Raising awareness and reaching new people

One of the biggest benefits that comes from social media is that you are able to reach people without having to go anywhere. 

You can build an audience up organically or you can build one through paid and targeted ads. Either is fine. It is what works for you. But doing it allows you to find your people and connect virtually.

You are able to share your finished work online, things you are currently working on, ask for opinions, and thanks to all these lockdowns across the world we’ve been seeing so many artists turning to social media for a virtual gallery.

Having social media, especially in that last year or so has proven invaluable as you are still able to reach your audience. Yes, your plans may have had to change slightly, but being able to still share your work with your people is a massive plus.

Be the master of one or two

Quite often when I speak to artists they are often feeling overwhelmed. Not knowing where to begin with it all. It is a whole new world with so many platforms available. 

Don’t try to do them all. Stick to one or two and do them well. Make them your focus. Find your people. Enjoy it and connect rather than spreading yourself thinly over every social media platform going.

For example, here at UnitedArtSpace we spend most of our efforts on Facebook and Instagram. We don’t worry about the others.

Have patience

It’s safe to say you won’t make a fortune from social media overnight. Having patience is key. It takes time to find a formula of posting, ads and engagement that works. This is okay and completely normal, so don’t be put off. 

Keep going. Set yourself small, achievable goals that will make it fun and more enjoyable. It could be you’ve just set yourself on Instagram. Set yourself a goal so within the first month you want to hit 100 followers. By doing this you are able to see the growth and see that your efforts have paid off in some way or another. 

Be consistent

Consistency is king – cheesy I know, but if you aren’t posting on a regular basis or running ads you aren’t being seen and new people won’t find you. This means engagement levels will drop and your platforms may become stagnant. 

Have set days that you post with a set posting strategy. For example: 

  • Monday – motivational Monday. 
  • Tuesday – break day. 
  • Wednesday – artwork of the week (a piece you are loving that you’ve seen. Share it.) 
  • Thursday – Throwback post to some of your older pieces. 
  • Friday – What I’ve worked on this week post (sharing a piece you are working on.)  
  • Saturday – Posting, pointing people to your website (a more sales focused type of post.) 
  • Sunday – Light hearted and fun post. 

By having something like this set in place it becomes a less daunting task to post. You can schedule and stay on top of posting to ensure you aren’t becoming complacent with it.

Boundaries

Setting yourself boundaries is a really good idea as social media can be a rather time consuming topic. You can login to read a comment and before you know it you’ve spent an hour scrolling.

Set yourself a 15 minute timer to have a look at other posts and engage, go through notifications and reply to messages. This means the time you are spending on your social media platforms is productive and to the point. 

My three top tips

These are just my thoughts on social media and I could go on and on about so many different aspects that it has to offer. But here are my three tips to take away from this post.

  1. Be the master of one or two.
  2. Have patience and be consistent with posting and engaging. 
  3. Set boundaries and stick to them!  

I also have a free step by step guide that has been created for artists who want to use social media to promote and sell their art. You can download it here! 

I hope this helps you in some way, shape and form. Just remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day so don’t expect this from your social media. It takes time, patience and consistency to make it work. 

Much love,

Michelle x.