Nicole Thomas is a high school Ceramics Teacher by day and a Potter by night. Each summer season, Nicole takes a deep breath before diving deeper into her home studio practice. Nicole’s wheel-thrown ceramics focuses on incorporating her Signature Style with a colorful surface full of movement and visual texture.
The preferred printing supplier for potters everywhere! SmallDogPrints.com
What is a pin on Instagram?
I pin on Instagram is when you take content that you have posted and you pin it to the top of your profile page.
How many are you allowed to pin at any given time?
You can pin three different pieces of content at the top of your Instagram page.
What does that visually do to your page?
So the thing that is interesting about pinning content to the top of your Instagram profile is it gives you an opportunity to highlight the three most important things that you want people to see when they come to your page.
It’s an opportunity to show people where else they can find you and what other offerings you have for them besides what you are offering on your page.
If I make a pin is it forever?
No, it’s not forever. You can change them out as often as you want to. And you can curate the pin to be whatever you want it to be. So something that is interesting is a lot of the time if creators have content that go viral they will pin that viral piece of content to the top of their page. So when you visit their page you will see that content. I don’t prefer to use that strategy because I think that is a piece of content is going to go viral the algorithm is already going to roll that content around out to people so pinning isn’t going to do much to boost it. But having one of your offerings at the top of your page will show someone that did come to your profile through a viral reel what else you have to offer them. For example I have pinned the supplies I use from Amazon, my Etsy shop, and my YouTube videos.
So you pin things for other kinds of content and other places of engagement?
Absolutely. One of the key words that people sometimes use would be funneling. So you could pin those first three pieces of content to funnel people to where you want them to go next.
How does a person go about pinning a post on Instagram?
If you want to pin a post of Instagram you can make your Instagram post with still photos or you can make a reel. You can post that piece of content and once the piece of content is posted you can tap the little three circles in the top right hand corner and you will see an option to pin it to the top of your profile and then once you do that that piece of content will stay in one of the top three squares at the beginning of your profile until you decide to unpin it or replace it.
What do you do when you are not teaching or making?
That’s a great question. When I am not teaching or making I do a lot of hiking. I do a lot of road trips with my husband and our yellow lab, Lacy. And I also do a lot of cooking. I have always been interested in food and nutrition and being active but recently I have started joking around with people and telling them I want to make art until I’m a hundred years old and I feel like if I speak it out into the universe it will happen. But more important than that I also need to be taking care of my body so I can be making art until I’m a hundred years old. Just like staying active, walking my dog, trying to focus on cooking healthy meals as much as I can. Those are the things I focus on when I am not teaching or in the studio making work.
I’ve been using Instagram for several years to see it change and evolve. I spent hundreds of dollars on Instagram courses claiming to help me build the audience. While I don’t have a crazy following like so many artists out there, I did learn a thing or two about it with lots of sweat and tears. In 2022, I decided to share some simple truths about the social platform that you can apply to your account today to see some growth and hopefully cut on the frustration Instagram can give us. I updated it in 2024.
Overall, I like Instagram for art. It’s my favorite social network mainly because it’s so visual and easy to present art and connect with others in the art community and beyond. Perfect for us – artists because it’s still free! I must say that there are plenty of couches who claim to grow your account if you “follow their steps and strategies”. While it could work for them, it doesn’t mean it will work for you because you’re a different person with different art, ideas, and presentation. I saw couches that simply lied promising growth, and selling their silly programs. This is not me being negative about others, rather be mindful of all of this as you work on your account’s growth. Observe, what other top art accounts are doing now to incorporate their strategies into yours. Also, the reach has declined on Instagram tremendously (remember, the Facebook pages? Same idea) so please don’t think that it’s just you doing something wrong.
This video became viral on YouTube, but I didn’t do anything special or different from my other reels on YouTube. I think sometimes it’s really just luck.
All artists need strong art, presentation, and following. Social media is yet another place to network with people. Artists need to be seen both online and off-line. So artists must have a business card in different formats to reach various groups of collectors, professionals, and alike.
How to fix Instagram’s storage space
This is one of the major problems I often have with Instagram and other apps like Spotify. At some point, my Instagram takes up all the space on my half-empty Android phone! The size of the app gets bigger and bigger despite my limited use of the app. So, I tried different things to share what works for me.
You must remember your account name and password before you do the reset! After that,
Open the Settings tab on your phone. Click on Apps —All Apps—and you’ll see a list of all your installed apps. Pick Instagram (or Spotify or any other app you want to downsize).
Click on Instagram app—Storage & Cache–‘Clear cache’ first & click on ‘Clear Storage’. It will ask you ‘Delete app data?’ Click ‘Delete’.
This action will reset the app and recover the storage space on your phone. You must open the Instagram app to enter your login information again to use it.
Why you need to be on Instagram
Every art professional, gallery owner, curator, artist, and art writer is on Instagram. You can connect to or reach out to people in a very informal way. Something that was totally impossible to accomplish a few years ago!
If you have no website, no worries! Art professionals check your Instagram account first, and your website second!! You can host your art portfolio on Instagram for free.
You expose your art to new audiences every day, showing your inspiration and behind-the-scenes footage. In other words, you find your audience, opportunities, and art collectors on Instagram.
How to use Instagram effectively
The name of your account must include your artist’s name. If it’s taken, expand on it some more by adding art/painting/sculpture, etc. The word that describes your expertise the best.
Treat your Instagram account like your portfolio. This means deleting photos showing what you ate or where you bathed. Think of it as your professional portfolio with the best images of your artwork available to sample. People are very quick to judge. So when they get to your account, they must see the consistency in style and theme.
Include yourself in some of the shots. My photos perform a lot better when I’m standing next to my painting or I’m painting… This is important and makes IG different from regular, clean product photography. People want to connect to real artists, not just our artwork. Let them see your art, studio, and the creative process! We’re always very interested in the process of making something (hint: make short videos and reels. More on that later).
Show your WIP shots in a carousel, placing your finished piece first. Shots of art with supplies in them work well. I think that you can experiment with wip shots in a video format since the reach is declining quickly, posting photos only.
Use description space to write a story about your process and art. How did it come together? What challenges did you have? Focus on inspiration, rather than art supplies. Although sometimes it can work as well.
Follow your favorite artists, curators, and art brands on IG. Leave meaningful comments to engage and befriend them like you befriend people in real life… This is a long-term strategy. You can’t expect to see them liking or engaging with you, but there is a chance that you can develop a meaningful connection this way. Don’t pressure people to like you. It’s annoying. Rather try to connect to someone you admire or like… I recommend doing this with people whom you love as a fan.
Use dm’s to connect with people as well. There are no rules here. Don’t be obnoxious but think how you can be helpful or inspiring to others.
Beware of spam!Don’t respond to messages stating they can help you grow your account for a certain amount of $$ you spend with them. Also, there are big art accounts out there as well that promote you for $25-100 per post. Most of these accounts are scams. Don’t waste your hard-earned money on these strategies. Some take the money and give you a following that disappears in a couple of days or a couple of months. If you see that the engagement is low on big art accounts (500k- million), it means these are not real. Some large, legit aggregate accounts post the best artists on their feeds. Most of the time, posting on their feed is not free, while the best artists can get a free post, which translates to considerable following to the artist’s account. I think the best strategy with big accounts is to use their branded hashtag, so when they look for art, they can spot your video or image. I think that this strategy is about to die off completely… You can read about a whole list of scams I’ve received, here: https://veronicasart.com/top-scams-to-avoid-on-instagram-other-social-platforms/
Your Instagram account will grow not only because of your daily engagement with other users but also because of what you do outside of Instagram. This is important. You have to be social and proactive showing your art and personality elsewhere and the Instagram following becomes a byproduct of your main publicity efforts that include art shows, publications, guest posting on big sites, and podcasts…
Getting shares with reels is the most important factor right now. It’s not likes, it’s shares.
Reels
Your Instagram account won’t grow by posting pictures only these days. So posting reels is a must! Look at suggested art reels to understand what becomes viral. Oftentimes, it’s not the beauty of a painting, rather it’s about tape peeling or varnishing videos… Most videos are entertaining, not educational these days…
This is the only viral reel I had on Instagram, although there were a few others that were high in views as well.
Reels. Yes, you have to deal with them. All my courses went out of the window because Instagram is having a new tantrum (strategy) in place. Have you noticed a decline in reach when you just post a photo? Instagram wants to become a video app to compete with TikTok. (I’m rolling my eyes here:))
My top tip on reels is to treat it as a very short demo of your drawing/painting process that’s super entertaining. The first 3 seconds of your vertical video are very important. I’ve experimented with reels quite a lot to understand what does and doesn’t work. My actual painting/drawing reels used to do well and now they don’t.
Posting time matters but not to the extent as the quality of your reel. Show mini-tutorials and behind-the-scenes that are snappy and unusual. As Instagram often shows you top reels in your feed, study them for inspiration and ideas. There must be a reason why it’s performing so well.
Frequency. In my experience, posting reels every day doesn’t do much for my account growth. I did test this for many months. It seems that the second reel would get less reach and interaction and sometimes it performs just as badly as a regular photo post. Play with your reels and timing to see if it’s the same for you or different. Let me know how it goes! https://www.instagram.com/veronicawintersart/
The immediate post engagement is very important for your reel to rank well. So reply to your comments instantly. Don’t delay.
keep reels under 30 sec.
Post the BEST content.
Tip: Click on three stripes button located at the top right corner and go to your settings and then click on' upload at the highest quality' to upload your reels with max quality. If you have the creator account, you can also see Insights to understand how your videos perform.
Hashtags are still important. However, not all hashtags are good for your business. Pick the relevant ones to your artistic practice. Avoid using large hashtags that have over 500k posts with them. The reason is that if your account is small, your chance of being seen with a big hashtag is a fraction of a second. If you do your research and pick medium-size hashtags in your niche, you increase your chances to be noticed.
Facebook
What about Facebook, you may ask? I think it can be a powerful platform that has a different, much older demographic. Due to some privacy changes, a lot of targeting is gone. Many people have Facebook accounts they haven’t used for months, if not years. There seems to be no algorithm showing your stuff.. However, you’ve got to understand where your customers are, and what platform they prefer to engage on, so you spend more time there. I think Facebook groups can be useful to build friendships, which is not possible on IG. I hope it’s helpful.
In conclusion:
To wrap up, pick one platform to be active on, almost every day. Be professional by posting your art, inspiration, and story. Don’t obsess with the numbers, rather build real relationships with people who follow you and find inspiration and opportunities by being present and social there. Respond to your fans. Add location to posts and reels. Tag yourself in reels. If you make your audio, name it. I don’t do it because I don’t do well speaking, but it might work for you. Enable ‘Upload at highest quality.’ Enable close captions. Enable “recommend on Facebook.” Post the BEST video and post a call to action in every post!
As I’m honest, I think that competition is increasing tenfold in terms of content production. Ads take up most of the space, and if it’s going to continue like that, we will eventually get another Facebook called Instagram with lots of empty accounts… Ads will be more expensive and will take even more space, but all we can do is stay positive, mindful, and helpful. We can work on trying to make a viral reel or connecting to an art collector who loves our work despite all these factors. I know, it can be hard at times, but I think people go on Instagram and some other social platforms for inspiration and entertainment as a way to relax from daily stress and work. Therefore, try to post positive and fun content to stay afloat in this busy world of social media!
(this is the list I use for our Instagram account, even if I usually use max 5 of them) #ArtQuotes #InspiringArt #QuoteOfTheDay #ArtInspiration #ArtistQuotes #CreativeQuotes #ArtLife #CreativityQuotes #ArtistsOnInstagram #ArtisticWisdom #ArtLovers #QuotesToLiveBy #ArtAndSoul #ArtisticExpression #InspirationDaily #CreativeLife #ArtThoughts #PaintersQuotes #SculptorsWords #PhotographyQuotes #DesignQuotes #ArtCommunity #MotivationalArt #ArtPhilosophy #CreativeProcess #QuotesAboutArt #ArtisticJourney #CreativityAndArt #ExpressionThroughArt #ArtWorldQuotes
We all know that the reach on Instagram has declined tremendously. While I think that the golden days of Instagram are over, there are many things you can tweak on your art account to receive more views and followers. I include many tips that you would normally pay for in a course but I decided to make the majority of information available for free on my blog and YouTube. I’d appreciate it if you rate this podcast on Apple and Spotify. Links are below. Thank you!
NCECA was in full swing and I wasn’t there. So sad! So i did the next best thing… I attended through Instagram! Then I had the thought, What if I invited people that were posting at NCECA to call me for a short interview? So I tried it and it worked. These brave souls responded to my request and I got to talk to them while they were at NCECA.
You can help support the show!
