Websites and social media are well-known assets to any successful business, and knowing how to promote art with social media and increase online traffic is an asset to any artist, too. Making art is a creative skill, yes, but making art known or profitable is a business. This is how some simple business tools from TechDesigno benefit non-profit organizations and local artists.
Increase Online Traffic
The main goal for most artists is to increase online visibility, but how is that possible? In today’s world, you can’t increase online traffic without a professional website and polished social media presence. These two business tools interact and come together in any solid marketing plan. You can have all the likes in the world, but if it does not translate into a “call to action” on your website, we dare ask, who cares?
- Get a professional website with a user-friendly design.
- Connect social media profiles with your website.
- Focus less on “likes” and more on quality call to action conversions.
What is a call to action?
In business marketing, a call to action is what you want your target customer to do. Do you want them to call you, buy your art, download a file, share your content, or attend an event? What do you really need your audience to do? Make up your mind and have a focused plan on the actions you want your target audience to take.
Boost Online Traffic – Not Likes
While we’re on this subject, “getting more likes” is not an ideal marketing goal. It’s not an authentic call to action either, as it only matters if people like your content and click on your website, subscribe, pay, or actually do something for your art business. Promoting the arts is difficult enough, but focusing on “going viral” only works if you’re trying to monetize a series of YouTube videos or TikTok Creator Fund content. Otherwise, going viral with likes is not a substantial call to action. Getting followers is. Getting followers who see your posts and click on your links for more information is valuable to social media artist promotion. You are not going to increase online traffic in a meaningful way if you’re only focused on getting likes for your social media profile.
Examples of the Best Call to Actions for Social Media:
- Buy now deals for art galleries, art pieces, and gift ideas.
- Download now posts that feature art content in digital formats.
- Invitations to physical events with a date and time easy to find in posts.
- Subscribe now prompts for email lists that feed your event promotions.
How to Promote Art
At TechDesigno, there are diverse client needs for business in a variety of industries, including how to promote art. One specific client is the West Orange Arts Council, located on Valley Road in West Orange, New Jersey. They thrive on managing an in-person art gallery that hosts events, workshops, classes, and sells local art in their gift shop each weekend. They had a website. They had social media, but for a long time the two things were not really interacting to yield proper call to action results.
The most important part about having a website and social media is to link them in such a way that social media followers have to go to your site for more information. From July through December of last year, the non-profit art organization was able to increase online traffic and promote the arts with social media. How?
Promote the arts with social media
These are some examples of easy tips to promote the arts with social media:
- Make sure your Instagram (or other social media) settings are public and not restricted at all so that everyone may see your content.
Between 8AM and 1PM, they were able to get 10 new followers to the West Orange Arts Council’s Instagram – just by checking their visibility settings.
- Post regularly and use temporary newsfeed pushers, like stories, to engage more viewers.
Posting regularly is important to social media algorithms to boost online traffic. You will increase online traffic by making sure you share your own posts in stories and across social media platform channels. Post on Instagram? Be sure to share it on Facebook, too. Made a cool TikTok? Post it on Instagram. Wrote a new blog on your site with amazing visual art photos? Great! Now, be sure to screenshot excerpts and post to your social media with links to your website.
- Make realistic growth goals. Use 10-25% increase on your desired results.
By posting, sharing, and making the account more interactive with the website and events, the West Orange Arts Council saw a growth of over 200 net followers and an ongoing engagement and account reach that ranged from 10-25% each week of active marketing campaigns. This is organic marketing – quality over quantity.
Boost online traffic
For social media artist promotion and promoting non-profit organizations that support local artists, like West Orange Arts Council, it’s not going to be enough to simply push for paid membership at in-person events. People sign-up for many things and forget about it the next day. Using social media to promote artists means increasing followers to increase engagement on posts and funnel those followers into real clicks for event invitations, artist promotions, and purchases on your website.
How to get traffic to your website fast
- Create a quick call to action, like free gifts with membership or subscription.
- Screenshot partial information from your website and post to social media with links in the post or profile. Always use photos of some kind.
- Post video clips on social media that are taken from the website’s content. Use screenshots and screen record features on your phone.
- Tag artists and other organizations to trigger social media algorithms into seeing value within your content for all users. Never only promote yourself.
- Keep it basic – make sure your website is listed on your social media!
Social Media Artist Promotion
If you have an art opening show or featuring a special event with an artist, social media artist promotion is a free and easy way to get the word out. Being generous with your platform is the key to being authentic with followers. It is normal to lose followers in every business industry, and that’s why consistent activity with posts will yield the best net results. Never underestimate the power of building relationships online to promote the arts with social media.
Net results are what is left when you subtract unfollowers from total followers in a given period of time. For example, in one month, West Orange Arts Council had 18 new followers, but 9 unfollows, which still yielded an overall 9 follower growth. Don’t let unfollows bother you, but pay attention to any patterns of following and unfollowing, if you are focusing too much on one topic within your content. This is why highlighting individual artists and other entities besides yourself is a healthy way to increase online traffic. If you’re lucky, those people will return the favor and tag you or share your posts.
How to Market an Artist on Social Media
If you are still a bit confused about how to market an artist on social media, start with a professional website and Instagram. Create a simple profile page and share it via text messages to family and friends first. Think of a Call to Action that makes followers click on a link to go to your website for subscription or membership. Offer a freebie. Use Instagram stories to share screenshot information from your website and be consistent for a 2-4 week period. Assess results each week and each month. Rinse and repeat with new call to action strategies. If you’re still stuck, do not hesitate to seek professional business marketing support with TechDesigno, located in West Orange, New Jersey.
If you have a business or organization located in the Essex County, NJ area and wish to get assistance with how to increase online traffic and how to promote art, then, Techdesigno in West Orange, NJ is here to help. The Techdesigno Team is located in West Orange, NJ, and is available to evaluate and discuss your boosting online traffic needs. Contact them by calling 973-736-7973 or via email. Click below to schedule an appointment to discuss how to promote the arts with social media in the Essex County, NJ area.
