I started the art account @goodnightgallery when I moved to London in January 2018. Six years later, sitting at around 70k followers, I just wanted to share what I learned about Instagram and the art world in the process.
Background
I'm writing this now because I just archived about 1,000 of the 1,800 posts that I've made. I cleaned it up because it was getting unwieldly – I wanted to simplify and focus on the good content I had shared over the years, to make it more accessible. If you've ever done this on Instagram, you'll know you have to manually archive every post. It's laborious and time-consuming, but it gave me time to reflect on the lifespan of Goodnight Gallery – what worked, what didn't, and how Instagram has changed over the years.
Instagram statistics of @goodnightgallery from 2020 to today, 16 March 2024 (analysed using Phlanx)
It all began in 2018 – I didn't go to art school, I didn't have many friends in my network who were into the arts – and I wanted to learn. Setting up the account provided motivation to learn; being kept accountable. I committed to sharing 3 posts a day, 3 times a week. I edited each image with a tiny 10px space at the top and the bottom, so that when stacked in the grid there was some subtle breathing room between the rows. It also meant I couldn't just post from my phone and I had to consider each choice more deliberately.
It started off slow – for months, most posts would get 10's of likes, then 100's of likes and eventually, by mid to late 2018, posts were receiving 1000+ likes and, more importantly, generating interesting comment and discussion. I could never explain the sudden shift in engagement, it went from 100s to 1000s in a matter of days in mid-2018. And then, by mid-2020, it all dropped off. I was sharing less because of lockdowns, but it also seemed like suddenly I had fallen to the disfavour of the algorithm. When people stop interacting with your content, the motivation to produce it drops, and you enter into this feedback loop of less engagement, less posting, which leads to less engagement and less posting.
There was a real lull for almost two years but, fast-forward to the last 6 months, and I've been trying to reactivate the account. I'll share more on that later.
Posting – what works, what doesn't
The last 6 years were a big trial-and-error experiment. I now know pretty well know what worked for me and what didn't, and it's pretty specific.
I think this list will remind everyone that Instagram is just a terrible place to view art, and it has only gotten worse. I made attempts over time to improve the viewing experience – showing close-ups of the work to highlight texture and detail, videos that pan around the painting, lots of text explaining the work and/or the artist – but ultimately this investment in the quality of the post never correlated with improved engagement.
Examples of my top performing content (analysed using Phlanx)
What works:
Anselm Kiefer (I don't know why, but photos of his works just consistently blow up);
But more usefully, posts cropped to one painting, shown in their entirety, with a person in front of it (either full body for larger works, or upper body for smaller works), or posts showing the ground at the bottom of the painting;
Studio shots, with works in progress, again ideally with the artist in it;
For reels, Mr Beast-ified content: quick shots around 1-2 seconds each, first shot is a quick one of the final work, then shots building up to that reveal, and trending music.
What doesn't work:
Jeff Koons (come on, he's produced some pretty interesting stuff, but Instagram just hates it);
Tightly cropped photos, like an extreme close up of a part of a painting;
Photos of paintings divorced from context, by that I mean just a photo of the work without any reference point like a floor or a person;
Quite surprisingly, installation shots, sculpture, or 3D works;
Carousels (ie multi-photo posts) I don't necessarily think work. Maybe if there are 1-3 photos, but not if you're posting up to the full amount of 10 in one go;
Stories – as of 2024, they have been deprioritised massively.
Some of these things are unsurprising. Art is really hard to gauge in the abstract, and adding some wall space, some floor, a person, good lighting etc make it more understandable to the viewer. Of course, it makes every post so homogeneous and ingenuity in content is not rewarded on Instagram.
How to kick start your account
I never paid for followers and I have never paid for Instagram ads. Maybe I should have just done this. But over the last few months I've seen a big upswing in engagement which I can put down to a few things:
Better quality posts, implementing what I discussed above;
Trying to post regularly, but without sacrificing content (I'm aiming to post 1-2 times a week, but once every three days would be ideal);
Generating new content, as opposed to just recycling material online;
Engaging with the posts from other accounts, with an emphasis on commenting (and not just mindless emojis);
Using the collaborate tool, so you make a post and then mark it for collaboration with another account. It then shares the post across the two accounts, showing it to both followers;
I don't do this but I've seen it working for others – actually appearing in-front of the camera and using the transcribe tool for closed-captioning of videos.
Ultimately, Instagram has prioritised single content and, like TikTok, you're almost just judged on the strength of your last post. This has some positives, in that it can even the playing field for all creators, but it also means that there is less brand loyalty than there was previously.
Concluding remarks
I started the account also with the intention that it was a placeholder for bigger things – as the name suggests, a gallery maybe at some point, or a publishing house making prints and editions. (Although, as an aside, if I was starting over I probably wouldn't have used the word 'gallery' in the account from the beginning, as I think it does come with too many preconceptions.)
In the interim, it allowed me to focus on learning about art and artists, be in a position to network with other artists, galleries and creators (I've met some amazing people through the account, both on- and off-line), and have some unique experiences like private views and openings. But it's also been mundane at times, feeling like I was shouting into an empty void. In those moments, I just needed to remind myself of the good memories, of doing it for myself and no other reason, and hopefully the rest will fall into place. I hope something I said above helps you with your own journey.
George
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