Instagram has become a very popular social networking site. Today, they have more than 700+ million active monthly users. Think of Instagram as Facebook for pictures. www.instagram.com
With its emphasis on visual communications, Instagram is the perfect medium for artists and art related professionals to market and brand their art. Instagram is an easy platform for an artist to learn and to use to market their art or art-related service.
Posting is done through a mobile device (though you can access your account through a desktop computer).
Here are some helpful tips and hacks to enhance the power of Instagram:
Download the app and choose an account name that gets you close to your art website name or art website URL. Have separate Instagram accounts for personal posting and business posting (much like you would for Facebook personal pages and business pages).
Make sure that you fill out the Bio section completely. You only have 150 characters in which to do this. Also, you are allowed to have an active link back to your art website. Make sure that your art website is included.
Try to post on a daily basis, or at least every other day. Ideas to post would include:
Interact with your growing base of followers and future followers by commenting on and liking their art and posts. You can also direct message people who you want to follow or with whom you want to make contact.
Make sure that you set-up your posts on your Instagram account to automatically post to your Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter accounts.
Instagram allows users to immediately get going and connecting with people by making is easy to have all of your Facebook friends and Facebook followers to become followers on Instagram.
You are allowed to use #hashtags (Keywords) with any of your posts. By using art-related #hashtags, you are helping others to find you and your art more quickly.
You are allowed to use up to 30 #hashtags per post. It is much more effective to use 5 to 10 thoughtful #hashtags related to your post than an overload of tags. (LST will soon have a follow-up article post on the most popular art #hashtags for Instagram).
There are many other beneficial features on Instagram that you will discover over time. The easiest way to get familiar with Instagram is to go to their Help Section https://help.instagram.com where the platform’s features and the working of their dashboard are explained. Also, please read our article post “#Art Hashtags for Artists to Use on Instagram” as a guide for artists who may happen to be new to Instagram.
Follow us on Instagram at www.instagram.com/LightSpaceTime.Art.
By YoungMi, Guest Blogger - Last year it was said that evenings from 7:00 to 9:00 pm was the best time for artists to post on Instagram.
In 2018, it seems that lunchtime from 12:00-1:45 pm is their best time to post on Instagram, followed by evenings from 7:00 to 9:00 pm.
But theories do not mean those are the best times to post for YOU!
Because every Instagram account has a unique audience, in different time zones, so it is important to determine what your individual best time to post on Instagram is.
When is the Best Time for Artists to Post on Instagram?
If you want to beat the Instagram algorithm in 2018, scheduling Instagram posts for when the majority of your followers are online is super important.
Not only does the algorithm care about how much engagement your Instagram post gets, it also cares about how quickly you get that engagement.
If you post at a time when most of your followers are online, you give yourself a better chance of being shown to your audience - quickly!
If your post gets a lot of likes and comments shortly after it's posted, this signals to Instagram that your Instagram post is quality content, and the algorithm will then show your post to even more of your followers!
By finding out your personalized best time to post on Instagram, you can hack the algorithm to increase your reach and get more likes and followers.
So how do you find out what is your own best time to post on Instagram in 2018?
Here are some general rules to follow about the best time to post on Instagram:
Instead of posting when you think, plan your Instagram posts
Save the important posts for weekdays: The differences are slight, but average Instagram engagement does shift depending on the day. According to my own research, Tuesdays and Thursdays tend to drive the most engagement, while Sundays drive the least.
Other Ways to Calculate Your Best Time to Post on Instagram
If you don't want to pay for a software or app to find out your best times to post on Instagram, you can also calculate them yourself manually.
Experiment with Posting Times and Measure your Progress
If you'd rather crunch the numbers yourself, you can create a spreadsheet to track how much engagement you receive when you post at different times on different days.
Start by picking five different times throughout the week.
For example, if you notice that your followers are most active between 5:00 and 9:00 pm, schedule your posts to appear at 5:00, 6:00, 7:00, 8:00, and 9:00 pm.
In your spreadsheet, track how many likes and comments each post receives, along with the date and time that you posted them.
The following week, switch the timing of your posts for each day. For example, if you posted at 5:00 pm on Monday in week 1, post at 6:00 pm during week 2.
It might take a few weeks, but you can use this information to help you choose the best days to share to specific networks based on your own audience, along with the times that work best for getting traffic on those specific days.
How to Schedule for Your Best Time to Post to Instagram?
Now that you know when your Instagram audience is most active, and how to drive the most engagement based on your audience's activity, the last step is to schedule your Instagram posts for your own best times to post on Instagram.
Regularity
By preparing your planning, you will be able to consistently have content going out at your best times to post on Instagram. Therefore, you will optimize your profile and attract new followers and engage with your current ones.
To be noted that some social media software can now auto-publish on Instagram. And they can even post at the best optimal time on your behalf.
You just have to select your posting times once, and then when you queue up your Instagram posts they will automatically be scheduled for your best times to post on Instagram.
And of course, if you use already a few automated publishing software, there is an app to help you more like "WhentoPost" or "Later", Hootsuite, Tailwind, and so forth. The costs of these platforms are between £3.99 and £ 39.
About the Author: YoungMi is the owner of The House of The Artists and since 2015, YoungMi has helped hundreds of artists, galleries, and art fairs to reach their digital marketing objectives.
Adding to her MA Marketing degree, she also studied Art Business & Management at Birkbeck University in London and at the Sotheby's Institute of Arts in New York.
YoungMi is based in London, and she speaks both English and French. – Her website is www.thehouseoftheartists.com/. This article post was originally published on The House of The Artists website: www.thehouseoftheartists.com/l/when-is-the-best-time-to-post-on-instagram
Instagram is an accepted and effective way for artists to brand, market and sell their artworks. The main goals for artists when marketing through social media is to increase their reach, create more traffic to their art website and display their art to new and targeted audiences.
By employing art-related hashtags on Instagram, an artist increases their power to reach interested people. Through the Instagram search feature, hashtags are very useful in helping to achieve branding, marketing, and sales goals.
Just what is a #hashtag and how can it help my art marketing? Think of a hashtag as a way to categorize and collect posts about a particular subject. A # hashtag is the symbol # plus a subject matter word related to your post. For example, #Art is a well-used hashtag in social media for art-related subjects.
If you were to create and post a message about a new art competition or art show, you should include the hashtag #Art and automatically this post will be shown with all of the other posts that have used the #Art hashtag.
By using a hashtag, you reach your regular followers with your message, and, in addition, you now will reach the group of people who follow the hashtag #Art. This hashtag is followed by a very large group of people who are interested in or associated with the art industry.
We found this website that can help artists to organize their Instagram art #hashtags. The website is TagBlender and they offer a way of promoting Instagram accounts and contest by using organize subject #hashtags.
TagBlender offers the best way of promoting your Instagram account by using tags. TagBlender describes their website as the following; “We have developed a unique method for getting the most relevant tags for your Instagram images. We called it: +10 - this means you can actually tag your images with up to three different categories in order for the tags to fit your image perfectly! Their website is http://www.tagblender.net
The following are their suggestion for the following art subjects;
Art #Hashtags
#art #artist #artistic #artists #arte #dibujo #myart #artwork #illustration #graphicdesign #graphic #color #colour #colorful #lightspacetime #painting #drawing #drawings #markers #paintings #watercolor #watercolour #ink #creative #sketch #sketchaday #pencil #cs6 #photoshop #beautiful
Black & White #Hashtags
#blancinegre #monochrome #bw_lover #byn #blancoynegro #irox_bw #art #bw_society #nero #blackandwhite #ic_bw_bw #bwstyles_gf #bandw #beautiful #perfect #nb #noir #bw #lightspacetime #good #mono #bnw #monoart #black #igersbnw #bwoftheday #noiretblanc #noirlovers #bwbeauty #white
Design #Hashtags
#design #designer #designed #designs #fashiondesign #interiordesign #architecture #architect #artist #classical #clean #beautiful #perfect #shiny #amazing #best #hairdesign #craft #antique #vintage #retro #lightspacetime #line #linedesign #homestyling #styling #style #stylist #good #artwork
Graphic Design #Hashtags
#graphicdesign #lightspacetime #design #designer #designed #designs #graphic #graphics #adobe #illustrator #photoshop #cs6 #vector #professional #printers #webdesign #site #website #artist #classical #clean #beautiful #perfect #shiny #amazing #best #artistic #artists #arte #colorful
Photography #Hashtags
#photography #photo #photos #pic #pics #art #lightspacetime #artist #artistic #artists #arte #dibujo #myart #artwork #color #all shots #exposure #composition #focus #capture #classical #clean #beautiful #perfect #shiny #amazing #best #colorful #illustration
For your Instagram accounts begin to include the appropriate # hashtags with your art posts. You will not only increase your reach but you should also gain more followers with your social media art marketing and art promotion.
Also, please read our article post “How to Use Instagram for Successful Artists" as a guide for artists who may happen to be new to Instagram. Also, please follow us on Instagram at www.instagram.com/LightSpaceTime.Art.
