How to make instagram artist page
How To Start An Art Page On Instagram
Are you are an aspiring artist that wants to get your art out into the world? Then there is no place better than Instagram. A free and easy to use site that displays your art all in one place. Your page will act as a hub to attract people and potential clients, whilst allowing you to express yourself on your own terms. With Instagram, you are not constrained. In this article, we will explore how to start an art page on Instagram and why it could benefit you as an artist.
Create A Business Account
So you’ve downloaded Instagram and are ready to create your own page dedicated to your art. Instagram for artists opens up a whole new world of possibilities. The first step is to create a business account on Instagram. A business account differs from a normal Instagram account as you can add further details and contact information that makes the page easier to navigate. You can add your email address or number. The perfect feature if you offer custom or commissioned artwork. You can also add an address, ideal if you have your own gallery or shop.
Choose The Perfect Name
Firstly, how to start an art page on Instagram starts with your unique “@”. It is crucial that you decide on the perfect page name. This name doesn’t have to be your name, but that is always a good place to start. We recommend that it is catchy and easy to remember. Keep it short and sweet avoiding too many numbers and special characters. This makes it easier for people to find you and to remember you. Of course, your art shall speak for itself but it doesn’t hurt to accompany it with your own brand. So get creative and select an “@” that represents you.
Write A Snappy Bio
The next step is writing your Instagram bio. This is where you can add a brief summary of you or your art and add any links you may have. Your bio acts as a little introduction to your new page. As you want to give a warm and welcoming introduction keep it short and informative. You want to keep it professional, whilst remaining faithful to yourself.
We recommend a brief introduction to you and your art. Mention the type of art you produce, any links you may have or even your own hashtag. This is the perfect place to promote your website or store. As it is located right at the top of the page people are most likely to see and click on these links. It is great for getting people to engage as well as drawing attention to other areas you may wish to promote.
Get Posting
Start posting your art to gain traction and create the equivalent of a virtual portfolio. We recommend that you post at least once a day, whether this is through a grid post or on stories. However, remember that quality is better than quantity. So if you have no new content to post, don’t ruin your feed with an obvious filler post, allow it to motivate you to create more content. Posts can include behind the scenes shots and the process of achieving your beautiful art. Either way, your audience will appreciate the thrilling content, and so will the Instagram algorithm.
How to post digital art on Instagram has never been easier.
What To Post
Telling you to post quality content frequently is a lot easier said than done. But do not worry we have a few ideas for you when you need post inspiration.
- Before and after – consumers love to see a transformation.
- Behind the scenes – the process is just as fascinating as the final result.
- Sneek peak – show your followers’ what’s to come.
- Your art essentials – reveal your ride or die products.
- Your inspiration – reveal why you make what you do.
- YOU! – add that personal touch.
Utilise Hashtags
Your posts are nothing without effective hashtags. Hashtags are how people can find and connect with your work, so don’t forget to implement them. Click here to read our blog post on hashtags to get more information and inspiration.
Enter Competitions
A great way to gain some recognition for your work is by entering competitions.
If you win you may even be rewarded with a wonderful cash prize. Think of all the new art supplies you could purchase. Check out our blog post on just a few competitions you could enter by clicking here.
Gain A Following
Now you know how to start an art page on Instagram it’s time for it to grow and flourish. Gaining followers is easier than you think. Engaging and creative content attracts people, and your wonderful art is no exception. If you are unsure where to start then read our 7 tips on how to gain Instagram followers here.
Be Active
Once you gain that following you want to keep it. Therefore, it is important that you stay active and connect with your followers. Reply to comments and messages, and you can even join online forums and groups to become a part of the artist community.
Take Advantage Of Reels
Instagram reels ideas for artists are a great addition to your page. The perfect way to attract more followers and connect with your existing audience.
This feature allows you to add longer videos with a selection of audios and effects to choose from. With its own timer, countdown and choice of speed and alignment, you can create seamless videos that really show off your artistic talents.
Why are reels relevant? Reels appear in the explore tab meaning even those who don’t follow you get to see your reels, hopefully drawing them in to hit the follow button. You could also be featured, a rare occurrence but still a possibility. Reels are great at drawing in new followers as more people are likely to watch reels of those they are not following. So what are you waiting for, get recording and make your art go viral.
Sell Your Unique Designs
Now you know how to start an art page on Instagram why not sell your art with Contrado? We have over 450 products for you to customise with your own art and sell directly to your customers. Design products, earn money all whilst getting your work out there. You have unlimited control of your designs.
So get selling today!
How to Start From Scratch EASILY (in 4 Easy Steps!)
Table of Contents
You’ve heard time and time again that Instagram is the bomb for artists – and that’s because it is!
Instagram is a killer social media platform for artists because A) it’s a visual platform which is naturally great for artists, B) it’s free, and C) it puts an emphasis on creating quality content.
Don’t fret if you’re only getting started on the app now – this post is your action guide to get the ball rolling.
We’re going to learn how to start from scratch on Instagram just for artists.
Step 1) Create Your Account
Maybe you’ve played around with an Instagram account for personal use, cute latte shots & endless puppy pics (whoops, guess that’s just me), but want to move to something a little more art-driven.
For the purpose of this post I’m going to assume that you’re starting completely from scratch.
The first step is to create your account.
As of this date, you’ve got 3 choices for account types: Personal, Business & Creator.
Personal
- basic usage, can be set to private
- No insights or analytics, nor can you monetize it
- short of DMs, no contact details (so no website link or email)
Business
- Access to analytics & insights
- can run ads
Creator
- Access to analytics & insights
- Profile is more flexible, you can choose the type of creator you are
- Access to the Creator Studio for desktop use\
All of the account types have access to the usual features – Feed, Stories, IGTV and the like.
And switching account types is easy-peasy, so don’t worry too much about this decision. I recommend starting with the Business or Creator profile because like always data is far more powerful than any of us seem to remember.
For your account username, you can’t go wrong with your name, or whatever you want to be known for.
Step 2) Rock that Profile
Instagram profiles are short & sweet – you’ve got limited real estate so every letter counts.
Start with your profile pic – the best option is to choose a nice sunny & warm photo of your smiling face.
Too scary? Your next best option is to turn a piece of your art into your profile pic. Choose carefully here, the tiny size of the photo can really affect the clarity of the art.
Next up, you’ve got your bio. 150 characters only, so choose each letter wisely.
The instinct here is to fill it up with things about us – but if you change your focus from yourself to how others can benefit from following you, you’ll really uplevel your Instagram profile.
Instead of writing how you love painting, your dog and flowers, tell them that you create paintings that will transport them into a peaceful state of mind.
Definitely juicier.
Posting your location to your profile is also a great way to get found locally – even popping the flag emoji for your country into your bio can go a long way!
Step 3) Upload at least 9 great posts
Someone that floated onto your account right now would probably read your bio and get excited, thinking that they stumbled upon an account that will bring some joy into their lives.
Buuuuuut with no posts there isn’t any reason for them to stick around!
Before you start pumping time & energy into growing your audience, set the foundation for everything to come. Give those viewers something to look at!
Take the time to create at least 9 (12-15 is better) quality posts to flesh out your account.
What makes up a quality post?
Two main things: good, clear photos of your art, and a compelling caption.
Your photos should always be clear and bright, we’ve got no room for blurry, dark & grainy photos here.
Get creative – snap a pic of your art in progress in your studio space, or of it framed up on your wall.
Now the image is only half of the battle – the caption is the other piece of the puzzle.
A good caption is captivating & engaging – it entices the viewer to stop scrolling and to read & respond.
Share the story of the art, where the inspiration sprang from or even if the piece frustrated the hell out of you. Share the juicy stuff.
You can also pop a few hand-chosen hashtags into your caption to broaden your reach across the app. Go into the Explore feed within the app and type in a hashtag that might apply to your art.
Let’s use “#flowerart” as an example.
That’s a fine hashtag to use, but you’ll notice that there are over 1.4 million posts currently using it – which means that you’ll get buried almost instantly.
But don’t fret – we’re going to find some other hashtags that will serve you better.
See at the top there, where it says “Related: “? There you have a collection of other hashtags that are related to the one that you searched.
You want to find some that are related to your art, and that have less usage.
#flowerartwork has less than 50,000 posts – much better!
Keep exploring the related hashtags and make a list of the ones you’d like to start using.
Step 4) Get the Ball Rolling
Account created? Check
Profile pic chosen? Check
Bio shares why your audience should follow you? Check
Gorgeous posts now gracing your account? Check times 9.
You’ve put in the time to set up a solid foundation for the new beginnings of your Instagram account for your art.
Now it’s time to get yourself out there!
There are a few options for ways that you can escalate your growth on Instagram – some are really good, and others are really bad.
Buying followers, and the follow-unfollow game are bad strategies. Not only are they expensive (both monetarily and time-wise), they’ll always fall flat and can even hurt your efforts in the end.
If you’ve got hashtags on your posts, you’re making yourself visible. But there are other ways too.
My favorite method for racking up engagement, building relationships and growing a following is something that I continue to do to this day, even though I already have a passionate following that frequently buys my art.
I call it my “Treat People How You Want to Be Treated” Method (10 points for a great name).
Here’s what you do.
Every day, pick a hashtag that is related to your artwork. Explore that hashtag, and take a nice scroll down the feed of posts that use it.
Whenever you see something that catches your eye, stop and open the post.
Take a moment, and absorb the post. What do you like about it? How does it make you feel? After reading the caption, are you compelled to respond?
Now leave a comment on that post. No, not a one-worded “cool!” or an emoji – a good comment. One that is specific and personal, bonus points if it gives the artist something positive to respond to.
Give the post a like while you’re there.
Now go back to exploring the hashtag – rinse & repeat 4 more times. Per day.
Here’s a shortlist of why this strategy is great:
- it’ll make you feel good
- it doesn’t take long
- when you comment on someone else’s post, there’s a good chance that they might visit your profile and if they like what they see, they might follow you
- when other people see what you’re commenting on someone else’s post, they might also check you out and follow you!
- the algorithm (the all-knowing formula that dictates what people see on the app) pays attention when accounts engage, and in turn tends to deliver those high-engagers more views. win-win!
The next step is to start posting consistently. Consistency is highly rewarded on the app. If you post once per week, for a year straight, you’re going to see MUCH better results than someone else that blasted through 20 posts in a week, then went on hiatus for 3 months, and repeated the cycle.
Are you a super prolific artist that creates new (quality) work every day? Great, post every day!
But most of us aren’t quite at your level, so posting every day will lead to burn out (and crappy results) super fast.
I’d recommend posting at least once per week, but the importance here is that you are consistent.
Well look at you! You’re now the proud owner of a strong Instagram account that will help to spread your art far and wide!
Want to learn more about Instagram for Artists?
Check out these other blog posts!
- Is Your Instagram Follower Growth STUCK? Here’s how to get it growing again
- 7 Mistakes You’re Making on Instagram (and How to Fix Them)
- The Artist Content Vault
How to create, maintain and promote artist's social media accounts ♫ IMI.Journal
We continue to publish instructions for novice artists and promoters on promoting and organizing concerts.
Respect Production label marketing specialist Anton Vybornov shared with IMI.Journal tips on designing, promoting and maintaining musicians' accounts in social networks, as well as on the SoundCloud and Bandcamp platforms.
Text: Anton Vybornov
VKontakte
For whom
For the widest possible range of artist users. It is the main social network in Russia and it continues to grow - and with it the opportunities for promoting music are expanding. As practice shows, now almost all musicians have mastered the VKontakte advertising account at least at a basic level and learned how to run ads through it, so the competition for user attention in VK is one of the highest.
Promotion recommendations
There is more and more information on VKontakte, and a simple user has less time to study it, so when promoting your music, you need to bet on unusual texts, videos, bright photos and interesting design.
Publish at least two posts a week, promote them periodically, note which posts your audience responds to best: this is necessary for the social network algorithms to see that the community is popular with users and posts should be ranked high in the feed. nine0003
To get Prometheus (a VKontakte algorithm created for free support and promotion of authors and communities; helps them get additional coverage. - Approx. IMI) or other support from VK, you just need to consistently maintain a well-formed community, and each post should be meaningful and unique. It is advisable to use all the new tools that the social network rolls out, because it itself supports them with additional coverage. nine0003
It is better to upload music to VKontakte (and, accordingly, to Boom) through distributors or labels similar in genre, which have already been able to promote their artists in the playlists of the service. If you upload music yourself, it simply does not monetize - well, you will also not have such goodies as displaying album covers or artist cards.
Editorial playlists, on the other hand, can only be entered at the personal request of the curator, thanks to the agreements of his label, or, understandably, due to increased presence - for example, after a noticeable jump in auditions. nine0003
Of the promotion tools, it is worth noting the work with retargeting (a mechanism by which advertising is shown only to those users who visited the page of the advertised product or showed interest in it. - Approx. IMI) . It is recommended to build an audience base that has already interacted with your music or posts. This can be done using Cerebro, TargetHunter, Segmento and others. Then it’s worth re-catching up with loyal users with new posts and working with them separately using other creatives. nine0003
Also, don't forget to put pixels (social network codes from the advertising account) on the sites or external pages of the project, which allow you to track all visitors to your community, save them and run ads on them.
Be careful with "gray" methods, such as inviting, mass mailing through third-party services: in case of complaints or detection of such mechanics, the VKontakte administration has the right to ban a meeting or community without the right to restore. nine0003
Traditional promotion tools continue to grow in functionality, so you should definitely study them. Notice the banners on the right side of the pages, well suited for event coverage; a post with a carousel of photos (launched through the advertising account), which is often used by concert promoters; standard promo posts and crops (community placements), the effectiveness of which, however, is declining every day due to an overabundance of information and a huge number of bots. nine0003
Event ads are best run from meetings, because there are separate "Join" buttons that can increase conversions. In addition, each post in the meeting can be targeted to different audience segments.
From the band's community itself, you can launch an advertisement for a post about the concert (with a link to the event) to your subscribers.
If you do reposts, then from the meeting to the main community, but it’s better not to repost anything at all: the coverage is greatly cut off from this. nine0003 Photo: Priscilla Du Preez/Unsplash
For whom
First of all, for artists aimed at the West, but also for local groups, Facebook should not be discounted.
The conventional wisdom that Facebook is “an elite social network for Muscovites” is erroneous, as well as the fact that only pensioners allegedly sit in Odnoklassniki. Of course, each social network has its own strong audience core, but with the help of advertising tools in almost every one of them you can reach anyone - many regions of Russia can be perfectly processed using Facebook targeting, and in some cases it will be more effective than in "VKontakte", since in the Russian social network the competition in the advertising market may be higher. That is, you should not forget about Facebook, promoting, for example, a tour of Russia.
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And, of course, if you want to promote your music abroad, you must have Facebook and Instagram set up.
Recommendations for promotion
First of all, you will have to figure out the local advertising account, which is more complicated than in VK, but can give a greater return for its audience segment.
It makes little sense on Facebook to promote clips or other videos uploaded to YouTube. If the goal is to increase the total number of views of the video, it is better to upload it directly to the social network and set the goal “Video views” in the advertising campaign: this way you can achieve maximum coverage. nine0003
Facebook meetings are good because you can immediately invite all users who are potentially interested in the event there. In addition, you can insert the “Interested” / “Coming” button directly into the post advertisement, which will help increase the reach.
For whom
For artists with a bright visual style, high-quality photo content or an interesting lifestyle blog.
If the musician has not yet become a big star, it is not worth starting another platform just to upload videos from rehearsals or concert announcements. As a rule, it is boring for users. nine0003
Recommendations for promotion
Photo and video content must be of high quality, lively and well adapted to the format of the social network.
Posts in the account itself can be a profile showcase. They immediately give the visitor clear information about the style, image and music of the artist. Stories are more suitable for announcements of important events and communication with subscribers, they have many engaging mechanics, such as polls and voting. Stories are also used for quick news alerts, they immediately take first place when updating the feed, which gives the artist the opportunity to always be in the public eye. nine0003
It is better to run Instagram ads through the already mentioned Facebook advertising account: it has much more options for targeting than Instagram itself.
To get access to advanced advertising functionality, you need to link your Facebook and Instagram accounts, after which you can promote posts from Facebook on Instagram.
YouTube
For whom
First of all, for artists who are ready to upload video content on an ongoing basis, invest in promotion tools within YouTube, and consciously increase their presence on the site - not only on their channel. It should be understood that niche music by itself will not be widely distributed and will not fall into YouTube trends, you will inevitably have to invest in promoting your content on the largest video hosting. Perhaps it would be more efficient to upload “narrowly targeted” videos to other sites and target them through video advertising already there. nine0003
Promotion recommendations
Collaborations with bloggers and mentions on other channels work well on YouTube, but be careful here: direct advertising can cause negative reactions from users, and native (perceived as part of the site being viewed; usually is not identified as an advertisement and does not cause rejection in the audience.
- Approx. IMI) will not give direct transitions or conversions, except for general recognition. Such a promo should be used in parallel with the general advertising campaign. nine0003
Direct video promotion tools include InStream pre-rolls (videos that appear inside videos) and the Videodiscovery format (advertising in search and the "Recommended" block). These “helpers” are guaranteed to give you cheap live views (when set up correctly), however, as always, the success of the campaign will depend on the material and how much the audience, after getting acquainted with it, wants to subscribe to the channel or follow the link.
In addition, you need to understand whether the artist is really ready to develop the channel, because stable content publication is highly valued on YouTube, and if one clip is released a year and nothing else happens, you can forget about the recommendation system as a whole, because the channel is considered dead. nine0003
Bandcamp
For whom
Bandcamp will be useful for artists who work directly with their audience and do not need labels.
Promotion methods
Despite the fact that the site takes a commission when withdrawing money to PayPal, artists have many advantages for distributing content - and here it is not profit that is more important, but the audience.
For example, you can put a free download button, but in response to ask the user for an e-mail, thereby collecting a database of contacts. nine0003
Crowdfunding and merch sales are also very popular on Bandcamp - these aspects should definitely be explored.
In addition, the service has a functional mobile application through which you can track purchase data and listening statistics.
SoundCloud
For whom
In principle, for everyone. Abroad, SoundCloud is a goldmine for labels, they constantly find interesting artists there (examples of this are XXXTentacion and Billy Eilish). nine0003
In Russia, this service is more appreciated by fans of electronic music, who post their tracks and mixtapes there.
Recently, the hip-hop scene has become more active on SoundCloud, there are also many beatmakers and podcasts appearing there.
Promotion Recommendations
Promotion methods on SoundCloud can include similar artist friending and a recommendation system that suggests similar music in the Discover section based on songs you've already listened to. nine0003
The SoundCloud player widget on your site is also handy for quick access to music, so you can embed it on your music landing page to increase listeners.
A paid SoundCloud account does not offer promotional benefits, but additional options for downloading, monetizing through SoundCloud Premier, and distribution.
Why you should not trust the majority of SMMs
Now every second public administrator positions himself as a musical SMM. Everyone has the status of "PR for musicians", everyone has ten tariffs to choose from for advertising a track, album or video, and all this is put on the conveyor and is constantly published in the same publics with which the SMM is friends.
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It is important to understand that your music is not of any interest to such SMM people, except for commercial gain. They do not delve into the meaning, presentation, audience and other nuances - they simply publish everything in a single stream according to a well-established scheme. Before starting this kind of campaign, it is necessary to clearly agree with the SMM manager on all the details. If these are crops, discuss creatives (submission form), texts and placements, if targeting - the audience and methods of attracting the audience.
Photo: Priscilla Du Preez/UnsplashRead also in "IMI.Journal" :
Useful services for music promotion in "VKontakte";
Why your promotional campaigns don't work
checklist for promotion - Marketing on vc.ru
Many years ago, the music market was ruled by labels that were completely engaged in the chosen artist. Now labels are mostly for Grammy winners. And for little-known artists, one thing remains: to take the fate of their group into their own hands.
At the same time, the list of things to do, in addition to music creation and recording, is rather big: here is the design of avatars and covers, scheduling concerts, building up the fanbase and supporting the group's presence in social networks. nine0003
6318 views
Let's focus on the most versatile and selling social network - Instagram.
How to present your group on Instagram?
● The 150 allowed characters must contain the whole idea and concept of your music. Ideally, the answer to one question: “why listen to you.” Here you can regularly update information: concerts, the release of a single or video, tours, festivals, interviews in a decent publication or a star’s opinion about your music. If necessary, place links to the accounts of participants group @● Link to your creativity. YouTube, YandexMusic, downloading an album, buying tickets or merchandise, donations. The link can be changed - it can be a subscription to your VK page or any landing page where you can collect contacts of subscribers (with their consent).
● A beautiful, readable avatar that reflects the concept of your creativity. nine0003
What to post on Instagram
● Photos: from rehearsals, from concerts, from tours, from the recording studio, from the ordinary life of musicians and from their childhood. Illustrations for your songs, atmospheric pictures reflecting the musical genre, fan creativity. Faces get more likes.
● Video Up to 60 seconds with your music. For the convenience of those who view the tape with the sound turned off - add subtitles, accompanying text (especially if the music is instrumental =)
● Text. Maximum 2200 characters with spaces. Can look like a funny caption for a photo from a concert or a philosophical phrase from the lyrics of your song. If you know how to write in an interesting way: about the throes of creativity, about the life of the group, about funny fakap at concerts - write. If there is a lot of text, place it on the photo in the form of slides.
How to show your music on Instagram
● Stories.
A 15-second video in stories, especially if it's a piece with a bright chorus or an interesting riff. Any announcements here. If you are not doing anything new, please your subscribers with old songs. Engage your audience: polls, quizzes, collecting opinions, etc. Stories disappear after 24 hours - so use them for experiments, what your subscribers react to more. Tag them in stories, ask them to repost. Despite the fact that stories are located at the top, the competition for views is high. Therefore, use the most attractive design, hashtags and geotags. Everything that you want to leave "for ages" - save in highlights, preferably ordering according to some criteria. nine0003
● IGTV allows you to download video content up to 10 minutes for regular users and up to 60 minutes for verified accounts. Suitable for vertical videos. It will fit a whole song, live concert, interview, vlog, instrument review, song part analysis and any behind the scenes of your band.
Use the right hashtags
Users search for specific content, places, people using hashtags.
Instagram also uses hashtags to recommend your content to the right audience based on their posts and likes. nine0003
Unless the algorithm changes soon, you can include up to 30 hashtags, including those you can add as the first comment on a post. Plus 10 tags for stories. Which ones to choose? For example #music, ), #instamusic, #rock, #indi or any other genre, etc. Use both popular and narrow niche hashtags (if you write music for movies or video games) or create your own unique one (for example #rockitfashion)
Start promoting your account
Start by converting your account to a business account. Next, choose what you want to promote: photo, video, carousel of changing slides or stories. The result will definitely be, but it can be expensive - so be careful and do not invest a lot at once. Task: large coverage - small costs. nine0003
What can go wrong? First, the wrong audience (to whom the ad is shown), and second, an unattractive ad. You have to get people to click on your picture.
