I’m an artist who posted daily on social media and learned sooo much that I’m excited to share.
What I did was I posted daily on Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and TikTok (and of course my website) from January-April this year 2023.
First of note: My work was taken to train AI so until I was able to protect my art using the Glaze software I couldn’t share still images. Glaze was released in March so for the second half of this experiment I was posting short videos and still images if that was appropriate on the platform. This really had the biggest impact on Pinterest because that platform has short form video but still images do very well on that platform so I believe it’s numbers would have been even higher if I could have truly followed what was considered best practice during this whole time frame.
The key metrics I looked at were Impressions and engagement because that will tell me how often the app is putting my art in front of people and if it was getting my work in front of the right people. Follower count is of note too but not as important since it’s really a vanity metric and my follower counts varied so much between platforms at the start.
During this time I considered myself my own social media manager and researched and followed what was considered best and ideal practice on all of these platforms. And it worked. I saw growth on every platform. However, there were platforms that clearly outperformed others.
Now for the fun part: I’m going to do the platforms a favor and look at their Best months performance.
Instagram: 6% Impressions 17,000 Engagement 1,079 (1/3 my follower count)
TikTok: 11% Impressions 9,499 Engagement 1,061(~= to my follower count)
Pinterest: 3% Impressions 132,460 Engagement 4,380 (~ 2x my follower count)
YouTube: 27% Impressions 97,597 Engagement 27,318 (waaaaaay beyond my follower count)
As far as time resources go. Pinterest took the least effort, followed by TikTok, then YouTube, and finally Instagram.
Instagram took me so much time and its best practices changed practically monthly. I was even inspired to quit the experiment because the best practices for Instagram became more than I could handle. They wanted stills, carousels, reels, and at least 3 shorts posted a day and at different times.
Because I use social media to market my art business I need to make decisions that are a good investment and Instagram just didn’t help me get the word out about my art and it took too much time. So I’m going to stop using Instagram for marketing. I might still use it for networking IDK but for now I’ve deleted it from my phone and tablet leaving it only on my computer and I have no plans to start posting on that platform in the near future.
TikTok performed ok and Pinterest did good on the impressions but the engagements were low in comparison giving it a low ratio. However, Pinterests engagement numbers were still better than TT or IG. It’s like Pinterest just pushes it out in front of lots of eyeballs to see if it will stick. I can’t hate them for that.
Pinterest and YouTube have 2 very clear advantages over TT or IG and that is: They are Evergreen meaning everything I put on there can still be seen and found years after its posted. They are searchable through search engines like Google.
These two factors play a major role because any effort spent will definitely pay off.
This totally changed my social media strategy for my business moving forward I’m not posting on TT or IG anymore I’m going to put more effort into Pinterest and YouTube I’m going to put more effort into my newsletter and building my email list.
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Hi I’m Faith Humphrey Hill, a portrait artist combining knitting and drawing with digital tools. I was a gallery director for 20 years before becoming a full time artist. Follow my journey into knit prints, knit animations and beyond on my website.
https://www.dartily.com/ HTTPS://www.youtube.com/@dartilyartstudio https://www.tumblr.com/dartilyartstudio
My work provides an optimistic view of technology’s role in shaping our identity and relationships with each other. The subjects are strangers to me, just as they are to the viewer of the finished work. Being a visual artist, I use my eyes to learn about the person, and in the process find commonalities between us. Knitting (a form of binary code) is included because of its continuous flow of fibers that mirrors our interconnectedness as people. These pieces are created using new and old machines. Incorporating technology in the process reflects my life with metal implants; as I am a balance between organic and inorganic so should my art. #drawing #art #knitting #digitalart #creativereels #digitalartforbeginners #artandcraft #artist #knittingforbeginners #knittingmachine #knittingdesigns #artstudio #artstudiotour #portraitart #womandrawing #mandrawing #lifedrawing