Do you feel like you have some pretty great content up on your instagram account, but you’re still struggling to attract attention to your work?
After having conversations with hundreds of artists, I’ve realized that this is a pretty common problem.
I want to share with you one of the strategies I used to help get me my first 1k to 2k followers on Instagram.
Also, if you want to get the most out of this guide then I recommend reading through the entire post from start to finish, and then go back to the beginning and start implementing the steps.
So lets jump right into it.
1. Post Your Best Work On Instagram
The first thing you want to do is to post some of your best work on your instagram page, so when people click on your account you’ll be able to make a great first-impression.
Its okay to repost old content in order to get it up to the top of your feed, just make sure you are providing fresh and new content every once in a while for your current followers.
Once you’ve got some of your best work up then you can move to step 2.
2. Find Artists With A Style Similar To Your Work
Step 2 is to find artists on instagram that already have an audience, and that make work similar to the kind of stuff you make. You’ll understand why this is important when you get to step 3.
For me, I draw a lot of inspiration from the artist David Adrian Smith (@DaveSmithArtist). Here is an example of the kind of work he does:
And here is an example of one of my drawings:
Do you see how similar they are?
I know that if someone is a fan of Dave Smith’s illustrations then they are probably going to be a fan of mine as well.
Also, its important to note that Dave Smith has 106k followers on instagram. What this means to me is that there are 106,000 people that like his work and will probably like my work as well.
Once you find an artist with a similar style then its time to move on to step 3.
3. Engage With The People That Leave Comments
So you’ve got some solid work on your Instagram and you’ve found an artist that compliments your style.
Now it is time to bring people to your account.
You’re going to do this by engaging with people that are leaving comments on the posts of the artist that you picked out. If someone is engaging with another artist’s work then they are more likely to engage with you and your work.
Here is a breakdown of what you need to do:
- Go to the Instagram page of the artist that you chose.
- Find where he posted similar artwork to the kind of work that you post on your account.
- Look at who commented on that post, and engage with every single person who left a comment (go to their account, like their posts, leave a comment or 2).
- Repeat Steps 1 through 3 for every single post.
- When you run out of posts, find another artist and repeat the cycle.
Here is what this looks like in action:
This whole process takes roughly 30-90 seconds for each person you engage with.
First I go to @davesmithartist‘s instagram account and click on one of his posts.
Then I check out the comments and see who is engaging with his content.
Notice how most of the comments are very positive and supportive!
I would make sure to engage with everyone who left a comment, but for this example I’m only going to walk you through the first one, @raitg_penmanship.
I check out his page and what do ya know! He is an artist too, and a pretty darn good one at that.
So I scroll through his feed, like a few of his photos, and then I leave a valuable comment that is sure to get his attention.
After seeing this comment you can bet that @raitg_penmanship will be curious enough to check out my page and see what kind of person is leaving a comment on his work.
When he clicks over to my instagram page he is immediately greeted by my best artwork that is very similar to that of @davesmithartist.
By doing this again and again I’m not only building relationships within the art community, I’m getting my account in front of very targeted people who are most likely going to become long-term fans of my art.
In full disclosure, I’m already friends with @raitg_penmanship, but I discovered him when I was using this method a few months ago. As you can see he is still actively commenting on @davesmithartist’s work.
We message each other all of the time now to share tips and give each other feedback.
You can learn so much simply by having conversations with people in your niche.
Act Like You Are A Real Person
When you’re engaging with other people on their accounts, make sure you are being genuine and actually providing value to people. If done correctly, people will be excited to find your account and happy to follow you.
Ask relevant questions, leave feedback, and share your honest opinion. If you just leave comments like “Cool!” or “Nice work!” then people will think you are spam and probably ignore you.
What you are doing here is building relationships with people and giving them the opportunity to find you and discover your work!
Now Go Take Action
Give this method a try, but don’t go too crazy. You don’t want to get burnt out.
Try doing this every night for a week to see what kind of results you get.
Then do me a favor and send me a message on Instagram (@BrandonMikelPaul) letting me know how it goes.
I used to do this for 30-60 minutes each night while laying in bed.
If you do this for 1 hour a night you should be able to engage with 50 to 60+ new accounts each night, which over time adds up to a lot of new followers.
After 10 days you would have engaged with 500 – 600 accounts and gotten a couple hundred new followers.
After 20 days you would have engaged with 1,000-1,200 accounts and could probably get close to 500 followers or more.
After 30 days you would have engaged with 1,500-1,800+ accounts and will probably be close to 1,000 new followers.
Remember, the key for this method to work is to actually provide value to people in your comments and with the kind of work you are posting on your instagram.
If you don’t have quality artwork yet then you probably should be spending your time working on your art skills instead of learning how to market your work.
The best marketing in the world can’t save a crappy product.
If you want to learn more about building an audience on Instagram, then I encourage you to sign up for the Smart Artist Income email list by clicking the green button below.
You’ll get an occasional email with valuable content related to growing your brand as an artist, and how to make the biggest impact with your artwork.
Good luck with growing your Instagram this week and keep making great art!
-Brandon Mikel Paul
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