After interviewing them I made a list of their most common struggles. This series on Instagram Growth addresses every struggle mentioned on that list.

 

Your purpose is determined by leveraging your skills and aligning your needs, values, and aspirations with the impact you want to have on the world. –source

People don’t buy what you are selling, they buy why you are selling it. -Simon Sinek

People buy into the brand experience. They buy in to how you make them feel, how you emotionally connect with them, your ability to relate to them, and the memories you create from the experience they have with your brand. Brand yourself and humanize your brand. –source

 

1) Define yourself

I like to focus on a fundamentals-based approach to learning.

When people first start their Instagram they like to jump straight into the tactics like how do I get a lot of followers or how do I get really good at art giveaways…

Tactics are sexy and fun but there has to be something behind that in order for those tactics to work.

Ask yourself:

• What am I doing that is different than everyone out there?
• Why should people follow me and care about my art when there are millions of artists and Instagram accounts out there?

You must answer these questions in a unique way if you want to get people to care about your work… if you want your art career to be successful.

Action Step: Get Clear on Who You Are

Ask Questions like:

• What are my values?
• What do I really care about?
• What’s important to me aside from my art?
• What’s my look?
• Is there a certain group of people I like to identify myself with stylistically?

Start thinking about where you want your career to go by asking:

• What is my vision for my art career?
• How do I want to grow as an artist?
• What benefit will I get from growing an audience?
• How will it benefit them?

 

2) Be You but Simplified (Your Artist Personality/Brand)

• “Rural survivalist painting the Midwest. Lone ranger with a paintbrush.”
• “Trippy ambient techno sampling the ‘60s. A fairy colony on acid.”
• “Four-piece Americana band with a splash of Elton John.”
• “Gruesome, sweaty, visceral photography. Macbeth with a camera.”

 

Rookie Mistake:

Sharing content that isn’t curated… that doesn’t stay on target with your brand mission and identity. Sharing stuff that doesn’t support your elevator pitch.

 

3) Define your ideal fan/customer/client

 

4) Find Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

What is a Unique Selling Proposition (USP for short)?

Its what makes you and your instagram page stand out. 

Its what makes you different and earns a special place in the minds of your Instagram Followers.

 

You need to get clear on your USP

 

Think of you USP as your overall reason for your brand even existing. Think of it from your customers point of view.

There are millions of artists out there on instagram, so like I mentioned before,  you need to clearly answer the question:

 

Why should they follow your instagram and your art when there are millions of other artists out there?

 

As an artist, especially if you are smaller and just starting out, its hard to compete on content quality alone.

Instead of screaming: “hey, look at me, I have great stuff too,”

you want to confidently say: “hey, I’m all about X, we do things differently. If you’re into X, we’re the only place you can get it.”

 

Figure out what specific thing you could focus on to be the best in the world at.

 

Instead of trying to be the best calligrapher in the world, get more specific.

Go for being something like the best calligrapher that only does lyrics from popular rap songs, and raises money to support artist development programs for young rappers in low-income neighborhoods.

As I mentioned earlier in the quote by Simon Sinek: people don’t buy what you are selling, they buy why you are selling it.

The same is true for your art. Figure out how you will stand out and get people to buy into your work and your cause.

Keys for developing a good USP:

1. Use your “unfair advantage” to shape your USP
2. Look at all of the things you already do well and amplify them
3. Figure out how you will tell your story and get people emotionally bought in to what you are doing and sharing
4. Remember that humans crave connection

 

5) Keep it real, very real

In this world of technology, social media, shallow and surface level relationships… people are craving authenticity and deeper levels of human connections.

 

When you are sharing and delivering your work, stick to being yourself.

 

If you aren’t being yourself then you are going to get burnt out.

So you may think: what if people don’t like me? What if I don’t come across as funny, likable, or entertaining? What will people think of me?

This quote by Eleanor Roosevelt sums it up pretty well: “You wouldn’t worry so much about what people think of you if your realized how seldom they do.”

If you are trying to earn the Attention of your prospects, you must divert their attention from what they are already doing.

In the beginning of your marketing process, your prospects are paying attention to something else, and it isn’t you.

Your work will get people to notice you, having good content and providing value will get them to stay, and having a relatable personality and an emotional component to your work will keep people coming back.

 

You want to get people Emotionally Invested in you, your work, and your mission.

 

I’m going to say it again just to make sure you get it: People don’t buy what you are selling, they buy why you are selling it.

 

Gary Vaynerchuk is a great example of someone who keeps it real. He teaches social media marketing and entrepreneur concepts, and delivers all of his content with his power-house personality and people love it.

Not only do people learn and get value from what he has to say, but his audience keeps returning to him because they love his intense, no-BS personality.

He makes it very clear that he is trying to shape the future generation of business and entrepreneurs, and that he wants to help his audience create tremendous success.

 

6) Addressing Common Issues/Fears/Doubts

When I was prepping for creating this course I surveyed over 500 artists and designers that use instagram for sharing and promoting their work.

After personally messaging over 500 people, I’ve created a list of common struggles and doubts artists have when sharing and promoting their work on Instagram (or in general).

This section addresses some of the most common struggles.

 

Objection#1: Growing an audience and trying to get more followers feels vain.

You really have to get clear on why you are doing what you’re doing.

When I first started growing my instagram, people would ask me “What is the point of trying to get that many followers” and for a while I would be like “Uh, well, it would help get my name out there, and it would look good to employers…”

Basically, I had no idea why I’m trying to build an audience.

If you ask me now I would say “I want to positively impact the lives of as many people as I can, whether thats by inspiring them, encouraging them with my story, or giving them the tools that they need to build a successful life of creativity and passion.”

I know my Why and I have a Mission to help artists live a rich and satisfying life.

Growing an audience is critical for me to add as much value as I can to as many lives as possible.

So to overcome the vanity, get clear on your why.

If you truly want to share your art with the world and inspire others with what you create, then you will be able to genuinely and confidently promote yourself without feeling like a sleeze-bag.

Just make sure you truly are focus on Adding Value to your audience.

 

Objection #2: I get scared to hit Share and I second guess myself, feeling like my work isn’t good enough and there isn’t a point because there are so many people that are better than me.”

A few things I want to address here.

1) You have your own unique perspective and value to offer the world. 

What you have to say and share is important because you are offering your unique point of view and your unique life experience. Everything has been said before, but you can say it in your own way and in a way that resonates with people who have had similar experiences.

2) You will always be better and worse that someone and you never know who is going to see it.

You may get the attention of someone who is just a few steps behind you, and sharing your work will definitely be of value to that person. It may help them find a clearer path towards getting to the next level, or they may have questions for you so they can understand exactly how you solved a problem that they are struggling with right now.

Bottom line: your experience is valuable and definitely worth sharing.

3) Think of yourself as a documenter when it comes to creating and sharing content on Instagram.

I love getting to look back and see the kind of work that I was creating 4 years ago, and seeing how much I’ve grown since then.

Now when other artists see my Instagram and want to know more about my journey, they have the ability to go back and see where I started and how I developed and got better over time.

Pro Tip: Think of Instagram as a media outlet that personally documents your work and your progression. This will help you get over the fear of hitting that Share button.

 

Objection #3: I’m a professional creative. I want to spend most of my time creating the work, not doing social media marketing.

True! You care about your craft and you love what you do!

So ask yourself, am I spending as much time as I would like to be working on my craft and being creative?

If the answer is yes then great, but are you also living a healthy lifestyle and making ends meet?

What I’m getting at is this:

 

Define your best and most ideal creative life, then figure out what it is going to take to make that ideal lifestyle a reality.

 

I personally want to live a creative life where I love the work I create, love the people in my life, and have the freedom to live life on my own terms.

Of course, making great art is really important to me, and I realized that if I wanted to make a living doing what I love then I had to spend time focusing on the things that make it possible for me to live the kind of life that I want.

Instagram has been a key piece in helping me market my work and create a living doing what I love.

It took time and focus to learn how to properly use instagram to grow my audience, but after a few weeks I was back to my full-time art schedule and only had to spend a few hours a week doing the Instagram stuff.

Bottom Line: You have control over your life. Instagram can be a BIG HELP, but it requires a bit of work up front so that you can spend more time doing what you love in the future.

 

Objection #4: I don’t feel as successful because I don’t have as many followers as this other person.

The number of followers you have does not determine your success as an artist.

The important thing is selling your work and getting clients that will pay you what you are worth.

Having a lot of followers isn’t necessarily worth much, but having a lot of High-Quality Followers that will open their wallets to support what you do… thats incredibly valuable.

High-Quality Followers are the people that help you to make a living and continue doing what you love.

 

 

(More to come in Part 2 🙂 stay tuned)

 

If you enjoyed this post then please let me know in the comments! And if you want to get some of my best tips and content delivered straight to your inbox, then sign up for my newsletter below. (P.S. You have nice hair)

Subscribe To My Newsletter