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Instagram Posting Formula: Your Step-By-Step Plan to Leverage Instagram to Build an Audience and Attract Paying Clients

Want to learn how to optimize your Instagram posts? This process is literally so easy, and will get you MUCH more traffic to your Instagram Posts.

In the beginning of 2016 I set a very specific goal to reach 10k Instagram followers. By the end of 2016 I had 18k followers!

Now it’s early 2018 and I’m about to hit 30k followers on Instagram.

Building an audience for my work has helped me:

  • Get picked up and featured by major Instagram pages like @Goodtype and @WorldofArtists
  • Make close to $20,000 doing freelance work for leads generated on Instagram (15 to 20 leads per week)
  • Start getting so many commission requests that I was free to only accept the projects I felt genuinely excited about
  • Art directors have reached out to me to encourage me and help mentor me in my art career
  • Get my foot in the door with big-name advertising and design companies like Dunn & Co., Hype Group, and The Oxford Exchange
  • Get hired as director of marketing for a multi-million dollar franchise even though I have no formal marketing experience or a marketing degree

On top of all of that I’m way more confident about myself and my work, knowing that thousands of people are inspired by my artwork.

Using this process will definitely help you get more exposure to your account, but I want to emphasize 2 really important points.

  1. Success on social media is the result of connecting with real people and building actual relationships with them.
  2. Having a lot of followers doesn’t make you successful or make you money. You must know how to leverage an audience if you want to convert them into paying customers.

So this guide will help you start getting more exposure on Instagram, but it’s going to take hard work and commitment if you want to level up your income.

Now let’s dig into the process.

The High-Impact Instagram Posting Formula

After 2 years of experimenting and refining, this formula has yielded the best results for posting artwork on Instagram.

I don’t use a posting schedule and I hardly ever plan out my posts ahead of time.

I usually try to only post my best work, so I actually don’t post that often, but I continue to attract hundreds of new followers each week.

I try to update my story as often as I can, and I try to reply back to every single DM and comment.

So from start to finish here is how I set up my Instagram posts:

The Instagram Posting Formula

  1. Make really awesome art
  2. Take high quality photos
  3. Use Snap Seed App to edit photo
  4. Write interesting or inspirational caption with Call To Action
  5. Launch Instagram, choose photo, copy & paste caption
  6. Tag 20 instagram art pages that you want to get your work featured on.
  7. Add Geo location of place near you where artists hang out (coffee shop, art museum, etc.)
  8. Post to Instagram when audience is most active (use an Instagram business account to see this)
  9. Comment on your own post with list of 30 art-related hashtags (#lettering, #typography, etc.)
  10. Edit post and add 30 hashtags to get featured on Instagram art pages (#goodtype, #thedailytype, etc.)
  11. Post update to story notifying followers of new post.
  12. DM every single art page that you want to get featured on. Include a short & friendly message.
  13. Spend 20 minutes monitoring post and replying to every new comment.
  14. Check back periodically over the next 48 hours and engage with new comments and DMs

This is what I do every single time I post to Instagram.

The fastest way to grow is to get featured by major blogs like @WorldOfArtists (2.3 million followers).

By taking the time to tag their account, use their hashtag, and send them a personalized message, you greatly increase your chances of getting featured on their account.

And if you want to go the extra mile (especially for those of you with a smaller audience), then check out this post I wrote for how to proactively build relationships with fans.

If you have any questions then send me a DM on instagram (@BrandonMikelPaul) and I can help ya out.

And if you want more in-depth strategies and tactics on using Instagram to build an audience for your art, then I encourage you to sign up for the Smart Artist Income Email List. I’ll send you the occasional email with by best tactics for getting your art noticed and how to attract clients.

Just click on the green button below to sign up.

Have a great weekend, and keep making great art! See ya!

-Brandon Mikel Paul

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