Is Instagram worth it for artists? Many creatives have been questioning whether Instagram is still a good place to promote art, because the latest changes on the platform make it harder and harder for users to gain exposure. That’s especially worrisome for artists who have put a lot of time and effort into building their brand and earning from Instagram. Bad enough. But recently, something happened to me on Instagram that topped it all. Read on to learn more about the ‘Social Art Dilemma’!
Instagram used to be an awesome platform for visual artists to showcase & sell their art. You could post a photo of your traditional art or simply upload your digital art to Instagram and get immediate feedback.
The Likes would be dropping in by the minute, and the engagement showed you how your work resonated with the audience. You would be shown all the posts of the people you followed—in chronological order—and in turn, your content would be shown to all your followers, too.
Not to forget that posting something every now and then was totally enough to get traffic. You could focus most of your time on creating art and would still stay relevant. In short, Instagram provided creatives with an easy and effective way to share their work and attract buyers.
This is what Instagram used to be like. But over time, things have been changing... to the worse.
The Social Art Dilemma
Is Instagram worth it for artists in 2024?
At the end of the day, you are the one to decide whether Instagram is worth it for you as an artist—and to what extent it’s worth using for you. It’s totally up to you.
However, one cannot deny that there are definitely some downsides when it comes to Instagram for artists. Here are the drawbacks:
1. Instagram wants you to be on the platform as long as possible.
You have surely noticed that you don’t get the same level of engagement as before. No matter how thoroughly you research the right hashtags, no matter how frequently you post—it has become really hard to grow a following on Instagram, if not even almost impossible for small accounts. Why is that?
Well, at some point in time, Instagram made some drastic changes to their algorithm. From then, posting once a week wasn’t enough to get exposure. Today, you have to keep posting on a daily basis—even better several times a day—to get your work seen.
But Instagram’s algorithm does not only take your posting frequency into consideration. It also tracks how many people you engage with, how often you Like and comment on other posts, how long you scroll down your feed, how many Stories you watch, and so on.
In other words, the algorithm analyzes how much time you spend on the app—and promotes or demotes your posts accordingly.
How much time do you want to spend on social media? How much time do you want to spend creating art? Well, it’s up to you. But you must know that once you stop posting, you’ll be out of the algorithm’s mind quickly. I already mentioned that in the DOs & DON’Ts For Artists Using Instagram.
Based on the number of Likes, comments and Saves, my artwork ‘oblivion.‘ must have reached more than 200 people minimum in 2017 (there are no statistics available, either because it’s too long ago or because I didn’t have a business account at the time). In 2022, though, my Instagram posts don’t even reach 20 accounts on average—and not even one third of my followers! Has my art gotten that bad? No, it’s because Instagram changed its algorithm to favor posting frequency, screen time, and paid ads.
2. Instagram decides what content you get to see.
Instagram still used to have a chronological feed long after Facebook dropped it. Many IG users, including myself, appreciated that they got to see everything the people they followed posted—in the exact order they posted it.
You have surely noticed that you are only seeing the posts of pretty much the same people in your Facebook feed, right? Even if you have more than 1000+ Facebook friends, you will only get to see the content of around the same 10 friends you recently interacted with.
Despite many user complaints, Instagram also ditched the chronological feed in favor of an algorithm-based feed in 2016. Now, the Instagram bot decides what you get to see and in what order you get to see it. As you are not being shown the posts of all the people you follow, you can be sure that your art posts are not shown to all of your followers, either.
Even though Instagram introduced the option to switch back to a chronological feed in 2022, it’s not the same as before. Here’s a good tutorial that explains how to get back the chronological Insta feed, if you’re interested.
3. Instagram wants you to use its most recent features.
What’s more, Instagram has come up with many new features that do not necessary suit visual artists. Now, there’s Reels, Stories, IG TV, … While a lot of artists appreciated the image-focused nature of Instagram, not every artist feels comfortable turning their art into video or speaking to a camera.
So far, so good. BUT—
The crux is that social media platforms always prioritize their respectively new features.
Instagram introduced Stories and Reels as a response to the competition of TikTok and YouTube Shorts. IG TV is supposed to be an alternative to live streaming. If you don’t want to use the new features, very well. But you will sacrifice your visibility in consequence. ´\_(ツ)_/`
4. Instagram wants to make money with you.
We know that social media networks are businesses that are primarily interested in their own profit. Despite being free to use, they want to make money with you. If it’s free, you are the product.
That’s why all social platforms throw in a lot of ads companies pay them for to display. Instagram users have seen a huge increase of such ads in recent months. Usually, it goes something like this: two posts of the people you follow in your feed, plus two ads. Same in the Stories.
But that’s not the only thing. Instagram does not only want companies to pay for product placements, they also want you to pay for your content being seen. Instagram clearly favors paid ads over the organic content users post and don’t pay to promote. That’s a real shame, because Instagram actually thrives on user-generated content.
I have an Instagram business account (which everyone can get for free), and the amount of ads suggested for my own content is just incredible.
There’s at least one ‘Boost post‘ suggestion popping up in my feed every time I open the app, and sometimes I even get paid ad suggestions in the Stories or in my Activity feed. With and without credit offers.
Interestingly, Instagram wants me to ‘boost my posts to reach people who may not follow me‘. But the above screenshot clearly shows that my posts reach twice as many non-followers as followers already… Not to speak of the ‘Recent activity from your ads‘ notice at the top of my Activity feed, even though I’m not running any ads. Ha!
For me, it is crystal-clear: Instagram wants you to pay for getting exposure and if you don't pay, they limit your reach!
(Would be interesting to know if users with a private account get the same amount of ad suggestions. Let me know in the comments!)
- Click to enlarge.
This is what Instagram for artists looks like today: you are constantly being invited to ‘Boost your Posts’. If a 10 Euro credit is not enough to lure you into paying for ads, they are trying it with 20 Euros the week after…
Artworks from left to right: BLΔCK DIΔMOND, Cat & Mouse, Scared Bunny.
With that in mind, is Instagram worth it for artists? Well, if you belong to those artists who earn money from Instagram, you might want to give paid promotion a thought.
But just think of all the hobby and part-time artists who make no or very little money with their art. How are they supposed to pay for ads? And it’s not like you pay for one ad, and you are good. No, you have to keep going if you want to see significant increases in your account reach.
Do you think Instagram is a fair place for artists to promote their art? Mmh… let me know.
All of the stuff I mentioned above is nothing new. We all know how it’s going on social media, right? It’s basically the same on all the networks. Whether you are on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn—or most recently Threads—there is always kind of the same algorithm that wants you to spend as much time on the platform as possible, that selects what you get to see, that shows you paid ads and wants you to pay for ads yourself.
→ Top Or Flop: Is Threads Worth It For Artists? (An Artist’s Opinion…)
I’ve never been a huge fan of social media and never put an enormous amount of time and effort into growing my accounts. Instagram has been getting on my nerves for a while, though, because it used to be a really good hub for visual creators. However, with its latest changes and the resulting negative effects in its users, it has been going down the drain, in my opinion. It’s a real disaster for people who have painstakingly build their brands on Instagram.
Nevertheless, I might not have taken the time to write an entire blog post about the cons of Instagram for artists, if there hadn’t been that thing that topped it all.
Recently, something happened that really made me question whether Instagram is worth it for artists...
Is Instagram a good place to promote art?
Let me start at the beginning. My numbers on Instagram had never been very high, and especially during the past months, after new algorithm changes, they had dropped drastically. Nothing extraordinarily surprising to me, as I never put much work into IG anyways.
However, the latest works that I was posting received almost no attention at all, one or two Likes at the max… That was pretty ridiculous, even to my standards.
So I started to fiddle around a bit on my IG account, perhaps expecting to see some explanation in my account statistics. Randomly, I clicked on Account Status, which I never checked before and didn’t really know why to check it at all.
And there—it almost knocked my socks off—I read that some of my content might ‘not follow the community guidelines’. ⚆_⚆
Mind you, I didn’t get any notification in my Activity feed that there was a problem with my account. And believe me, I checked back three times before writing this post!
After tapping on the Recommendation Guidelines, a huge exclamation mark popped up telling me that my content couldn’t be recommended right now.
(I wish that exclamation mark had popped up somewhere in my Activity feed…)
Needless to say I was more than flabbergasted, because I had no idea that there was an issue!
So what to do? Well, at the bottom of the page, Instagram offers you a couple of options:
First of all, I could edit or remove my content, or disagree with the decision.
After that, Instagram still encourages me to increase my reach to current followers, which is again nothing else than paid promotion!
Next to ‘Edit or remove content’, I spotted the number 3, which obviously was to tell me that there were three problems…
A tap on ‘Edit or remove content’ brought me to the three bones of contention. Huh.
Instagram obviously believed that three works of my ‘Dear series‘ went against their guidelines on nudity.
Well, in ‘Dearstand‘ and ‘Dearhunt‘ I blurred the nipples of the digitally created ladies, and in ‘Dearness‘ I put two little hearts on them.
Should be enough, given that it’s digital art and that real ladies on Instagram present themselves in transparent blouses and provocative poses to attract visitors to their Only Fans accounts. What do you think?
But wait, the best is yet to come. One could say that Instagram really outdid itself...
Hold your hat.
Instagram suggested the same artwork it restricted my account for as a PAID AD—including a generous 5 Euro credit!
What are you saying? Can it get any better? Yes, it can…
And yet another invitation to boost one of my ‘offensive’ posts.
This time it’s a detail of ‘Dearness‘ (whose full version supposedly violates Instagram’s community guidelines) that I am being suggested to boost in the Stories…
Quite a funny story, right? (If you don’t take into consideration that Instagram restricted the reach of all of my posts without even notifying me.)
That’s why I couldn’t help but put together a funny video about my experience with Instagram as an artist.
The ‘Social Art Dilemma’ or the ‘Life of an Artist on Instagram’… Feel free to watch, have a good laugh, and share with your artist friends, so they don’t forget to check their Account Status from time to time! ಠ‿↼
The Social Art Dilemma at a Glance
- Click to enlarge and feel free to share (◕‿◕)
The Social Art Dilemma at a glance: Instagram suggests artists to boost exactly those posts it considers offensive and restricts their account reach for. Is Instagram worth it for artists or not?
What are the advantages of Instagram for artists?
So, what to do with Instagram as an artist? Is Instagram still worth it for artists? Should you keep posting your art on Instagram at all?
Instagram is still one of the biggest visual-driven platforms available on the web. It has more than a billion users, which can hardly be beat by any other platform.
The advantage of Instagram for artists is that there are millions of users from around the world interested in art: there are other artists to connect with, art lovers, art curators, art galleries, art magazines, the list goes on.
Nonetheless, you should never put all your eggs into Instagram. But admittedly, there are only few alternatives. You can post your art to other social media networks and art sharing sites like DeviantArt, Behance, etc. (→ Best Sites To Upload Art), but they don’t have the same user base as Instagram.
If you know of a great alternative to Instagram for artists, let me know in the comments!
One thing is for sure: if you want to make it as an artist on Instagram, you must know that you will have to keep posting consistently, to stay relevant. You will have to accept that the art you post has a lifespan of a few days at best. If you post art in an Instagram Story, it will only last for 24 hours. After that, you will have to come up with something new.
Worst of all, the artworks you post on social media are not searchable. That means, even if you use the right hashtags, your content won’t be found anymore after a couple of days. Is Instagram worth it for artists in your opinion?
From a business point of view, ask yourself: are you getting a return on the time you spend on social media? If you feel that social media just sucks your time and energy, it’s probably about time to explore new ways to promote your art with a better return on investment…
The Solution to the Social Art Dilemma
Or, what is the alternative to Instagram for artists?
If you don’t want to remain at the mercy of social media, the only alternative is to get your own artist website. Your own website does not only allow you to share the art you love without any restrictions, there are many more advantages.
Think about it this way: when you do a search on Google, how often do you see an Instagram or Facebook post come up in the search results? Never. How often do you see blog posts appear in the search results? Quite frequently.
As I already mentioned above, everything you post to social media is not searchable. Social media posts have a very short shelf life of a couple of hours to a few days at best (with the exception of Pinterest → 15 Must-Know Tips For Artists Using Pinterest). In contrast, everything you publish on your website will be around forever for people to easily find it through Google. Even if you don’t publish a blog post for a few days or weeks, all the content you already have on your website will still get you traffic.
Besides that, you have all the freedom you want to present your art and yourself as the artist the way you like on your own website. You can earn money with your art through your own web store, recommend products, and so much more. Here are 10 reasons why you should make a website for your art.
Do you find the thought of creating your own artist website daunting?
Worry not, making a website for your art isn’t difficult. You don’t need any coding experience and you don’t even have to be a techy person.
These days, there are so many easy-to-use website builders that make creating your own website a breeze. They all work with drag-and-drop editors, meaning all you need to do is choose a design element, drag it on the web page and fill it with your own content! That’s it.
Here are the most popular website builders that artists use for websites:
Squarespace is extremely popular among artists because it offers lots of templates specifically geared towards visual creators. Building a portfolio, web store and blog is super-easy—even for beginners. Read the full Squarespace Review for Visual Creators to learn more.
Wix is another top choice for artists because it is just as easy to use as Squarespace and highly customizable. Wix has a selection of more than 500 visually appealing templates, while still being one of the most affordable website builders around.
Pixpa is an easy-to-use website builder especially designed for artists. Besides amazing portfolio templates, it provides you all the tools artists need, i.e. image galleries, automatic image compression, and the option to add metadata to your images to protect your work online.
Shopify is the best choice for artists who want to sell their artwork on a professional level. The e-commerce features belong to the best in the industry and provide you with everything you need to successfully start an art business.
How to post your art on Instagram?
That being said, what is the best way to post art on Instagram, if you choose to continue using the platform?
First of all, I believe it’s important to point out that you should never measure your success as an artist by the Likes you get on Instagram. This is definitely not what makes an artist successful. Your artwork is worth more than the Likes on Instagram. And, it’s worth more than the short moment of attention it gets in the feed where people can flick it away in a second.
If you spend time and effort creating art and other content, you want that content to be valuable for a long time. You don’t want your work to go to waste within a couple of hours. Here’s what I do:
Because social media posts are so short-lived, I for my part don’t want to spend much time making Instagram-exclusive content. Most of the time, I reuse the content that I have already created for my website.
For example, if I have created close-ups of the artworks I sell in my Web Store, I would use those close-ups to create new multiple posts on Instagram. Likewise, I would share the timelapse videos I made for my Making Ofs section as Reels. Optionally, you can also upload sketches or WiP shots. There are many possibilities to save time and still keep your Instagram account going.
Here's one more tip for you to avoid spending too much time on Instagram: social media planners can help you schedule your posts ahead.
Planoly is a visual Instagram planner that does a lot of the work for you. You take one hour or so to schedule all your posts for the coming month, and then Planoly will auto-post them to your Instagram account, without you having to do anything! You can also add hashtags and captions, no problem.
You can use Planoly for FREE with NO TIME LIMIT with up to 30 scheduled posts per month! For more information, check out the full Planoly Review.
Last but not least, how did I actually proceed with my Instagram art dilemma?
Well, I just went ahead and removed the three posts in question. I know that I could have also ‘disagreed with the decision’. My chances of convincing Instagram that the art posts don’t go against their guidelines might not even have been so bad, as the nipples were covered and there are other artists who post nude art in different mediums.
I myself follow artists who have nudes up on Instagram in form of oil paintings, drawings, and sculptures. (Perhaps it would be a good idea for those artists to check their Account Status… jk). However, I personally didn’t feel like arguing with an Instagram bot, as I don’t think there is a real human making those decisions.
Instagram is still a good hub to drive traffic to your website. Besides linking my artist website in the bio, I’ll probably be posting my art like that in the future: ಠ‿↼
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Thanks for sticking around for so long! I hope you had some fun reading this post cuz it’s definitely an amusing episode in the life of an artist… On the other hand, I genuinely hope that you learned something from my experience because it clearly shows that you shouldn’t solely rely on social media to promote your art.
What’s your opinion? Do you think Instagram is worth it for artists? Please leave comments and questions below. I’d love to hear from you! You can even reach out to me on Instagram. ʕᴖᴥᴖʔ Make sure to sign up for my email list below so you don’t miss out on new blog posts and other cool stuff. ♥
I don’t usually comment on peoples’ posts, but feel compelled to comment on yours.Thank you for this comprehensive overview and all your other subjects which I haven’t yet read. I’m a pet + equine portrait artist (nothing digital) , my work is based on commission orders. I’m exploring the online platforms and appreciate the time you have taken to share your experiences and knowledge. You have a way of writing that is entertaining and refreshing, which makes reading about this stuff a bit easier (I find it quite tedious to have to research all this stuff). I’m feeling a bit like “the scared bunny” lol (well I’m not really scared as such,just a bit overworked). Anyhow, just want to express my appreciation, your art and writing has made the reading an enjoyable experience.I think this is the first time I actually enjoyed reading about this stuff,
Hi Astrid, great to hear from you! I’m always happy when my posts are able to help readers and when I get some feedback!
I think, when it comes to that social media stuff, all you can do is take it with a good portion of humor. There’s absolutely no logic in it anymore and I don’t think it’s going to get better any time soon 😂 However, as you are mainly into pet and equine portraits, I don’t think you’ll be affected by Instagram’s craziness because your work doesn’t include any content that Instagram might consider “sensitive.” So, you’re on the safe side (apart from Instagram’s constant algorithmic changes…)
Anyways, I saw you signed up for my email list as well, so looking forward to staying in touch with you, and in the meantime, all the best on your creative journey! ♥︎
C.R.A.Z.Y. !!! Really incredible.
Ima check my account status now 😂
Yep, it’s really hilarious, isn’t it?
Maybe I should check my account status again, it’s been a while… 😆