This week I have been offering lots of advice about using hashtags on Instagram. So go back to Monday's post and start there if you are just joining me this week. Trust me you need to know this.
Once you have figured out which hashtags to use, here are the things you need to remember when including hashtags with your Instagram posts. Most importantly, you should only use relevant hashtags. Don't try to tag something that is popular but has nothing to do with your art or your photo. You should make a list of your hashtags that you think will apply to almost every post. Then add a few to each post that pertains to that photo specifically. You can even save your list to your phone and then type a keyword and all of your hashtags will automatically appear! If you have an iphone, go to Settings, then General, then Keyboard and then Text Replacement. Press the plus sign to create and then select "Phrase". For your "Phrase", type in all of your hashtags (and leave a space between each one). Then under "Shortcut" type in a keyword that when you type it in all of your hashtags will appear. Don't use something common, rather, use something like "#art". When you are in Instagram and you type on your iphone "#art", all of your hashtags will appear and you just need to tap the space bar for the hashtags to be copied in to your post. You should do this as it saves so much time!!! Finally, you should also do some homework to help you determine how many hashtags you should use. Instagram allows a maximum of 30 in each post. Look around at your fellow IG'ers and see how many hashtags they are using. Then take a good look at your hashtag list. Are all of the hash tags ones that already have a million posts? That's fine but try to also find some smaller hashtag groups so you don't get lost in the crowd. And be sure to come up with a hashtag for your business. Try to find one that isn't already monopolized by another artist. You can be creative but keep it simple and easy to type. You want to make it easy for your customers to find you and your art. Please don't forget that.
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One of the questions I get asked all of the time is "How Do I Find the Right Hashtags to Use?". The first thing you need to do is search for your hashtags. Go to the search icon in Instagram and start typing in a word that you think might be a good hashtag. For example, if I type in #coastal, this is what pops up: Instagram makes it easy as they instantly start making suggestions for you. Start by thinking of some keywords relevant to your art business. Or better yet, find hashtags that are relevant to your potential customers. You want to find hashtags your target audience would likely search for and use on their own. If you sell landscape art, what hashtags do you think your customers would use if they were looking for art? Next I typed in #coastalart. Here is what I found. As you can see, Instagram can help me find more hashtags to use.
There are also some hashtag tools on the internet you can use to find which hashtags pertain to your art business. Go to hashtagify.me and type in a hashtag you think might work for your business. Hashtagify.me will then suggest other hashtags relevant to your search. Each of the suggestions can also be clicked to identify even more suggestions. I love this! Does this information help? Let me know. There are two types of hashtags you can use on Instagram. They are Branded hashtags and Community hashtags. Branded hashtags are ones that are associated with a person's name or their business name. If you search the hashtag of #my100yearoldhome on Instagram or even just google #my100yearoldhome you will see my photos pop up for about 99% of the content.
One benefit of branded hashtags is they can be tied back directly to your company. Also, you should encourage people to use your branded hashtag in photos and videos on Instagram when they mention your art. Community hashtags are tags like #abstractart or #coastalart. They don't associate with a particular company. Rather, they are more like categories. The reason why they are so important is because if a buyer is looking for coastal art, he will likely search the hashtag #coastalart. If you paint a lot of coastal art and all of those paintings are posted with #coastalart it is likely the right audience will see your art. It's pretty simple. But really important! Make sense? I think I just about have figured out Instagram. I love it and am meeting so many wonderful people. It's hard to imagine that I didn't know any of my 8342 friends less than two months ago. That is just crazy!
So what have I learned since the last time I posted about @my100yearoldhome? Hashtags are becoming more important. You are limited as to the number of hashtags you can have on a post. You can't include more than 30 hashtags in a single comment. (And keep in mind that you can't include more than 5 @ mentions in a single comment.) The first step to using hashtags to grow your audience is to understand the way they work within Instagram. When you go into the search feature of Instagram, you’ll notice you can search by top content, hashtag, people (username) and places. Instagram uses hashtags to categorize content. A great analogy is to think of how you would organize paperwork in an office. You have your papers which go inside folders, and the folders go inside a filing cabinet. In this scenario, the papers are Instagram posts, the folders are hashtags and the filing cabinet is the Instagram platform. When someone searches #apples, it’s like telling Instagram to search its cabinet for the “apples” folder and show the latest posts containing that keyword. When you use hashtags in your posts, you’re letting Instagram know to put your post in the appropriate folder in case anyone searches for it. What this means for your art business is that you need to get into the habit of using hashtags for any main keywords you mention inside of your posts. Using keywords without a hashtag won’t make your post discoverable. So it makes no sense! There are some really good resources if you want to learn more about hashtags. Hootsuite has a great site they put together called The Complete Instagram Hashtag Guide for Business. Tomorrow we will talk about how you can use hashtags for Instagram to grow your audience and build your brand. Sorry for my absence from my blog for a few days. I was actually sick in bed with the flu! It's not often that I get knocked off my feet. I am just happy that I am feeling better and back amongst the healthy!
Spring is officially here and before we know it we will be heading out for summer vacations. As artists, we often feel a responsibility to paint when we travel. Sometimes painting while on vacation can be a wonderful thing. Other times it can be hard to fit in. This week's Artists Helping Artists show is titled "Creating Art While You are on Vacation". Summer will be here before you know it and vacation travel plans will be in full swing. Now is the time to decide if you want to build in some painting time during your vacation. On this week's Artists Helping Artist's show my co-host Margaret Sheldon and I share tips and suggestions as to how you can incorporate art in to your vacation. We discuss packing lists, tips for traveling on airplanes with oil paints, and alternative ways to enjoying your art. To listen to this show, click here. My husband and I were watching 60 Minutes when they featured a story about mobile phone addiction. It was very compelling (and scary) and they focused mostly on teens. Then my husband dropped the bomb and said "I wonder why they aren't featuring a middle aged woman who spends way too much time on her phone". Gee, I wonder who he was referring to?
I do spend a lot of time on my phone. Recently I have made an effort to spend less time on my iphone. But then I started a new instagram account and blog called @my100yearoldhome and my plan went right out the window. But here is my question. Is it any "less bad" if the time I spend on my phone is primarily for my business? I check email and social media frequently on my phone. But the social media is about 85% business related. I guess I could spend the same time on my computer and thus it would seem less like I am addicted to my phone. The scary thing is that I don't even think we know how much time we are spending on our phones. I did some research and I found an app that tracks the time you spend on your phone. The app is called Moment, and it is designed to help you monitor (and hopefully, lessen) the time you spend staring glassy-eyed at your phone. You set the "start" and "end" times for tracking your phone use, as well as your maximum daily limit. The app gives you "nudge" updates every so often so you know how much time you've used. I don't think it shocks you if you go over your limit but I do think just knowing the amount of time spent on your phone might be an eye opening. At least for me. How much time do you think you spend on your mobile phone? I will install the app and let you know soon ... Hopefully you have had a chance to think about your audience. (If you haven't read yesterday's blog post I suggest you do that first!)
Now that you have some idea as to who your audience is, it's time to find them. And the first two places you need to start are Facebook and Instagram. Go to your Facebook account and set up an ad. While you are setting up the ad you need to create an audience who will receive your ad. The way you do this is by identifying demographics and interests of your audience. Start with the basics, such as geographic location, age, gender, etc. Then start identifying their interests. Perhaps it's travel, outdoors, sports, and food and wine. The list of interests can go on and on and on. Maybe your audience likes the beach and water sports and travel. As you create your audience be sure to save it and name it appropriately. You don't even need to run an ad right now. Just define your audience. And just so you know since Facebook bought Instagram the audience you create will work for both Facebook and Instagram. Have fun. ![]() "Warm Water" 30" x 30" Available here. One of the questions I am asked all the time is "How do I find my audience?" Most artists need to know who their audience is, because why should you spend your time marketing if you don't even know who you are marketing to? It's pretty simple. If you know your audience, you can target your art to them. And sell more art.
So how do you find your audience? It's not as hard as you think. The first step is to look at your existing customers. Who has already bought your art? Take the time to look back at your customers. Take notes to determine their age, their demographics, their interests. Once you have done that, spend some time determining what interests they share in common. If you haven't sold a lot of art then you need to decide who you want your audience to be. What is it about your art that appeals to an audience? Is it the subject matter? What about the style? Is there a marketing audience (such as interior designers) that can help sell your art to their customers? Take the day to give this some thought. Write down your answers. And be ready for tomorrow's blog post for what to do next. ![]() "Separated at Berth", Oil, 11" x 14", Available here. It's the beginning of the second quarter of the year and it's time to stop and ask your self a question. What are you most excited about when it comes to your art? Is it a painting on your easel? Is it a new series you are painting? Perhaps it is a new show you are hoping to enter. The answer is important. But asking the question is the key.
Why? Because what ever you are the most excited about should be what you are telling everyone else about. Write your answer down. Now go look on facebook, instagram, and on your blog. Are you telling everybody else what you are excited about? I am guessing probably not. For some reason we forget to talk about the most exciting things happening in our art. But not anymore. On the first of every month I want you to ask yourself this question and then focus on sharing this information with your art audience. Do this every month. Got it? When you share what you are most excited about others will enjoy your enthusiasm. This is a win, win, I promise. Well, it's official. My blog titled My 100 Year Old Home has officially launched. There are already five posts on the blog and tomorrow there will be a new, somewhat interesting, yet humorous blog post. titled "My Life as a Dish Whore-der". I would love it if you would visit my blog and let me know what you think. It even has recipes (for those of you who didn't get one of my cookbooks!).
So how does this affect this blog titled "My Everyday Life as a Working Artist"? Not at all. Each blog has a different purpose and I am excited to be able to have two blogs. It's a big undertaking but I know I can do it! So do you have a blog? It's a great way to have a conversation about your art. For me my blog is a way to share my life as an artist, which includes all of the crazy things I try to accomplish every day! Tomorrow starts my week of commissions. I have three 6' x 9' abstract paintings to complete and I will be so happy when these huge canvases are out of my studio. They are so big and I can barely move around in my studio! I also have a huge list of things to get done and I would love to cross a few of those! I won't bore you with what's on my to-do list. But I can say that launching my new blog was at the top of the list! If you don't have a blog for your art you might want to consider creating one. It's a wonderful tool to promote your art and a lot of fun too! |
Leslie
Mom. Wife. Artist. Marketer. Teacher. Radio Show Host. Archives
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