October 2018

Goal: To break 150 and have 200 followers by November @fallonfly_art

Since I first started the 2wk IG Challenge, I was posting daily until I gave birth in June. With other priorities, my activity was sporadic. I was essentially posting just to share commissions. I'm using Inktober to get back into a rhythm and break the 150 I've been stuck at this Summer.

Since March (except for June to September), I'm keeping weekly and monthly metrics to learn what is successful. I'd note my posting frequency and the type of content I was posting. From there, I learned my 15sec timelapse clips and monochrome portrait Art is most popular. I'm breaking them up with close-ups of texture I find visually appealing. I'm taking advantage of IGTV and Story to drive traffic. I get a boost when I share a post update Story in case I don't appear in my followers feeds. I have some highlight albums. My most popular is my "materials" album. I think because I share how I use my tools.

I've kept up with leaving specific comments on posts of those that I follow. I seem to have garnered a following of other artists. Because I still connect with other users even when I'm not posting, I created a healthy engagement community. I have about 150 followers and I average about 30-40 likes topping at about 60 on favorites and a few comments for each post. I would like to see that rise because I have great cross traffic to my Etsy shop from IG.

Changes since March:

Added Hashtags to my description for my profile to be searchable
Added watercolorist to my name for IGTV.
IGTV- I reformatted my popular Youtube timelapse and posted them. Shorter 15s versions to my gallery to break up the newer works.
I keep an excel spreadsheet with hashtags to reference. They are categorized by topic so I have a variety to quickly pick from so I'm not flagged for spam. I use a Hashtag Search to find relevant tags along with IG search suggestions, and check them out to confirm relevancy before adding them to my spreadsheet. I audit tag lists when I do monthly reporting.
Linktr.ee is absolutely brilliant. I use it now on some other social media because I can highlight specific web pages or shop listings.
100 follower giveaway. This was fun and easier than I was anticipating. I picked up some followers that didn't leave when the giveaway was over. I want to have milestone giveaways with a vote open in Story for the prize.

Things I'm planning on doing this month:

Because I still have limited availability, I want to plan out the upcoming week's posts, the exception being the Inktober challenge. I want to have content ready to post 2x/day until it becomes a habit. The First being the challenge and second post to promote other stuff I have going on.
Remembering to take progress photos so I can stretch content in case I'm unable to work in my studio because of life. Visually appealing progress photos is key in case I'm at the "ugly" stage that a non-creative wouldn't appreciate.
Post at night on the weekends. I've read some people don't share on the weekends because it's not worth it so they save the content for the weekdays. I tested posting at various times of the day to find when is best for me, and I have the same amount of engagement at night on the weekends as the morning on the weekdays.

Inktober Week 1: 154 Followers (+6)

Inktober Week 2: 164 Followers (+10)

Inktober Week 3: 164 Followers (+0) I shot up to 174, but dropped the gain during the week. They were larger accounts probably doing the follow then unfollow strategy. I have triple the engagement numbers compared to previous weeks.

Inktober week 4: 167 Followers (+3) 1 more week left in the challenge. I do not think I'm going to meet my 200 goal, maybe next month. My engagement is still pretty high and this past week was my highest number of website clicks.

March 2018

I had a lackluster response when I first started my business Instagram. I was posting my favorite past pieces once a week as part of #TBT with only a small carryover of my Facebook contacts. I was looking for ways to cultivate a following when I came across Ohn Mar Win's 14-day IG Challenge. I framed it for myself as a 14-day art challenge creating a new watercolor piece a day with set rules. I cross-posted on my other social channels and had an immediate boost on their performances as well. It had the added benefit of loosening up my style. I gained 14 followers... well 15 as I write this. It's not a lot, but they are engaged with my postings which will have a long-term benefit.

Inktober, My IG Challenge: @fallonfly_art - image 1 - student project What I found successful/beneficial:

• I found mornings to be the best time to post Monday through Thursdays and later in the day Fridays through Sundays for my particular audience.

• I created a Linktree account to house all my platform links. With the platforms that track where traffic is coming from, I noticed actual traffic from IG.

• The posts that are more successful are slideshows showing my process. I now have to remember to take WIP pictures, ha.

• I started following other artists to increase my engagement. I had found it a bit embarrassing, in the beginning, to post compliments for the works I enjoyed. Now that I'm at the end of the challenge, I look for their uploads when I pop on.

• I'm paying more attention to the hashtags similar artists are using with their posts.

• I am encouraged to experiment with different layouts and push the quality of the images I post. This had an added benefit across my other platforms as well.

• I'm tagging my location to my posts, which I wasn't comfortable doing originally. Some of my new followers are locals, so it's encouraging for when I take the leap to participate in local events.

• After following one particular artist, I learned the stories can be used to drive traffic to my Etsy Shop. I'm excited to take advantage of the "Swipe Up" feature to boost sales once I list the products I created out of the works in this challenge. ((not available until after 10k followers))

I'm really happy I decided to take this challenge on. Now that this one is over, I have planned to do a 2-week challenge once a month to push my skills along with once a week larger projects. Thank you, Ohn Mar, for taking the time to create this class!

Fallon Mento Pappas

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