Social media for artists is a very effective marketing tool, but it must be used in the right way. Avoid these mistakes and you’ll be on your way to creating a large fan base for your work.
Social media usage has become a part of modern culture, and much of it is visual, so it only makes sense that the art world shines there. It’s a powerful tool that allows artists to connect with potential buyers. As the number of social media platforms has has grown, it’s also becoming more complex to navigate. The large possibilities for connection help to increase the possibility for art business sales and opportunities, but there are some mistakes that can hinder your results.
Avoid the following practices on social media to avoid wasting your time and your fans tuning you out.
1. Not Interacting With Your Followers
Social media gives artists the opportunity to interact directly with current and prospective buyers. So, if people are commenting on an artist’s work and the artist is not responding, followers may become disinterested and turn their attention elsewhere. Try to respond to comments, shares, and likes on your posts. Even something as simple as “thank you so much for commenting” can go a long way toward building relationships with people on social media.
2. Inconsistent Visuals
A good strategy is to start with one platform at a time. Expand as you can and work to be on the sites that make the most sense for you. When appearing on more than one platform, it’s important to keep personal branding consistent. For an artist, this simply means try to keep your images consistent across platforms. So, if you are using a head shot – try to use the same one on each platform. If you have a header image of your work, keep it consistent. When people see your work consistently o multiple platforms, it gives your work a larger presence in their minds. This doesn’t mean, however that content has to be the same. Try to post different content on each site.
3. Going Off-topic
If your social media profile is for your art business, try to stay on-topic. That is, stick to posting your own artwork, perhaps art from other artists that you admire or work with, businesses and organizations that you work with, or information about the art world or specific to your medium. Steer clear of random personal notes that don’t relate to your work or making social/political commentary. An exception to this rule would be when your work is related to a specific issue or cause. Then, your followers will be expecting to hear your thoughts. People are visiting your page to interact and learn about your work. Keep the personal stuff to personal profiles.
4. Only Posting Your Artwork
The fastest way to lose followers is to be all about you all the time. If an artist posts nothing but their own work with no engagement-focused posts to inspire conversations, the audience will become bored and click away. It is vital when marketing on social media not to appear to be spam. Art lovers are on social media for more than just viewing art and as such, they follow a lot of pages.
Try posting two images of your work per week filling the rest of your feed with probing questions and valuable content that addresses something related to your art community, your medium or your niche.
Do you have any other “do’s or don’t” that you’ve learned working on social media for your art business? Share them with me at becky@artisan-advantage.com and I’ll include them in a future post.
Photo by William Iven on Unsplash
