And this is how social media should work for artists. ͏ ‌     ­ ͏ ‌     ­ ͏ ‌     ­ ͏ ‌     ­ ͏ ‌     ­ ͏ ‌     ­ ͏ ‌     ­ ͏ ‌     ­ This newsletter is about drawing. It goes out every Friday. Want to draw? Then check out my free workbook!

#146 - This Is Why Pinterest Is Great For Artists (Right Now)

And this is how social media should work for artists.

Pinterest works very simply. You have the users; they want to do something and are looking for inspiration. Pinterest is great at finding suggestions for them, and they “pin” images to “boards” for later review.

Other people can see and browse through such boards if public, and an image that is pinned to boards proliferates.

Why is this of interest to artists? Well, you can add your own images. It is best to make it something that can be an idea for someone to collect.

In my case, the posts where I show 3D forms for drawing practice work the best. Artists collect these onto boards to study and draw from later.

But it’s not just an image; you add a title, a description, and a link. You want to persuade the viewer to hit the link, and you have the image, the title, and the description.

In my case, I post some 3D form references and explain my newsletter and workbook, hoping that people will click the link that leads them to my landing page. It is aimed at artists who want to improve at drawing, like me, and we tend to collect images that inspire us.

That is one of many audiences, though. You could decide you want to design tattoos. Some people are thinking about a new tattoo and might be looking on Pinterest for inspiration, pinning tattoo designs they love onto a board. In the title and description, sell the link to your custom design services or off-the-shelf designs.

You may want people to buy your framed art to hang on walls. Who buys these? Well, people who are decorating their homes. Place your art in an interior to show how good it looks, promote your work in the title and description, and have a link to a landing page where they can learn more about you and your work.

And you can have ever-green posts on Pinterest! Some of my currently best-performing posts are from years ago.

Note that I said “right now” in the title. Platforms tend to change or disappear. It really is best if you had your own little space on the web, a website you can direct interested people to.

For example, Instagram used to be an excellent place for this, but it has evolved into a platform that mostly tries to connect you to your friends and family, and unless that is your target audience, it’s not a great place for artists. Your friends and family are hopefully supportive, but how many tattoos can they have, or how many of your art on their walls? Again, Right Now. They may see the error of their ways. Probably not.

Look around on Pinterest. Cooking Recipes and Fitness are great example categories to study there. I think they tend to do it right: an image worth collecting to a board for future inspiration, title and text selling a recipe or a workout, the image selling it, too, and then the link to the page where they can find more about that recipe or workout.

On your landing page, make sure you have a call to action. Tell people what you want them to do: contact you about a commission or buy a specific piece.

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