Social media is a free tool. It’s created a lot of hype as “the path” or “the way” to sell your art on Instagram. Especially when some artists are doing amazing things like selling $25,000 pieces online. Hearing of those kinds of stories definitley is an attention getter.
If you’re reading this blog post, you’re likely curious how you can make this type of success happen for you. In How To Get Your Art Noticed, I shared tips on how to promote your art locally. Today I’m going to help you decide if you should promote your art on Instagram and how you can stand out so you get extra eyeballs seeing your art.
Should I Promote My Art On Instagram?
It depends.
What are your goals?
If you want to sell your work, Instagram can be an effective way to help make those sales happen.
People can discover and find you on Instagram, they can follow your work and fall in love with it. It can be an intimate view of your art process no matter where people are in the world. Also, you can build an entire audience to sell your art to.
Instagram may not be for you if you’re already selling art directly through other methods and you’re happy with those sales.
If you hate social media, you’re not going to show up there consistently and it will be an energy drain. It can cause you to “post and ghost” which means you’re missing the opportunity to connect with your potential buyers.
Think about it, if someone asked you a question about your art during your opening, normally you would answer it. If instead you turned your back and walked away from them, that’s what ghosting and posting feels like to someone online. #Awkward
This could be a bit controversial, but my stance is…if you hate it, don’t do it because you’re going to feel awful - and I like happy artists.
How Do You Get Your Art Noticed On Instagram?
Ultimately, show up. When you commit to posting consistently the algorithm will reward that and push your post out organically to your ideal audience. That means you don’t have to pay for ads.
Create A Caption Framework
Use a formula for creating captions. This makes it easy when you sit down to share anything.
Have a strong first two sentences to stop the scroll and get your reader’s attention to read more. Want to know how to write compelling starting sentences? Check out An Overlooked Instagram Strategy.
Educate, inspire, or entertain your reader.
Finally, you’ll want to close the caption with a call to action - what do you want them to do with the information you just shared?
Use Tags
Tag people and galleries when appropriate by using the “@” symbol with their Instagram handle or name.
This is a great way to build relationships with colleagues and peers as well as other gallerists and art professionals because they ‘ll get a notification that you mentioned them. It’s flattering and a fun way to create community.
They are also more likely to share your posts on their feed, which means more eyes on your work for free.
Hashtag Love
Use 3-5 strategic hashtags. But updated in 2022, Instgram is recommending that you use all 30 hashtags that they allow for. Hashtags are great so people can more easily find you when they do searches on Instagram or from the hashtags that they follow.
For example, if you have a contemporary fabric wall sculpture, you want to include hashtags that are very specific to the image that you are sharing like #fiberarts, #wallsculpture, #contemporaryarts, #contemporarysculptures. You can also use location or gallery-specific hashtags so people can find you.
Videos Rank
In 2021 Instagram announced that they are giving preference to videos.
Reels are short-form videos similar to TikTok. They are a creative and impactful way to incorporate videos into your feed.
One Reel that I posted had over 1200 views in less than an hour.
Like the grid, Reels have their own special area of Instagram where people love to watch them.
Speaking of the grid, be sure to share your Reels there and in your Stories to maximize views.
Leverage What You’ve Already Created
Stories are short videos or photos that last on your feed for 24-hours.
The benefit of these is that it makes your account visible in the circles at the top of your viewer’s Instagram feed.
Everyone has their preferred way of interacting on Instagram. And, some people are addicted to stories.
It’s easy to share all of your posts and Reels that you’ve already created to your Stories. So leverage the work you’ve already done!
Be Social
In addition to posting on your feed and different areas of Instagram, the next most important way to get your art noticed is to engage.
Respond to comments on your posts. Go follow people that you’d like to get to know. Be sure to leave meaningful comments on their posts as well.
If you want to connect with a specific interior designer who you think your work would be great for their spaces, go follow them and interact with their posts by leaving comments.
Need inspiration? Check out my Three Sentence Rule where I show you how to write comments that get noticed.
Carousel Multi-Photo Posts
It’s Instagram's goal to keep people on its platform.
When you use a Carousel, that means that people are taking time to scroll through multiple photos within one post.
Therefore, they are pausing on your post longer. The algorithm will reward you for keeping their attention. Your posts will organically be shown to other people and in their home feed.
If you’re looking to promote your art on Instagram, you can follow these steps on your own or reach out to me, Kate, to discuss how I can show you a way to get you there even faster.
Cheers,
Kate