Is anyone else finding it harder to reach collectors on Instagram lately?
I don't mind creating reels, but it feels like every few months the platform changes what it rewards. What's actually working for artists right now?
yeah honestly it's exhausting. i post reels because the reach is real but i can't pretend to enjoy filming myself wedging clay for the 900th time. what's worked weirdly well for me is the tutorial-adjacent stuff, like a 15 second "here's why this piece cracked" or showing a glaze result without talking. it gets shared by other makers and then collectors find me through them. also i've started just accepting that my reels won't hit sometimes and it's not personal.
curious what type of work you make though, because i feel like the algorithm favors certain aesthetics and it's brutal if your stuff doesn't fit that mold.
I stepped away from Instagram almost entirely two years ago and haven't regretted it. Not because I don't think it can work, but because chasing the algorithm felt like full-time work that took me away from the painting itself. My collectors found me through gallery relationships and word of mouth, and honestly through my newsletter, which is a far more dependable channel than anything a platform owns.
That said, I do know artists who still do well there, and the pattern I notice is that they treat reels as documentation rather than content. They film the process, the plant they're working from, the layering of washes. It's not performative. The ones who try to manufacture engagement seem to burn out fastest.
The uncomfortable truth is that the platform wants consistent output and most of us are not content machines by nature. You have to decide whether that trade is worth it for you. It wasn't for me.