Non Generic Social Media trends for artists 2025

2025 NON-GENERIC Guide To Social Media For Artists

Hi, guys! For a second year in a row, I’m sharing with you my notes from a great discussion between Dustin Panzino, Timothy Von Rueden, and Devin Elle Kurtz on social media art trends and insights for 2025 (the first half).

Inside:

  • Social media marketing & art business,
  • Best social media for creatives in 2024,
  • 2024 social media strategy for your Instagram account.

You can check the previous insights in the accordion below:

Now, without further ado, let’s check what’s in for artsy social media in 2025!

1. Bluesky or Threads MIGHT become the next Twitter (?) 💙

Many celebrities are deleting their Twitter accounts and moving to Bluesky or Threads after changes made by Elon Musk and the upcoming U.S. election featuring Donald Trump.

Threads

Threads is, let’s say, Instagram’s offspring; all you have to do to create an account there is to have an Instagram account. The two social media are interconnected, too. You can, for example, cross-posted between them.

There has been a massive engagement spike on Threads due to the “Threads Bonus” program, (bet you haven’t heard about this before) but it leads to clickbaity content. However, the popularity spike doesn’t seem to be a big thing anymore. Yeah, it has 130M active users, but I feel like there’s no hype about it anymore.

Bluesky

Bluesky is a decentralized social media platform that aims to be an alternative to X.

The platform lets artists network with industry professionals and clients. Devin believes Bluesky could become an industry hub despite its smaller audience (Bluesky’s 29M users vs. 368M active monthly users on Twitter).

Bluesky is growing and could become an important place for artists, but it’s still not as big as Twitter or Instagram. Anyway, no matter whether Bluesky will or won’t be as big as X in the future, I think it’s worth giving it a chance (and claiming your username). I created my profile some time ago, and haven’t posted much yet, but it seems okay, I guess? I’ve never been into Twitter, so maybe that’s why I’m not very hyped. 

2. Your audience is & will be divided across many platforms 🙋

Artists have to deal with their fans being spread across different social media, and how much attention they get depends on the platform.

In the discussion, Timothy, Devin, and Dustin many times recollect the so-called “golden era of Instagram”. I remember it myself: around 10 years ago, Instagram really was a thing, it seemed so fun, and energetic. Also, it was much easier to make it big there.

Yet, right now, social media is way more scattered… and blended in a way.

    1. You have X, Bluesky, and Threads for short images.
    2. TikTok for short videos
    3. YouTube for long videos.
    4. Instagram for images…

    …in theory. In reality, TikTok videos are getting longer, YouTube has Shorts, and Instagram has reels, carousels, images, and I don’t know what else. 

    Your audience is everywhere there, so to reach them, you should ideally post in all of these places, which might actually keep you from doing art*.

    *Especially if you think about how much time you have to spend adjusting your art to the various post formats. For example, wide images with a lot of detail tend to perform worse unless cropped/zoomed in. Dustin shared his observation: the zoomed-in + cropped version did much better than the same artwork when posted as a wide post (14K vs. 3K engagement).

    Be prepared you might be accused of doing AI art

    AI-generated content impacts artists differently—some gain from it, while others might hear: “You’re not doing real art–this must be AI”.

    As a traditional artist, Timothy has benefited a lot from the influx of AI-generated images. But it has hit many of his artist friends—first, those who focus on abstract digital art. More recently, artists with a clean style are also being accused of generating their work with AI.

    AI might especially influence young artists because it’s more difficult for them to prove their art is not AI-generated.

    How do you deal with it? 

    I think the key here is authenticity. Show behind the scenes, timelapses, making of (although these can be faked too, allegedly 😫). If you’re comfortable with it, show yourself in photos or videos, talk to your audience, tell them about yourself. I’m not doing it as I’m not really into sharing my private life on the Internet much–but I don’t think my style is this clean or “good” in a way to be accused of using AI, honestly. 😝

    You must be above average to be seen

    So, does it still make sense to put effort into a social media art career these days?

    Yes, you should still share your art—how else will people see it? It’s tough when you’re just starting, but if your work is undeniably good, you’ll get noticed. Quality over quantity.

    With social media and the internet being so saturated, you have to rise above mediocrity—you have to be exceptional. And I know, it’s so hard. A tough pill to swallow. It was easier 10 years ago.

    Don’t feel exceptional? To comfort you, let me say this: I don’t see myself as exceptional either, so I’m facing the same struggle. You’re not alone. All we can do is learn, and practice, and study, and work hard to get better with every painting.

    Track & analyze new (>2 y) fast-growing accounts for the success formula 📊

    With Meta changing its algorithms every 6 months, it’s hard to keep up with what’s going on each platform, what’s trending, and what’s not. To stay on track, you need to regularly track and analyze the patterns. 

    Here’s a research approach Devin recommends. 

    Create a folder for each platform to save high-performing posts from other artists and look for patterns of success. Focus on artists who get high engagement and are relatively new (started within the last two years).

    Browse the Explore page, For You page, and similar sections. First, collect a large number of posts (a few hundred). Then, go through them and sort them:

    1. Filter by new artists – those who started recently.
    2. Narrow it down further to those who consistently get high engagement and visibility.

    However, this approach is more useful for those who want to be content creators rather than artists looking for industry jobs or just building a portfolio.

    You can also use Social Blade to track which artists are gaining followers with each post—this is the best indicator of consistent success.

    Video is king (but still images are OK again)

    No surprise: Short-form video content is currently the most effective way for artists to gain exposure on social media. Here, what usually works on one platform will work another.

    Short (very short) videos (5–10 seconds) perform the best. That’s good news–you don’t need much content. Don’t film your entire process if you don’t feel like doing it–focus on just the most interesting parts. At the same time, though, you want to spend a good amount of time editing and fine-tuning the video content. Try to figure out how to light it, how to record the process, how to tell the story–a good video can really benefit you. So, if you have a spare day a month–spend it all on the video. Devin recommended https://www.instagram.com/explodikid/ as a source of video editing inspiration.

    As for platforms, the best video platform to grow steadily is YouTube. Those old videos will still get views. Even old ones can pop up after 2 years and give you money.

    Finally, the last insight: Video is king, but it seems static posts are doing okay again!

    2024 NON-GENERIC Guide To Social Media For Artists. Conclusions

    That’s it! Now you hopefully better understand the VERY COMPLICATED world of social media platforms for artists. 

    The last thing I wanted to add here is that I don’t underestimate pieces of advice like “post regularly” or “create reels”. They really work, but these are also very common statements I see all the time, and I wanted to give you something more insightful.

    And the last, last thing: if you liked this article and want more stuff like this in your life along with art learning resources & culture inspiration (or maybe you just want to stick with me? :3) I encourage you to subscribe to my monthly art newsletter:

    See ya!

    social media for artists 2024 trends
    mleczny mlecz logo

    Self-taught digital painter who likes to write about art & drawing. Mostly painting urban scenes during golden & blue hour.

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