How To Promote Art On Social Media

Social media has changed the way artists conduct business and how art collectors discover new artwork.

But, how can you get your art noticed on social media with so much competition?

What are the benefits of promoting your art on social media?

What are some common mistakes to avoid on Social Media?

Art On Social Media

Marketers discovered the benefits of promoting products and services on social media and have taken advantage of the free platforms.

Unfortunately, social media newsfeeds soon became swamped with businesses pushing their products.

At that time social media platforms had to make a change to their algorithms if they wanted to keep their audience.

The algorithm change made it more difficult for a business to reach its following.

How Many People See Your Facebook Posts

Even though it might take more effort to reach your audience on social media, it is still worth the time invested.

How Social Media Can Help Your Art Business:

Reach A New Audience – People love to share social media posts to their friends and family. If someone likes your artwork, they will like, comment, and share it with their friends. New people will be introduced to your artwork, and you didn’t have to do anything but post an image of your latest painting.

Build Relationships – Social media has made it easy to meet new people, which makes it posable for you to build relationships with art collectors and other artists. Once you build a relationship with your following, they will become a part of your tribe and part of your marketing team.

Improve Customer Service – You can quickly solve any problems a customer might have in real-time on social media. You can instantly turn a frustrated customer into a loyal fan by fixing their issue in real-time. Other people will also notice your outstanding customer service, which might bring in new business.

Drive Traffic To Your Artist Website – It does not matter if your own an artist’s WordPress website or if you are selling art prints on Etsy, driving traffic is your main objective if you are hoping to sell your art online. Social media platforms are a great way to direct traffic to your site. All you have to do is include a link to a particular page of your selling platform to the social media post you are publishing. If the viewer wants to learn more about the topic you are posting they will click on the link and be redirected to your website.

The art world is changing right before our eyes.

Artists in New York, Chicago, or LA do not need an art gallery to represent their artwork to sell art.

Artists who reside in small towns do not have to rely on income from local craft shows.

No matter where you live, as long as you have access to the internet you can sell your art online to people around the world.

Think about how much Amazon changed from when it started.

Amazon was an e-commerce platform that sold used books.

Amazon is now selling everything online, from digital products to tangible products.

Amazon took advantage of every tool available online and made a multi-billion dollar business.

Do you think Jeff Bezos would be as successful building a multi-billion dollar e-commerce store without the help of social media tools?

Social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook have helped change the way businesses are conducting business.

You can have the same success selling your art online by taking advantage of every tool that is available to you online, including social media.

I do want to mention that it takes a combination of building a unique brand for your art business, developing an email marketing strategy, blogging, and a social media marketing strategy to build a stable art business online.

Social media is a tool that will help you to grow your online business, not a magic wand that will put thousands of dollars into your bank account.

How To Promote Art On Social Media

As an artist, selling more art is probably at the top of your list.

This year you will get more organized, write more blog posts, meet new artists and art collectors, create more art, and sell more art.

Improving your social media marketing skills will help you to reach your new goals.

What are some of the best social media marketing practices you should be focusing on?

Focus On A Couple Social Media Platforms

I can not even begin to guess how many social media platforms have come and gone in the past ten years.

Every time you turn around, someone is bragging about how they sold art on a new social media platform.

There is simply not enough time during the day to manage multiple social media accounts.

You will see better results in working on just a few different platforms versus trying to manage ten different social media business accounts.

To learn more visit, Choose One Social Media Platform To Focus On.

Discover Where Your Target Audience Hangs Out

Deciding what platforms you work on might seem difficult at first, but it is easier than you might think.

All you have to do is discover where your target audience hangs out.

It will not make any sense if you spent all your time on your Facebook page if your audience hangs out on Twitter.

Take some time to learn what social media platform your audience visits the most before you start creating accounts for every social media platform.

To learn more about discovering your target audience visit:

• How To Find Your Target Audience – Selling Art Strategies
• Sell More Art By Learning Who Your Audience Is
• What Is Your Target Audience Searching For
• Online Art Marketing Basics Know Your Audience
• How To Find Your Target Audience In 3 Easy Steps
• How To Increase Art Sales By Learning More About Your Audience
• Simple Strategy For Finding Your Target Audience
• How To Sell Your Art Online By Knowing Who Your Target Audience Is

Learn How To Market On Each Social Media Channel

Each social media platform is different, so you need to learn what types of posts will perform the best on each platform you will be using.

Some artists have seen great results in posting different content on different platforms.

For example, on Twitter, you might want to publish a short video of you working on a painting, and on Facebook, your might want to add an entire photo album with a blog post explaining the progress of a painting.

It will take more work to publish different content on different platforms, but you will receive more engagement from people who follow you on multiple platforms.

For more information visit Social Media Resource.

Publish High-Quality Posts

In the past, it was recommended for businesses to publish posts on Facebook 10-15 times a day.

The abundance of business posts is one of the reasons Facebook had to make a change to its algorithm.

There would be nothing on your newsfeed except businesses selling products if Facebook allowed companies to publish unlimited posts.

You would have to scroll through hundreds of posts just to find a post from a friend or family member.

How long would you use Facebook as your social platform if you only saw posts from businesses?

Today, businesses are finding better results from posting high-quality posts less frequently than posting multiple posts of lesser quality.

Here is an example of how high-quality posting will reach more of your followers.

Your Facebook posts will only be featured on about 2% of your follower’s newsfeed.

The only way more people will see your post is if you pay to “Boost” you’re the post or if your followers like, engage and share your post.

The odds of your following taking the time to engage and share your post will increase when you publish high-quality posts.

80/20 Rule

I cannot remember when I first read this rule, but it works for me.

The 80/20 rule is when 80% of your posts are entertaining, and 20% is promoting a product.

Social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook were created for people to socialize and meet new people.

Social media sites were not created for businesses to sell products.

You will see a boost in engagement on your posts if you start posting more entertaining posts rather than just posting art for sale.

The 80/20 rule is just a guideline. You do not have to be exact with the percentages. All it means is that more of your posts should be entertaining rather than promoting products.

Entertainment Post Ideas

People who follow you on social media want to get to know more about you as an artist.

The more they learn about you, the more they will feel connected to your artwork.

At that point, they will be more willing to spend money on purchasing art from you.

Entertaining Post Ideas:

• Share images of your studio.
• Talk about your favorite art supplies or new mediums you are experimenting with.
• Talk about what was the inspiration for your latest painting or drawing.
• Talk about your favorite artists and artwork.
• Talk about your upcoming craft fairs.

As you can see, there are multiple subjects you can share with your social media following.

In between those posts you can share with them some art you have for sale.

How To Get Your Art Noticed On Social Media

There is no guarantee that your art will be noticed on social media.

But with hard work, you can experience great results.

Stop thinking like an artist when you are posting on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Think like a marketer.

Your job on social media is to get more people to see your artwork.

Take advantage of free insights that social media platforms offer.

The insights will show you:

• What type of content your audience engages with.
• When your audience visits the social media platform
• Where your audience resides.

The information you gather will help you to make better marketing decisions.

The more productive you are on social media, the more people will see your artwork.

For more information visit:

• Understanding Tailwind Analytics
• How To See If Your Posts Are Being Pinned On Pinterest
• How To Use Facebook Insights To Reach Your Audience

How Does One Create A Social Media Strategy

You need to know what your social media objectives are before you can start to develop a productive social media marketing strategy.

Below are some questions to help get you started:

• What are your art business goals?
• What are your social media goals?
• Who is your target audience?
• What platform does your target audience go on?
• What type of content does your audience engage with?
• Who is your competition?
• What separates you from your competition?
• What is your brand?
• How does your brand resonate on social media?
• What message do you want to get across on social media?

Answering the questions above will help you to start developing a social media marketing plan.

The next step is to analyze what is working and what is not working.

Continue to revise your marketing strategy until you are seeing the results you were hoping for.

Why Artists Fail On Social Media

Like I have mentioned earlier, it is becoming more challenging to reach your fans on social media.

But there are some common reasons why artists are seeing the results they are hoping for.

Not Writing Entertaining Posts People Will Want To Read – Take the time to learn what your audience wants to read. Publish posts that will have them stop scrolling through their newsfeed and read your post.

No Time To Post – It takes time to write quality posts. One reason people feel overwhelmed posting on social media is that they are trying to market their business on too many platforms. Pick one or two platforms to focus on. Doing so will free up time so you can be more productive with your posts.

Discouraged With The Results – We are living in a fast-paced world and expect instant results. It will take time to build a following on social media. Don’t give up. Quality is more important than quantity. Would you rather have 100 fans that purchase your art or 1,000 followers who do not buy any products? Focus on the fans you have and strive to deliver quality content.

Post And Forget – I have fallen victim to this. There are going to be times when you are strapped for time. You need to engage with your audience when they take the time to like, share, and comment on your posts. If you fail to do so, your fans will stop engaging with your posts. Do not publish social posts if you do not have time throughout the day to respond to comments.

Conclusion: In recent years, visual arts have seen an increase in sales thanks to the internet.

Social media has become a virtual art museum.

Art enthusiastic no longer have to drive to a museum to enjoy beautiful artwork.

Some of my friends have recently asked me,” Is social media ruining art?”

I don’t believe it is. I feel that social media allows people to discover art they could have never seen before the internet.

Do you need social media as an artist?

Social media is a tool that will help you to build an online presence and grow your following.

Take advantage of all the free tools available.

Social media art marketing is continually changing.

What works for you today might not produce the same results tomorrow.

Always take the time to look at your analytics to see what is producing the best results.