How to Sell Art on Instagram

hey guys so I just did a blog post recently about how I use Instagram to sell my artwork and I figured I'd go ahead and do a YouTube video on that also just because I do want to do more with my youtube channel but I figured if I'm doing a blog post I can do a video so this video is about how I use Instagram to sell my artwork I started my Instagram account kind of early on in the days of Instagram so even though I wasn't super consistent in the beginning I don't think it was detrimental to my growth on Instagram just because there weren't so many people using it and businesses and companies hadn't really gone on Instagram yet I can see her so distracting but then as I started to post more and I started to make more art and be more consistent I get people asking me if my art was for sale I think now because Instagram is such an established platform and so many artists and creators are on Instagram if you're consistent you will build a following and it might be slow at first because again it's free so you're not paying for ads you're not paying for promotions you don't have to to grow and build a following all you have to do is produce consistent content and you'll find people or people will find you who like what you're doing you don't have to spend a lot of money which is a huge bonus but you do have to be consistent so if you have a small tight budget like I do then Instagram is amazing because again you don't to pay to promote yourself or get in front of people but that means you have to be mindful and take the time every day to think of something to post whether that's in the actual Instagram feed for your real account or if it's in the stories and a second thing that I think will really help you grow your account it's take good photos and I don't believe this is detrimental to growing a following on Instagram because I up until very very recently I didn't take a lot of time or put a lot of attention into the photos I was posting if you don't have a newer phone that takes good photos then just do what I do and a real camera and what I also do because I'm not a good photo editor I actually downloaded some presets from Sorella more and what presets are if you're using Lightroom backtrack I use Lightroom to edit my photos and then I post them on Instagram and so in Lightroom you can get presets which are basically just like preset settings for your photos with a preset just automatically adjusts all your settings you can still go in and change things so I like them because it's super super fast and you get a really consistent editing style so your photos look a lot more consistent and if you do have a good phone and you do like Adobe software and you do want to use presets then you can actually get them for your phone all you have to do is download the Lightroom cc app not Lightroom classic CC classic is for desktop regular Lightroom cc you can use it on your desktop and install all of your presets there and when you download the app and sign into your Adobe account it'll automatically update your phone and you're like Lightroom presets so that when you go into Lightroom on your mobile device after taking a photo you can apply those preset and you can do all the editing styles that you put on your desktop but it's mobile and the last thing when you're actually posting to your Instagram feed the aspect ratio that you want to use is like a 4 or 5 or an 8 10 aspect ratio and that's just because it takes up the most like real estate on someone's phone so use that it's a lot harder for people to miss your post it's so much easier for them to notice it and then you're likely to get more engagement obviously because nobody missed seeing your photo [Music] alright so third is hashtags there's a general rule of thumb that I've started to follow and it's to not use super super popular hashtags and to also not use super obscure hashtags so for me the sweet spot is between like 500,000 uses and when you're going on Instagram and you're starting to look up your hashtags and you're typing in like hashtag art you'll see how many people have used hashtag art and its millions and then you'll see how many people have used hashtag watercolor art hashtag artwork and you can go through and pick the one that's closer to 500,000 because that means that it's popular enough to get searched but not so so popular and overused that if you post a photo with hashtag art that it's gonna immediately get lost and so when somebody goes into Instagram and types in hashtag art looking for art on Instagram your posts gonna be buried because so many people use it so sometimes I use very popular hashtags and sometimes I use super obscure hashtags like hashtag Shane Reynolds no one's searching for that but maybe someday they will so I'm trying to get a head start by the next thing that I think a lot of people tend to neglect not everyone I've seen plenty of people use this that a lot of people who don't is to tag your photos you want to always tag your location and I believe in Internet safety and I'm a petite single female so I definitely don't want anyone to know where I'm at because I'm a little afraid of strangers but I will always tag my general location so instead of tagging my apartment complex or my county I'll just tag Dallas Texas as my location and if I'm in a cool spot working and I want to promote that business I won't post the photo until after I've already left so definitely geo tag location tag your photos because that can connect you with so many local buyers or other local creatives and artists that are maybe wanting to collaborate with you or for me I was interviewed on a podcast recently because of my location tags so definitely use those because they can be beneficial the second tag that you can do is to tag people or businesses and I'll admit I overdid this in the beginning when I realized that it was like a useful thing to do and I would tag gosh she was it I can't remember the account that I was constantly tagging I was tagging them all the time and they didn't block me but they blocked me from tagging them somehow and so I remember one day going in to tag them in my progress photo which I was posting progress photos every day and tagging them every day I could not tag them and I was like that's weird and I realized what was happening and so don't overdo it it is obnoxious maybe for a finished piece of art you can go ahead and like tag these big companies that you're like proud to use and like support or with businesses that's something that I've started to do that has again resulted in collaborations or other shout outs from people because I shout at them out I have a coladas cup or I'm drinking my coffee and it's coladas I'll tag those companies in my photos and then if somebody clicks on the photo then they'll see all those tags pop up if you're from Alaska you know what coladas Brothers is it's a fun way an easy way to kind of like give back to these other small businesses or brands that you really love to use if you are very consistent they're like oh it's just like artist who really loves us and she's tapped us in several photos then they might want to work with you or even send you a promotional item or shout you out which is awesome I have found a huge increase in like engagement and people feeling connected to me when I started to post more photos of myself and it's because psychologically people relate to people and so if they're seeing you a human face and figure in a photo then they're more likely to feel connected to that and especially with your artwork because this is you you're the artist and this is the art you're creating then it gives me this sense of like insights and arts mysterious to people so this was hard for me just because I wanted my account to be about my artwork I didn't want it to be about me and all of us ladies know if you post a selfie or a photo of yourself then you ends up getting a lot of unwanted messages and maybe they're not dirty or anything but you just get a lot of like hey very beautiful and it's annoying and it's stupid so get used to blocking people don't be ashamed of blocking people there's nothing wrong with it if you don't want that attention block them the post photos of yourself and kind of talk about your experience creating the artwork because art isn't a serious to people and if you can get a little bit of light to that then they feel again more connected and intimate with your work because they've seen it kind of come to life and they've kind of gotten an insight into how it was created people will feel a lot more connected with if they can see you actually working on your art or just you as the artist people want to know you especially on social media if somebody does leave you a comment I always always always always respond to them and instagrams changed it a little bit where they won't notify you of older photos that people comment or like they only notify you of like the most recent ones maybe from that week I haven't figured out the timeline so I try and say on Instagram for 20 to 30 minutes after I post the photo replying to everyone who leaves me a comment and when I reply if I don't recognize the username I'll click on their profile photo go to their profile look at their first name and then go back and respond to them using their first name because it just feels a lot more intentional and personal and it helps you as this artist he's kind of like alone in your studio get to know the people who are following and supporting you and try and be more engaging with those instead of just like thanks thank you thank you thanks if they say like oh I love these colors or oh this is so happy then be like thank you like I wanted this to be happy or I was nervous about this color combination but it really did work out and like your comment means a lot to me just try and respond to people like their people yeah if you leave me like a heart emoji as a comment I'll still reply back with like a thank you emoji it keeps them from becoming a number and keeps you from getting caught up and stressed out about I don't have enough followers because the followers you have are invested in you and you're invested in them when you're posting your photos and you're writing your captions that can be really difficult as an artist trying to write out a caption for my art I don't always know what to say about it because I feel something about it and I'm creating it because of this feeling I have or this like idea but actually articulating that can be hard however it is really important to share some of these behind the scenes so if you're really excited about a piece in the beginning let people know like a lot of people who follow me know that if I'm excited in the beginning and I'm like oh my gosh this is so cool I'm so excited to share this piece then I'm also following that up with and I hope I don't ruin it or if you do something very personal just share that you don't have to bury your soul and don't do anything that makes you feel like uncomfortable or too vulnerable but share it little by little and kind of get your feet wet because of you over share that hurts you but if you don't share enough then you can't actually connect the people and they're just like oh yeah art because they see art and target and home goods and art is everywhere and so for you to connect with them you have to share what this art is that was something that was tricky for me because I wanted people to see my art and interpret it in a way that was meaningful to them I didn't want to interrupt or change their interpretation but I found if I see piece of art and I really resonate with it and I feel something from it and then the artist is like oh that's why I painted it and it's totally not what I was thinking or feeling that doesn't change my perspective [Music] I couldn't really afford to do this in the very beginning just because I wasn't taking in any money really and then the money I was making off Instagram is going into art supply its art supplies are super expensive so once I started to get a little bit more money than I was contacting just like sending messages to these accounts and I was just like oh my gosh I love your account can I send you an art print for you to feature and tag me on and it's cool because then they're sharing your art with their followers who you probably wouldn't be able to get in front of very easily on your own or maybe ever try and find counts that have kind of a similar aesthetic to your artwork so don't pick an account that maybe has like I don't know bright colors if your arts very like dark and moody I feel like I've said this a few times throughout this video but I think it is hard for an artist to really promote themselves that's just so hard for us and it's just something yet to get over you have to in some way or on some level not be emotional about your work and know that not everyone's gonna like it be ok with that also you don't wanna come across like you're just trying to get people's money so you don't want to always be like pushing our sales right you don't want to be like buy my art buy my art buy and I are all the time or people will get up annoyed with you what I generally like to feel out is to do 70 percent like selfless sharing so just posting progress photos giving in sides doing Instagram stories and then 30% selling so you don't want to not sell and you don't want to not tell people that you're arts for sale but you don't only want to be doing that most of what you're doing on Instagram because it is a social media site it's not your website and it's not your shop is to share behind the scenes and to connect with people so then when you do have a piece for sale don't feel bad about putting that this piece is for sale in the caption after you've posted the photo and giving the price and being like hey my website is linked above in my profile and I go to your profile and make sure that your website is linked and make sure in your profile bio it says it's a link to shop my art and also I'll use Instagram stories to be like this prints for sale swipe up to shop and if that just feels like so much like oh I'm posting a photo and I'm saying buy my art and then my bio is like buy my art and my Instagram story's like buy my art it's too much it's not too much because I will do that and I will still get DM on this group of people asking me like oh is your art for sale how can i buy your art can i get a print where can i shop and i'm like and if you're exclusively on instagram right now you haven't built a website or gotten on any of these other platforms like Etsy or build something off Shopify or Squarespace then to sell your art through Instagram all you need is PayPal and once that invoice is paid then I ship out their artwork and I always I'm up front with them and tell them like I'm not gonna ship your art until you've finished paying off this invoice and I don't think everyone's trying to like steal from you and like once they get your art in their home they're like I'm not gonna finish me in that invoice I think sometimes they just forget just like when they have that invoice sometimes you do with the sender in mind you're like hey don't forget to make your payment or hey you still want this art it just protects you gives you a peace of mind selling your art on Instagram because again there's really no buyer/seller protection when you're doing it this way so the PayPal invoicing is really wonderful and just being upfront with people and saying hey you can make payments if you need to but I won't send out your artwork until you've paid off the invoice so take as long as you need and I'll hold the art for you really that's all I do and it's a lot this video is getting kind of long but when you do all of it or it's become kind of a habit it's not as much it's just like little little bits that you need to remember to do consistently and then doing all of these things in conjunction with posting regularly will really start to build up your engagement which means your actual followers will like and comment more which will push your post to more people if you need to actually see it all kind of written out and articulate it better than it is when I speak you can go click the blog post link below and check that out and it's all laid out a lot better I'm a much better writer than speaker so it's a lot more organized and articulate on my blog hit the like button comment subscribe and hit the bell if you want notification I mostly just post my process videos but I am trying to do more videos like this so yeah I will see you guys next week bye try not to make a stupid faces I'll be too annoying oh it is a huge feat [Music]

Channel: Shaylene Reynolds

Views: 138,750

Rating: 4.9479394 out of 5

Keywords: art, artist, watercolor painting, how to draw, how to paint with watercolor, how to paint, How to use instagram, how to grow a following on instagram, how to sell on instagram, instagram for artists, how to sell art, how to make money as an artist, how to make money on instagram, how to make money, how artists make money, how to sell art on instagram, selling on instagram, how to become a full time artist, how to be an artist, how to do art full time

Id: glcboksiX5g

Length: 16min 21sec (981 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 01 2018