How to Use Social Media to Grow Your Online Art Business
As a painter-slash-creative-entrepreneur, I've had to dive into social media in an entirely new way with my creative business. While I once found Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram overwhelming, I now love the opportunity they provide me to communicate with my audience and grow my business! Read on for a few ways artists can leverage social media (and you don't need to only be an Instagram wiz to succeed!)
1. Instagram is an Artist’s BFF
Instagram is a great place to build your community, discover other artists, and get discovered by others! Instagram is such a visual platform—it's all based around the images and videos. I absolutely love this as an artist, because it feels like a little mini gallery for me to showcase my art, techniques, and offerings.
As I've gotten more and more comfortable with using Instagram, I've also found my voice as I write captions for my followers that are honest and authentic. The way I look at it is this: If someone happens upon my Instagram post, I want them to get a sense of who l am through that post alone! Between the image and the caption (not to mention Stories and Reels—stay tuned to next week’s blog for all the details on this!), Instagram gives artists the opportunity to show people what their art is all about AND short snippets that reveal their personality and values.
Using Instagram, I've made some great new artist friends from all over the world, and I’ve grown my community further with those who have discovered my artwork, courses, and membership through Instagram! It's all about being true to yourself and your art and allowing it to shine through the screen.
2. Facebook is a Great Place to Foster and Grow Your Community
Facebook pages and groups are excellent tools for getting closer with your community as well as gaining exposure. My Facebook page has been a place I’ve been able to share tips, tricks, and tutorials with my audience. I also sell my art, courses, and membership offerings there. Most of all, I love connecting with people—sharing tidbits about my life and learning about the people who follow me. It makes my day when people like, comment and share…it’s just another way I get to connect with other artists.
I also often create private Facebook groups for artists in courses I teach. It gives us one central forum to connect with one another, to ask questions, to have live Q+A sessions, and to remain connected on progress throughout further pieces and projects! I love being able to foster this sense of community.
Facebook groups and pages are great discovery tools as well. When utilized properly, you can find wonderful potential customers, course participants, students, and even other mentors through Facebook group and page searches!
3. Pinterest is an Amazing Place for Artists to be Discovered Online
Pinterest operates similarly to a search engine, and can even help boost your search engine optimization (SEO) and lead people to your website! I’ve gotten a lot of exposure putting my blog posts on Pinterest. It’s all organic, meaning I haven’t paid for any of the exposure.
There are tons of artists on Pinterest who are looking for painting tutorials, and tons of designers or interior decor enthusiasts who are looking for paintings to spruce up their homes. Create ‘boards’ for topics that interest your ideal client and/or the type of artistry that interests you. Then, pin your images, blog posts, and tutorials, and watch the traffic to your website increase!
Social Media Guidance for Artists
Whether you've been on social media for a while or you're just getting started, I promise you, taking some time to build your accounts is a very doable and fun way to further build your business! You don't have to have thousands and thousands of followers to have an engaged and successful online community; focus instead on the content that you're posting, what you're sharing, and what you hope to accomplish, and the followers and community will follow.
Social media strategy for artists is a topic covered in my membership program, The Painterly Way. I love helping my members harness social media to grow their online audiences and grow an email list to engage further with their loyal fans and followers!
How’s Your Social Game Going?
Which platform do you enjoy most? Are you growing your business using social media? Tell me, what’s worked for you and what hasn’t?
