Today, it is essential for artists to expose their art to their target audience. At the least, artists need to be marketing their art on Facebook, Google Plus, Pinterest and LinkedIn. Other effective social media outlets for artists to use to market their art would also be YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram.

For this article, I will focus on Facebook as I believe that it is the easiest platform to set up, the easiest to maintain and to promote art from.

We will assume that you are already a regular Facebook user and that you have an active Facebook Personal Profile page. From your Personal Profile page to create a Business page, follow these directions;

At the bottom of your Personal Profile page, in the right-hand sidebar, click the More tab and then click the Create a Page and from there;

• You will be prompted to choose a Page Category.

• You will then be prompted to choose a Subcategory and enter the required information.

• Finally, you will then be prompted to agree to Facebook Pages Terms and then click Get Started.

The Business page that you are creating will be representing you and your art, (Your Brand) therefore, complete the Profile page thoroughly, by providing all of the information that this section asks for. There is also room for information on your art, media, exhibitions, news and more. Make sure that you have spelled everything correctly. Have a friend or family member check your Business page for you, for accuracy, completeness, and spelling.

Here are some ideas and thoughts on how to have and maintain an effective Facebook Business page;

1. The Name of this Page is Important in Order to be Found in Searches.

You are able to name this page to whatever you want as long as you use alphanumeric characters and that the name is at least 5 characters long. Make sure that the page name contains your name and some keywords related to your art such as;

“YourNameArtGallery” or “YourNamePhotography” or “YourNamePastelArtist” etc. When you do this, people will be able to find you with the Facebook search function, as well as by your art specialty.

2. Your Cover Photo and Profile Image Are Extremely Important.

Your cover photo is one of the most important elements on your Business page (it is the most dominant visual feature on the page) and this image should be related to your art in some manner. The size that you are allowed to work with is 851 x 315 pixels and should be resized and planned prior to uploading and displaying.

The page’s Profile image will block a certain area and the overall size of the Cover photo is an odd size. There are several free image editing programs that you can use to resize and crop your images (1) http://www.sumopaint.com/ (2) http://www.gimp.org/ (3) Microsoft’s Paint – This is the program that comes with Windows and can be found in the Accessories tab, under Programs.

Some ideas for the Cover photo would be some of your best art, any new art, information about a new exhibition, photos from an opening etc. Be creative and change the images as much as possible to dovetail and highlight your current art or art experience.

3. Create Albums to Show Your Portfolio on Facebook.

Prepare your images (crop and color correct) before you upload to Facebook from your computer. Through the Facebook upload function create your Albums by subject matter or by media or by years. If you do not have a large portfolio it would be okay for the time being to keep all of your images together in one Album.

After the images are uploaded, make sure that they all have individual titles, descriptions, and prices. If you have a website, put a link back to your website in your description as well. This should also be done and can be part of your Profile too.

4. Create External Links Back to the Facebook Business Page.

Any emails, newsletters, blogs, and websites that you maintain should have links inviting people to view and “Like” your Facebook Business page. You are trying to build as many followers and fans as possible to see your art. Let everyone know about this Business page.

Here is a link to the Facebook Help page that will answer most of your questions and concerns about the Business Page setup and its functions, https://www.facebook.com/help. If you have a question that cannot be answered with their help, try a Google search and the answer should come up by someone else, who is outside of Facebook.

Remember that you are building and maintaining a “Brand”. It will take a while to achieve this, but it will be well worth it if you consistently stay with it. You are building relationships, therefore contribute and post related articles to your art, about the art world or about the creative process. Always acknowledge people when they comment or post. Also, be active and comment constructively and positively on other posts that are related to your art too.

If you have a limited amount of time to devote to this effort, try at least once a day to post and maintain your Facebook Business page. By consistently maintaining and updating this page your marketing goals will ultimately be successful.

In future articles, we will detail and write about other important features for a Facebook Business page for artists.