Start an art account on Instagram with these steps

BECOME A SOCIAL MEDIA SWEETHEART

So you’re ready to begin sharing your work online. Sweet. But how do you start an art account on Instagram?

Instagram is the biggest platform for artists right now. One BILLION people use Instagram each month and creatives have been using this platform to reach new people every day. 

There is so much potential waiting for artists on Instagram as long as you know how to utilize it, where the boundaries are, and how to grow your reach. 

Let’s get into it.

THE VERY FIRST STEP

You probably already have a personal account. That’s fine. But first and foremost you must decide on whether to combine your art account with your current one, or create a new one just for that purpose. 

My recommendation is to create a separate profile when you start an Instagram art account. 

When you combine them, you end up with every other post being about your cat, your mom’s birthday, your lunch, and suddenly 1 in every 9 posts is actually about your art. That is not enough to be considered an art account. That’s a hobby account. Anyone who is there to find your art will have to sift through tons of personal crap they don’t care about — a big no for online shoppers, art show organizers, or fans in general. 

I originally separated my art from my personal profile because I was shy. I didn’t want my current 400 friends to see me suddenly start posting a bunch of art that I was uncomfortable sharing. On my new profile, I added only other art lovers and my close friends instead. 

However, over time, I realized it was hard to keep up with two accounts. It’s a lot of mental work. Eventually I just quit using my personal one. I only use my art account — it’s not a combined account — and I refrain from posting personal stuff on there aside from what aligns with my personal branding. (Not sure what personal branding is? Check this post out here.)

You don’t have to do what I did and give up your personal expression on this platform, but I fully recommend at least separating your personal from your professional. 

SELECTING BUSINESS OR CASUAL?

The next big choice when you start an art account on Instagram is whether or not you want to be a personal or business account. I choose to have a professional account. 

The point of being a business on Instagram is to be able to see your Insights: a set of analytic information that is tracked about your posts and audience. 

Insights is useful for knowing who is interacting with you. You can find out the age of your followers, their gender, and where they live. Insights tells you how many people came to your profile after a certain post and reveals your “reach,” or how many people Instagram decided to show your post to.

Insights is really useful for deciding when and what to post based on what your followers are responding to. It helps you navigate that pesky algorithm. 

A business profile is awesome for making it clear what you do with their official label and letting people contact you by listing your professional email or contact info on your profile.

I have heard the rumors of Instagram “shadow banning” people who use business settings, but I don’t believe them to be true. I think this occurs more based on the type of content you’re producing and if Instagram favors that rather than your account type. I’ve never personally tested the theory.

Instagram now also has an option to set your profile as a creator account. This setting is supposed to simplify your DMs, give you more analytics data when it comes to follower count, help you partner with brands and allow you to create shoppable posts.

More insights are great. However, it also counts your net followers — who follows and unfollows based on content. If you find yourself obsessing over small metrics, this may feed that potentially unhealthy habit. If you need to pay close attention because you’ve been slacking, this option should help open your eyes. If you get paid to promote affiliate products like an influencer, these metrics will give you more proof for brands about how well your content is performing.

With a creator account, your inbox gets split into two DM inboxes: primary and general. Primary is for important people you interact with often, and general is for first-time conversations. This will help you sort through all your raving fans.

It also lets you link to products in your posts in a different way than with a business account.

I chose to stick with a business account because I don’t do a lot of affiliate marketing and I prefer my DMs all in one place.

WRITING YOUR INSTAGRAM BIO

So you have to describe your whole personality, business brand, services, and artwork all in 4 short lines — oh, and don’t forget a link to all your important sites!

*eye roll*

Instagram bios aren’t as serious as everyone makes them out to be.

I’ve seen wildly successful artists with the most cryptic and uninformative bios. Things like, “Below is my art and messy emotions. Warning: feelings may arise.” or biographies like, “I like to play in the mud.” 

However, unless you’ve already acquired a bit of popularity, I’d be more informative. 

Here’s what my bio looks like: I include my medium and title (illustrator — notice how you can use hashtags in your profile! I’d recommend using only one.), my next upcoming show if I have one, that I’m a writer for my blog, and that you can buy art with the link below. Instagram includes your business category at the top and your location at the bottom.  

If you sell art, you should absolutely say that in your bio. 

If you offer a service, like free info on your blog or custom artwork, absolutely say that too. 

If you have an upcoming show, tell us when. 

You want your bio to briefly say something about you, then immediately invite the visitor to go deeper with you or take action. Your picture posts will say more than your bio ever could, so just extend your offer right away. Even if they don’t click on it first thing, they’ll have an easy way to find your links when they’re ready. 

A useful tool that has been introduced as a result of Instagram only allowing one link in your bio is LinkTree. LinkTree is an app that sends viewers to a page containing multiple links of your choice, so you can keep everything neat and in one place. You can turn on and off certain links but keep them on file (great for recurring sales). It’s free to use unless you want to pay to see the analytics or get other bonuses. 

I’ve also seen people use your one bio link to take viewers to a page of links on their own website, too. That way the page design and appearance can be customized and you can track the traffic stats with Google Analytics instead. 

If you only have one link to link to, you don’t need to worry about these tricks or apps for sprucing up your bio. 

Another thing to think about is that the name on your profile can be different than your handle (your @ name). My actual given name is unique enough for me to use it in both places (it’s literally neevvver taken) and I like to be remembered by it, so I use it in both places. You can get creative, though. Use your artist name, your pen name, crack a joke, or whatever you’d like. 

(UPDATE: I got married and my new name is still always available! BUT I’ve started using the handle @acupofcloudy on socials instead.)

Overall, your bio should make it obvious what you do and what you offer. Let your photos and posts speak more about your personality and brand. 

WHAT TO POST ON AN ART ACCOUNT

Visually, the vast majority of your posts should be of your artwork. This is an art account, after all. Around 70% of your posts should be of your art, or at least art-related. 

Around 20% of your pictures should be of you. People buy from people, and they care about who’s behind the screen. And besides, other humans are inherently interesting. They grab your attention more than any other subject because at our roots, we are social and communal animals. We’re curious about our neighbors and our friends. So be social on your social media accounts by showing your face and body often. Plus, pictures of people get the most engagement and clicks (there’s a reason those cheesy gossip magazines still exist!). Bonus points if you can work yourself and your art into the same photo. 

Leave 10% of your posts to be wiggle room for things that showcase your personality or daily activities that align with your personal brand. If you’re really into makeup, or you live in Denver and you’ve managed to consistently work those things into your brand, post about them. Let your personality shine through a bit without taking over the whole feed.

You should post to your regular feed once a day. I know it sounds like a lot, (that’s because it is) but if you’re aiming for how much to post, that’s your goal. To be transparent, I do not post once a day. But when I did, I saw my engagement and following skyrocket.

INSTAGRAM STORIES:

Keep in mind when you start an art account on Instagram that posting on stories is different than posting on your page. Stories are where you should let your personality shine through 70% of the time and let your art take a back seat. Stories are temporary, easy to flip through like a separate feed, and if you really like it enough to keep it you can put it in a highlight reel with that little highlight button in the corner. It’s a more relaxed section and you can post 30 times a day without annoying anyone. 

Post on Stories as often as you’d like — the more, the merrier. Quality is less of a concern here, so it’s easier to post more often.

HIGHLIGHTS:

You can add select stories to different highlights on your profile. I use these to organize some (definitely not all) story posts into categories that I want to be available forever, not just 24 hours. This is useful for branding, lifestyle content, instructing people how to work with you, FAQs, and more.

Highlights I have right now include RV living, Renaissance Festival, Art Style, Happy Folks (which is full of good reviews and testimonials), Michigan Parks and Places, Home (for decor content), and many more.

REELS:

Reels are Instagram’s response to TikTok. TikTok made the short video format popular like Vine never could. These are perfect for showcasing process clips, works in progress, and short clips of you and your artist lifestyle. These are a great way to showcase your sense of humor, a few videos of how to hang your art prints when customers buy them, and more. Get creative here!

I’d suggest posting a Reel once a day or as often as a regular post. They’re short and to the point. People on average watch 7 seconds of your reel. So make the beginning of the video count.

THREADS:

This is Instagram’s copycat of Twitter/X and it’s essentially the same. I use it for fleeting thoughts, text-prominent posts and short updates. It’s worth using if you have a lot to say.

It links your account to your Instagram profile and show it in your bio area.

SELL YOUR ART ON INSTAGRAM

So when do you post about what’s for sale?

I follow the 80-20 rule: 80% of your content should be stuff that entertains, provides value, is interesting, or just isn’t about you making money. The other 20% can be “hey this new print is in the shop” or “I’m having a sale.” Work selling into all three of your post types: Artwork, pictures of you, and pictures showcasing your personality. Let them blend in with the rest of your content. 

You don’t want your entire feed to be buy, buy, buy. It’s boring and frankly doesn’t give people a good reason to keep following you (until you’re in such high demand that you’re always selling out).

However, when you start an art account on Instagram you know that there will be selling involved. The point of an art account is really free marketing and the ability to connect on a deeper level with your customers.

So while you don’t want to overwhelm people with selling, don’t hesitate to bring it up every so often. Follow the 80-20 rule and you’ll be golden. 

Always have your shop link available when you make this type of sales content. Keep in mind that you don’t get the SWIPE UP option on your stories until you’ve got 10,000 followers and are a verified account. Until then, you can say “link in bio” and direct people to where your shop link lives.

You could type out the url, but Instagram doesn’t allow clickable links in posts (annoying, right?) and it also doesn’t allow copying and pasting (super annoying).

So “link in bio” is usually my go-to option. When you get the swipe up option, use that. 

STARTING A FOLLOWING

 When you start an art account on Instagram, you likely won’t have a lot of followers. We all start at zero. 

But everyone knows that more people looking at your work ultimately means more people buying it. 

The cold hard truth is that your art is worth buying, but no one will ever buy it if they don’t know who you are and don’t care about you. Instagram allows you to get your work seen by people outside of your day-to-day interactions, so that more people will come to know and love your art. 

Before we get into how to grow a following there are two things you NEED to understand.

First: the quality of your following means more matters so much more than the quantity. 

The point is to build REAL relationships with people, and the right people. Talk to them in DMs and comments and remember that there is a human being on the other side of the screen, not a number in your follow count. Learn about what they enjoy and who they are. You want to connect with people who have similar interests as you — they will be the ones who will honestly enjoy your subject matter in your artwork and truly care about what you have to say. One thousand of these followers are more valuable than 100,000 followers who don’t care. 

Second: you don’t own Instagram. 

You can’t control if they shut down tomorrow. You don’t control whether they start charging for using their platform. You don’t decide if they change their policies or slow their bandwidth connection or wipe all of your followers. 

So don’t put all your eggs into one basket when you start an art account on Instagram. 

It’s a great tool yes, but make sure that it’s one of the many that your artist business uses. Your entire livelihood should not be built on a platform that someone else owns. Make sure you have your own shop hosted somewhere else online, use Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, physical shops in your city, pay for traditional advertising — diversify yourself! If you host everything on Instagram you run the risk of being easy to take down. You’ve been warned. 

Whew! Now that that’s out of the way. 

HOW TO GROW A FOLLOWING

Before you can build a relationship with someone online or convince them to follow you onto any platform, you must introduce yourself. So how do you do that?

Well, you have to make the first move. Put yourself out there a little. 

My favorite way to do this is to search a hashtag that’s relevant to your ideal customer. (Not sure who your ideal customer is? Find out here.) Then explore those posts, liking them all and commenting when you have something genuine to say. 

Usually I go through the Most Recent section of tagged posts because in the Top Posts, your single little “like” can get lost — a post with 7k likes won’t notice one more. Most Recent posts usually are newly posted and are filled with content from regular folks, not ultra-popular accounts. 

Feel free to click on people’s profiles and like a few more of their posts. When they see someone was looking at their profile, they’ll think, “Who’s this?” and take a peek at your profile too. If they like your artwork, they’ll give you a follow. 

Note: If you like too many similar posts in a short period Instagram will temporarily stop you from doing so out of fear that you’re spam. It’s okay. Just take a break. Instagram unflags you after a bit. 

Another tactic is to make a post of your own and include relevant hashtags for other people to find you. 

People will find you through tags for about an hour after you post, and if you use less-known tags, they’ll trickle in throughout the day. 

You can list them in the caption of your post or add them separately as a comment immediately after it’s uploaded.

Use tags like #oilpainting, #illinoisartist, #artforyourhome, #canvaspainting, #homedecor, #countrylife or other things that are related to your post about landscape paintings. Try to avoid tags that are overused or have a million related posts. You image will be quickly washed away by new images using the same tag and less people will see it. 

Don’t include bullshit hashtags like #kimk or #likeforlike. If it’s not relevant to your photo, don’t include it. When people search for Kim Kardashian, they want to find stuff about her — not pictures of your newest landscape painting. More people might see your post, but it’ll be the WRONG people. And please for everyone’s sake, don’t use tags like #followforfollow. Those people do not care about you. They don’t care about your art. They just want to boost their follower count for the sake of vanity. Don’t be that guy.

Quality over quantity.

On that note, don’t feel obligated to follow someone if they follow you. If they’re following just to get a followback, they’ll unfollow in the next few days. Don’t sweat it. Don’t take it personally. They weren’t a good fit for you anyway. 

If you enjoy someone’s work too, go ahead and follow. But don’t play the very un-genuine game of follow tag. 

Make sure to link to your art account from other platforms. Encourage your Facebook friends, email subscribers, shop visitors, Twitter followers, etc. to connect with you on Instagram as well. Add a direct link. To be fair, you should be doing this from your Instagram to these others places as well. Create a web for people to get lost in when they’re creeping your sites. 

If you get any media coverage, shoutouts from other people or shops, direct them to your shop and your Instagram art account. 

After all of that, it’s just patience. You won’t gain 70k followers overnight. It’s a slow and steady endeavor.

LISTEN TO YOUR AUDIENCE

When you start an art account on Instagram, the goal is usually free marketing, networking, and for a bit of fun. But the real resource here is learning what your audience likes from you. 

When you’ve established a few thousand (or even a few hundred) people in your community, you’ll begin learning about them. What they like the most, what they ignore, what gets them to comment, what types of posts makes them buy — this is indispensable information.

Instagram Stories makes this really easy with tools like polls, question boxes, and a like or dislike scale that you can attach to a story post to get a reaction from your audience. You can also prompt people to comment on your posts by asking a question there.

When you have an audience filled with the right people who love your work, you can track which types of pieces are bought most frequently and make more of that type. Don’t worry — it’s not called “selling out” — it’s called adapting and it’s called good business.

You can always make art for fun, but if you want to make a living, you need to make work that people are willing to buy, too. Instagram can help you discover exactly what that work is according to your audience. So listen closely!

LEARN BY EXAMPLE

This may have sounded complicated if you’ve never signed up for an Instagram account before. It’s really not. If you already have a personal account, this will be a cake walk for you. 

If you need to watch someone else do these things before you jump in, that’s okay. You can follow me at @acupofcloudy on Instagram and see how I do it. 

You can also follow other artists on their journey and it will give you a new perspective and some good ideas. 

Remember that the algorithm and the format is changing constantly.

Did you start an art account on Instagram? Drop your handle in the comments below and we can learn from each other 🙂