How to post digital art on Instagram

It is the second most important thing for an artist to promote his Instagram after learning how to paint himself. Whereas in the past you could only announce your work at exhibitions and galleries, now a smartphone and access to the Internet is enough. But just being good at drawing and posting pictures is not enough, you need to know how to promote your account and make it more popular.

Preparing your account before you start promoting it

Before you start promoting an artist’s Instagram on your own, you need to prepare it:

Switch to a business account. This will allow you to use some additional features and keep track of detailed statistics, without which promotion will not be as effective.

To switch to a business account, you need to:

• Go to settings;
• Find the item “Account” and click “Go to business account”;
• Follow the further step-by-step instructions.
• Put an avatar that symbolizes the type of your business. Self-portrait is best;
• The nickname should include your information to make it easier for people to find you in search queries;

Properly design your profile description. Since Instagram set a limit of 130 characters for the description, it should include only important information: occupation, name, contact information;

While maintaining your account, keep the best stories. That way, people who have recently visited your profile can view them right away.

In addition to setting up the account, in order to properly promote Instagram, the artist needs to decide on the following points:

1. Understand who your audience is. The content you offer will not be of interest to everyone. The main audience will include other artists, connoisseurs of fine art, potential buyers of your works or services offered. Therefore, build your content plan and captions in such a way as to please such people;

2. You need to choose hashtags, which will be under each photo. Examples of such tags: #artist, #paintings, #painting, #paintingsonorder, #art. There should be about 6 unchanging hashtags, and all others will change depending on the post;

3. You will need to participate in a lot of contests and promotions to make yourself known on Instagram.

How to properly promote your work on Instagram

There are a few basic points that every artist promoting themselves on Instagram should adhere to:

1. Regularity of posts. People subscribe to you because they enjoy seeing the content you post. Make a post at least once a day. It doesn’t have to be a new picture. You can take pictures of the painting process, show your workspace, take pictures of your tools;

Important! If you have an opportunity to make two publications in a day, don’t do it simultaneously, so as not to bore your subscribers. The time difference between entries should be at least 10 hours.

2. The quality of all publications should be very high. Use good composition and take unnecessary things out of the frame. Focus your subscribers’ attention only on what you are showing, and don’t overload the picture;

3. Selecting hashtags is an important part of your future publication. You do not need to put in too many tags. The optimal number is 8-12 that fit the meaning, and they should not be the same under each photo. Frequently used hashtags for the promotion of the artist’s Instagram: #artist, #art, #art, #artistmoscow, #paintingsonorder, #portrait, etc. You may also use your name as one of the hashtags, which will help better show up in search results and will bind the post you made to this tag if it is reposted;

4. Learn how to do simple video editing. Shortcuts of the picture-making process are well appreciated by subscribers. They show that you are really passionate about your account and put a lot of effort into its development;

5. Make sure you leave a signature below your photos. People respond better to posts with captions, because they create a semblance of lively communication, which is more dispositive;

6. Respond to comments, and not just questions. Try to talk to your subscribers, ask their opinion on the next job, what they want to see in the development of the account.