Online Sales and Social Media
Nowadays, it is imperative for a business to use social media and selling online goes without saying. If a business doesn’t have a facebook page, an instagram, and a website, it is very hard to notice it especially if it doesn’t have a storefront. I have started one of each for my business. Social media is the way I get the word out about what is going on at my home studio. I take my time making attractive posts with the best photographs I can take of my work and write a short interesting description. I have even created some short videos to advertise parts of my portfolio and highlight my work in progress on my feed. Unfortunately, I have gotten very little to no interaction on my posts on Facebook. On instagram even though my followers have grown, less people are now liking my posts than before. The reason is that the algorithm for the app has changed, now less people see my post on their feed and some see it the day after when the post is already “old.” I’ve also learned that there is a certain time during the day when it is best to post in order to get more views and likes and if you post at random times the post gets less views. There is a lot more to posts than just posting a beautiful picture and it is useful to learn posting strategies for optimal results.
A very popular thing nowadays is social media advertising. Facebook and Instagram give you ten dollars once in a while so that you can launch an ad to get more people to see your content. I have done an ad launch twice and I have not gotten any new page likes or follows on either one. I did get post likes but what I really want are page likes and follows so that people can continue to see my content. It has taken me a long time to get 180 page likes on facebook, it is mostly people I know and most of the time not even 20 percent of them see my posts or engage in them. Albeit, there is low traffic on my pages, I have managed to make a few small sales on my facebook page and that has given me hope that I can learn how to use this tool better.
In addition to FB and IG, I also have bought my own domain and designed my website which includes a shop with easy shopping options. The only problem is that no one is seeing it. I have made 0 sales on my site and I’ve had it for a year. I’ve shared it on my social media, art-o-mat, business cards, etc. and it has yielded no results. I have also worked on my SEO, not helping. I am hoping that encouraging people at festivals to take my card will bring more traffic to my pages and help me widen my audience.
Private Art Lessons
Recently, I have started to give private art lessons. I signed up for Lessons.com and have gotten a few requests for quotes, I usually don’t hear back after that. The site guarantees you’ll be hired at least once after you pay about 25 dollars to be able to respond to 10 requests. It is a good resource, if people were more willing to pay for good art lessons. I am hoping to see more progress on this as time passes, especially because it is something very new to me. I was actually hired by one individual through this site and we have had a couple of lessons. She has become a great connection and it is great to meet people who are interested in art.
I am very open to trying different strategies to run a successful art business, but sometimes it is definitely challenging and discouraging to try and fail so many times. I have invested a lot of time and money as I am sure a lot of people do on their new businesses, and the profits have been very little. I continue to see ads about individuals giving free webinars about marketing and about how to run a successful art business but I haven’t learned any useful information or something that I am not already doing. A lot of people don’t really care for your success, they merely want you to buy their course. I have to admit, I have felt very lost in this business and very alone. What keeps me going is my love for art, I truly want to succeed and keep sharing my artwork with whoever is willing to give me their time. Sometimes, I receive sweet notes from people who have bought my work in an art-o-mat machine or someone sends me a comment on FB or IG about how much they love my work and they want to buy a print and it really means a lot to hear some encouragement. The way I see things today is keep trying until there are no more options, then I will stop.
Caro, I have enjoyed both of your blog posts on this and it is very hard. We even have a brick and mortar store and it’s still a HUGE struggle. Now we have all that overhead and still have all the struggle you are talking about. It’s frustrating and depressing. To sell the little bit we do sell, I have to price things below cost. And yes, even dealing with social media is like trying to catch a fly that has gotten in (very elusive)… it’s constantly changing and you can post something and it appears for a split second and then might become buried behind a long list of things that were posted about 9 hours earlier so few see it. I may be wrong or limited in my thinking on this but I think a large part of this is due to these days people shop online or in the big box stores. And I think that can even apply to art. I am old enough to remember before there even was internet and everyone shopped local. Those were the good ole days. LOL But of course we didn’t have a store then so we are dealing with the current climate of things. Anyway, I understand.