UPDATE from Cory: While this post is a few years old, and Facebook’s algorithms have changed, the principles outlined are still relevant. The idea of creating a conversation, engaging with your collectors, and using solid marketing techniques all still apply.If you are concerned about getting buried by FB’s algorithms, the only surefire way around it is to learn to use FB’s ad platform. Ultimately, it’s now a pay to play system and you have to play by their rules if you want to see consistent, scalable success. We have that is updated twice per year to keep up with the latest trends.For the last 8 years, I’ve offered my work online through various venues, with the support of my own website and organic marketing (social media, word of mouth, etc.). But it was in 2010, that I recognized a potentially sustainable source of income in one particular social network.I have made over $50,000 selling my art on Facebook, and I will show you how you can too.Facebook, despite it’s constant scrutiny, is a growing giant and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
According to allfacebook.com:. Facebook currently has 845 million active users. Facebook accounts for 1 out of every 5 pageviews on the internet worldwide. Facebook users share over 100 billion connections collectively. Over 50% of the population in North American uses Facebook. 250 million photos are uploaded to Facebook daily. There are 2.7 billion likes every single day on Facebook.Since they’ve gone public, along with it’s growing integration into every website and social network in the world, it’s becoming a force we cannot ignore.
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The five top-selling jewelry shops on Etsy: 1. AppleLatteA team of five artists in South Korea, AppleLatte offers whimsical fashion jewelry featuring animals, letters, and more, much of it priced under $50. You think you may be interested in selling on Etsy but you don’t know exactly what to sell. There are several best selling items on Etsy you can sell to be successful. When I went to choose my Etsy niche I knew it would be something with art because I loved to paint and create. Eventually I landed on creating and selling digital art.
Everyone’s mom, grandfather, cousin, dog is on Facebook. It’s becoming a rich resource for finding current and new audiences. Everyone is on getting on board.HOW I BEGANA year after I, I began to actively post and correspond with fans. People loved to share pictures of their favorite art or ask me questions about my work. I wasn’t really into it too much, and didn’t see the potential of the site so I rarely logged on or answered questions.
I had no idea how effective or useful it would be. Within a year, I had stopped selling work on sites like eBay or Etsy and took time off to work on other endeavors. When I wanted to sell an artwork or offer prints, I’d just post them on there to see if anyone was interested.To my surprise, they WERE.By 2010 (a year in), My fanbase grew from 300 to 1000 as old followers and new found me on Facebook. I began to share the link to my page on Twitter (where I had 4000-9000 followers) and on my blog, which I’d been writing since 2006. I realized the potential and began to experiment on what worked and didn’t work for me and my personal following. By 2011, I was selling art on Facebook exclusively, making over $50,000 in sales from my original paintings and fine art prints.So, HOW exactly did I make this work in 2-3 years? Here are some practices/methods I’ve used that helped not only build my fanbase, but increase engagement, develop interest and increase sales.
7 KEYS TO CREATING YOUR FANBASE AND SELLING ART ON FACEBOOKThe first thing to understand is, it’s most important to develop a reputation with your collectors/fanbase before you can really start selling your art. It’s important to engage with your collectors and build relationships. This is particularly wonderful for us as artists, because you really don’t have this opportunity in a gallery setting unless you have the time to be out and about all the time!
Start conversations/use engaging tools:– Post a photo of work you are developing (Progress pictures).– Post an artwork from your past, childhood, present. Show where you’ve come from, what you’re working on (series) or an artwork you want to offer.– Ask a question: ask them questions about themselves, ask about your work, ask about current topics. Use topics that relate to your work or your personal audience. Everyone is different.– Start a topic: talk about your process, what you’re working on, what you did today, etc.People respond most to things that are visual or involve THEM. People love to talk about themselves, and they’ll be interested in sharing their own stories, thoughts, interests! Get them going!2. Make it fun:– Create contests: photo contests, commenting contests, liking contests.
You want to create things that inspire them to share or participate in. With the new Timeline, other people are going to see their friends’ likes, shares and comments. Offer an incentive: Winner gets print of the month (or choice), someone gets discount in your shop, one of 10 commenters will get a free print, etc.– Encourage fans to share pictures of their collections, favorite artwork or their dog. Whatever it is, that could be related to your artwork, your brand or your web presence.3. Don’t ignore the stats:– Research your audience: Use Facebook Insights to understand the type of people that are “liking” and engaging on your page, and from there you can learn and develop your audience.– Study how to use insights so that you can better read the data that is offered to you.
Find other tools that might help you engage with your audience. BE CONSISTENT4. Create a schedule/system:– Decide what time of day, how many times a day, how many times per week you will post. And what ‘type’ of content you will post.– Create a day/time for what content is shared: New art on Fridays?
Studio Sales on Sundays? Illustration of the day Tuesdays?
Fanchat Thursdays?5. Sell your art with a plan:– Create sales goals and develop a system that will help you reach those goals.– Determine what you are willing to sell your artwork for. Will you offer prints? Will you offer just small artwork or everything you create?
I never allow an original artwork to sell for less than $200, but this is all dependent on your fanbase, how many follow you on Facebook, what you offer, how long you’ve been an artist and who your audience is.– Do you want to offer your art directly on Facebook or promote your other sites where the art is available? CREATE URGENCY6. It’s important to create an urgency and rarity for your work on a social network because everything is posted in real time, exposure on Facebook is short term and not every follower will see your posts.– With original art, I’d give them a chance to make their price: I say: Make an offer & it’s yours!
Which creates an open opportunity for them to name what they’d pay. Allow yourself as much time as you want to see how many offers you get. The longer, the better, but if you feel it necessary to keep short, do so. I only offer originals for up to 24 hours for bids. After that, if there is nothing, I delete and move on. I might offer the original later a different day and time because some days are either bad timing or most people aren’t really on their Facebook.– Use sayings like “The first (number) of people to comment-” or “The first one to say “SOLD!” can purchase-” to create the urgency to reply.
I’ve found that if I simply post payment information for artworks or link to an artwork, there is less of a chance at making a sale.– Create rarity with limited times or limited offers: Certain prints or specials will be available from this day to that day, or for 24 hours, or until the Friday of that week. Something of that nature, where the special will not be available anywhere else and is not done on a REGULAR basis. It’s completely genuine and legitimate as a form of selling art. Disney does this with their classics and it has worked well for them.Creating urgency not only helps keep your fans’ attention but help increase engagement which in turn will help increase the exposure of that particular post across other timelines. More likes, comments or shares equals more exposure for that post.
INVEST IN PROMOTION7. Advertise your page– I’ve found that with even the smallest investment in advertising, you can increase your fan base as well as potential sales through the use of. Really study your Facebook Insights and determine the best plan for advertising. Sometimes I only advertise with my spending limit at $30-50. Facebook offers a wonderful system that makes it simple even for the novice. Play around with the advertising system a few times and you will get the hang of it.
From there, decide how much you’re willing to spend each month, every few months or year. Perhaps you only advertise for a week or few weeks around a special event or artwork you are working on.8. Promoting posts really works!– You are able to (perhaps you are offering a limited print or original artwork for sale) for anywhere from $5.00 to $30.00 to reach a certain amount of your audience. That particular promotion will last anywhere up to 3 days. Promoting pages increases the chances of that post to be seen by your fans for a longer period of time.
This is great because, in reality, not everyone will see that post. People log on at different times, for different lengths. Not everyone goes directly to the page to read what’s happening. I have fans who follow me regularly but might miss one post or they happened to be on vacation that week or don’t see that artwork I offered three times that month.– And if, at any time you wish to cancel or pause a promotion, you CAN. Sometimes I’ll reach a certain amount of sales that I wanted and pause the promotion. You might only spend 30 cents or $1.40 when you promote a post.So, how do I do it?– I post regularly – almost every day.– I offer art weekly, through Studio Sales, special limited edition offers and print sales.– I promote my Etsy shop, eBay auctions and other sites through Facebook.– I revisit old events, old artworks and past experiences for content.– I syndicate my blog and social networks to the page to increase content, social engagement and product awareness. Extra ResourcesFor tips on creating a sense of urgency, check out this post on.For help with how to price your art, check out this post on and this post on.
Check out the CourseUPDATE from Cory: This post was so popular that we put together a course on How to Sell Art on Facebook. To check it out!Filed under. These are good tips, no doubt. But I note that when you started, you already had 300 fans. It is possible that your success on Facebook is simply “success,” and the “on Facebook” part of it is not so important.What I mean is, you may be underestimating the role your own talent has played in your success.
Facebook was a powerful vehicle to you, but I would venture to guess that any artist capable of earning $50,000 by selling her art is capable of doing it in venues other than Facebook.Long story short, I feel your talent is the crucial factor here. Congratulations on your success, and best wishes for the future. @RPLong oh yes, RP – I would agree that my following had taken a huge factor on my part. Not saying that it’s impossible for others though.
It’s a good place to ALSO cultivate one if you are just starting. But yes, I have been able to note that the following has helped. I had moved onto overstock.com auctions from ebay auctions once and though the art market there was completely flat and nonexistent I was selling on there. I’ll be elaborating more on building audience soon in future guest posts ?. Excellent point RP. For an artist, having a recognized name is almost everything.One of the most important aspects of Natasha’s article is the importance of a marketing plan and structure.Many visual artists, like myself have a tendency toward introversion which can make live social engagement in the flesh very challenging; one advantage to social media engagement is that it allows shy or socially awkward people to have some comfort space between themselves and other people while remaining in active relationship with “strangers”.
I have met wonderful people on Facebook who share my love of animals and animal art. Now that FB has the “Timeline” feature do you recommend optioning in for it or not using it? I did start it, not sure if I should have or not. And I do have a big exciting pet art for rescue funding project to tell people about soon. I am looking forward to seeing your continued info sharing! As a side note, before ebay changed so much for artists, I did quite well in original art sales there, but it involved so much less ‘personal attention’ than a social networking site. So I know the potential is excellent for what you are illustrating with your advice and sure do need help learning how to socialize online without it taking up all my painting time!
I have started with Pinterest also.Lee Mitchelson. @Lee Mitchelson Fine Art Thanks Lee! Yes, eBay was a little more automatic, but it still was helpful to be involved in message boards, forums and groups to really help boost the listings.
Pinterest is a great place especially for artists. We need to take charge of our content on there. People love sharing. Also – Timeline feature that I was referring to has now been integrated into the new facebook design that has launched for everyone. I’m sure it’s that way now, or maybe you have to go update your profile I think? Not sure if people are still using their old ones. It’s just a matter of updating to new look.
? Hope that makes sense! Thanks Natasha for a wonderful layout on marketing online. I have been a bit wary of doing it: so many places to be at the same time, so many issues with copyrights. Last night I uploaded some of my work on Etsy and it took hours how do you manage all accounts and dedicate time for each and to create your body of work? (I have a full time job). How have you managed the fear of puting yourself out there, how do you lose tthe sense of overprotecting your work?
I have done some of the steps that you mention only to get lots of compliments from friends,coworkers and others, but it is not going beyond a “like”(and kind, awesome comments from my closest friends: my fans from being with me all the time!). I have marked my calendar for 9/18! Love your work and what you have done. I can’t wait to learn and get hands on using your techniques and taking my own work to the cyber level:). (and thanks Cory for this great site!).
Hey guys,I just wanted to say that this post is awesome! It’s so true that Facebook can be amazing for selling art due to that community connection that you get. I think that in the past artists have been seen as quite anonymous and mysterious, but social media has opened that up and really allowed artists to show their personalities, which is great because art relies on both a visual and emotional connection. It’s also a nice way to get around the problem of going through a gallery to get your work out there.
I’m just starting to get back into painting and drawing myself, so haven’t made the leap to selling it yet, but when and if the time comes I will definitely be using social media to connect with people. I also work for a company – – which lets you take credit card payments on Facebook (and other platforms) really easily. I promise I’m not trying to get spammy here, but I think that anyone considering selling on social media should give it or something similar a try, it really takes the headache out of organizing payments with the buyer.Anyway, back to art, I have found a bunch of artists that I would never have known about if it weren’t for Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, particularly younger artists, and illustrators.
And many of them don’t even have a website, they operate complete off their social networks. So if you’re not on there, you should be! Even if you don’t want to use it as a sales tool, you never know who’s out there waiting to like and share and #OMG your work. I have read this post TWICE and recently signed up for the How to Sell Art on Facebook course mentioned above. To be honest I haven’t set up my biz page but it is going to happen soon.One question I have is what the market is like for selling art on FB. I have pieces that I am selling right now in the $500-$1000 range and hopefully my prices will be going up since I am at the beginning of my art adventures. Is FB a good venue to sell art in this range and higher???Thanks for all the great articles on this blog!Marque ToddSan Diego, CATabascoCatArt.com.
I think the question about art being “stolen” online is an on-going one that artists struggle with all the time. Maybe Cory could put together a post on the topic??I think it depends on the artist and their artwork.
For me, I put my images out there as much as I can – Facebook, my own blog, Pinterest and other blogs if I am invited. I figure the more exposure the better.
I have tried to think through the “stealing” issue for my art. If someone takes a pic of my art and makes it a screensaver or even puts it in the banner of their FB page – is that bad?
Not to me, I am flattered. What if they don’t acknowledge that it is my work? Still no biggie – if I came across it I would thank them for sharing my work! What if I found that someone was selling notecards of my work on Etsy? Would I tell them to cease and desist?
Nope – I would contact them, thank them for their interest and try to get a licensing deal. Is it wrong that they did it – yes. Is there more than one way to handle it – yes. What if I don’t discover it?
Then I don’t, but that doesn’t deter me from getting my art out there. After all, that’s what I want as an artist – for others to see and enjoy my work.Other artists may feel very differently about this and that’s OK too. The big thing to remember – if you put your art online it will assuredly get spread around no matter how hard you try to stop it and it will likely get used inappropriately a some point. If you know this going in you can deal with it when it happens. Sorry I’m just seeing all these comments recently!!! In terms of digital images and dealing with copyright issues, I use photoshop to add watermarks or my signature into the image whether it’s a high resolution print file or a low resolution web image of my work.
I have now started to make sure everything is watermarked. BUT I MUST IMPRESS – worry more about your own efforts as an artist and not on copyright infringement. It’s really NOT as huge a deal as artists might believe, and it wastes precious time you need to be working on your craft and business. ? Just watermark, always add info, make sure your info is in the image metadata.
Be sure to educate yourself on Photoshop as this is a MUST HAVE for art business if you manage your own content and images yourself!!!!! It’s a challenge when you’re starting out but just remember – tell a story. Your father’s story. Find ways to wrap it around visual posts like photos or videos of his work to help increase engagement and grow the page.
Honestly, if you want to approach it seriously as a place for him to build a brand or business and make some money from his work, you will need to consider paying for advertising on Facebook – which I personally have found great success in now, especially with the algorithm changes. Check out Cory’s facebook course for more help on this! Mmmm, mmmm, now that was some good eatin! As in I feel like I just ate a fine meal with all the richness of advice “cooked” by Natasha!
Ahh, Facebook, you are a wily beast I will tame one day!!I’ll be returning to this article for advice when I’m ready to invest the time; right now I allow myself less than two hours a day for reading FB & artist business blogs & artist research and schedule the rest of the time to building more original paintings and jewelry designs. I should say the time I work in the margins around my dayjob. Thank you and please keep “cookin” these great articles up to serve us!
I’m always “hungry” ?. This is exactly what I just posted here about.
I only saw this post once I was done.But yes, I have almost 5,000 fans, before those changes, and my sales were cut by 75% instantly. With each new change, my sales drop even more. I was selling everything I posted before this. And that same day.I finally tried the ‘boost post’ option, out of desperation, and found that while I got a normal (for before the algorithm changes) 1,800 views on the post, no one commented and there were only like 60 ‘likes’. I think these numbers were rigged. I honestly do. They took my money and did not release views to the fans to my art page.
I mean, obviously. It’s a lot of more complex than before, and advertising is a skillset we need to learn if we want to approach our career as a business. Honestly, it’s absolutely necessary. Since I taught myself how to advertise more effectively and target my market more specifically, my conversion rates on promoted posts have changed for the better significantly.
It’s a matter of learning how it all works and then doing some small testing. Never spend more than a $1-20 in the beginning when learning.
Cory has a great course on this you should check out. It should help you understand this better.Frank Campanella says. Exactly, I agree. Nowadays, $50,000. Isn’t much, but it’s definitely nothing to sniff at. That’s significant, and a lot of creatives couldn’t tell you how to make $100.
This was not the focal place of sales for me, as I also had multiple revenue streams: commission work, book projects, illustration work for books, auction sales, licensing royalties, and Etsy sales in prints and originals. Without distribution, we’d never be able to support ourselves —-unless we’re a flipping rock star! Glad it was interesting! I started selling my art on facebook back in 2008. I did really well and would sell everything I posted, that day. Up until FB made those algorithim changes a couple years ago. I have almost 5 thousand ‘likes’ to my page, and got them all on my own.
No paid likes. But after the changes, my sales plummeted by 75%, instantly. No one saw my posts. I have struggled tremendously since.
And now with another change 1.5 weeks ago, the people who see each post has been at least cut in half again. Probably more than half. So, out of desperation, and 26$ to my name, I paid for them to boost a post with my available art. I fully expected people that hadn’t seen my posts in months, would be commenting and engaging. No one commented, because, even though the ‘likes’ to the post were going up, I do believe most of them were not people from my page who actually liked my page of their own accord, to see my posts and keep up to date on my art. I got almost 2,000 likes to that boosted post, and no comments (except by a friend who knew what was going on, trying to help). If I’m paying them to boost my post, why aren’t the people who have liked my page, seeing it still?
It seems pointless to pay them to put fake likes on my boosted post. It literally feels like blacklisting. And I’ve run out of angles to try. It just seems so absurd that with almost 5,000 fans, each posts gets a couple dozen views. Even people who have checked ‘get notifications’ are being blocked. Hi CoryWhen was this article published?
I think it is of great value to add a ‘published’ date to content like this. The digital marketing realm changes so quickly that a date would help understand how relevant elements of this content still are.Whilst I agree with the overriding ‘create a conversation’ theme this post promotes, I think the most important thing to bear in mind is that you can’t base your whole business model around selling work through one portal – in this case Facebook. The risk is too great. When Facebook changed their algorithms and your posts disappear from view – unless you pay for them to appear near the top – then what do you do?
This is exactly what has happened to me and a great many other people who have read and commented on this post. Trying to consistently sell through Facebook is now too hard without spending a great deal of money on advertising.Is this post still relevant? Perhaps it needs updating to include information on how to work with the new Facebook algorithms?
For example, can you get yourself un-blacklisted if people flag your posts as ‘too sales orientated’?Thanks for the rest of the content on this site. It’s normally very compelling and valuable.James. Hi James, I just updated the post with the following:While this post is a few years old, and Facebook’s algorithms have changed, the principles outlined are still relevant. The idea of creating a conversation, engaging with your collectors, and using solid marketing techniques all still apply.If you are concerned about getting buried by FB’s algorithms, the only surefire way around it is to learn to use FB’s ad platform. Ultimately, it’s now a pay to play system and you have to play by their rules if you want to see consistent, scalable success. We have that is updated twice per year to keep up with the latest trends.”.