Test Your Social Media Effort

As I said in last week’s post about testing your email marketing results: In marketing your art, there are no absolutes. Everything is a test.

This week I want to look at testing your social media results, and the same principle applies: Everything is a test.

Sue Grace acrylic painting
©Sue Grace, God is in the Neighborhood. Pencil, acrylic, and crayon, 60 x 77 inches.

Here are some results you’re looking for from social media posts:

  • More followers
  • More engagement (comments, shares, likes, repins)
  • More traffic to your website or blog
  • More sign-ups for your classes and email list
  • More sales of your art
  • More joy in connecting with others*

4 For-Sure Facts

I’m absolutely certain about these 4 things when it comes to testing social media.

1. The payoff for investing your effort into social media will be greater if you focus on your foundation (website, blog, email list) first.

Without this foundation in place, social media isn’t as useful. You need to have a place to send people—an online portfolio to show off your art and/or your expertise if you’re a teacher.

2. You can share a post similar to someone else’s and get radically different results.

This is why we read in one place that the best time to post to Instagram is at 7:30 am while another source says 4:30 pm. You have a unique list of followers and have to see for yourself.

3. Your level of enthusiasm will show in what you post.

The greater your commitment, the more attractive you will be to followers. We can smell a half-baked effort from miles away.

If you’re only promoting and we can’t sense the love for your art, your posts will fall flat. That’s a waste of your time and that of your followers.

4. If you don’t test and track your results, you will never know what works for you.

So, let’s get to the testing part.

Gail Fraser ceramic
©Gail Frasier, In the Beginning. Ceramic sculpture, 10 x 11 inches.

Things to Vary and Test

  • Post once a day, twice week, or five times a week.
  • Vary the time of day you share.
  • Use a scheduler to post-date your posts. Try Meta’s scheduler.
  • Cross post to other platforms.
  • Post only on the native platform.
  • Use more hashtags.
  • Use fewer hashtags.
  • Share your art only.
  • Make more videos.
  • Use multiple images rather than a single image.
  • Include more photos and videos of yourself.
  • Use fewer photos with yourself.
  • Stick to one color scheme at a time.
  • Have theme weeks.
  • Add words above or below your images.
  • Write longer stories with your posts.
  • Write just one sentence with your posts.
  • Collaborate with others on more posts.
  • Reply to all comments on your posts.
  • Add prices.
  • Remove prices.
  • Use your Facebook personal profile more than your business profile.
  • Double down on posting more stories of your art.
  • Share more stories by other people.
  • Share fewer stories by other people.
  • Swap out your profile photo for a new one.
  • Update the look of your links page.

Test Away

Over time, you should be able to tell what works best for you—even if you never type it up in a fancy spreadsheet.

From the “more” list above, the bullet point that should matter most is “More joy in connecting with others” because that’s what life is all about. 

This was first published on July 14, 2016 and has been updated with original comments intact.

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9 thoughts on “Test Your Social Media Effort”

  1. Excellent post with plenty to do. What I found is that focusing on where your audience is remains critical. Images rule and Canva is now my friend! Repost your older posts with something like Buffer. Not everyone sees one post and it keeps your content calendar full.

    1. FB is where I personally engage with the people who are interested in my art and travels on both my personal and public pages. A number have become buyers. Others have been staunch, supportive fans for years, which I also value. It’s nice to have that cheering section. They also tell other people about this artist they know who goes to Mongolia (eleven trips there in twelve years). A lot of my artist friends and colleagues are there, so that’s another source of networking and mutual support. I’ve also gained a lot of new artist friends through FB, not to mention a gallery owner I’d like to show with, whose home I ended up staying at during a recent trip back east and who is now a personal friends I keep in touch with through FB. That trip gave me a chance to talk to her face to face about a new direction for my work that might be of interest to her. FB drives traffic to my blog, which is one page on my website so, with luck, some people will stay to poke around. Love it, sometimes hate it, I rely on it.

  2. First, thank you, Alyson, for using my ceramic sculpture, In The Beginning, as an image on your blog post this week. I am flattered.
    Secondly, over many years of being on facebook and Pinterest, I have sold only four pieces as a result of my posts, but I am happy with my Friends and Pinterest boards. Facebook recently changed their format for free business pages. While I can use it in spite of their changes, the thrill is gone so I spend less time on social media which is a good thing.
    I look forward to absorbing your 4 facts and trying some tests recommended here.
    Sounds like Malcolm is on top of things. I will look at Canva and also Later.com.

  3. This has been very helpful as I am beginning to use FB again as a marketing tool.

    I am interested in marketing to the metaphysical community. Any suggestions?

    Namaste,
    Arianna Lin

  4. Alyson, I always value your advice. When I read this post, I felt like I am the poster child for what NOT to do with marketing on social media – no schedule, and not much regularity either! There is always room for improvement. I find that Facebook has yielded the best results for me in terms of direct sales. When I post to my business page on FB, I share it on my personal page. I have more interactions with my personal page, and more people see the posts. Instagram has gotten me one sale, but I like using it better. For me, Instagram is fun – all that eye candy! FB is a chore, but I still have better results with it.

  5. Pingback: Creating Opportunities for Your Art Career with Meg Black (Podcast) - Art Biz Success

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