is to help them reach their business goals.
My main objective is to drive people to my artist website.
I accomplish this by publishing content my following wants to read.
The end result is people are visiting my site because they want to read more about a post I published.
Once they are on my site, I direct them to do what I want them to do next, which is accomplished by a call-to-action.
How To Save Time Marketing On Social Media
Social media can become a huge time waster if you are not careful.
Like I have said earlier, I wasted so much time on social media that t started to affect my business negatively.
It was not until I have discovered social sharing tools like Tailwind.
Tailwind allows me to schedule Pinterest posts in months in advance, which also shares them with my Facebook and Twitter accounts.
It takes me a total of 15 minutes a week to add social media posts to three different accounts.
Sceduling Pinterest Pins is easy with Tailwins
Simply Login to your Tailwind account and click Create New Pin.
The time saved goes to other marketing strategies and creating art.
Insert your Pinterest Image, add a Title, content, and the URL to the page you want the image to be linked to.
The next step is to click the Facebook and Twitter check boxes and when the pin is posted on Pinterest it will also be shared on Facebook and Twitter.
One Tailwind Sceduled post goes to three different social media acounts.
Give Tailwind a try. I am sure you will be as happy as I am with it.
Social Media Marketing Plan
The last thing I would like to talk about is the importance of knowing what your objectives are.
Why do you have a Facebook Page?
Why do you have an Instagram account for your art business?
Why are you on Twitter?
Why do you have a YouTube channel?
If you do not know what your objectives are you will not be able to develop a strategy that will work for you.
Take a few minutes to write your goals for each social media account you will be promoting your art on.
When you have a clear vision of what your objectives are, you will be able to create more effective social media marketing strategies that will show you positive results.
Conclusion:
If you want to sell your artwork online you will have to make a daily presence online and social media is a great way for you to do just that.
Not only will you be making a daily presence but you will also be able to build relationships with your followers which will create an emotional connection between them and your creations.
An artist’s social media strategy does not have to be complex. You might be surprised how well you will do just by sticking with the basics.
Did you enjoy this article? Don’t forget to sign up for my free weekly newsletter.
You can also join me on:
Learn how to start, grow and monetize your online art business.
Art Business eBooks
Art Business Workbooks
Art Business Planners
