Susan Washington

In a previous blog, I talked about navigating the current art market and the importance of social media in expanding our networks. While Instagram (and social media in general) was not explicitly created for selling art, it has become an essential tool for artists who want to connect with a broader audience beyond traditional brick-and-mortar galleries. By embracing the digital landscape, we can grow our art businesses on a global scale.

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In this blog post, I want to dive deeper into how you can use social media, particularly Instagram, to grow your art community and connect with potential buyers. I’ll go over a few basics and best practices for using Instagram, how to optimize your profile to grow your following, and how integrating your efforts with Cohart can create even more growth opportunities.

### Let’s Talk About the Basics and Best Practices

Whether you're just starting to see the value of Instagram and want to jump on board or have been using it as part of your art business, now is a great time to either get in the game or up your game and make an audit of your profile and make any changes. 

#### Your Profile

**Choose the Right Account Type**: You can select a Creator or Business account based on your particular needs. Creator accounts provide detailed analytics, including audience demographics, engagement metrics, and growth trends, helping you understand your audience and refine your strategies. On the other hand, business profiles offer comprehensive advertising features, access to branded content and promotional tools, and the ability to partner with brands. Consider which features align best with your goals. You can also try the Creator account first and always switch over to a Business account to see which works best for you.

**Optimize Your Bio**: Optimize your Instagram bio with the right keywords and phrases to make a solid first impression. Use the ideas from my previous blog to craft your unique description. Make sure your message is clear and concise.  Include a solid call to action directing viewers to your Cohart storefront so they know exactly where to purchase your art.

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**Profile Picture**: Choose a compelling profile picture that aligns with your personal brand and conveys the message you want to send.

**Utilize Highlights**: Use Highlights for easy navigation, featuring collections, works in progress, installation shots, or anything else you think your followers would like to see.

**Add Music to Your Profile**: You can now add music! Just use the Edit Profile button, scroll down to MUSIC, and select a song that complements your brand.

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#### Content Strategies

**Consistency and Quality**: Regular posting with high-quality content is important for maintaining engagement and growing your audience. Using insights to post when your followers are most active can help maximize engagement.

**Stories**: Stories effectively test content without affecting your main profile while boosting your engagement metrics. Make them interactive with polls and stickers to keep your followers engaged.  That extra engagement signals to the algorithm that your content is relevant, helping to increase visibility.

**Carousels**: Carousels are making a comeback, and now you can add up to 20 photos directly in the app. Use this feature to showcase different angles, progress shots, or related pieces in one post.

**Reels**: Focus on Reels because replays now count as views. Keep them short and informative for maximum reach.

**Hashtags**: Hashtags are still important! They help categorize content, make it easily searchable, and increase visibility. You can use tools like ChatGPT to generate sets of hashtags for different types of posts. I like to keep mine organized in the notes section on my phone for easy access.

**Geotagging**: Tag your location to improve visibility and potentially appear in the "Places" tab for that area. This helps the algorithm show your content to users searching for posts related to that location.

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#### Link your Cohart Storefront to your social media profile, and get ready to sell!

So, you’re building your personal brand, finding your voice to talk about your art, and using social media to spread the word. But what’s next? You might have a website to direct people to, but if it doesn’t facilitate transactions, how will potential buyers purchase your art? If your site isn’t optimized for search engines, it may be static and not attracting new viewers. Where will your social media followers go when they want more detailed information about you—like your full bio, exhibition history, or how to purchase your art? On top of that, you have to manage all the other administrative tasks associated with your art business.

As a member of the Cohart community, you can streamline many aspects of the process, eliminating the need for a static website, e-commerce setup, and email marketing tools like Mailchimp, and shipping accounts.

Get ready to sell by linking your Cohart storefront to your social media profiles.  Integrating social media with your Cohart storefront turns your social profiles into a powerful top-of-the-funnel tool, generating interest and awareness among your followers. By offering valuable content, you can guide interested followers to your Cohart profile, converting them into community members who can ultimately become buyers and collectors, increasing your sales and simplifying your workflow. Additionally, as buyers on Cohart receive incentives for sharing the art they purchase from you, your visibility continues to grow.

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By increasing your personal brand awareness and building credibility on social media, you also enhance buyer confidence. Having a reputable platform like Cohart backing you adds an extra layer of legitimacy, further strengthening that confidence.

In today's digital landscape, leveraging social media is no longer optional for artists —it's essential. By optimizing your social media profiles and integrating them with Cohart, you can increase your visibility, build trust and credibility with potential buyers, and manage all the tasks related to your art business in one place. This combination turns casual followers into committed community members and loyal collectors. As you refine your social media strategy, remember that each post, story, and interaction is an opportunity to grow your art community and followers.  It’s the perfect time to leverage these tools to increase your sales so you can keep doing what you love to do best: making art!

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By embracing the digital landscape, we can grow our art businesses on a global scale.

Leveraging Social Media to Sell Your Art

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