The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: How Social Media Can Transform Your Artistic Journey
Social media can be painful. You may feel your posts aren’t getting any views or that your follower list isn’t growing. It can also give you feelings of frustration or imposter syndrome as you view other artists’ work.
Despite these bad aspects of social media, I think that we can use it to our benefit as artists. There are always trade-offs to anything, but I have been learning to use it more impactfully for my art journey. I will never get it completely right and I know it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, but as long as it has more positives than negatives, I’m willing to try.
As a caveat, this blog isn’t an article on tips to grow your following. If you check my follower count you will note that I’m not burning it up. More thoughts about that are below.
Here’s the gist of this article- I’ll go through some unhealthy behaviors and emotions resulting from my interactions on social media. Then I’ll walk through my mistakes in actions or thinking, and I’ll pontificate on 7 remedies. In this section, I’ll look at the positive aspects of social media and tips on how you can use it to transform your artistic journey healthily.
Before we get started, I wanted to share a link to a free resource with you. If you click on this link you will get access to a free tutorial on how to draw a red cardinal in a snowy setting with colored pencils and pastels.
Here is the link:
Free Snow Cardinal Mixed Media Tutorial
Okay, on to the blog!
My Journey with Social Media
The purpose of sharing my social media journey is so that you know you have a like soul out there if you have battled the same demons as I have.
My first foray into social media was MySpace using a dial-up modem and AOL around 2003. I played around with MySpace, but I wasn’t obsessed. Then it disappeared. Probably for the best.
Fast forward to 2007. I got on Facebook with a personal account. I wasn’t crazy about posting or looking at it all the time, but I did have some negative reactions to it. I found myself going down rabbit holes by looking at old friends’ posts and pictures. This left me feeling gross and frankly, jealous. And I mean, why not? Most people post beautiful pictures and happy news, not the contrary.
Also, I found that people I didn’t want to reconnect with were finding me on Facebook. Not ideal, I thought.
I didn’t like what it was bringing out in me (the ugly, green-eyed monster and insecurity) so I hopped off around 2010.
Once I began my renewed sense of purpose to increase my art skills circa 2018 I felt I needed to be on social media. But not for personal posts. I wanted to stick to posting my artwork, getting inspiration, and growing a possible art business.
I started an Instagram art business page. Eventually, I learned I should probably be on Facebook too, so I opened a new personal account and attached an art page. Facebook is not my favorite, although I think more of my ideal future customers may be on that platform. I admit to doing the minimum on Facebook, so most of this blog will be about my time on Instagram.
I started by posting only completed pictures of my drawings. This was not the best plan because I’d post approximately one drawing a month. It takes me forever to produce my realistic artwork, especially while working a full-time job.
Somehow I got a following of maybe 400 folks after a few years. I think the algorithm was kinder in those earlier days.
Then the growth started stalling around 800 a year ago. This was after I had figured out that I needed to post more frequently.
I decided to make a determined effort to grow my following on Instagram. I researched. I listened to marketing podcasts. I watched what other artists were doing with their art posts. I tried many different methods. For most of the year, I posted 5 times a week, which was quite exhausting. As a slower-producing artist, it is brutal to come up with things to post more frequently.
Fast forward a year and I only gained somewhere over 100 followers.
I was irritated. I see other people grow like gangbusters on IG who were putting forth similar or even less effort than me.
I gave up for maybe a month (which I would not recommend because it takes a long time to crawl back up).
But I like IG. I like it above other platforms because I can easily see pieces from people I admire. I don’t have to filter through what people ate a restaurant or see pictures of vacations. Because of this- I wanted to get back on and try again.
It was time for a mindset shift or I was going to give up entirely. Again, the mistakes I discuss below will be about Instagram because that is the platform that I use the most. But these thoughts could apply to Facebook or TikTok (I’m just too old for that platform).
Here are 7 specific mistakes I made and how I am readjusting:
Focusing On the Number of Followers
I guess it’s human nature to count the number of people who follow you, look at how many followers other artists have, and get sad about it.
This is a mistake. I do not make money from Instagram. Or Facebook. The money I make is usually by word of mouth. Why do I care about the number of followers? It is a pride issue, I suppose.
I would like to make money from my art using social media, though, and so I know that will only happen if I can get in front of more eyeballs.
This is a conundrum. To remedy this and to help me to move forward I have had to develop a new mindset around the numbers.
I decided to concentrate on having a following that I interact with and communicate with. This is more important to me than having a larger following with low interaction.
I have also decided to let the growth be slow. I think it’s more likely to develop quality followers slowly than if you get a large following from one viral reel. Instead, I choose to be happy with slow growth understanding that there will be periods of plateau.
Moving forward, I still notice my number of followers. This is inevitable since it’s right at the top of the account page. But when I look at my number and I see it go down or remain the same, instead of being hurt by it I am training myself to think, “I’m not for you, person who unfollowed me, so that’s fine”. If someone wants to unfollow me because I am not what they are looking for that is a win for me. It allows me to develop a following that is interested in what I’m doing.
Also, it may be helpful for you to realize that Instagram is constantly getting rid of bots, so that could result in you showing a decline in following as well.
Posting Quantity Over Quality
I told you above that I posted at least 5 times a week for about a year. The reason why I did that was because I kept hearing marketers say, “Post every day!”. Also, whenever I would google advice on the subject I’d see the same things: post every day, post at “the right time” of day, develop engaging content, and reels do better than posts.
Well, posting every day didn’t work for me. That’s when I only got about 100 followers over a year.
I think it’s because I couldn’t post great-quality content at that rate.
Sometimes I was posting an old piece of art which I don’t do anymore. I was just doing it because a marketer told me to, but it feels a little forced to me now. Instead, sometimes I might post a progression photo montage of how I’ve improved over time. That’s very different, I think.
Sometimes I was posting a work in progress too frequently just to have a post. Currently, I’m trying to post work-in-progress reels of the same piece less frequently. Maybe one or two max before I show the final piece. Who wants to watch an animal being drawn, one body part at a time? Boooring.
Sometimes I posted tips, which I still like to do. I like to tell people what I have learned the hard way to try and help them avoid the same pitfalls, if possible. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this type of post. They are a little less frequent because I don’t always have a quick tip to share. But that’s fine. I don’t want to force the tips so I will just post them as I think of them.
So after I took a month or more break, I have decided to aim for posting 3 times a week. This is much easier. It frees up my brain to make the things I post better. Also, it frees up my time for art!
One more note on this- I find myself feeling overwhelmed when people I follow post all of the time. It becomes too much. Sometimes I’ll mute or unfollow a person because of this. So it only makes sense that I was probably annoying people by doing this as well. Just a thought.
Posting Different Types of Content
Two or three years ago I was creating dog reels to fill the gaps in posting art-related content. I stopped doing that maybe a year ago. I love my dogs and I love animal reels. Especially funny ones. But I decided to stop for two reasons: it was time-consuming and attracting people who wanted to watch funny dog reels, not art reels.
My mom still complains about this to me. She wants to see her grand pup reels. I told her it was not my brand anymore.
The main point is, I don’t want to confuse my following. I want to show my art to people who like it and I want to help people by sharing what I’m learning on my journey.
Listening to Other People
This one sort of goes along with #2 and how I posted all of the time because that’s what people tell you to do.
I think that you can get some advice on the internet regarding what’s good practice to grow a social following, but I have learned that things work very differently from person to person. Just because, Sally, let’s say (made up name) was able to quit her job and become a full-time commission artist by getting huge on IG- that does not mean I will be able to do the same thing even if I do everything the same.
Rather than copying anyone’s playbook for success, I have learned to use social as a tool that I experiment with. I might try something that worked for Sally, but if it’s not working for me then I will move on.
I am very wary of folks saying they can help you grow a following, etc. The algorithm changes all of the time. Nobody knows how to cheat it or beat it.
Here is another example- the social media “experts” say we should post more reels because they are shown more and get more engagement. So I post reels. However, when I look at the metrics that show me what has gotten the most engagement, it is usually a post. Go figure. I still create posts and reels, but I know not to get offended if a reel isn’t doing as well as a post.
I just read an article yesterday that said that everyone’s engagement is down with social media because of the sheer number of posts. It is very hard for anyone to get seen, as a result. This was actually validating for me. The article also said that research shows that over production of videos doesn’t increase engagement. My takeaway on that is- create a few posts/reels a week and don’t spend a ton of time on it. Your time will be better spent doing other things- like producing art.
Not Communicating with Folks
I have found a couple of ladies on social that I’ve learned from. One is named, Andrea Jones. She has a great podcast and business called Savvy Social. I highly recommend the podcast.
(The other is Shine with Natasha. She also has a podcast and services, but she focuses on how to use video to grow your business.)
I learned this from Andrea: you have to be social on social media.
Duh! I was not being social and this woke me up. I thought I could just post things and people would come flocking…
Nope.
I now make a concerted effort to comment on people's posts, heart things, follow people who I’m interested in, and answer questions when people are asking for help. That sort of thing. It’s important.
These actions were helpful for me to get out of my head too. It feels much better to give people compliments and help someone than to have social media be all about me. That’s way healthier than being a narcissist.
Not Paying Attention to the Nuggets of Gold
This will go along with #7, but I have finally come to realize that each platform has its pros and cons. Instagram isn’t great for sharing tips and selling things. Instagram is a scrolling app. People scroll through at a fast speed. You are lucky if they stop to like a post, much less comment on it.
Also, the algorithm is changing all of the time. I heard one statistic that says only 10% of your following will see your post. Then it’s pretty much gone unless someone takes the time to look at your old posts (which is very rare, in my opinion).
So why am I even bothering with IG? It’s because I like some artists on there. I like to see their work, cheer for the ones I’ve chatted with, encourage people I don’t know, get inspired, get advice from some of them, and also I love to look at funny/cute animal reels.
So my nuggets of gold are artists who I appreciate on IG. I can DM them and ask technique, supply, or business questions. This is so helpful because art is an insulating thing. I’m not sitting around in Paris working with fellow artists whom I can bounce ideas off of (I wish!). I’m in my living room alone with my pups. It’s so good to have artists who I trust that I can interact with. They are the nuggets of gold on an app that could otherwise make me depressed. Moving forward I choose to focus I on the good people on IG and the positives I can get out of the app.
Accepting A Platform for What It Is
This is actually sort of sad because I only recently came to this conclusion: each platform is good for its purposes. They won’t all do the same thing for you as an artist.
Here’s a brief rundown of what I think they are good for and not so good for. I’m not going to talk about TikTok, X, or Pinterest because I don’t use those (although I’ve heard that Pinterest is great for artists- I just don’t have the bandwidth to add it in).
Instagram-
Build a community of like-minded people who follow you for you
Get inspiration from other artists
Find your niche of things that you like and curate your feed to see only that type of content (you don’t have to see Aunt Jane’s 20 pictures of her luncheon!)
You could advertise here, but I’m not sure if IG is the ideal platform for selling
Posts/reels disappear after a short time so if you create something great it has a short shelf life
You can pin three of your best posts/reels up the top of your feed
You can put links to other web pages on your page and in your stories
You can watch adorable animal reels or whatever floats your boat
In my opinion, IG is better for connecting with other artists, but not necessarily art buyers
Good platform to collaborate with other artists
A way to get yourself out there and share your process and final art pieces
You could go live, have a channel, create posts, reels, and stories
Facebook-
Create an art page and attract followers who like you for your art
Join groups for inspiration and advice
Advertise your products in groups or with paid ads
Posts don’t have a long life
You can post pictures, videos, reels
Probably better for selling artwork
This is my opinion, but I think older folks are on Facebook than IG
Follow other art pages for inspiration
Get your friends and family to like your art page
You can show people your journey on your art page
YouTube-
Serves as a search engine where your content is permanently findable via their search bar
Create videos of your art process
Create helpful videos- how-to’s, tips and tricks, or tutorials
Reaches a different audience than the other two- people who want to learn how to do art like you or people who are interested in watching you create your art
Great to point people to a video course you might sell or to Patreon
Some people prefer to watch videos rather than read blogs
Conclusion
Although social media has some downsides, it has also helped to level the playing field for artists. We don’t have to be beholden to art galleries or find rich patrons to develop our art careers. We can be our own marketers by using different platforms to our benefit. It’s important to not get bogged down, however, by the likes and follower counts. Those dopamine hits we get when someone likes our work can be great as long as we are getting them. But it can be depressing to be on the flip side of that as well. Remind yourself if you are feeling down due to low engagement, social media doesn’t determine your worth. Focus on the positives of the platforms and let the negatives roll off your back.
Did I miss any positives or negatives? What kind of issues or successes have you had with social media? Love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
Befot I go, here’s a reminder about my free mixed media tutorial.
Here is the link:
