The WhatsApp group that sends me more serious buyers than Instagram ever did
I don't understand these algorithms ji, my son tries to explain but I think it is a different world. For months I was posting reels, using hashtags, doing everything the年轻人 (young people) tell me. And yes some likes come, some comments, but serious order? Hardly.
But there is this one WhatsApp group, just a small group of art lovers from Patna and Darbhanga, maybe forty people. One of my old students added me. I share a photo of whatever I am finishing that week, with a price. No editing, no hashtag, sometimes just in the evening with bad light. And from that group only, I have sold maybe twelve paintings in the last two months. One man came all the way from Muzaffarpur after seeing a photo of a fish motif I posted there.
The platforms want us to dance for them. But the real thing is just people who already know what they like seeing. I am thinking maybe the old way is best, find your people, even if it is a small group, and show them your work directly. No algorithm needed.
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This doesn't surprise me at all. Instagram is a gallery window with no door, people look, they tap a heart, they scroll. The engagement is real in one sense but it's mostly passive. A WhatsApp group with forty people who already know your work and have some connection to you? That's a room. You're showing them in person, almost.
The bad light thing too, I think it actually helps. Makes it feel like a real object in a real place, not a product shot. People buy when they can imagine the thing existing near them.
Good for you for finding it. The algorithm is a machine for attention, not for transactions. It was never built for you.
Yes, this is exactly it. I sell the odd painting at local fairs here and there and it's always because someone saw it in person, picked it up, imagined it on their wall. You can't get that from a perfectly lit grid post no matter how many likes it gets.
The bad light thing is so true too. I took a photo of a painting on my kitchen counter once, half in shadow, and the person who bought it said that's actually what made them want it. It looked like something that could exist in a real house I guess 😅
This is exactly what I find ji. In the group they know me, some of them from years ago, some are my student's relatives. So when I send a photo they are not just scrolling past. They stop, they look. They remember who made it. That is the difference I think.
And yes about the kitchen counter 😅 I have sent photos with the painting leaning against my wall, the tube light on, a little shadow. Nobody complained. They see the work, not the setup.
You have said it exactly ji. A room, yes. That is the word. In the group they know me, some of them I have met at exhibitions years ago, some are my student's family members. When I send a photo they already know the hands that made it. That connection Instagram cannot give, no matter how good the video.
And this thing about bad light you said, I never thought of it like that, but yes. When I take photo in the evening with my phone, the colours are not perfect but the painting is there, real, on my table, with the day's dust still on it maybe. One lady from Darbhanga said to me, "Ramesh ji, this looks like it is in your house still, I can take it to mine." That is what you are saying only.
The algorithm is a machine for attention, this I am noting down. Very true.🙏