Using instagram as an artist and creative - the do's and don'ts.

Instagram is a great visual story board of your life as an artist. The behind the scenes moments, the finished outcomes, the draft sketches, the inspiration. This platforms allows fans and buyers to feel a connection and a closer relationship to the work and to you, the artist.

Here are 2 good examples of artist profiles:

Ai Weiwei uses instagram to capture moments and convey where some of his inspiration comes from.

Daniel Arsham uses his instagram as on online portfolio showcasing his body of work. 

Things you should always do:

• Have a link back to your website/blog/shop. (You can't sell directly through the instagram app, but you can direct people to your main site or shop)
• Or you can add a direct paypal address for payment and sell out editions.  
• If you're an artist, watermark your image - PhotoMarkr is a useful app for this.
• Follow artists you love - then you have your own stream of inspiration to browse through.
• Lead people back to your main website with an offer or other enticement or info about an upcoming exhibition. Try and get them to sign up to your mailing list.
• Link up all of your social platforms, facebook, twitter, flickr, tumblr.

Things you shouldn't do:

• Don't put clear and easily steal-able photos of your work - unfortunately people will use them. Use the blurring tool or don't take a full shot of the work, or take at a strange angle. Make people go to your main site to view the work.

• Post an image that you want to reveal at a new show, or are saving to a show to a potential buyer. Once you've put an image out there, it's very difficult to keep control over it. 

There are plenty of new ideas and ways to engage your audience, fans and potential buyers. I'm sure you can each come up with a clever idea - you're a creative after all!

Here's a great way that a New York Restaurant used instagram to help it's customers decide what they wanted to eat by interacting with the menu!

 *These are all points that I discuss and go through during my arts marketing workshops : Build your Online Creative Profile - have a look out on my website under events if you are interested in when the next one is coming up.