Should you, as an artist, post art on Instagram? Starting an art Instagram raises a lot of questions: how to get your art noticed, how often should you post, and should you make a separate Instagram for your art? In this post, I try to answer those questions and share with you the best DOs and DON’Ts for how to get art noticed on Instagram!
Instagram has been on the rise since 2010 when people started to consume visuals scrolling down on their smartphones. IG is currently the fastest growing social media platform out there on the market.
At the beginning of 2020, Insta announced that they had hit a billion monthly active users. That propels Instagram ahead of Facebook and Twitter!
→ 7 DOs To Post Your Art On Facebook & Grow Your Artist FB Page
Instagram is an entirely picture-based platform (even though people also post text in form of pictures). Its visual focus makes it a great tool for artists to showcase and promote their works.
If you post your artworks to an art sharing website, you can be sure to have other artists and art lovers around to connect with.
Even though there are lots of different people on social media, posting your art on a social network will also connect you with artists and art lovers because these are ultimately the ones that take an interest in your work!
How do I protect my artwork on Instagram?
When you post art on Instagram, you might worry that people use it without your permission – for good reason. It happens more often than not that artworks are getting stolen online.
To find out how to protect your art, check out my post on the → 7 PRO TIPS How To Protect Your Art Online.
Is Instagram bad for artists?
Instagram can be bad for artists, just like it can be bad for anybody else – for the same reasons. It’s not that Instagram is categorically bad for art as such.
On Instagram, everything boils down to the right mindset. Being successful, staying mentally healthy, tackling the social media mish-mash, and getting on top of things all depends on your way of dealing with it.
So before looking at the DOs and DON’Ts for artists to be successful on Instagram, let’s actually have a look at the downside and what you can do to not let Instagram take a bad toll on you.
Then with the right mindset, we’ll jump right into the top strategies of how to post art on Instagram successfully!
What you need to know
First of all, Instagram can be addictive. It is a social reward system based on the likes and comments you receive for a post. Scrolling your phone and seeing all the likes for your picture is not so different from consuming an actual drug. It can virtually give you the same biological hit.
A rush of adrenaline and dopamine floods your blood, your heart starts pumping, and you’re being overwhelmed with feelings of joy and uplift. Naturally, this social media appreciation kick has the potential to get you addicted and drive compulsive behavior.
If the rush of hormones is triggered by a high number of likes and positive comments, it makes you feel high. However, the opposite can happen, too. A number of likes that you consider to be too low and critical, negative feedback can lead to feelings of anxiety, self-doubt, and inferiority.
Either way, Instagram can start to negatively affect your mental health and creativity. Once you start judging your art by how many likes and comments it gets, you may start making the type of art that people presumably like – but the art that you favor.
Never judge your art by the number of likes and comments
Especially if your work gets a comparably low number of likes and comments, it’s tempting to conclude that your art is ‘just not good enough’.
However, the amount of likes and comments on Instagram is mainly based on the exposure of your image. And exposure is created by building a large following on your account, using the right hashtags, and making friends with the Instagram algorithm by posting consistently and frequently.
I personally don’t invest much time in doing all the things that should be done to build an audience on Instagram. For example, when I uploaded ‘neglect.‘ to my account, it got 97 likes.
When art curators with a larger following picked it up and posted it on their account, the same picture was liked 560 times and even more than a thousand times!
Very different numbers of likes for the same picture (neglect. from my Surreal Stories Collection) posted on my account and re-posted by art curators with a larger following.
You can see the same happening over and over again on IG. So, really, never take the number of likes on Instagram – or any other network – as an indicator of how good your artwork is.
One thing you should always remember when making art:
Your art is always about you. For you.
It’s personal.
It’s a means of creative expression to experience yourself.
With that said, enough of the gloomy side of IG. Let’s see how to make the best of posting art on Instagram!
Should I make a Separate Instagram for Art?
It’s definitely a good idea to start an Art Instagram!
Why?
If you spend a bit of time looking around on Instagram, you will quickly notice that people seem to love niches. IG artists that have a specific style and stick with it tend to have larger audiences.
This isn’t a phenomenon that is particular to the Insta art community. It’s the same everywhere: people like consistency. They prefer to see specific types of posts from the person they follow because they decided to follow for a specific reason.
That’s why making a separate Instagram for art makes you stand out more. If, on top of that, you have a specific art niche you constantly work in, it’s even better. Let’s say you are a digital artist. Then you would only upload your digital art to that particular Instagram page.
It’s still possible to do different types of things and use one and the same IG account to share them. However, it’s exceedingly more difficult to build a large following by focusing on a variety of things.
The reason being is that the online art arena is oversaturated with millions of artists trying to gain exposure for their work. With a separate Instagram for art, you give people a reason to follow you because they want to see something very specific from you.
Most importantly, you should never solely rely on Instagram to promote your art.
The 'Social Art Dilemma' is a good example how Instagram can make promoting your art impossible... What's the solution? Well, artists do need a website cuz social media can kill your art career!
How often should I post Art on Instagram?
Your success on any social media platform depends largely on the frequency of your posts. The more frequent the better.
When you’re new to Instagram, it’s recommended you post at least once a day. If you don’t post regularly, you won’t get impressions and you won’t get engagement. You won’t get profile views and you won’t be able to grow your following.
But as if that weren’t enough, on top of that Instagram’s algorithm will restrict the reach of your posts if it doesn’t see lots of engagement on them within the first hour!
To keep track of your post and profile views, you can set up an Instagram Business Account. This will enable you to see your analytics. The days you don’t post art on Instagram, you will clearly see your analytics taking a steep downward plunge.
Consistency is Key
As an artist, you might find it difficult to ALWAYS post new pictures. After all, you also need some time to create new stuff.
But it doesn’t always have to be new pictures. First of all, you can post the same artwork again. Nobody will sniff at reposts on Instagram.
Instagram is all about what is just popping up in the newsfeed. Hardly anyone will go to your profile and have a look at your entire body of work (unfortunately).
Secondly, you can post different crops and close-ups of the same artwork. You can frame your picture, take a shot of it as it hangs on the wall and then post that photo to Instagram. You can show yourself holding the piece… There are tons of possibilities!
You can share work in progress shots, videos, sketches, or times lapses of you creating the work.
You can post anything that’s related to your art. This can be posts about what inspired you, what tools you used for your creations, ideas for future works, …
You can also repost works of other artists that you admire. Name and tag the creator of the original work and say why you like their work. This is also a great way to network and get a foothold in the IG art community.
If you find it quite time-consuming to post on Instagram every single day, you can use a social media scheduler. Planoly is a visual planner for your Instagram feed that can save you the time and hassle of uploading one picture (or more) daily. Planoly is a legimitate tool to manage your IG feed and an approved Instagram partner.
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.
How to get Art noticed on Instagram?
In order to get your art noticed on Instagram, I have three top tips for you that will help you get more views on your posts and get viewers interested in your art!
1. Make your Profile stand out
In order to get your art noticed on Instagram, make sure you add a profile picture that stands out. This can be a photo of yourself as the artist, a picture of your art, or your business logo.
Don’t leave your Bio blank, say a couple of words about yourself. This gives your profile a personal touch and visitors can see immediately what you are about.
Don’t forget to add some relevant keywords, too. You can even add the most important #hashtags that describe your art (more about hashtags later on in this post).
Instagram allows you to use one link in your profile. You can link back to your website, to any other social media or art platform you’re on, or to your online store.
If you don’t just want to link to one website, you can use LinkTree. LinkTree allows you to set up a landing page with multiple links. Viewers can then choose where they want to go: to your website, your other social media, your web store, and so on.
→ Best Sites to Upload Art – Artist Guide To Posting Art Online
2. Headshots and Close-ups get more Attention
One other thing you need to know as you post art on Instagram is that headshots and close-ups get more attention than images showing larger sceneries.
Unfortunately that’s the case. Instagram’s layout gets people scrolling down through the posts and discourages them from looking longer at one post.
The more bite-sized your pictures are, the more views and likes you will eventually get.
This doesn’t mean that you will have to stop creating detailed sceneries, if you enjoy doing that as an artist.
Just make sure to crop out some headshots or close-ups from your larger artworks and use these for your Insta posts. You can post multiple pictures to slide through with the headshot being the first picture. You can also post various close-ups individually, which will also help you to post frequently!
3. Use #Hashtags
Instagram is all about hashtags. They are the magic ingredients to get your posts out there to be found by other artists, art lovers, potential buyers, art magazines, curators, and so on.
On IG, you’re able to follow individual accounts as well as hashtags you’re interested in. So, every time you add a hashtag to your post, it will appear in people’s feeds.
Therefore, it definitely pays to do a little bit of research before deciding which tags to add to your art post on Instagram. IG allows a maximum of 30 hashtags per post in the caption.
Some time ago, it was still recommended to use as many hashtags as possible to get a maximum of eyeballs on your work. However, from what I hear now, it’s better to stick to the most relevant 3 to 8 hashtags to please the algorithm…
Choose your Hashtags Wisely
When choosing your hashtags, make sure you use those tags you have a chance at ranking in the top posts for. When first getting started, use hashtags with less than 100k posts. You can as well go as low as a few thousand. Anything below that probably isn’t worth it.
Small hashtags don’t have high authority and engagement yet. This allows your post to stick around longer and to have a higher chance to get noticed. As you continue to grow your follower count, aim for more competitive hashtags in the 300k to 500k range.
To research hashtags that are good for your niche, type in some queries relevant to your style of art. See what hashtags come up and what number of posts they have. If you find something interesting, make sure the posts in the tag feed fit your art and your potential viewers.
To find more hashtags, have a look at Instagram’s auto-suggestions when typing in a tag. Check the post count and the post content. If all look good, you’ve found another tag to reach out to millions of people that are potentially interested in your art!
Another great way to check out hashtags is by looking at what other artists or art magazines use whose art style is similar to yours.
Last but not least, don’t use the same hashtags for all your posts over and over again. Mix them up a little bit and check out new ones from time to time. Play around a bit and see what works best for your. Test the waters and then adjust your sails accordingly!
Instagram for Artists DOs and DON'Ts
Network with the Art Community
Instagram is all about networking. Follow other artists you admire, comment on the works that you like, take part in conversations, repost content. Simply, get engaged!
Take time to support other artists and you will receive support in return.
When someone comments on your photo, take time to comment back. This is especially important during the first hour after posting. The more engagement you have on your posts within that first hour, the wider reach will Instagram’s algorithm reward you with.
Reach out to other people on Instagram and collaborate with them. This can be other artists in your niche, but also art curators, bloggers, designers, etc. If they have a similar follower count to yours, they will most likely be more than happy to collaborate with you.
You can agree to repost each other’s pictures and tag one another. That way, both of you will have the opportunity to reach a new audience that is interested in the same niche and boost your Insta reach at the same time.
Fake Likes and Follow for Follow
If you’re on Instagram, you’ve surely experienced the Follow for Follow ‘Strategy’. What do I mean by that?
You will notice more often than not that (sometimes random) people start following you You might wonder, ‘How is this person possibly interested in my art?’
They are not. Usually, the will unfollow you within 2 days max, if they don’t get a follow back from you.
This can be quite annoying; especially in the first months after joining Instagram when you don’t have many followers yet. There are heaps of people trying to gain more followers that way. They’ve fallen victim to the notion that followers equal success.
While increasing your followers might work to a certain extent using that method, there are more problems than actual benefits: what are the odds that people who follow for follow really like and support your work?
The ‘follow for follow’ guys might mute your notifications anyways, because they don’t care a hang about your art. After all, who has time and interest in watching a thousand random accounts to follow?
Instead, take your time to find the people you actually want to reach to follow you back. Followers that are really interested in and supportive of what you are doing.
You’d be surprised how many artists are out there with smaller but genuine followings. They have much higher engagement and higher profits than accounts with heaps of fake followers.
And more than just followers, you should be building a community of art enthusiasts who love to see what you do and who you are – which brings us to the next point:
Tell your own Story
As an example, there’s one artist who posts great work along with the title and hashtags only. And then there’s another artist who always adds a couple of personal thoughts below their posts. Which artist would you be more excited to follow?
Probably the latter one, because a personal touch always makes things more appealing. Many of the successful Instagrammers often add bits and pieces of their personal story to their posts. This is what drives follower engagement and increases their IG rankings.
As an artist, you can mention what inspired you to the picture, your feelings about it, what was difficult or fun about creating it. You can simply add some of your thoughts about the current happenings in the world… Anything that gives it a personal note is welcome!
Use Instagram Stories & Reels
Not so long ago, Instagram has introduced Stories, Reels and IGTV (for longer videos). Of course, Instagram wants its user to focus on these new features. That’s why the algorithm will automatically reward people who make use of them.
Instagram Stories and Reels are a great way to interact with your followers. Your Instagram Story will be automatically deleted after 24 hours, while a Reel will stay on your account forever (just like your posts). You can upload pictures (preferably animated) to Stories and Reels, but you should know that video content is likely to perform much better.
If you don’t feel comfortable getting in front of a camera, you can still show time lapse videos of you creating your art or post work in progress videos. To make your Stories and Reels look attractive, use text overlays and add some music from IG’s trending audio selection.
Just like for regular Insta posts, you can also use hashtags for your Instagram Stories and Reels,and tag users or products you show and speak about.
Get Featured by Instagram Art Sharing Pages and Art Magazines
For each style of art, there are curators, art lovers and art magazines arond who re-post art on Instagram that fits their genre.
Look for art featuring pages and magazines for your specific type of art and follow them. Like the works they feature and start interacting with them. In return, the art sharer or magazine might check out your account and feature one of your works.
Some of these art sharing pages offer you the possibility to submit artwork. Check out their profile to find out if there’s a link for submissions.
Don’t be Pushy
One thing you should absolutely avoid is to get on curators nerves by constantly suggesting your artwork for feature. Nobody likes to receive comments or DMs from artists nagging about more exposure.
Instead, take it easy. If one art page doesn’t want to feature you at this point, there will be a couple of others that are interested in your work. Just go looking for what fits best for you.
Another tip: Watch out for art sharing accounts and magazines that request money for a feature. Oftentimes, such accounts will like and comment on your pictures about how much they love them.
Shout-outs in exchange for money aren’t unique to Instagram. At the end of the day, it’s your choice whether or not you want to pay for a feature.
However, you should always make sure to check the engagement on such accounts first. How many followers do they have? How many likes and comments does each post receive?
If they have thousands of followers but only few likes and comments on their posts, the low engagement is not worth your investment. Most likely, they buy their followers and you would just be wasting money wishing for more exposure that you won’t be getting from such accounts.
Tag Users, Products, Companies, …
Instagram’s Tag Feature allows you to automatically set a link to users, products or companies you show in your posts and have them notified.
If you repost the work of another artist, you should tag the artist in that post. People can check out the artist’s profile, and your post will appear in the tagged section of that artist’s profile.
Likewise, you can also tag products or brands you are using to produce your works. If you’re a traditional artist, take a picture of you using your favorite brand of paint and post it in your feed. Tag the paint brand to show the company that you’re using their products.
If you’re already well established on Instagram, the company may decide to send you some of their products for free in return for a tagged feature on your profile.
Even if you don’t have a large enough following yet for that to happen, tagging someone or something acts as just another step to widen your audience reach.
Don’t just tag people who are nothing to do with your post
Make sure to not tag people in your posts who are nothing to do with it.
Trying to cheat likes by captioning your posts with something like ‘Hey peeps, I’ve made this artwork just for you!’ and tagging a hundred people is not a good idea.
Likewise, don’t just tag any company or product hoping to get more exposure by doing so.
People will notice quickly if you just want their likes to boost your ego (and your reach) or if it’s genuine!
→ How Do You Caption An Artwork? – 101 Creative Quotes On Art To Pep Your Posts
Share your IG on Other Social Media
Let people on your other social media channels know that you started an art Instagram. Share it with your friends on Facebook, your followers on Twitter or Pinterest, or your website and blog visitors.
You can back-link to your Instagram from your profile of most social media platforms or add a link below the pictures you post on there.
You can also promote your Instagram on art sharing sites, such as DeviantArt, Behance, Saatchi Art, etc. Linking back to your Insta will let users know that you have an IG account and bring even more followers and traffic to that account.
Last but not least, get your Visuals on Point
Take a look at the feed of the big Instagrammers with millions of followers. You will see that all their visuals are high quality. No blurry picture, no dull colors, no odd perspective. Everything is on point.
Image quality is very important if you want to take your Instagram feed to the next level. A little bit of photo editing works wonders before you post art on Instagram.
→ How To Upload Digital Art To Instagram?
There are many apps out there that allow you to tweak your pictures. You can use Lightroom to up the brightness of your photos or add a nice s-curve for better contrast. You can use Photoshop to edit colors, add adjustment layers and other effects.
If you don’t have Photoshop yet, you can start a FREE 7-Day Photoshop Trial here!
Do you post art on Instagram? What are your experiences? Let me know in the comments! Feel free to share this post with other artists who need some tricks & tips to grow their art Instagram account … and don’t forget to pass by on my IG!
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Thanks for taking the time to comment! Great to hear that you found the post helpful (:
Thanks for sharing your knowledge on this topic. It’s much appreciated.
Thanks for dropping a comment, Haase. Much appreciated too (:
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Hi Louis, thank you for the flowers! Always glad to hear when my posts are helpful (:
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Hi, Mammucari, thanks for stopping by and taking the time to leave a comment. Happy to hear that the blog posts are helpful (:
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Please reply back as I’m hoping to create my very own blog and would love to know where you got
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Cheers!
Hi Constance, thanks for stopping by and the compliments! It’s really easy to create a website with WordPress. I have an easy step-by-step tutorial on how to make an artist website with WordPress that shows you everything I did to create this website and also the theme I’m using.
#1 thing right now: DONT UPLOAD YOUR ART TO INSTAGRAM AT ALL. They’re using it to freely train their AI database and basically stealing your art style. You are forfeiting your copyright. Search Meta’s stance on using their content to train their AI if you don’t believe me. IF YOU ARE AN ARTIST PROTECT YOURSELF. Close your insta account and get OUT!
Hi Rylee, thanks a lot for your well-meaning advice! I agree that Instagram is getting worse by the day—not only for artists. I know that AI systems are scraping the web for whatever images they can find (→ AI Art & Human Art: Is AI Art Stealing From Artists?). The problem for artists, though, is that if they don’t upload their work online, they won’t get their art noticed. And even if you tick a little checkbox like on DeviantArt that you “don’t want your work to be included in AI databases,” it’s no guarantee that AI systems respect your wish (rather not…). There’s not really something you can do about it… ´\_(ツ)_/`
Keep on writing, great job!
✌︎
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you made blogging look easy. The overall glance of your site is fantastic,
let alone the content material!
Thank you! Glad you enjoy my blog posts! ♥︎