#

Clearly, the Internet is pivotal for making and shaping the career of every artist.

Nowadays, artists not only have started selling through online paintings gallery but have also realized the power of social media. Applications like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are one of the most effective communication models to increase ones reach.

However, having pages on these social media sites or registering on online paintings gallery, won’t merely aid all you artists in climbing the ladder to fame. There are certain do’s and don’ts that each one of you should follow. Take a hint from this blog post to grow the popularity of your art page, in order to get optimum benefits.

Do's:

  • Decide the reason - What you want to propagate about yourself and your art. What do you want to do through that page? Do you want to gain followers and fame or you want to sell your paintings through your social media handles as well besides, online paintings gallery? For instance, if you make paintings of Krishna, direct your posts towards informing people about the same.
  • Decide how transparent you want your life to be- If you are making it solely for the purpose of increasing the sales of your paintings then you should avoid posting your pictures and should stick to posting hi-resolution images of your paintings only. However, if besides that motive, you also want to increase your popularity then you should keep your followers posted with the tits and bits of your life. Basically, it is up to you how open you want to be about your life. Though, followers always love profiles with personal life updates more as that shows how much one values his followers.
  • Keep same usernames for referencing and sharing the same post- Instagram has a feature that enables its users to share their Instagram post to other social media handles like Facebook, Twitter etc. So, you can use this feature easily if you have linked or logged in with same accounts in your Instagram account. Not just this, if you are asking people to follow you on other social media pages then having the same username will make it easy for people to remember it and search you.
  • Make your Posts Worthful- The captions that you give to the images you post are equally important in making your posts interesting. Hence, along with the use of appropriate hashtags, you should also tell the thought behind the artwork you have posted. Apart from that, make it a point to include words that invite the viewers to comment. Phrases like “Tell your thoughts in the comments section below”, “How did you like it?”, “Working on a new painting” etc. will give the viewers a reason to comment.
  • Maintain a balance between work and life updates – You should keep a balance between the posts that are related to your life and the ones that are related to your work. Though it is advisable for artists to keep a seventy-forty ratio but no one can tell you better what they want to see more than your fans and followers themselves. To serve the purpose, Instagram has a poll feature now which you can use to ask your followers what they like seeing more.

Don'ts:

  • Don’t ask for Monetary Favors- Don’t ask people for money directly. Art is an item of luxury, if someone will kike the painting, they will definitely ask you the price of it.
  • Don’t tag anyone unnecessarily- Many times artists who are new in the arena of social media and online paintings gallery, tag anyone and everyone, whom they don’t even know unnecessarily in their posts, for the sake of gaining followers quickly. In reality, it does the opposite, as the persons who have no direct or indirect relation to the post are tagged, they get irritated and end up unfollowing you after untagging themselves. Tagging a person whom you have made a portrait of will make sense but tagging all of your followers in a post where you have made a collage of your paintings of Krishna won’t make sense. Not just images, you should also not tag someone in a comment, link or any other thread in the name of your promotions.
  • Don’t make your feed tedious- Posting only about your work life or too much about your personal life will make your profile monotonous and boring, so avoid doing that.
  • Don’t Spam- Never come off as a desperate by sending messages, emails or spams with messages like ‘Hi! I am an artist.’, ‘Look at my art.’ ‘Follow me here.’ Additionally, if you have made an event page or a group then understand that it is meant for those who are interested in it. So, don’t push people unnecessarily in any of them. Seek their permission first, always.