Artists struggle to promote their work on Instagram amid algorithm changes, censorship and blocked hashtags
Artist Kelly Foss stands painting Central Park’s Bethesda Fountain on a rainy Friday afternoon in November. Nearby, a children’s gymnastic team takes photos barefoot on the cobblestones and a busker strums to Celine Dion’s theme from Titanic on his acoustic guitar.
A tall man with a scruffy white beard and a scruffier white dog approaches Foss. “Can I ask what you’re painting?” he says.
The man is Jim Moran. The dog is Milo (Moran’s dog-walking client). Moran is also a photographer, he says, as he gestured to his camera hanging from a shoulder strap. He gives Foss his card and says four familiar words familiar to all visual artists: “Look at my Instagram.”
For artists, Instagram is a vital calling card, a portfolio, and a marketplace for their work. They use it to connect with galleries, curators, collectors, and collaborators. It’s a way to promote and sell. Artist Sonya Sklaroff describes it as her “lifeline.” She recently connected with a musician on Instagram, and then was commissioned to paint the artwork for his upcoming album.
“Instagram has pretty much changed my life,” says Sklaroff.
As gallery shows and museum exhibitions stall during the pandemic, Instagram has become even more important as a place for artists to showcase and sell their work. However, over the past five years, Instagram has implemented a series of policies and algorithm changes that have made it harder for artists to gain followers and visibility on the platform. Now, artists on Instagram are competing with a higher volume of users than ever before, while also battling an unpredictable algorithm, censorship of nude art, and, most recently, a policy during the US election that temporarily removed the use of all hashtags. Artists rely on the platform to gain sales and exposure, but remain vulnerable to its unpredictability.
A couple weeks before she visited the Bethesda Fountain, Foss had noticed engagement on her Instagram posts dropping dramatically down from 80% to 2%. The engagement drop was due to the fact that Instagram had blocked the use of hashtags in order to curb the spread of misinformation during the US presidential election.
Sklaroff noticed it too. She was at the East 51st Street subway station, waiting for the Downtown local 6 train when she realized posts that would typically reach 13,000 people were only reaching 2,000.
“I’m definitely hoping that this goes away,” Foss said in early November.
When the unexpected policy change was introduced on Oct. 26, Instagram did not clarify how long it would last. By Dec. 10, hashtags were working again.
However, in the six intervening weeks, Foss and Sklaroff weren’t getting as many potential buyers who were able to see their work. Hashtags would usually allow users to see art, and then direct message with offers to buy it.
Prior to the pandemic, artists like Foss and Sklaroff would gain sales and visibility as part of gallery shows or museum exhibitions. However, the pandemic has put a handful of New York City galleries out of business, according to Lesley Heller, whose own gallery closed down permanently in April. Those that are still open for reduced hours are unable to host events.
This has left artists relying on online platforms such as Instagram, according to Kathryn Brown, who studies art history and visual culture at Loughborough University. She says that because Instagram is an image-based platform, it makes the most sense for artists to market their work. However, she says, just because you post something doesn’t mean it will be seen.
Once you’re on Instagram, Brown says, “the difficulty is being found.”
There’s no doubt that difficulty has increased over the past five years. In 2016, Instagram shifted from a chronological newsfeed to one based on an algorithm. Since then, Instagram has been famously opaque about its platform according to Kelley Cotter, who studies Instagram algorithms at Michigan State University. She says one reason for that is so they can avoid “bad actors gaming the system.”
According to Instagram, the general rationale between shifting from a chronological to an algorithmic newsfeed was that users would see more of the content that they already liked. A side effect was that it became more difficult for artists and small businesses who were just joining the platform to gain traction. If users are seeing more and more from the accounts they already like, they’re less and less likely to come across new accounts. Then, when accounts are struggling to gain traction, they’re ranked lower and lower by the algorithm and less likely to be seen by anyone. This means that large companies are now much more likely to be seen than independent creators.
Lara Harb, the Digital Marketing Educator and Social Media Strategist at the marketing firm, the Social Media Artist, specializes in the promotion of artworks on platforms like Instagram.
“Artists just have to be mindful that the algorithm is very rarely in their favor,” says Harb.
Cotter says influencers can learn about the algorithm through trial and error. However, the effort might be futile because, she says, it’s also unclear how often Instagram makes changes to the algorithm.
“I think it’s safe to say that the algorithm is constantly changing,” she says.
Still, Cotter says that what might be a bigger problem for artists than Instagram’s opaque algorithm is the sheer volume of users on the platform today, which results in higher competition for visibility.
According to data from Statista, there are roughly 855 million users who access Instagram monthly in 2020, compared to roughly 428 million in 2016. Statista estimates that by 2023, there will be 988 million.
Even some artists who manage to gain a following come up against unpredictable censorship policies. Artist Reisha Perlmutter says her art is an attempt to celebrate, not sexualize, the female form. She says having her posts taken down has been “really really frustrating.”
It was also frustrating for photographer Joanne Leah, who now runs an online campaign called Artists Against Social Media Censorship. She works as a liaison between artists and Instagram, helping them advocate to maintain certain posts that the algorithm automatically removed.
Leah says that despite her efforts, Instagram censorship is getting worse. She believes the algorithm might’ve recently changed and is going back and flagging posts that it didn’t catch the first time around. Artists are contacting her every day for help.
She says, “Unless Instagram changes their policies, which I don’t see them doing, it’s not going to get better until someone makes a new platform.”
Artists frustrated by Instagram have flirted with other platforms. Sklaroff filmed a time-lapse video of herself painting set to a song by Fleetwood Mac for Tik Tok. Foss set up a Facebook marketplace to sell her work. Perlmutter has almost 500 followers on the art-specific platform, Artsy. Still, they agree that no other platform has the same reach or specific focus on imagery as Instagram.
Harb says there’s less competition for visibility on a platform like Tik Tok, but on the other hand, it also has less reach. In September 2020, Tik Tok had roughly 15 million active users, according to Statista. She also says that the mostly younger audience on Tik Tok is less likely to spend money on art.
One way artists have sought more visibility within Instagram has been buying ad space. Harb says that over the past three years, she’s noticed a shift towards more creators buying sponsored content on Instagram.
“These days, it really is a pay to play platform,” she says. A user would typically pay $5 a day for a minimum of five days, according to Harb.
Photographer Thomas Dillon says he plans to buy ad space soon. “It’s unfortunate that you have to pay to get the views, but it really does make a big difference.”
Foss is aware of that too. However, she remains committed to growing her following without purchasing any sponsored ad space.
“I know it’s becoming harder for that to happen, but I don’t like the idea of art being discovered just because the person is richer than the others,” she says.
Brown has noticed that the shift of art sales to online platforms like Instagram during the pandemic has inspired a conversation about democratizing the art world. In some ways, it’s true that the shift from gallery sales to Instagram sales has opened up the market to new buyers who might not typically visit galleries. However, Brown also says some of these conversations have been overly optimistic.
“I don’t think [Instagram is] actually a tool that can democratize the art world or indeed the art market,” Brown says. “I think that we’ve got to be aware of who controls these infrastructures [and] who’s gaining power in this sphere.”
