No matter what stage of your artistic journey you are on, the best way to put your work out on a grand scale is to post on social media. With so many platforms focused on imagery, videos, storytelling, etc. there is no shortage of avenues to show off your artistic prowess! Not only does this help build a fanbase of your artwork, but it’s also a simple way to build a massive portfolio which you can refer recruiters to.

Naturally, we’ve been told that the only way to succeed as an artist on social media is to post until your fingers fall off! Create as much content for your account as possible! Upload several times a week! All of this will build up an audience of supporters, which will benefit you in the long run.

But the issue becomes this; if you’re spending so much time creating content...when do you have time to create artwork?

The often-unspoken issue that many artists with an online presence have to contend with is that with more energy spent on making content, that’s less time dedicated to actually creating new artwork. Which potentially means less time building your portfolio or growing as an artist.

You need to find the healthy balance between being an artist over transitioning to an influencer. Here are some tips to do just that!

Set a Schedule and Keep Content Simple!

The most important step to make sure that you aren’t shifting from an artist to a content creator is to set a schedule. The majority of your time should be dedicated to creating new art pieces over anything else. The energy spent on any resulting social media content should only be a fraction of the time working on art projects.

Some artists can get into the habit of taking a couple of days to work on an art piece but then spending 1 week editing a video with voiceover, fancy edits, and additional graphics. While having prettier content can feel necessary in order to build a fanbase, and having the occasional special upload is fine, this could be harmful if it becomes a regular occurrence.

Even I suffered with this for a time. I was trying to improve in my digital painting skills, and I thought making videos to document my growth would be great for content! I would spend one hour on a painting...but then several days simply creating the video. I recorded separate audio, added imagery and text edits, added a ‘talking head’ figure to keep interest, and included music!

And in the end, none of these videos even wound up getting much attention, and I felt annoyed at how I spent so much time on them that I could have been using to make more paintings.

Seamlessly Integrate Content into Your Artwork

As an artist, your art needs to be the main priority. You should build your content around your artwork, rather than falling into the trap of churning out artwork simply to make content.

Thankfully, this is actually pretty simple to do! For example, let’s say you’re someone who wants to post videos of your illustration process. Most digital illustration software includes timelapse features that allow you to record video footage as you draw. As such, you can work on art projects and automatically create quick drawing videos to upload to your social media without putting in any extra effort. You get material for your account without taking much time from your drawing.

Of course, if you have time, you can always spruce up your videos with fancy edits. Though our recommendation is to keep it manageable for your workload. Not every video needs a ‘story’. You don’t need to present a full artist study for everything you upload. Again, remember your schedule and make sure your content is never taking time from your artwork.

Stick to 1-2 platforms (that work best with your niche)

When first choosing to join any social media platform, often the first recommendation is to just join every platform. Why not? Most of them are free to join, after all. And that creates several potential revenue streams for if you become monetized!

But having to manage multiple platforms can risk becoming overwhelming. It might not seem like a big deal, since it isn’t too difficult to repurpose some content across multiple sites. But with different platforms prioritizing different content and having varying algorithms, you run the risk of over focusing on a few, while neglecting some others. Here is a safe choice; open a few social media accounts and post as you see fit. Wherever you have the largest audience/engagement, post regularly on those. You can still keep your other accounts but keep your focus on the ones actually benefitting you.

Additionally, not all platforms benefit all artists, and some sites just naturally lend themselves to specific artforms. That said, there are some cases where many platforms can seem equally useful at first glance.

For example, illustrators tend to gravitate toward Instagram/Facebook since they are very image focused. A YouTube or Tiktok profile might not seem valuable unless you are uploading process videos. But even then, the aforementioned Instagram and Facebook have video features as well! So, in that case, it can seem sensible to just go with the YouTube channel since you can post completed works and your process videos!

But we should think about the main feature of the platform. YouTube is a “video first” platform. Most people are on YouTube to watch videos, and usually longer videos, not to see imagery or a super quick time-lapse. Those would be more appropriate for Instagram, maybe Tiktok as a bonus. You need to be where your audience is, not where they might be.

Keep all of this in mind when choosing a platform for your social media postings.

Bonus: Earn Some Money Without Monetization!

As a bonus tip for the entrepreneur minded folks, a great way to earn from your content without have to chase monetization is to offer some bonus material through a paid platform.

Perhaps, you’re an animator and you have recorded the full process of creating an animated short film. You can create a short video recapping some smaller parts of the process: creating roughs, animation cleanup, background design, and video edits. Upload the smaller video to a public platform like Youtube. But allow your followers the chance to watch the full and complete process with a charge on a paid platform like Kofi or Patreon!

This way you don’t need to wait for monetization in order to earn money from your artwork. You can focus on your work, provide content to your audience, earn money for your work. and you create an opportunity to start building an active community! It’s a total win for you!

Your Content Should Grow With You!

When content creation flows naturally from the art you're already making, it’s no longer a chore you feel annoyed with doing. Rather you’re able to build a system where sharing your work supports your artistry instead!