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Week 7 - Virtual version of the handout.
Week 7 - Creating a Professional Portfolio - Creating an Online Presence - Instagram and Etsy Shops
Promoting your artwork on Social Media -
Instagram, Facebook both have different target audiences. Tik Tok is also used by artists. Short videos up to 30 sec. That capture interest eg. Demos, opening new art supplies, going to a gallery, etc. work well with the logarithm of Instagram and Facebook and can also be posted to Tic Tok, and YouTube.
Instagram has been the prime social media for artist’s professional accounts.
Some hints:
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Follow other artists, galleries, art blogs, art instructors, art materials accounts, arts organizations. This is a form of networking.
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Know your brand!
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Make a social media calendar - In general this means planning simply
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Videos that show the work for sale - New painting for sale , New beadwork for sale etc.
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Some crafters build up momentum with monthly or seasonal collections that they have a launch day for and they post teaser posts ahead of time. Those are usually with a go to my bio for a link to my online store kind of approach
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Do reels a couple a week - this is the fastest way to be up in the logarithm (computer mathematics that determines how often you are actually seen on others timelines).
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Get friends to write comments, and heart you. That boosts you up. Some people use giveaways to get this attention. Some use waffles (spelt wrong to avoid raffle laws I suspect)
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Post stories and share stories one or two daily, not thirty at a time, no-one wants to see your online addiction!!!
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Use linktree to list your website, webstore, etsy shop, t-shirt shop, etc. and all the social media, plus things you mention in our posts. Eg. “new course….. Go to my bio to a registration link” eg. “You can buy prints of my art at any time in my ETSY shop. Go to my bio for a link.”
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Take quality photos, several at once so you can work on just posting and wording, reels etc. If you do not know how to use lighting, take photos, and manipulate them afterwards, take a course! Professional photography costs a lot. You might want to hire an up and coming photographer to take a headshot series for your social media. Make sure your selfies look good and reflect well on you.
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Use hashtags - about ten on each post - try to avoid hashtags that have huge numbers - stick to 100 or 200 thousand people on those hashtags
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If you have facebook, they are now both owned by META so post to both via Insta. At the same time by setting it up that way.
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Every once in a while empty the cache on instagram, you will have to relog in but it takes up more and more space if you do not, same goes for instagram and history in your web browser and deleted photos section on your phone.
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If an instagram account that promotes artists, contacts you really look at it deep - view - some will say it will boost your followers by x thousands, so look at the ones posted a week or more ago and see do they actually have a lot of followers. An account can have a million followers but if you pay to be shown you have to see if it actually helps boost that artist's account. See if those million followers are actually hearting and commenting on the stuff that is posted. There are many of these “best art” “artistoftheday” type accounts and they will contact you but only pay if you see it has given others a boost. Also really look at the quality of art they “promote” , some just post whatever trash they can get paid to post… you do not want that account posting yours, not for money for sure. And make sure if any dm you that they are the verified version of that instagram art promo site.
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Consider trying Instagram ads. Some artists have found these work.
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Planning your Social Media posting Calendar
In general use a daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal plan for what to post based on the advice you can get
Eg. Mondays - post a new work
Tuesdays - post a demo of what you are doing
Wednesdays - post pics of work in progress in a reel
Thursdays - post something that tells who you are - not really personal but about you as an artist
Friday - post something they can buy on your webstore
Saturday - the same
Sunday - a reflection, quote from a famous artist etc.
ALL WEEK - use stories to repost things from earlier or quick thoughts.
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For events post AT LEAST one week before and get friends to heart and comment as it takes a minimum of six days for that post to be noticed in the cycle of Insta.
Hints by others:
https://veronicasart.com/how-to-use-instagram-effectively-as-artist-in-2022/ Artist hints by Veronica Winters Painting
https://veryprivategallery.com/instagram-tips-for-artists/ some stats on how effective Instagram is for artists
https://www.marylynnbuchanan.com/blog/how-to-use-instagram-as-an-artist-2019
Hints by artist, Mary Lynn Buchanan
https://www.contemporaryartissue.com/how-to-use-instagram-to-become-a-successful-artist/
From Contemporary Art Issue - Avoid tick tock stunt like videos and be an artist first, influencer maybe (but a professional looking one - no scaring your grandma, being rude to your partner, etc.)
https://www.booooooom.com/2018/01/12/20-best-art-instagram-accounts-inspiration/
I found this interesting as it is one arts reviewer instagram stating their fave 20 sites for viewing Contemporary Art
Selling art via ETSY
Here is a short workshop presentation I did via zoom (it is a couple of years old) I updated the wording but some set up will be different now as they change things at times.
https://www.margboyle.com/about-3-2 Creating a Professional Portfolio is my online resource. Follow the link then sublinks which I am still working on. Week & is up there. With hotlinks!
Some facts about ETSY: There are about 8 million activity ETSY shops at present, that is double the number in 2020.
There are 95.5 million active buyers on ETSY.
In 2023 the gross sales with 13.1 Billion
Their net income after expenses and payouts to shops was 307 million.
Other topics we could discuss if time permitted:
Website creation
Newsletter marketing
Selling through a personal shop eg. shopify , wix, etc. vs. a selling platform with built in customer bases
Other sales platforms - EBAY, Amazon, Poshmark, Art gallery online sales, etc.
Using youtube and tiktok
Using Facebook
Using Deviant Art
Using Drop shippers