| Over the last couple weeks, I've been sharing Dina Brodsky's Instagram marketing techniques that I've extracted from her recent AMP webinar.
Dina has used these techniques to grow her account to over 400,000 Instagram followers and continues to be our go-to expert when it comes to marketing art on the platform.
This week I will continue sharing these key techniques with you so that you can take your Instagram marketing to the next level.
By the way, for my latest thoughts on art marketing, posted daily, please follow me on Twitter. Or simply reply to this email. I'd love to hear what you thought of this article. What are your questions about art marketing?
Enjoy, Clint Watson |
| Instagram currently boasts 1 billion active users every month. As an artist looking to sell and market your art, it can be an incredibly profitable platform to increase your art sales. |
| If you only have time to be on one social media platform, it should be Instagram.
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| Take a look at Dina's Instagram profile below. She's been able to grow her following to 428,000 using 7 key marketing strategies. |
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In this current series, we are discussing the 7 key marketing strategies for Instagram that every successful marketer follows.
The 7 Key Strategies include: |
| 1. Recency of Impressions 2. Initial Post Engagement 3. Dwell Time 4. Caption 5. Hashtags 6. Timing 7. Giveaways
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| Over the last 2 weeks, I've discussed Recency of Impressions and Initial Engagement (click here to catch up now).
To recap, Recency of Impressions, in a nutshell, refers to how recently you've posted on Instagram.
Instagram's algorithms track this information and tend to favor profiles who have been active within the past three months or so. The more recently you have posted, the better.
Initial Engagement refers to engagement that happens immediately after you post.
When you post to Instagram your post will only be shown to about 10% of your followers. Instagram then decides whether or not to share your post with the rest of your followers based upon how those people engage.
This week, I want to focus on Dwell Time.
Dwell time on Instagram is how long people stop to view or engage with your post. This is one of the most important aspects of the algorithm because it signifies that people are interested enough in your content to stop scrolling.
The average user spends 2 hours and 24 minutes per day on social media. They're inundated with content so it's crucial to focus on creating value when you're deciding what to post.
Creating a high level content strategy can really help to improve your Instagram profile and increase your dwell time. It's important to consistently post but you also don't want to drown your followers in content that isn't very interesting. |
| Use your Instagram profile to really tell a story about you as an artist to your audience.
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| Don't just focus on putting static images of your artwork all over your profile. Focus on creating engaging content that provides value to your followers.
A great approach to creating engaging content includes sharing behind-the-scenes images and videos, unique approaches you take in your work, or even personal stories. The goal here is to allow your followers to form a connection with you as an artist.
When determining your content approach, I strongly urge you to consider videos. As I mentioned last week, videos tend to outperform standard image posts when it comes to engagement. This is because people almost always stop to view the first few seconds of a video. And if you're able to get people to stop scrolling, your dwell time will increase... and if your dwell time increases, Instagram will show your post to more people, perhaps even promote your post to the coveted Explore page where new people can find you.
Creating videos for your Instagram profile can be as simple as creating a simple animation of your latest piece of artwork in video form rather than posting a static image.
Take a look at this quick and simple video that Dina posted if you're looking for ideas on how to create engaging video content:
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Her video is only 14 seconds long and did not require special video equipment or an experienced editor. |
| The dwell time on Instagram is all about capturing your audience's attention.
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| People who stop and spend more time viewing your image or video are more likely to engage in other ways - i.e. liking, commenting, or sharing your post. This will help to boost your overall engagement.
There is no standard formula that will work for everyone. It truly is all about experimenting with your own following to find what works for you. But following these simple guidelines will help you focus on the most important components to improve your Instagram profile.
Next week, I'll be diving into how to write catchy captions that will also increase your dwell time and overall engagement.
Until then, remember that Fortune Favors the Bold Brush.
Sincerely, |
| Clint Watson BoldBrush/FASO Founder & Art Fanatic
PS - Dina Brodsky has an incredible class available, Instagram for Artists,that will teach you, in more depth, everything we plan to cover in this series and many other things you need to know, as an artist, to maximize the marketing value you get from Instagram, including ideas about how to present and sell your art. Get her course by clicking this link.
PPS - We've temporarily made the video of Dina's webinar free on BoldBrush Studio. You will need to make a free BoldBrush Studio account to watch it. You may create that account by following the instructions on the following page: Click here to setup your free BoldBrush Studio account.
After signing up, you can watch the video at this link. (but you must sign up first).
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