I have been using a Facebook page to promote my art for a long time now. I have also marketed my art by means of my profile, Facebook Marketplace, and groups. Other effective means of FB art promotion are Events, chat, messaging, video chat, and Facebook advertising. Some of these are discussed below.
How to Promote Art With Facebook
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Facebook Pages
With over 42 million Facebook pages in existence, they have become the choice for many artists. With the album feature, they are marvellous tools for promoting a portfolio, and an artist website. I have seen some artists just using Facebook pages, without an official website, and still having success (though this is rare). I think the key is to place focus in one area, continually post, and connect with fans. A Facebook page is an awesome tool for doing just that.
Here are some resources for FB pages which you may want to refer to if you are using it for art promotion.
How to Create a Facebook Page – Detailed tutorial which guides you through the steps of creating a fan page of your own.
Increasing Activity and Engagement at Facebook Fan Pages – This article describes some ideas on how artists can increase the social interaction for posts. This will help to increase likes and sharing of posts. The more posts are shared, the more your potential reach increases, and your page may get likes from the activity of fans.
Tricks for Getting Facebook Page Likes – This article lists 11 effective tips for achieving likes for a FB Page.
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Facebook Timeline Profile
Facebook is fast approaching 1 billion members, and a large number of those are artists. While I always recommend promoting art with a Facebook page, Facebook profiles do come in handy for displaying art to friends and family. The photos and albums feature is especially useful for artists. Descriptions and tags can be added to photos. The following articles describe several ways artists can use albums and FB Timeline in promotion of artworks.
Facebook Timeline for Artists – An examination of some of the features of Timeline, and how artists can use it for art promotion.
How to Make a Portfolio From Facebook Albums – Facebook portfolios are extremely useful for sharing a portfolio directly with FB contacts. Frequent users of Facebook are much more likely to view your photos than visiting an exterior portfolio site to see them. This article gives some tips on organizing a portfolio, and what to include in the descriptions.
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Facebook Groups
Many Facebook groups exist for artists. We actually have out own very active group titled ArtProMotivate – Promote Your Art. The groups feature allows artists to promote art to a selection of interested people. I know that most of the members of art groups are artists as well, but they are great for getting feedback and encouragement. Plus, posts can be promoted by other group members by sharing and liking.
FB Groups also have some other handy features for artists, which are described in this post: Facebook Promote Your Art Group
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Facebook Events
Events can be created both at fan pages and profiles. These are very useful for inviting people to art gallery showings and other happenings. If you are a self-represented artist who sells art on the internet, one idea would be to create an event for the introduction of a new artwork series.
To reach events on your profile, first go to your homepage. Search for Events in the left menu. Click Create Event at the top to reveal a popup. Insert a name, details, where it is located, and when. Set the privacy of the event to Public, Friends, or Invite Only. You can also invite your Facebook friends to the event individually here by clicking Invite Friends.
The Events tab for Facebook pages is found near the top, in the same area where new posts are created.
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Facebook Messaging, Chat, and Video Chat
Facebook messaging is like an email program inside of Facebook. Each time you send a message to someone, they will receive it either through the chat interface (if they are online) or through messaging. Messages are also received through the same email you used to sign up with Facebook.
To reach the video chat, find a person online who you want to contact (indicated by a green dot at the right). Click on their name, and a messaging box appears. At the top of that box is a video icon – click this. If you have not set up video calling yet, you will have to do it now. Video calling can also be reached by clicking the Call button at the top of a friend’s profile. Once you have it setup, use it the same way you would use any other chat service.
For artists, these services can be incredibly useful for answering questions to potential clients, and even showing art through means of messaging and video. It is much easier to trust people and sell something if people can personally talk to you, and see you.
Facebook messaging and video chat has so many uses, and certainly deserves an exploration for another article.
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Facebook Marketplace
Facebook Marketplace (also known as Oodle Marketplace) can be utilized to advertise artworks for sale and commissions.
I have used it to advertise my portrait commissions, and I have gotten a few commissions from there.
For a deeper exploration of marketing art with Facebook Marketplace, please refer to this article:
Advertising Art With Facebook Marketplace
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Facebook Ads
This is a topic that will be discussed in a future article. I will give an easy to understand tutorial, plus some ways you can use it to promote an artist website. The new Promote Posts feature will also be discussed. Subscribe now if you haven’t already so you will not miss this!
How have you used Facebook to promote your art? Is there anything you dislike about it?
Do you have a Facebook page? If you do, you are free to post it here so myself and others can follow.
Here is our Facebook Page… Artpromotivate at Facebook
I have found your articles very interesting and helpful to me in establishing my Art in the world wide web. Keep them coming .
ReplyDeleteVery interesting site some very informative information I had not thought of ,will be an avid viewer in the future.My facebook page http://www.facebook.com/lm.art.73
ReplyDeleteHere's the link to my art business's FB Page:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.facebook.com/cathyrodgersdesigns
Thank you!
@Cathy Rodgers
ReplyDeleteThanks Cathy! I just sent a Facebook like your way... :)
Thank you so much. I can't wait to try the quotes! I would love to have visiters to my page.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/ArtistBarbaraHymer
here's a link to my art page on facebook www.facebook.com/GeorginasArt
ReplyDelete