Arty Business Ep. 1: Social Media Growth

 Last spring I left my full-time Assistant Kitchen Manager job to start an art business, with a modest cushion of savings, maybe 10 sales on Etsy, and around 250 followers on Instagram. I started advertising this change on Instagram, uploaded some new items to my store, and got a nice little bump in sales that quickly dropped off. I was so happy to have that early support, but quickly realized that I needed to broaden my audience if I was going to get any kind of sustainable income from my store.

And I did! In the past year I worked very hard with a couple of key strategies to expand my social media presence, and as a result increased my sales, made so many wonderful new friends, improved my art, and got some wonderful opportunities that I wouldn't have otherwise.

Before I share the strategies I want to share some thoughts on viewing social media in a perhaps healthier, more balanced way:

1. Always remember that your worth as a person and an artist is not directly tied to numbers. But it's okay to try to get new eyes on your art. There are people who want to see your creations, and you're just trying to get it to them! 

2. Engagement and growth comes and goes in waves. Even if it's slow right now that doesn't mean it will always be. Even if it's crazy it doesn't mean it always will be.

3. Numbers don't necessarily reflect commercial success. You can have 1,000 followers and have a thriving Etsy store. Heck you can have 0 followers and have a successful in-person business. It's just a tool for connection, not a reflection of success.

4. You'll always be aiming higher, so start to practice being at peace with where you are now, while continuing to reach. Enjoy the ride. No need to feel like "I'll be happy when..."

Now let's get in to some strategies! I have the most experience with Instagram so that's mostly what I'll be referring to, but feel free to apply this to your social media of choice.

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E N G A G E M E N T  

Don't be too stressed about engagement, but don't be afraid to use the tools your platforms give you! Think of these tools as a way of bringing your work to someone who really wants to see it.

-Relevant Hashtags: For the longest time I thought hashtags were tacky to use on posts, especially lots of them. But now I have literally gotten multiple paying jobs just from using #seattleartists on Instagram. Don't be afraid to use up to 15-30 RELEVANT hashtags on each post. But be aware of how many posts are under each hashtag, if it's in the millions your post will often get lost. For example, #art, #watercolor, #artist, #illustrator have millions of posts and are often spammed, and that means yours is less likely to get seen. More specific tags like #illustratorsoninstagram #dogart, #purpleart, and #veganartist give you a higher likelihood of being seen.

 - Tags: I like to tag larger companies in my posts if it's relevant! I.e. if I'm posting an illustration drawn in the Procreate app I might tag  Procreate in the image. If I'm posting about an Etsy update I might tag Etsy, if I paint using a specific material I'll tag that company.

 - Comments: The more comments a post has, the more it'll show up on other people's feeds. Therefore, invite conversation in your post description! Ask a question related to your post. This also makes it more fun for everyone, including you! And when you have time, respond to peoples comments. This registers as even more 'engagement', allowing more people to see your post. Plus it's just plain polite, and builds communities and friendship! All good baby! 

- Don't spam: We all want to grow our following, but spamming people won't do it. Don't beg people to look at your page, tag people who have nothing to do with your post, or pay those dubious email people who promise followers for dollars. You don't do those things, right? Interacting with people is lovely, but they don't owe you anything. Nobody likes to feel used, including you.

- Participate! If it relates to your business, join one of those art challenges that goes around Instagram and Twitter, like Inktober, Mermay, and Drawthisinyourstyle. If it's fun for you, it's a great way to connect with other artists and art lovers. Draw your favorite celebrities, movie characters, instagram vintage clothing models, or youtubers, and tag them so they can see it (but don't be too bummed if they don't people are busy.) 

Some of my follower growth bumps came from: Inktober, Drawthisinyourstyle, drawing the things I was into each month and tagging them, and redrawing the cover of the local newspaper and tagging them (they shared it.) If you do a study from someone's photo, I highly recommend sending it to them first and seeing if they're okay with you posting it!

P R E S E N T A T I O N

If you have an online business, then your online presence is your storefront! Make it feel clean, cohesive, and professional, whatever that means to you!

-Business Account: I highly recommend making a page just for your art, and making it a business Instagram account! You get so many other tools, including ability to view your engagement details. And it makes you look (and feel) more professional! And that's so important when you're building your own business.

-Edit Photos: Game changer! Look at your favorite art social media pages, and look at the way they present their images. Literally take notes, what do you like about how their page looks? For me, I think it's very important to make white paper/walls look white, not grey or yellow. If I was going for a more vintage-vibe I might want all my images to look warmer/more yellow. But that's down to branding.My photos changed so much when I started editing my pictures on Google's free editing app Snapseed. Zach saw me editing my photos one time and asked, "Do you really edit that much every time?" Yes. Every time. Clean it up, baby! Your art is worth it! 

-Color Scheme: I spent a whole week on just this when I first got started, and this mostly comes down to branding. But for me, I decided to emphasize bright whites, rich blues, yellows, and reds as my main color scheme. I also have a posting schedule of a checkerboard pattern. White, color, white, color, white, color. It drives me crazy sometimes, but I love the overall balance of my page as a result. Check out your favorite Instagrams and see if you notice a theme in what you like, and see if you can draw overall design inspiration from them. There's pastel branding, vintage-y, super colorful, black and white, really minimalist, and on and on. We can go in to that more later.

C O N S I S T E N C Y

Don't be afraid, you can do it! Once you get in the habit of sharing consistently, it ain't no thang.

- Consistent Sharing: Make it work for you! Most of the time I'm able to post once a day, and I notice my engagement goes WAY up when I do. Some people post twice a day (Woah.) Or maybe you want to post twice a week, or every other day. Look at your life and your schedule, and decide what works for you. And challenge yourself to stick to it.

- Builds Habits + Bravery: I find that enforcing consistency on myself also encourages me to create more, share things I might not be entirely happy with but that other people love to see, and to share my process. Honestly the thing that really got me back in to art was making myself share daily during Inktober 2017. That habit has helped me so much.

-Take a Break: Dog, it's fine. Take a week off, skip a day or two. No need to apologize, if you have a ton of stuff going on in your life, then that's great! People understand! If you can or want to, you can plan ahead for times you know you're going to be busy. If not, it's not the end of the world or your business.

C O N T E N T

Yowza, this is a whole thing on it's own, so I'm just going to touch on Content. Check out Andy J. Pizza's Creative Peptalk for more advice on what to make and share! 

-Increase Engagement: There are a few key ways to increase engagement with your posts specifically.

• Create content that people can connect with- make them laugh, cry, learn, smile, or feel understood. More on that in the future.
• Post multiple pictures in a post. When people swipe through to see more pictures, it counts as engagement.
• Write at least two small paragraphs in the captions. If people click the "read more" button, it counts as engagement. And, people are more likely to connect emotionally if there's a little information about the image or its creator. 

 - Share what you want more of: I like to think that what I put out there is what I'm going to get back. That means that whenever possible I like to share as close as possible to the kind of art that I want to be getting jobs in. If I don't want to do realistic paintings as a job, I won't share it. I don't want to be a comic artist, so I'm not going to put a lot of time into making and sharing comics just because some people like that! It's a great practice both for yourself as an artist and for your business.

-Share process and imperfections: Being open and honest is healthy and beautiful and interesting. My most popular post right now was something that I scribbled in three seconds, and thought was funny but definitely not perfect. I often tell myself you never know what other people are going to love, so might as well share it! I think it takes a lot of pressure off.

- Share about yourself: And share pictures of yourself regularly, my friend. You're not an art robot, not a machine. You're a living, breathing, interesting, beautiful person, and people deserve to get to know you! On a more practical level, people like to give their money to people, more than tossing it in to a corporate void. You're not a corporate void! No sir!

By sharing images of yourself, your work space, your process, and your life, you're also building credibility. It reminds people that you are actually creating this art, not just stealing it or copying it or are a bot. You're not stealing your art right? Of course not!

-Share your knowledge: Everyone has something to teach someone. Don't be afraid to share what you have learned or are learning, because for someone that is a new concept! I'm not the queen of social media, arty business, or illustration, but I do have things that I've learned that I've been able to teach other people! Kaila, one of the Ragonia patrons, has lately been killing it sharing her process of creating screen prints and it has been helping so many people, including me! Alissa, another awesome patron, often shares on Instagram about her natural dying techniques, and it's been inspiring me to give it a try as well!You have something you can teach someone else through your social media. By sharing knowledge you can connect with others, create something people want to share themselves, and build your own confidence as well.

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Some final thoughts:

• As with all of my advice, don't feel like you have to make all these changes at once. Early on I felt intimidated by social media because I felt like I had to be completely perfect at first. You can take it slowly. Take a dash of this here and there, see what works for you and what doesn't. Experiment. 
• Focus on connection, rather than obsessing over growth. It's better to have 2,000 totally invested supporters than 200,000 lukewarm followers.
• VERY IMPORTANT: Reach out to art communities in """real life"""" as well! Use social media to find those opportunities and then go for them! Use the online world to facilitate those awesome real world connections and market spots. My Etsy and Instagram are great, but they're nothing compared to the art walks, markets, and conventions that I've attended and sold art in. Pair your online marketing with marketing in the real world, and you're setting yourself for a much more sustainable business.

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Other Resources on Social Media for Creatives:

• This podcast episode (and other episodes of Creative Pep Talk by Andy J. Pizza.)
• This long awesome video by Dina Rodriguez of Letter Shoppe.
• This podcast episode (and many others from Being Boss!)
• This video by Holly Exley!

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Boom, baby! There we have it! It seems like a lot, but honestly it's just the tip of the iceberg of my thoughts on social media strategies. I will definitely be expanding more on these concepts in the future. If there's something specific you'd like to hear more on, please let me know. I hope these ideas help you, and not overwhelm you! It's a lot, but truly you can take it step by step. Don't be intimidated, you can do it.

I also wanted to say, I had planned to have a bunch of awesome illustrations to go with this, that could later be used for a zine. But dang it if I didn't plan correctly. Hopefully still a helpful article, that will still be used in the future for a zine! 

Now tell me, which of these tactics are you going to try for your business next? Let me know in the comments, I'm excited to hear!

You've got this! You can do this! You're an amazing powerful being!

Much love, 

Ragon