As mentioned earlier, my gallery online sales soared from 23% to 35% last year. In fact I’m so convinced the future is in digital sales, I launched BritishContemporary.art on 1st January 2018 and within 3 months, was top of Google for British Contemporary Art (and Artists) and have sold tens of thousands of pounds worth in my first year of trading. So I’m living proof digital sales are increasing.
OK, so you have a web sales platform set up (Website, ArtRehome/Etsy/ArtFinder account) and now you need to promote it.
Social media platforms are phenomenal for this but you need to be consistent and committed. Posting just once a week or posting irregularly won’t cut the ice.
If you do choose to have a Facebook account, make it a business one. I know some artists use a personal account for their art, but there are many reasons why this isn’t a good idea.
- You’re running a business, and if Facebook decide to, they can take your account down, losing you all your hard-earned followers.
- Political views, love-life issues, religious opinions… these and many more reasons why you should separate business from pleasure. Customers want to know about your art, not your thoughts on the above, so a sure-fire way of losing some customers is to let them into your ‘friends’ circle and for them to have differing opinions than you. Keep them separate!
- Marketing isn’t possible through personal pages nor will you have the benefit of seeing the stats of your business account reach and interactions (if it interests you).
There are many more reasons, but those should be enough to steer you on a business pathway… that’s what you’re running after all!
Ok, now in my opinion and those of the Social Media platform algorithms, only consistent, committed posting will bring dividends. If you only post once a week or irregularly, you’ll find numbers hard to increase. Remain upbeat in your posts (no one wants to know about your problems!) and keep the focus interesting and varied.
I know one artist who just does little videos of mixing paint. It’s wonderful watching the colours blend. Share all the little day-to-day delights like this and I guarantee your numbers will increase steadily and continuously… far better than any paid-for advertising would. And it’s honest followers you’ll be getting who adore what you do, too.
Here’s a quick rundown of a few of the social media platforms I use:
For an artist, I think Instagram is a must; it’s almost totally visual. The downside? No live links. To overcome this, add short links in your post then use the one allocated profile live link and direct your followers to that in your posts (‘Follow the link in my profile for more info’).
Tagging and hashtags are important as they raise your profile. Tagging is to actually mention another account user in your post with a direct link back to their page. If you do this, whoever you tag will see that you’ve done it.
Using a hashtag (#) before an unbroken word/s will allow others who like searching under that term to find your post. For example, if I use #cornwall, anyone who searches for anything in Cornwall will probably come across my post. It’s like a signpost to your work and you can use as many as are relevant.
If you’ve painted something near a business (café, landmark) and they have an account, tag or hashtag them: they’d appreciate the publicity and, if you’re lucky, may crosspost your post, promoting you in return: as mentioned, it is social media, after all!
Who knows, they may even choose to follow you and their followers in return may see that you’ve done that and become interested in following you too; exciting stuff and super easy to do once you’ve got used to it.
I keep on hand a set of Hashtags that I regularly use and just copy and paste them in each time. For the Harbour Gallery’s posts, for example, I often use #artist #cornwall #harbourgallery #portscatho #stmawes.
(N.b.: You’ll notice I didn’t use gaps in some of these: #harbourgallery, for example. Hashtags are exclusively joined up words, so you cannot use gaps to separate them. The only option if you wanted clarity in a complicated hashtag is to use capitals, e.g.: #usehashtags could be #UseHashtags.)
Lastly, on any social media, remember to interact with your public! If someone takes the time to comment, the least you can do is reply. This takes time, but not replying is like ignoring someone at an exhibition: a sure-fire way to lose followers.
Facebook is a versatile platform despite its restrictive setbacks. You need a personal account to have a business one, but I highly recommend you don’t use a personal one for business (for the reasons I mentioned earlier and many more).
When posting, ALWAYS direct link back to your sales platform (website, etc.) otherwise the opportunity for sales and further engagement is lost.
Remember: A post without a link back to where someone can buy your work is pure vanity. Great for your ego, maybe, but worthless for your income!
Again, tag and hashtag others so they can crosspost you, if they choose to.
As with Instagram, videos are a great way of getting new followers, especially Facebook Live videos. Consider time-lapses of you painting; get someone to interview you; share a plein-air moment with your followers. These are great ways of increasing your following. Most of all have fun – the more fun you have, the more fun your followers will have.
Make sure you use the ‘Daily Story’ section of your social media feeds (Facebook and Instagram). Some people only look at these and you can add the same image/video to these (without the text) so you don’t have to create new content for these.
Invites: if you click on the number of people who ‘like’ a post you’ve made, a popup will appear. There, in the right hand column, you’ll have the opportunity to ‘Invite’ those who don’t already follow you, to do so.
Is this pushy? No, it’s called marketing and they have a choice to ignore or decline it if they don’t want to. Why invite people? They may not know how to or even think of doing it otherwise. By inviting them, you’re acting professionally and giving them a chance to have your work (which they clearly like) appear on their timeline from time to time.
It reminds them you’re there and, who knows, they may even share your post on their timeline attracting you newer admirers. Awareness is the precursor to sales, so invite people… regularly! And if you haven’t done this before, put this book down and do it now… on all your previous posts. And watch your following increase!
X, (Formerly Twitter)
There are a lot of art-lovers in the Twittersphere, so creating an account there is very worthwhile. Again, always tag and link back to your ‘sales’ page and always add images to your posts as they engage the Twitterers more than just words: you are a visual medium after all!
YouTube
You’re lucky to be working in an extremely visual industry so creating eye-catching videos is an excellent way of showing the best in your work.
If you don’t want to be seen yourself on camera, you can still use this free platform to create fabulous videos to share on your social media feed and website.
It’s simple, quick and straightforward to set up a YouTube account. Once again, make sure you’ve got consistency with the name you use. You won’t be able to actually ‘name’ your account until you have 100 followers, so ask everyone who follows you to do so on YouTube too, so you can take advantage of customising your account as soon as you can.
Regardless of the name, though, content can be made and uploaded quickly, then embedded on your website. Take a look at www.britishcontemporary.art/videos if you want to see an example of some of mine. They’re all under one minute so can be shared on social media too (many social media platforms don’t support videos over 1 minute in length) but most of all they must be engaging.
Doing timelapses of you painting is a nice way to engage your audience, reducing down what could be a somewhat slow and dull watch in real time.
Talk to the camera as if you would a class and show them one simple technique. This engages both the collectors and helps budding artists, so you’re giving back whilst entertaining others.
However you choose to do them… do them! They’re free, they draw buyers and fellow artists in to your world and they show off your biggest asset… your art, in all its glory and are much more engaging than just stills.
And who knows, maybe you’ll create something that’ll go viral! Now, wouldn’t that be the bomb?
SMMs
If the above sounds daunting, I have a quick-fire solution for you: SMMs! (Oh no, not another acronym!) Social Media Management systems allow you to post to all your accounts in one shot! The downside is that many only allow certain benefits for their free service, but they’ve served me well so I suspect their free service will be fine for your needs, too.
Personally, using Hootsuite (as they only allow you to post to 3 social media platforms on their free service) I post to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts then do others separately. It’s your call, of course, but using an SMM does make posting quicker and easier.
You’ll need to tweak each post afterwards as your tags will only work for one of the three platforms, but it’s a great way of shortening your workload and making sure all the important information is posted in one shot. If you do as I do, I would recommend formatting it for Twitter, as it’s the only platform you can’t edit your posts on. Then tweak the tags on the other two platforms after posting.
The more you post using your SMMs, the quicker it’ll become. I now do all of my platforms in around 2 minutes, so not arduous.
Art is your business as well as your passion, so using all the platforms out there is only good business practice. Yes, you can shy away from it and leave it to your gallery/s, but if you’re serious about growing your business and want to make sure your work is out in the ever-growing digital domain, my advice is to buckle up and learn it.
There are many artists I know who keep 100% of their sales because they’re great at using social media. Now, doesn’t that sound good?
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Before leaving this subject, I want to share a story that I feel highlights best practice do’s and don’ts on social media:
Recently, one of my more successful artists was a tad miffed I didn’t respond to his posting on social media.
Confused, I went over to his page to find a post he hadn’t tagged me in so I didn’t know it existed. Nor had he said it was for us and I would never presume that just because an artwork is of our locale that it’s destined for my gallery.
As a professional gallery, what my artists pay me to do is sell, sell, sell! If I am to share any new work, I would first need to make sure it has a direct link to where someone can buy the painting… instantly! This is how I create sales and many a time I get sales directly after posting a new work from an artist.
Additionally, I had an upcoming exhibition with that artist (of which this work was intended) so airing it beforehand would make the exhibition feel somewhat stale and lose that important customer ‘feeding frenzy’ we often get.
So, in conclusion:
- Always be clear with your gallery how you are using social media to make sure you’re both singing from the same hymn sheet.
- Always tag a gallery (see tagging) in any post you’re intending them to be aware of, even if they don’t cross-post it themselves for whatever reason. It’s good business practice.
- Hold back on sharing exhibition works on social media or at least let your gallery know you’re doing it. You could harm your sales potential just because of vanity.
- Never wash your dirty laundry on social media… especially on your business page. It casts a bad light on your partners and makes you look unprofessional.
As a former songwriter and author, I understand many artists need to know their work is still ‘good’, but jeopardising the chance of a sale for vanity doesn’t help you.
Remember: words are cheap and the highest form of flattery for any artist is when a collector hands over their hard earned money for your work. This trumps any ego-massaging comments from fans in my book, any day!