Illustration Tutorial: Tips to Succeed on Instagram

Learn the tricks to create an attractive profile and position your professional presence on Instagram, with Alex de Marcos

Social networks like Instagram have become a global showcase for artists from all over the planet: through our feed, we can access the talent of literally thousands of illustrators, designers, craft experts, and more. So, for a creative who wants to get noticed, mastering Instagram's tools to reach as many people as possible offers extraordinary opportunities.

In the following video tutorial, illustrator Alex de Marcos (@alex_de_marcos) gives us some essential tips on how to position our illustrations on Instagram, taking advantage of the different functionalities the app offers. Discover them below:

How does the Instagram feed work?

Why do some artists appear in all your friends' feeds and others are much less common? Why are there publications that are shown to thousands of people and others that disappear? The answer to these questions is provided by Instagram's algorithms, which choose which posts to highlight and which to let disappear by showing them to fewer people. To improve our presence in Instagram, we need to apply some improvements to our publications that will help us please the algorithms.

Take advantage of hashtags

Hashtags in your descriptions will help you reach the audience most interested in your illustration style, since they allow you to associate your publications with different themes or categories. But don't abuse them: five per publication is enough.

Alex recommends looking not only at the most successful hashtags, but also at the hashtags related to them, which have fewer searches and publications, and where it is easier for our publication to stand out. Add some of these to your publication to have more chances of success.

Work on your Instagram Stories

Stories allows you to show your everyday life, with more spontaneous content than that of the feed, which will disappear a few hours after you publish it.The more you publish, the more Instagram will reward you, but try not to overdo it with too many publications, as that will eventually exhaust your followers.

Assess the time of publication

Keep in mind the time and day you are going to publish your content. Publishing when everyone is working isn’t the same as publishing on a holiday. Also avoid coinciding with large sporting, cultural or entertainment events: if everyone is looking for something else, no one will notice your content.

Be yourself

Adapt your Instagram to your personality and interests. Don't try to copy what others do without first thinking about whether it fits your personality. Be honest and sincere, and above all make sure you are comfortable with the type of content you post.

Take care of the oldest publications

If a potential customer starts researching your Instagram, the first thing they will do is scroll down to see your older publications. So remember never to neglect any aspect of your site, whether it's new or old: it's great if it communicates an evolution and your early posts are not up to the artistic standards of your later ones, but if you want to show that, do it consciously.

The appearance of artist influencers

Alex de Marcos concludes by talking about the figure of the “artist influencer": an artist who not only lives from their work, but also from their personality and image. In other words, the product is not only their illustration, but all of it.

Alex confesses is interested in these sorts of profiles as they manage to earn twice: once for their work, and again for publishing it on their networks.

If you like this tutorial, remember you can learn more from Alex about creating an attractive Instagram profile and positioning yourself professionally on his online course Pictorial Portraits Using Digital Techniques.

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