It’s fun to pin to Pinterest! It’s fun to post images of your art to Facebook and get instant likes and comments.
But, STOP! As a smart art businessperson, you understand that immediate gratification isn’t as important as long-term benefits.
Before you post your images anywhere else, they should be on your website or blog.
I’m not talking about “in progress” images. Those are fine to go ahead and share on social media. I’m talking about the images you want everyone to see and remember you by.
Why not post to social media first?
The primary reason you use social media for your art business is to drive traffic back to you.
If you’re leaving all of your goodies on the social media sites, you’re giving them the traffic rather than benefiting from all of your hard work.
Use this simple, 2-step process that will pay off in the long run:
- Post images to your site.
- Link to images on your site from various social media platforms.
It’s really that simple.
Be strong! Take a little extra time to get this marketing step right and your traffic will skyrocket.
24 thoughts on “Delay Your Satisfaction For Social Media Rewards”
Thank you for that reminder.
This one hits home. I do not have a website, only two facebook pages. One in my name, the other one Glasshaus Studio, my business. While there are some sales resulting from that,it seems all very fleeting.So,before this week is over I will have a website, no more putting it off!
Go get ’em, Luise!
it was my understanding that posts with links in them returned a smaller reach and a lower number of likes
I agree with you.
Even if the image shows up big?
Still, you have to look at the ultimate goal. Why are you using Facebook in the first place?
I’m very concerned about artists who put all of their efforts into social media sites and neglect their home bases.
I’ve certainly spent too large a % of time on FB but am re doing my web site now. I’ve only just made a decision about how view the relationship between social media and my web site, now FB is my workbench, website my display cabinet. Its taken a while to come up with a visual image of this relationship.
That’s been my experience too. In fact, yesterday I shared a video link on my “fan” page and Facebook showed it to exactly two people – and one of them was me (my personal page)! In fact, most of the time, Facebook shows my posts to no more than a third of my followers, and very often, less than that. “Original” updates written on my wall, or images posted by me (not shares or copied links) do somewhat better. But any reposted links, including links to my own blog posts, reach relatively few people. I think FB selects “reach” according to how many people have liked or commented in the past. In other words, they make it very difficult to expand your reach because they rarely show updates to people who have not recently interacted with your page.
My other beef with Facebook is the multiple functions of ‘Like’. Many, many people think that if they ‘Like’ a post or an image, that’s the same as liking the page. I have had to write specific instructions on how to click the big ‘Like’ button at the top in order to join the page. Didn’t the big Like button used to be ‘Join’ or ‘Become a Fan’ or something like that? It would be nice if they’d go back to that.
Also, FB seems to be getting very sloppy about spam. This morning, a porn post – complete with an explicit image – showed up on the wall of a group I belong to. Many people reported it either as spam or porn. I reported it as spam once, visited the page an hour later, and there was the porn image again. Several other people who reported it as porn said they got a response from FB saying that the post in question didn’t fit their definition of porn. Trust me, it was most definitely porn.
So I’m really starting to have my doubts about FB as a means of driving people to my website. My website stats show that a few of my followers do jump to my website on occasion, but given the confusion people have about ‘Like’, the difficulty of “reaching” them after they have figured out how to join the page, and the apparently growing risk of offending them with junk/spam/porn…I’m not sure it’s worth it.
Yes, that´s right, however people don´t like posts with links on FB. On Google+ it works better but nevertheless it is nothing in comparison to images posted directly.
I used to use mixed ways of postings my paintings photos both through links to my website and directly.
You can always post directly. Just put it on your site first and don’t neglect the virtual real estate you own.
I think this depends on what you do and your goals for doing it. I agree that a conscious approach to social media is key. But if you want to develop a fan base and drive interest in your work, you need to use the medium of social networking. I agree that one should not just throw the work out there and see what happens….however it is a great way to generate leads and buzz about what your doing. With this in mind showing work online at popular Social Media sites can be a boon to generating awareness and new fans. The same way that having a display at a local hot spot will.
It has to be looked at as a conversation. For each artist converting leads into customers is going to be a different process. That is where the conversation of social networking will come into play. Set goals and use Social Media to help you reach them.
Heather: I think I was misunderstood. I’m not saying don’t post to the site. Just saying do it on your site first.
I’m just starting to do this. I ‘m also partnering with some marketing buddies. Gives me a kick in the pants to keep going. I read your articles all the time and have been trying to incorporate your ideas from I ‘d rather be in the studio. May I include a link to your blog in my Art Marketing section of my website ? Thanks again
Jo-Anne Gazo-McKim
I’d be delighted, Jo-Anne. Thank you!
For me I’ll post the finished piece on to FB first as some people have followed the whole process from design to finished piece of jewellery, sometimes over long periods of time, they should see it first. However I’m using my web site to bring together the whole story for each design on one page, at least I will when i’ve finished designing the web site.
PS I sometimes post links in comments, seems less in your face
Less “in your face” than what, Carlo?
Posting a link in comments as a reply to someones comment/question is adding to a conversation the other has started, rather than a link in the original post.
I have noticed that links (big pic or small) seem to do less well, but i don’t have a way of tracking the effectiveness of links posted in comments.
It’s odd that a “call to action” is always recommended, but not it seems for links!
I like to keep my life Simple. In my blogs I use high resolution photos of my Artwork along with the story dealing directly with the work. On my FB Artist Page I only use images to get the feet of my fans wet. I don’t see a point of boring them with details about my work on FB. I link my Blogger from time to time to FB for those who are curious and interested in reading about the story of my artwork. It seems to be working for me quite well so far. I also do my best to comment on blogs I like as well as share Artworks and Blogs of other Artists whose work I enjoy on both Google and FB. It has been in my nature to share even as a child so not doing it for return recognition but for the love of enriching my circles. I am not trying to compete with anyone. Just doing my share (doing art and posting it) and enjoying the results on the Social Media.
I love your sharing nature, Roopa.
You post high-res versions of your artwork? Why?
Thanks for the reminder. This actually makes more sense and most don’t mention this.
I think about how I “read” news. I go to Google news and skim headlines and expand the more arrow sometimes for a little more. I click off maybe 3 articles in a given session before I need to go do something else. It might be the same mentality with links in FB. In which case, the text and (can you put a thumbnail?) need to be compelling.
Also forgot to add, just because someone does not click a link, does not mean it has not had value. In the online advertising world, well there are many different campaign models, but the old-school way was to charge per “impression” (how many times an ad rendered to a web page). Some advertisers, let’s say something kind of mundane like Clorox, would not expect to have a lot of clicks – the intent was to brand and have visual presence.
Alyson:
I was going to make comment last night or at some wee hour, but I reserved it as I have a new policy of thinking before I write ; You are correct, Artists are generous. Too generous, I have donated to every cause who has approached me for a painting for their Auction to raise money for their cause. I am yet to get a letter thanking me. I donated over 150,000.00 in art last year and when i approached people about raising money to relaocate my outreach program which is run threw my Foundation; I received “)” replies. I ran my prograam where I funded it for nearly six years, and paid out of pocket, due to the sensitive nature I have not asked for state nor fed assistance as it is a huge process and they claim to have no funding.
Chad Jase Outreach takes kids off the streets. We provide them housing, Place them back into school or home schooling, they are assigned positions in my studio as Resident assistants or interns in the office etc…. The model is designed to be run as a familial unit,. The first thing we learn when coming to Chad Jase Outreach; Is how to use a broom,then where the socks, underwear, pants/shirts etc. My point here is that Artists are very giving and also very vulnerable, As someone who is “Gifted” I get distracted and not usually paying attention to a lot of things. I now stop/Think before agreeing to anything. I appreciate your posts and advice. I offer counseling to “gifted’ artists, and others who may have been misdiagnosed for years.
Thank You
Dennis Akervik Coelho
American Listed Artist
coelhoden@yahoo.com
I agree with you, my blog is my castle 🙂
Most of the time this is my workflow like this
I publish my arwork in my Blog,
Exporting my Posts to Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter with a plugin
Exporting Blogpost to Google+ with ifft
Pinning Artwork from my blog to pinterest, repinns are generating backlinks (with every repinn my backlinks also multiplicate)
Iam using Pinalerts, everytime somebody pinns an image from my blog to Pinterest, Pinalerts is sending me a notification so i can interact with my follower
Sometimes i use Thinglink for creating interactive Fotos