At a time when communication is being disseminated on a massive scale via social networks, it’s obvious to ask questions when you’re an artist.
- Should I use social networks to show my paintings?
- Is it useful (indispensable) to promote myself as a painter?
- Can I sell my work online?
Here’s a quick look at the various social networks and paint publications.
How does social networking work?
Facebook, instagram, linkedIn, twitter… are you lost? Which would be the best way to present your paintings, gather opinions and advice, and find buyers?
On the whole, they all work on a fairly identical basis, each one being accessed from a different angle. Each social medium allows you to post all kinds of data: photos, texts, videos, live streams, etc. Each network also generates interactions: likes and reactions, comments, subscriptions…
When you publish something on your News Feed, a web is gradually woven around it. For example, people will like your photo, which will then be suggested to their friends, etc. This is how “suggestions” come about: “you might know…”, “this might interest you…”. One thing leads to another, and you gain visibility.
Yes, it’s magic ✨!
Of course, it’s not enough to post a photo of a painting to achieve worldwide fame in just a few minutes. To gain visibility, you have to “work” the posting: Behind it, there’s an artificial intelligence that works hard and analyzes each new piece of data posted online. Find an appropriate title, write a clear description, add relevant hashtags to generate reactions and traffic to your publication.
Because behind it all lies a hard-working artificial intelligence that analyzes every new piece of data posted online. A publication that meets the SEO criteria and arouses interest on the part of Internet users will be more prominently featured and proposed by the search engine, Google or otherwise.
The Internet is everywhere, multi-generational and cross-country. The Internet connects people permanently and indefinitely.
Social networks can help you reach a huge number of people, so it’s up to you to find the one that will give you maximum visibility in your field.
Social networks: which one for painters?
The secret is to find your own leverage, the network on which you feel comfortable publishing, according to your target audience. Then, of course, it’s a demanding job. To gain visibility, you need to put quality publications online regularly.
Youtube and tiktok are entertainment channels, where you can broadcast videos and montages. Pinterest and facebook will be good supports for anything related to commerce, Instagram is perfect for image distribution, etc.
In short, to make views, you need the right content at the right time.
🖌️ Good content doesn’t mean a great painting; good content means a well-crafted publication with good framing and editing, something that’s pleasant to look at and that will make you want to find out more about the artist.
🖌️ at the right time: to reach Internet users with your publications, you need to start by thinking about “who is my target audience? Where are the people likely to be interested in my creations? What kind of social networks are they on, and how can I communicate with them to get the message across?
Posting on social networks is a very time-consuming activity, so there’s no need to be present on all of them.
In painting, too, Facebook and Instagram allow you to do live shows and publish photos of your paintings, so you can create a community around your theme.
Facebook, facebook page, groups
Facebook is the most popular social network today. It’s common to follow a brand, for example, to become “friends” with someone, or to subscribe to a company page. This allows you to be alerted when something new is available. The advantage is that each Internet user can choose his or her areas of interest and target the publications he or she likes to see. Internet users appreciate hearing from the author and viewing exclusive content. It’s a loyal audience with whom you can regularly interact, generating all kinds of exchanges. You’ll have your own community of fans, to whom you can present your new paintings!
Instagram, photos and stories
Instagram is the network par excellence for publishing photos. Universal, it’s understood by Internet users of all nationalities.
Instagram has over a billion active accounts, targeted by niche. It reaches a technophile audience. Interaction remains limited, but with the possibility of creating albums (photos or videos) and stories (visible 24 hours a day): excellent leverage for reaching new prospects. Instagram lets you share your daily life, with a strong impact if you feed it regularly.
The male/female audience is almost perfectly evenly matched. The youngest members of the audience (18-24) are dynamic. Insta they like to watch lives, follow their friends, or relax in front of Instagram TV by watching longer videos. Instagram is an ergonomic and intuitive social network. Internet users don’t hesitate to follow several accounts related to the same niche that interests them. Insta generates a high rate of engagement: so they interact +.
Website, e-commerce site, blog
It’s also a great way to showcase your work. The only snag is that a site, to be indexed by Google and visible to Internet users, requires a monumental amount of work. You need to feed your blog with texts, well-crafted publications and relevant, well-described photos. You have to post regularly, following SEO Friendly rules. It’s tedious, time-consuming, but not impossible! It’s also an excellent source of traffic if you invest the time to develop a solid audience. Unlike the more ephemeral social networks, where posts are constantly replaced by new ones on the “news feed”, the site is more in-depth, with articles, links and more.
As you can see, success on social networks requires patience and subtlety to understand how each network’s algorithm works: what to post, when and how.
Our aim is to attract the interest of Internet users to your activity, through the use of keywords, hashtags and well-constructed texts.
Interaction opens the door to visibility, so don’t hesitate to interact with other accounts that have a similar theme to yours. The algorithm will cross-reference the data, and gradually understand which category you fall into. And that’s how it will propose you to Internet users interested in that niche.
Each network offers statistics on your activity, to help you focus on what works in terms of visibility.
To keep your spirits up during your first steps on the social networking scene, find out more about my tips and coaching to keep you on track!
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