Instragram

Donnie...in what way has it been a great tool? Are you getting sales from it? I will most likely get an account later today.

David,

It's just another easy way to share your stuff and catch peoples attention and also a good way to see what other talented photographers and artist are doing around the world. It gives you the opportunity to be found by people from all over through hash tags and also gives you the opportunity to add a link to your website. I can't say I have had a lot of success in FAA from it, although have gained interest, but I have sold stock images and been commissioned for photo shoots from people who found me from it. Plus now you can post landscape and tall portrait images which is a recent change from having to crop images to fit.

The main thing is it's easy, quick, and free...so why not.

Good luck!

I started using it when they changed the formats allowed. Don't think it has led to any sales but I definitely see a spike in the traffic to my website when I post an image there so that's good.

Instagram - hard to link directly to products.

Also, harder to build follower base as compared to Facebook.

Lastly, younger audience on IG, less disposable income.

http://www.instagram.com/designturnpike 300+ followers

http://www.facebook.com/DesignTurnpike 5,500+ fans

I actually use both.

Here's my new public account

https://instagram.com/frankjphoto/

Here's my work on MobilePrints.com an FAA Company

http://frankjcasella.mobileprints.com

I use it more now. I haven't seen any results from it yet, but everything takes time.

https://instagram.com/daricemachel/

@Frank, is that a new name for instaprints?

Darice ... I guess so, as when you click on Instaprints it forwards to mobileprints.

https://instagram.com/shelbyyoungphotography/

https://www.facebook.com/ShelbyYoungFineArt?ref=hl

Here are mine :)

Thanks, I didn't know they had changed the formatting so that images weren't automatically cropped. I orignally stopped uploading after the first picture. Just uploaded a few more and followed you folks.

https://instagram.com/norrellgallery/

I really like instagram because you can connect with so many people, especially those who probably would have never seen your art otherwise. It's a great social media marketing tool to get your art out there.

I just followed your FAA and instagram accounts so go follow me :)

www.instagram.com/awpaints.
www.facebook.com/awpaints901.
www.twitter.com/awpaints.
www.pinterest.com/awpaints.

Thank you all!

After unfollowing everybody at Instagram and Twitter, and deleting my pictures from Flickr and 500px, Iīm still not sure about my new social media strategy. So, if you follow me, donīt expect me to follow you back! 😎

https://instagram.com/colinutz/

lol - i think the whole strategy of social media has to begin with always following back. As far as instagram goes, I find you can only get an instagram account with a mobile device. While I have one, I do not use it for social media. And do all my marketing on a desktop. How do you post your faa stuff to instagram from a desktop or even from a mobile device? I do not see any instagram buttons available on my faa page and its not part of the default edit mode or social media buttons on admin? thanks in advance for the help.

Robert,

Some of the photos I share can be found on my FAA site and some will never make my FAA site. I don't use Instagram to directly sell an image from my site or rarely do I even mention a image I post can be purchased at my site. I use Instagram as way to be found, share my work, get noticed, and let whatever it may be come from it. I also get inspiration from looking at other peoples stuff. There are some great artist and photographers who use it. When you create an Instagram page, you can attach a link to your FAA site that people can go to if they would like, but for the most part it's a non-aggressive way to promote your work. People like that.

You have to create your account and upload images by phone, but you can search images from your desktop, one your site is created. I usually take a high-res file from my desktop, send it to myself via email, open the image in the email by cell phone, and then upload it to Instagram from there. After that you can add hashtags and people searching for an image relative to those hashtags will find you.

Donnie...thanks for the info...I think I will remain hovered in the background on the instagrams and tumblers and snapchats of the world. i am not personally interested in social media. My kids are into it..i understand a lot of people are into it....but I dont play video games either..it seems some people like to be "on" social media or sit and play video games...I dont have time for it...Maybe my kids are right..I am old fashioned...Ill check those social media again from time to time to see if I can "use" it to promote my stuff..otherwise....no time for it...thanks again.

Greg, are the photos you posted on IG Phone Images or from your pro camera?

@Judy - they are from my camera. I save the 900 px image used on my AW into my photos on my iPad and then load them from there to IG. Obviously it's not as simple as other social media. My niece told me I 'had' to be on IG. :)

Yeah..I am really curious how this whole IG, snap chat, tumbler, selfie, dumb random picture fad ends up going. Sadly, i think it will continue to explode as humans get further dumbed down and are able to be distracted by random nonsense. On reddit, at least the random nonsense picture posts are done by category...I dont get the craze either for 20 sencond youtube cute pet video thing..I think some people could sit on the couch all day and watch this stuff....I do not beleive its something that you can use to promote a product nor do I think any of these companies will still be around in 10 years unless they figure a way to monitize the nonsense...I may have recently heard (or was it one of my many idea filled dreams) that the next thing for social media companies will be the embedding advertsing right inside the random photos people posts..again..these are just my two cents

"There are some great artist and photographers who use it. When you create an Instagram page, you can attach a link to your FAA site that people can go to if they would like, but for the most part it's a non-aggressive way to promote your work. People like that. "

Exactly!! Too many of us look for sales from Social Media when its purpose is marketing more than sales. Social Media brings ( low cost ) awareness to our art, and if you happen to make a sale it's gravy, but otherwise we set ourselves up for frustration when we expect to make the sale before we provide value to the customer.

Thanks Greg. Some people think that IG should be strictly used with phone camera.
Frank. Didn't realize that it is deemed ok to incorporate a link to your site. Most social sites frown on such practices

Judy -- many artist on IG put a link in their bio to their site with the shopping cart.

Hope I answered your question. Enjoy your day.

Frank I have a link also in my bio but I thought you meant it was ok to add a link when you share the photo itself, I know it is frowned on in flickr to do that!,

When I post my photos to IG I always add a link to my AW site. I have had some traffic from my IG to my AW site, so for me every little bit a traffic is good... I also save the photo to my tablet from my AW and then upload it to my IG with hashtags to reach a wider audience. Just my 2 cents worth.

Have a great week everyone!

I love IG. It is a good tool in drawing people to you and your work. Also love following National Geographic they have some awesome photos. Anyway, I will definitely follow you and follow anyone else back that follows me : )

https://instagram.com/photomajwar/

Frank's right. Not everything is about making a direct sale. You want to build your brand.

Here I am!

https://instagram.com/travelinglens/

Thanks, Edward, for that hat tip ... I learned what you said the hard way .... and thus we're all learning this together.

Judy -- Correct, only link in the bio.

Everyone follow Vivienne ... I have been for some time ... she really knows this stuff, so watch and learn ... you can see by her following.

EDIT: Vivienne, I meant to ask you, what's the idea behind adding your email address to your bio. I tried to search this practice online but couldn't find anything. Do you get spam from doing it by the way?

Hi,

I have using Instagram for a while now, it is one of many social media outlets I use to promote and market my artwork. I would say that I have had most success with Facebook in terms of sales, this is due to the fact that most of my followers and fans are locals who know me personally, know of me, or have heard about my work from someone else. Through Facebook, I have received several requests for commissions. I would say that 90% of the commissions I have completed, originated from the customer seeing my artwork on Facebook.

Here are some of my social media networks. I would appreciate it if you would follow me, and I will return the favour.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ConorOBrienArtwork
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/conorobrienart/
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+ConorOBrien/posts
Instagram: https://instagram.com/conorobrienart/
Tumblr: http://conorobrienart.tumblr.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ConorOBrienArt


--------------------------------

Conor O'Brien
www.ConorOBrienArt.com

I agree, the links are hard to do with IG, so I have my link in profile (which is clickable) and then sometimes I also type it on my posts (which is not clickable but makes the point that there is a site).
https://instagram.com/thephotocottage/

I only started working on ig earlier this year and got back to it the last month or two.

I really love it, and it's not that much of a time investment. It's a great way of connecting with many different artists and other interesting people.

here is my account https://instagram.com/usedcanvases/

:The flickr app on iPhone makes it so easy to share images, I am not very active but here is my link.. https://instagram.com/artjudy/

thanks for making this thread! https://instagram.com/artofsarahjane/

http://instagram.com/winfineart/