How to use Instagram for artists & creatives

Posted on by veronica

I’ve been using Instagram for several years to see it change and evolve. I spent hundreds of dollars on Instagram courses claiming to help me build the audience. While I don’t have a crazy following like so many artists out there, I did learn a thing or two about it with lots of sweat and tears. In 2022, I decided to share some simple truths about the social platform that you can apply to your account today to see some growth and hopefully cut on the frustration Instagram can give us. I updated it in 2024.

Overall, I like Instagram for art. It’s my favorite social network mainly because it’s so visual and easy to present art and connect with others in the art community and beyond. Perfect for us – artists because it’s still free! I must say that there are plenty of couches who claim to grow your account if you “follow their steps and strategies”. While it could work for them, it doesn’t mean it will work for you because you’re a different person with different art, ideas, and presentation. I saw couches that simply lied promising growth, and selling their silly programs. This is not me being negative about others, rather be mindful of all of this as you work on your account’s growth. Observe, what other top art accounts are doing now to incorporate their strategies into yours.

This video became viral on YouTube but I didn’t do anything special or different from my other reels on YouTube. I think sometimes it’s really just luck.

How to fix Instagram’s storage space

This is one of the major problems I often have with Instagram and other apps like Spotify. At some point, my Instagram takes up all the space on my half-empty Android phone! The size of the app gets bigger and bigger despite my limited use of the app. So, I tried different things to share what works for me.

  1. You must remember your account name and password before you do the reset! After that,
  2. Open the Settings tab on your phone. Click on Apps —All Apps—and you’ll see a list of all your installed apps. Pick Instagram (or Spotify or any other app you want to downsize).
  3. Click on Instagram app—Storage & Cache–‘Clear cache’ first & click on ‘Clear Storage’. It will ask you ‘Delete app data?’ Click ‘Delete’.
  4. This action will reset the app and recover the storage space on your phone. You must open the Instagram app to enter your login information again to use it.

Why you need to be on Instagram

  1. Every art professional, gallery owner, curator, artist, and art writer is on Instagram. You can connect to or reach out to people in a very informal way. Something that was totally impossible to accomplish a few years ago!
  2. If you have no website, no worries! Art professionals check your Instagram account first, and your website second!! You can host your art portfolio on Instagram for free.
  3. You expose your art to new audiences every day showing your inspiration and behind-the-scenes footage. In other words, you find your audience, opportunities, and art collectors on Instagram.

How to use Instagram effectively

  • The name of your account must include your artist’s name. If it’s taken, expand on it some more by adding art/painting/sculpture, etc. The word that describes your expertise the best.
  • Treat your Instagram account like your portfolio. This means deleting photos showing what you ate or where you bathed. Think of it as your professional portfolio with the best images of your artwork available to sample. People are very quick to judge. So when they get to your account, they must see the consistency in style and theme.
  • Include yourself in some of the shots. My photos perform a lot better when I’m standing next to my painting or I’m actually painting… This is important and makes IG different from regular, clean product photography. People want to connect to real artists, not just our artwork. Let them see your art, studio, and the creative process! We’re always very interested in the process of making something (hint: make short videos and reels. More on that later).
  • Show your WIP shots in a carousel placing your finished piece first. Shots of art with supplies in them work well. I think that you can experiment with wip shots in a video format since the reach is declining quickly posting photos only.
  • Use description space to write a story about your process and art. How did it come together? What challenges did you have? Focus on inspiration, rather than art supplies. Although sometimes it can work as well.
  • Follow your favorite artists, curators, and art brands on IG. Leave meaningful comments to engage and befriend them like you befriend people in real life… This is a long-term strategy. You can’t expect to see them liking or engaging with you but there is a chance that you can develop a meaningful connection this way. Don’t pressure people to like you. It’s annoying. Rather try to connect to someone you admire or like… I recommend doing this with people whom you love as a fan.
  • Use dm’s to connect with people as well. There are no rules here. Don’t be obnoxious but think how you can be helpful or inspiring to others.
  • Beware of spam! Don’t respond to messages stating they can help you grow your account for a certain amount of $$ you spend with them. Also, there are big art accounts out there as well that promote you for $25-100 per post. Most of these accounts are scams. Don’t waste your hard-earned money on these strategies. Some take the money and give you a following that disappears in a couple of days or a couple of months. If you see that the engagement is low on big art accounts (500k-million), it means these are not real. Some large, legit aggregate accounts post the best artists on their feeds. Most of the time posting on their feed is not free, while the best artists can get a free post, which translates to considerable following to the artist’s account. I think the best strategy with big accounts is to use their branded hashtag, so when they look for art, they can spot your video or image. I think that this strategy is about to die off completely… You can read about a whole list of scams I’ve received, here: https://veronicasart.com/top-scams-to-avoid-on-instagram-other-social-platforms/
  • Your Instagram account will grow not only because of your daily engagement with other users but also because of what you do outside of Instagram. This is important. You have to be social and proactive showing your art and personality elsewhere and the Instagram following becomes a byproduct of your main publicity efforts that include art shows, publications, guest posting on big sites, and podcasts…
  • Getting shares with reels is the most important factor right now. It’s not likes, it’s shares.

Reels

Your Instagram account won’t grow by posting pictures only these days. So posting reels is a must! Look at suggested art reels to understand what becomes viral. Oftentimes, it’s not the beauty of a painting, rather it’s about tape peeling or varnishing videos… Most videos are entertaining, not educational these days…

This is the only viral reel I had on Instagram, although there were a few others that were high in views as well.

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A post shared by 💫Veronica Winters, M.F.A. (@veronicawintersart)

  • Reels. Yes, you have to deal with them. All my courses went out of the window because Instagram is having a new tantrum (strategy) in place. Have you noticed a decline in reach when you just post a photo? Instagram wants to become a video app to compete with TikTok. (I’m rolling my eyes here:))
  • My top tip on reels is to treat it as a very short demo of your drawing/painting process that’s super entertaining. The first 3 seconds of your vertical video are very important. I’ve experimented with reels quite a lot to understand what does and doesn’t work. My actual painting/drawing reels used to do well and now they don’t.
  • Posting time matters but not to the extent as the quality of your reel. Show mini-tutorials and behind-the-scenes that are snappy and unusual. As Instagram often shows you top reels in your feed, study them for inspiration and ideas. There must be a reason why it’s performing so well.
  • Frequency. In my experience, posting reels every day doesn’t do much for my account growth. I did test this for many months. It seems that the second reel would get less reach and interaction and sometimes it performs just as badly as a regular photo post. Play with your reels and timing to see if it’s the same for you or different. Let me know how it goes! https://www.instagram.com/veronicawintersart/
  • The immediate post engagement is very important for your reel to rank well. So reply to your comments instantly. Don’t delay.
  • keep reels under 30 sec.
  • Post the BEST content.
Tip: Click on three stripes button located at the top right corner and go to your settings and then click on' upload at the highest quality' to upload your reels with max quality. If you have the creator account, you can also see Insights to understand how your videos perform.

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A post shared by 💫Veronica Winters, M.F.A. (@veronicawintersart)

Hashtags

Hashtags are still important. However, not all hashtags are good for your business. Pick the relevant ones to your artistic practice. Avoid using large hashtags that have over 500k posts with them. The reason is that if your account is small, your chance of being seen with a big hashtag is a fraction of a second. If you do your research and pick medium-size hashtags in your niche, you increase you chances to be noticed.

Facebook

What about Facebook, you may ask? I think it can be a powerful platform that has a different, much older demographic. Due to some privacy changes, a lot of targeting is gone. Many people have Facebook accounts they haven’t used for months. There seems to be no algorithm showing your stuff.. However, you’ve got to understand where your customers are, and what platform they prefer to engage on, so you spend more time there. I think Facebook groups can be useful to build friendships, which is not possible on IG. I hope it’s helpful.

In conclusion:

To wrap up, pick one platform to be active on it almost every day. Be professional by posting your art, inspiration, and story. Don’t obsess with the numbers, rather build real relationships with people who follow you and find inspiration and opportunities by being present and social there. Respond to your fans. Add location to posts and reels. Tag yourself in reels. If you make your own audio, name it. I don’t do it because I don’t do well speaking but it might work for you. Enable ‘Upload at highest quality.’ Enable close captions. Enable “recommend on Facebook.” Post the BEST video and post a call to action in every post!

As I’m honest I think that competition is increasing tenfold in terms of content production. Ads take up most of the space and if it’s going to continue like that we will eventually get another Facebook called Instagram with lots of empty accounts… Ads will be more expensive and will take even more space but all we can do is stay positive, mindful, and helpful. We can work on trying to make a viral reel or connecting to an art collector who loves our work despite all these factors. I know, it can be hard at times but I think people go on Instagram and some other social platforms for inspiration and entertainment as a way to relax from daily stress and work. Therefore, try to post positive and fun content to stay afloat in this busy world of social media!

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