The month of October is an unmissable period for art amateurs, artists and gallery owners, because of the large number of contemporary art fairs and salons. The current trend is to break away from the presumed elite aspect of such events, and on the contrary to make the artistic scene accessible without reducing its quality.

You will probably meet many collectors, amateurs or rookies, occasional buyers or seasoned ones. To extend the experience of these artistic encounters will reinforce your gallery’s visibility towards an audience that is receptive to art. Part of them, who found interest in your posts, will continue to follow you.

Ten days before the opening of the contemporary art fair or salon you will be showing at, point out your presence in a Facebook post.

Wednesday at 3 P.M. is the ideal moment to publish something on Facebook : this is the time slot when the most users are online and active, and so will more likely see your content.

Signal your presence, give your booth number and present the fair or salon you are participating in. But beware, do not copy-and-paste the press release of the event ! Instead, share your point of view : why are you going ? What are you expecting ? Why this fair or salon rather than another one ?

If you have a blog, or a site on which you can edit content, write a concise personal presentation of the fair or salon, and insert it into your Facebook post. In this way, you will be able to separate announcing your presence and presenting the event !

It is always pleasant to have the impression that something is being revealed to us. That someone is sharing a somewhat exclusive content, that not everyone has. Your participation in this type of event will give you a great opportunity :

Creating invites; packaging, transportation, unpackaging of the exhibited artworks; putting up your booth than arranging the exhibition space (of your booth and why not your neighbors’ - if they agree of course!). If one of the artist you are showing comes to visit the space before his or her public presentation, take out your camera ! Write down one of his comments and publish it with the photo you took.

These 8 days will allow you to keep your followers’ attentive. Don’t overwhelm them! at the risk of wearing them out. Don’t post too little! at the risk of losing their attention. Most of the photos you’ll be taking will go on Instagram. When you’ll have more things to share, more written content, post it on Facebook.

The day before and of the opening. Stop publishing. Or only very vague photos. If everything you have to show has already been shown… why come ?

You are going to change target audience. Your posts will no longer be directed to the same people, because it is no longer the great public you are aiming at, but a few people only. Behind a couple of images and elliptical declarations, try to get a more alert audience’s attention, those that will maybe be at the opening event.

Switch more to Twitter (except if your community of followers is too small) whose format corresponds particularly well to this type of temporary posts, or resort to Facebook.

Now that the opening event has passed, concentrate on the people who will now be visiting the fair or salon, which means potentially everyone. Widen the specter of your posts, publish content (text, photos or videos) on the opening event (all public figures are very appreciated!). Report on the anecdotes of the fair/salon, the rumors, the success of the event. Any means is good to get people to come!

Do not forget that what makes your posts interesting is the content that distinguishes them. If what you are publishing can be found elsewhere… why follow you ?

The secret to a good posting strategy consists in not revealing everything, while making a statement. Don’t be fooled, it is not contradictory: focus your posts on topics that correlate to your participation in the event, that gravitate around it, without putting everything out in the open.