Top tips for posting on Facebook

Facebook and Instagram are an essential tool for your business. Recent research shows 80% of consumers use Facebook for research before making purchase decisions. AND, 78% of consumers say they have discovered products or services – that they eventually purchased – on Facebook.

The average Facebook user currently logs in daily and spends at least 38 minutes on the platform, so if you commit to implementing a sound strategy on Facebook and Instagram and stay abreast of the latest algorithm requirements, you have access to a captive audience of potential customers.

So how do you make a statement as an artist on Facebook (and stay on the right side of those algorithms!).

When asking for hints and tips for an effective Facebook post, PURE wellness advisor Nadine Searle suggested:

Choose how much of your personality you want to share.

Build up the ‘Know, Like and Trust’ – people buy from people remember!

Include a ‘call to action’. For example, letting people know how they might get hold of you etc…

Put a question in your posts to encourage engagement.

Estelle Keeber of Immortal Monkey suggested:

“Share your work and feelings about what you are working on; even the process as it develops. Advertise where your work can be seen and bought. Ask people to share your posts and like and comment on them.”

Our top tips for making each post count and reach as many people as possible are as follows:

Try to be positive, uplifting and motivational in your posts. No one likes to read doom and gloom, especially at the moment. Show your excitement for your practice and your new work, online exhibitions, initiatives or whatever it is you might be working on. This can be as simple as using happy emojis or starting by saying a happy Hello!

Vary the length of your posts. You don’t need to write an essay for every post, but sometimes you might want to. Vary the lengths so your audience doesn’t get bogged down. We recommend short post captions for updates on works, or simple pieces of information, but type away for those finished pieces. Finished pieces inspire us to learn more about the work.

Recycle content where appropriate. Facebook and Instagram are owned by the same people so you can connect your two accounts through your settings, and share directly from Instagram to Facebook. This can stop a lot of stress, and also save you time. However, a note of caution - the platforms attract very different audiences so this won't work for everyone. Be sure the post you crossover is relevant to both and edit if necessary. Check out our Post on Instagram Time Management for Details.

Call to Action. In your posts, be clear what action you want the reader to take - if any action at all. Remember however, social media algorithms want to keep the audience on their platforms for as long as possible, so talk about how people can contact you in the post dialogue but direct people within the platform to interact with you - DM, Messenger etc. If you ask people to click on your website link in a Facebook post, Facebook algorithms will detect this and will show your post to less people! Create short Bitly links if necessary

Encourage real quality engagement. As Nadine says, add a question in your post and encourage people to comment answers below. These don’t need to be deep or philosophical questions, they can be as simple as ‘Are you working in your studio this morning?’ or something similar or fun that everyone can answer, for example "Do you listen to the radio while you work?". Building proper meaningful relationships is key to a contented and fulfilling life and Facebook is no different.

Post images. This might be a no-brainer, but as an artist you want to get your work out there. Make sure to add images to your posts to grab attention and show what you have got going on.

Offer important information clearly. If you have dates and times to give your audience, for example for an exhibition, display these clearly at the top of the post. Often people won’t read the full thing, so get the important information out first - What - Where - When - How do I register? Subscribe to our mailing list to be notified of new blog posts

Use video. As with Instagram, video content is hugely engaging. You can also GO LIVE on Facebook. Utilise these features to get people to stop scrolling and watch/listen. Once you go live, encourage viewers to click the thumbs up and heart emoji and comment. This will alert the algorithms that people are interested in you and your live will be shown to more people. Always alert your friends and family in advance and ask them to support you if they can.

Don’t just show the finished artwork. Your audience wants to see the behind-the-scenes elements of your practice. Update us with studio shots, progress images and preliminary studies. As Nadine says "People buy People..."

And finally, following on from No.9, show us your personality. Be completely, truly, you. Your audience will engage with your platform and with your work much more if they get you - they can see your personal story and personality clearly depicted in your feed/wall.

There you have it! Our top tips for an effective Facebook post.

Do you have any others? Make sure to comment below and share the love with your fellow artists!