Artists are using social media more than ever. But am I one of those artists?
If you’re an artist without social media, doesn’t it just feel like this looming art boss is coming for you? I say that because I’ve felt that. I feel like I’ve twirled around this social media Maypole with a million different threads of my feelings about “the purpose of social media for artists.” But my first feeling was to avoid, so avoid I did for a good while.
And now? Now I’ve started a new creative business – one that is placing less emphasis on freelancing for individual clients (which I’ve done for nearly 20 years), and more about creating art and content that is scaleable. I also want to build an art licensing career along the way so I can see my patterns and artwork on products out in the wild. Fingers crossed. No bigs.
So today, I chose to write about social media for artists out of my very real emotional dance of the anxiety and excitement that comes along with knowing that I just hopped back onto the ‘gram with a brand spankin’ new account as part of my plan to get this new creative business chug chugging its way to rocking my world. And I’m gonna have to get busy. Busy social media-ing.
If you’re an artist working on your own social media strategy, I hope you find this post relatable. If you’re not an artist planning out your own social media strategy, this post may feel less relatable.. But either way it’s time to talk about getting social – on platforms..
I’m not a total stranger to social platforms. But do I occasionally wish I was? Of course. Art and social media is a whole thing in and of itself. Cumbersome.. Committed. And I sort of want to opt out, like, “but I’m middle aged, you know?”
But rather than holing away awaiting the magic of menopause, avoiding digital art platforms, I’m going to stand up, sort of stretch out my joints nice and slow, and get on that Instagram train. Like more than once.
I started my first Instagram art account in 2019. You may know the drill – I’ve been super committed at times, I’ve had to drop it in favor of surviving a really difficult life transition, I’ve unsuccessfully juggled social media with a full time job, and now I’ve landed in a place that is very… slow and noncommittal.
But hey ho – there’s a new Instagram account in town, and it will be.. committal.
So here’s how I plan to use “the socials” in my art marketing plan to build brand awareness, community, share my creative projects and blog, and drive traffic to my bloggity blog:
Pinterest + Instagram = the best social media for artists (well – at least artists in my niche)
Since both Pinterest and Instagram are visual platforms, they both work really well for artists. Since social media takes a true time commitment and I’m still just me, I have decided to commit to just these two platforms for the next year.
Using Pinterest to drive traffic to my blog:
Okay, to be totally technical – Pinterest isn’t actually social media – Pinterest is just one giant image-based search engine. So it’s a great place to share content for those already searching. They search, my pins show up in their search, and hopefully they click over to read my posts. It’s not really a place where I care about getting followers or engaging in a lot of collaboration, because I really just want to use this platform to drive traffic.
Don’t get me wrong – if I meet a contact through Pinterest who wants to collaborate on something, hell yes! But in general, my time will be focused on creating quality pins and just testing, testing, testing. When I see a pin that’s working for me, I’ll try to do other similar pins.
Another really great thing about Pinterest is that every pin is evergreen content – so that means they will be out there being seen and clicked for as long as Pinterest is around.. Every week more pins will post, and all of them will be around driving traffic to my blog as long as people continue to click.. So evergreen..
Next, I’ll share how Instagram and I will be frolicking about this year. Instagram offers some of the best free social media marketing for artists out there, and though it’s become a lot more algorithm-pandering-like, it’s still a huge tool for artists. In this space, I’ll get a lot more involved than just scheduling pins for an hour each week – but without committing to some insane amount of forced engagement..
Using Instagram to connect with community:
This platform is where I can bring more personality, more of my me-ness, and connect with others. So below I’ll share the ways I’ve chosen to commit to our pal Instagram this year.
Brand building and recognition
Insta is a great place to build brand recognition and show people why they may want what I’ve got. So I’ll be building a little Lucky Cosmos Creative vibe and pulling together the things that this brand represents or aligns with. I’ll use colors, textures, specific motifs, images and even a voice that carries this brand through each post.
I’ll share educational content alongside bringing people along on my own dream building – so as I learn new things, I can share those too. The brand will start to take on a little life of its own, and over time become more recognizable with repetition. Those interested in learning more specific creative strategies may go to the blog, but there will probably be a lot of people who just follow the Instagram account.
I’ll show up as a real person
Ahhhh! Help!!
Y’all. In my current Instagram art portfolio account, I have never shared one single face shot, reel or story. I’ve just hidden behind some good and bad illustrations, throwing more and more art into that fire.
Okay, it’s not a fire.. But I’ve really been using that account as an illustration portfolio, and not as a place to engage with cool people – and I like cool people! I have to admit, engaging as myself has been a scary thought – especially when I first started. I couldn’t imagine creating a video of myself talking to y’all out there in Instagram land.
Honestly – it still sounds hard.. But I’m going to start doing hard things like that with my new Lucky Cosmos Insta account. 💪 Things like being a real human. Showing my fellow art lovers my favorite gold paint and swooning over patterns I find out in the wild. Sharing a lyrical miracle. IYKYK…(and.. if you don’t know me by now, you may never, never, never know me..)
It’s a bit unnerving – I really debated whether to do an anonymous blog, but veered in favor of building a brand instead, using the blog to contain and share all the creative adventures I find myself in.
Authenticity over trends
This is my main foundation guiding how I show up. I’m kind of odd – and fun – and cool – and weird – and too much sometimes. I make mistakes and I don’t always make sense, and I am still pretty fun. I don’t want to tame and distill myself down to a totally professional person. I don’t want to have to appear “proper” all the time in this space.
As for posting, authenticity wins again. I can’t commit to the recommended three stories a day and one reel per day. But I can commit to posting three times per week and throwing stories up whenever it feels relevant in real life.
I know there is a lot of engagement in trends, but unless a trend (or trending song) feels really in alignment with something I would do, I’m probably going to skip it. I’ve got friends who can jump on those trends and rock them, but I just flash back to the way I flail and sort of jerk my body around attempting a Zumba class in front of coordinated people, and that’s the way I imagine I’d feel trying to do something cool that others are doing..
Gonna bring my heart to this art
Making my art means a lot to me, and I’ll be making a lot of art this year. I have a few different styles of art that I like to practice, and each one satisfies something different for me. So if I share a cactus pattern (which I always will) one day and a lettered quote about liberation the next – the thread that runs through both of them is my me-ness. This year, I’ll share snippets of my creative process and the inspiration that informs my art.
Promoting my blog and products
Lastly, in metered doses, I’ll share blog posts and new products that I create. I plan to design some mug and pillow collections this year as I test some new art to see what appeals to people. This will inform my strategy when designing art for the home decor and gift markets.
I don’t want to dominate my grid with a salesy face, but it’ll be fun to throw out some artist designed products and just test to see which ones get any interest.
One last thing!
I’ve now shared my Pinterest and Instagram strategies, but I wanted to also mention how I will repurpose content for and from those platforms.
Repurposing content
To really utilize social media for artists, it’s important that I remember to my share Instagram and Pinterest videos on different platform too. That way I’m not always doubling my efforts, and I’m getting more traction for what I am creating and posting.
Two platforms I didn’t commit to as primary social media channels out but I’ll likely engage with as secondary platforms, are LinkedIn and YouTube.
Even though I avoid LinkedIn and probably shouldn’t, I’ll update that too, y’all. Like every once in a while because I know as a professional grown-up I just must. Mustn’t I? And I will experiment perhaps with adding some repurposed video content from videos that are loved on Instagram.
As for YouTube, I’m not ready to start a channel where I commit to filming video content specifically for YouTube, but I’m totally happy to repurpose some little social media videos and post them as YouTube shorts, which are really popular right now. Not opposed to doing that at all.. And in the future? Maybe I’ll be getting on the Tube, you never know.. (that sounds kinda weird, doesn’t it?)…
I hope this was interesting for those of you using these social platforms to help you in your own marketing goals. If you are interested in following along on my social media journeys for my Lucky Cosmos Creative Instagram or my portfolio Instagram, Alesha Sevy Art, I just cleverly left you links so that’s a real possibility if you go ahead and click through and follow. 😉
I’d sure love to have you around so we could both delight in the satisfaction of patterns, murals, acorns, punny jokes.. Maybe a Mad Lib or two.. I think it’ll be a real riot – hope to see you there!
Another gem of a “plan” kinda post you may enjoy:
Planning a Creative Journey into Surface Pattern Design
