The Art of the Facebook Post

Today’s guest post by Jason Towne is exciting because he gives you the inside scoop on how an artist grows their Facebook page from nothing to a few hundred likes. Notice how Jason points out his starts and stops. 

A Facebook page has the potential to be a powerful tool in an Artist’s tool belt. There’s also the potential for a Facebook page to fall flat and closely resemble a freshly abandoned ghost town. So, whether you’re just starting your page, or working to improve your existing page, there are always new tips and tricks worth learning.

I’ll refer to Facebook as FB from this point forward.

I consider my Art by Jason Towne FB page to be modest but improving fast, and improvement is really the name of the game, right?

Find A Friend

Find an appropriate coach or mentor to guide you through your FB page. Contact someone you trust who’ll give your page a no BS review. Invite this person to go through your art page for a real (don’t get offended) evaluation. It’s the best thing I’ve done for some time now.

The Meeting

In an effort to improve my FB page I spent about an hour on the phone with my Brother Todd Bennett who is the Technical Marketing Consultant and owner of Skill Bridge. Together, we viewed the entire history of my FB page. This meeting was a huge eye opener. We focused on my best and worst posts as we discussed how to get more people engaged with my page.

Reflecting on my page’s history clearly showed the posts that worked and posts that did not work. My brother refers to the posts that don’t work as “air-balls”. The air-ball posts are those that fall woefully short and frankly, they’re just boring and disengaging. We found that the best posts are more engaging, interesting and more informative. Well sure, but where are the tips to avoid that? They’re coming.

Compiling my notes from this call together with the working notes from my past, I came to the realization of what needed to be done, and this is it. Reduce or eliminate the air-ball posts and share my tips upon any improvement. Well, I’m happy to say that my posts have improved, so here’s my list in no particular order:

Art photos: Close-up art photos are nice, but they show zero context. If you have a painting in the works, show it on an easel. If a photo looks great in a frame, post the photo (framed) hanging on a wall. Don’t just show what the art is, but show the art where it is too. Wider contextual shots give the perspective of being in the room with the art.

State the Obvious: Tell the story behind the art, and state the obvious. We as Artists know all about our work and we sometimes take that for granted. So again, state the obvious. You are the expert on your work; share your expertise with us.

Ask interesting questions: Ask for opinions. Ask an interesting question. Without asking any questions no one has much of a reason to comment on your post.

Added Personality: I was advised to show more of my personality in the content of each post. This is huge. I think about how to be myself without seeming inappropriate or offensive. How does an artist live boldly without stepping on any toes? That’s impossible! Be your self. The artists worth reading about are the artists who are unique and push against the edges of human experience anyway. Don’t leave the reader in the dark, be yourself

Put links in your posts: Link to the most interesting, inspiring, and creative stuff you find on the web. Just drop the link into your status text box along with your thoughts and post it.

Reference other art pages: Find Artist pages you like and admire. Follow their pages so you can see what’s new with their awesome work and learn what works and what does not work for them. Don’t get caught up in comparing your page to other Artist’s pages. Make your page what you and your fans need it to be. Note from Cory: this is probably the most under-utilized technique among artists. Curating great art for your followers is a great way to be seen as an authority and build value to your audience. 

Buy Ads on FB: Here’s something I’ve been using for some time now with amazing success. When you have an art show, whether it’s in a café or a high end Art Gallery. Buy a fb ad. Imagine this. You spend $20 to run an ad for your art show. Set the most important setting of your ad, “the zip code” of the city where your show is while including a radius that encompasses the neighboring cities. This one thing will steer in a mass of local traffic. Thousands of locals could see this ad. You’ll be happy that you did this. Here’s more on how to use Facebook’s ad platform.

In closing. The knowledge to improve a FB page is out there for all of us. I started my FB page education with The Abundant Artist’s FB Marketing Course. I highly recommend this as a starting point. The course is worth every penny and it has helped me triple my page likes.

Don’t look too far for coaching advice either. The Abundant Artist offers artist business coaching services too. With the FB course you’ll be invited into a private FB group that is geared toward continued FB success. This Artist group is highly supportive and I hope to see you as part of the group too.

From Cory: Thanks for the mention Jason – I didn’t even have to pay him to say those nice things. 😉

For more on selling your art successfully on Facebook, check out How I Made $50,000 Selling Art on Facebook and make sure you know the difference between organic and paid posts.