wdym you want to sell paintings for a living?

Do you love artwork or absolutely anything that creators create and post on social media?Are you confused as to how you can support what they do? Look no more, I have compiled the perfect guide for you!

What do you mean by “support”?

Many feel like it is not their job to like or comment on something they really like just because they do not know the creator personally. Well, that’s not true. Social media is a space where you make contacts, approach your favorite artists, compliment them, engage in collaborations with them and that’s not it, most importantly, you can even draw inspiration and references from them!

As a content creator, quite contradictory to my first article, while it is important to do what you like and be yourself while you are at it, it is also crucial to know your audience!

If you are not yourself, then you are trying to be like someone who is already good at what they are doing which will never make you be your best. Yes, shocking, but true. In order to grow collectively you also need to engage in healthy competition, use proper hashtags so people know how to find you, follow art pages that give shout outs to an audience larger than yours etc. These are all small things but when you see the larger picture, they do add up.

How do you draw the line as to where you want to stop approaching people for collaborations, shout outs, giveaways and other things that get more engagement than normal posts?

There’s no rule. It’s either you do it till you like doing it, or you don’t. It is more important for you to support yourself before you feel supported by others. Be happy with what you create, give your best and hope for the best.

Coming to the premise of the blog- “How do you support artists on Social Media?”

1.Like, save and share their posts.

I do not understand the algorithm nor do I claim to, but the best way to morally support an artist is to like their work. If you think you can use those ideas in the future, save the post and share it with your friends. You have got nothing to lose, but you’re only contributing by making the artist’s creation reach a larger audience.

2. If you have been a follower for a considerable amount of time and you absolutely love their work, drop a message saying so!

A personal compliment will take you only 2 minutes to type but trust me, at least the once I receive never fails to make my day and I am eternally grateful to have people reach out to me like that. I used to be intimidated by talking to artists I love, compliment their work, ask if I can use their work for reference but receiving such compliments just made me more confident to do that. You are observing them on screen, but off screen, they are human, just like you! Be kind, if you have feedback or criticism, let them know in a polite manner! Nothing like some wholesome constructive feedback. I love constructive criticism because it makes me feel worthy of the content I create. Someone is pouring over it with expertise which not only helps me get better but also puts forth a different perspective which is difficult to do, especially when you have been following the same style for a long period of time.

3. Buy from them!

Most artists I follow, including myself, do sell their work, and also accept commissions and custom orders. Some of it is things I can easily recreate which is why I don’t buy, but if I do find something that I want and it is within my budget, I would always prefer it to be handmade and from an artist. Support them financially, trust me, there is nothing better than buying your first brush set with your own money that you made with selling paintings.

4. Don’t hate!!

If you think you can do better than an artist on your feed, good for you! Everyone has a different pace of learning and social media and content creation is tough. Some people might be lacking in realizing what works for them, and for the gram. You don’t have to point it out to them. Learning via self introspection is the best kind of learning and nothing else will work better. You don’t have to take the responsibility for anyone else’s growth and development apart from yours.

Be kind. If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

5. Participate.

Engagement means the worldddd to artists so make sure you participate in giveaways, quizzes, polls and if you have the time and interest, go see what they do on other platforms. Most artists I know and engage with on Instagram aren’t restricted only to Instagram. They have a YouTube channel, sometimes a Pinterest account with completely different content and better still, even a blog!! (Self promo max lol)

Click on those links in our bios, see what we have in store apart from just art, pictures and everything aesthetic.

Before writing this article, I asked my peers to fill up a survey questionnaire and here are the results:

58 people, who are active Instagram users responded to all the questions.

Out of 58 people, 54 follow content creators and 4 don’t. That according to me is a good number. Out of the ones who do follow artists and creators, 55 of them do use the like feature as an attempt to engage with their content. Apparently, according to the new algorithm, liking a post is the least you can do for engaging with it. Apparently, now you need to save the post and share it with others in order for it to get maximum reach. That’s too much effort for you? Well, liking is a double tap, saving is a single one, so that’s actually less effort for the same post you see! Sharing a post is never compulsory. But how often do you share memes with your friends? Just share a post with a friend, or make a spare account and keep sharing posts there if you really want to make a difference to the algorithm. I personally do that, I do not know how much that helps but I am pretty sure that it does.

That brings me to the next question from my survey where 19 people who like the posts do not save/share them and that could be the reason affecting the reach.

Another thing that is extremely discouraging and you absolutely should not do is unfollow inactive artists. Everyone has a different phase of creating and I feel like even though you aren’t obligated to follow anyone and even if you unfollow them for the moment, following them back is always going to be an option, it is rude to unfollow them just because they are not posting enough. Look at it from the creator’s shoes. If you aren’t posting because of some insecurity and while you are gone, you end up losing followers, chances are that you will be bummed by your engagement as well. I am speaking from personal experience when I say that artists don’t really like that.

Another extremely important thing to keep in mind is to not call an artist talented, because although that's a compliment, that actually denies that the artist has worked actively to develop that talent and that all their content is just a result of their inborn qualities, which in almost all cases is not true. Be mindful while complimenting artists and creators, we take each and every compliment to heart, just like feedback and criticisms.

Well, if you’ve stuck around for this long, then here’s a little something for you, if you are a creator too! (Continue reading)

Sharing a little personal experience now- a batchmate from 3 years ago recently reached out to me to just tell me that they could see how much effort I put into my artwork and they love my page. That must have taken a lot of thinking, but not even 2 minutes to type. It made my day, and the thought of receiving such messages is absolutely heartwarming. Think of how many artists’ days you could make by just dropping a personalized compliment. I’m not saying be goody or sugar coat everything, but if you have genuinely been a spectator for long, let them know that you’re there. We do appreciate and recognize the efforts that a person will take to follow us, turn post notifications on, reply to each and every story, comment on every photo and share our posts with others.

Support is also a two way process. You can’t clap with one hand. If you support an artist, the artist will support you. You must’ve heard of the concept shoutout4shoutout. Well, I came across it really recently.

Basically, you approach a creator, ask them to re-share their favorite post from your feed onto their story and you do the same for them. Pretty easy, right? It’s not a commitment, won’t ruin the aesthetic of your feed and won’t even stay there for more than a day. Ask around, and if 4-5 creators pool, collectively, the audience reached will be 5x which means more engagement. Great, right?!

You could engage in two way collaborative projects. eg- if Artist A and Artist B shoot a collaboration video for Artist A’s page, then they could shoot one more for Artist B’s page. That way, both pages get equal reach and attention, which again means more engagement. Sounds lovely, so what are you waiting for??

Go ahead, use these tips and tricks which you’ll not only love to use and incorporate in your posting routine but also help you get more engagement!

That’s all for this one, I hope it’s helpful to creators and Instagram users alike. Do let me know what you think in the comments section below! Thank you.