How to Grow Your Instagram Art Account

how to grow your instagram for artists
how to grow your instagram art account

Hey guys! Today I’d like to share with you some tips for growing your art account on Instagram.

If you’re an artist and not using Instagram, get on it! I find it’s better than Facebook or Twitter for artists because it’s more visual based.

In fact, many artists today use Instagram as their art portfolio instead of having a website. While I don’t recommend that, as having your own space on the internet is always best practice, it can be a great place to connect with fans and other artists.

Keep in mind that no one really knows how the algorithm works except the folks who work at Instagram. People will tell you to do this or that or don’t do this or that, but they really don’t know either, so take it with a grain of salt.

These tips are just things that have worked for me personally, and are not guaranteed to work for you. Don’t focus too much on your follower count. Being authentic, focusing on creating quality content, and engaging meaningfully with your fans and followers should be your main focus.

Tips for growing your Instagram art account

  • Find your niche: what kind of art do you want to share with the world? Whether it’s painting, sketches, or digital art, make sure your content is focused and consistent.
  • Post high-quality photos. Make sure your photos are clear and of high quality. People are more likely to follow an account that posts beautiful photos.
  • Post daily, if not to your feed at least to stories.
  • Create fun and interactive stories using polls, stickers etc.
  • Respond to comments on your posts.
  • Respond to other people‘s stories.
  • Use relevant hashtags when you post. Use a mix of broad and smaller hashtags with less than 1 million posts. For example, use #art and #artistsoninstagram, but also use smaller hashtags that are relevant to your specific style of art or the subject of your post.
  • Switch up hashtags from post to post, don’t use the same ones every time.
  • Experiment with posting at different times of the day.
  • Experiment with Reels.
  • Add a location to your posts. It could be the location you actually are, or a different location depending on the post subject or target audience.
  • Create content that isn’t pushing people to buy anything, but simply showing your work or offering something of value to your followers.
brunette girl selfie pink mandala design
Selfies with or wearing your designs get a lot of engagement.
  • Post selfies. Even as an artist, selfies get high engagement on Instagram. Take photos of yourself holding your art or wearing and using your products if you sell through print on demand.
  • Engage daily by liking and commenting on posts in your home feed.
  • Follow hashtags that are relevant to your niche or art style and they will show up on your home feed.
  • Check out the top posts and use them for inspiration, but don’t copy.
  • Every day, if you can, go through a few hashtags relevant to your work or style and like/comment/follow accounts using that hashtag.
  • Add Alt Text to your posts.
  • Tell a story. Your captions should be more than just a description of the photo. Tell a story about your art, or share your creative process with your followers.

That’s it! I hope you’ve found some helpful tips here. If you have more to add feel free to leave them in the comments below. You can also check out my artist resources page for even more tips!

Oh and make sure you follow me on Instagram!

Cheers,

julie signing off

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16 thoughts on “How to Grow Your Instagram Art Account

  1. Great tips! Instagram is my favorite to grow as a artist. Thought I my followers are static… I have been doing research on growing on Instagram also, I have found that engagement groups or DM groups hurt your engagement…

    1. Thanks Abby! I still think engagement groups are a good way to find like minded people and support. As long as you are also interacting with people outside the group it can be a great resource. If you follow the other tips above you should see some growth either way.

    1. I don’t believe that’s true. As long as you don’t look grumpy and mean. The stats show that photos with people in them get higher likes and engagement overall.

      1. I look at the posts with a lot of followers and commercial backing. What they all have in common is they are young 20 somethings not far out of uni and good looking. The pictures on these blogs most of the time are not great. I see older photographers and writers posts that are much better in quality photo and writing wise and they have much less likes and followers. It is what I have seen. The sponsors only want the young good looking to promote.

        1. Instagram does cater to a younger audience, so really it depends on your target market for what platform you’re going to use to promote your work. If you are selling to a more mature audience the blog probably makes more sense.

          1. It certainly could help, but I don’t know enough about photography to comment. If you want to work with agencies could you just contact them through their websites? I would imagine your blog/portfolio would be enough.

    2. Also, people love body positive posts and photos celebrating people’s differences. So it just depends on how you approach it. Anyway, obviously you don’t *have* to post pictures of yourself if you’re not comfortable with it

      1. I would rather not. I am not in this to promote me. That’s fine for others. My purpose is to show off places that are interesting to see. I have had people ask to tag along on my trips. The past two years I arranged tours and itineraries for people to join me during my travels. That’s what led in me into blogging. That and I have been taking photography classes. I truly enjoy seeing the writing , photography and artwork of others. I follow artists, writers and photographers mostly and most of my followers fit on those categories.

        1. Hey that’s cool, and for a photography account probably makes more sense. I was thinking specifically for those of us who sell through Print on Demand, t-shirts and stuff like that, people like to see the products “in situ”, so it was just a suggestion to get more engagement with products you’re selling.

          1. I am not good enough at it to even consider that at this point. I have yet to take a course on Photoshop and Lightroom . I think that is a must have knowledge when trying to make your images sellable.

          2. Your photos look nice to me. Being able to tweak them digitally certainly can help, but if you can get that quality of photos without post editing then you’re even better off. You can always open a shop and throw them up to see what happens, it doesn’t cost anything. I have lot more tips on starting a shop here on my site.

  2. Hi, Julie, tried to post earlier but kept getting an error, finally got in via my WP reader – anyway ? very much enjoyed your post & comment thread! I’m hardly active at all in IG, but only ‘cause of time, very busy on WP, Twitter, & Fine Art America – but, have followed u on IG & Twitter. Eventually, I’ll be able to spend more time on IG, but other priorities right now (surgery recovery, blog updating, etc). Look fwd to more info/posts from u ?

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