Social media when launching your gallery: where to start

01Choosing your platforms with discernment

The first reflex of many young dealers is to create accounts on every available platform. This is a mistake. Each platform has its own grammar, its own audience, its own codes, and a mediocre presence on five platforms is less effective than an excellent presence on two. For a contemporary art gallery, Instagram remains the central platform. Its visual format is naturally suited to presenting artworks, and the international community of collectors, curators and critics active on it makes it a professional networking tool as much as a public showcase. The stories feature allows sharing ephemeral content offering a glimpse into the gallery's daily life, while permanent posts constitute a visual archive of your programme.

Galerie Perrotin uses Instagram with a regularity and visual quality that make it a natural extension of the gallery experience. Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac publishes content mixing exhibition views, studio portraits of artists and event documentation, creating a continuous narrative around its programme. These galleries do not treat Instagram as a promotional channel: they treat it as a fully fledged editorial space, where each post is considered with the same care as a hanging in their physical space.

LinkedIn is a second platform to consider seriously. Long ignored by the art world, LinkedIn has become a space where industry professionals share analyses, announcements and market reflections. For a young gallery, a LinkedIn presence sends a signal of professionalism and allows you to reach a public of collectors who are also business executives, lawyers and doctors — people who use LinkedIn daily in their professional lives and who sometimes discover galleries there they would not have heard of otherwise.

Facebook remains useful for events and local communication, even if its art world audience has declined. TikTok and YouTube may suit certain galleries whose programme lends itself to video, but they require a content production investment rarely compatible with a young gallery's resources. Do not spread yourself thin: choose two platforms, master them, and ignore the rest until you have the means to manage them properly.

02Defining a coherent editorial line

Your social media presence must extend your gallery's identity, not contradict it. If your gallery champions a demanding and intellectual programme, your posts should not resemble those of a home decoration shop. If your gallery cultivates an accessible, boundary-crossing energy, your posts should not adopt an academic tone that does not match your reality. This coherence expresses itself through image choices, text tone, publication rhythm and the subjects you address.

Define content categories that will structure your posts. Exhibition views are the baseline content: they show your space and works in a real context. Artist presentations bring a human and narrative dimension. Behind-the-scenes gallery life (exhibition installation, studio visits, artwork arrivals) creates a proximity with your audience that reinforces the sense of belonging to a community. Editorial content (market reflections, analyses of exhibitions seen elsewhere, reading recommendations) positions your gallery as an intellectual actor in the milieu and not merely a point of sale.

Galerie Sultana in Paris has developed an Instagram presence that faithfully reflects its positioning: posts are visually distinctive, the tone is direct and informed, and content goes beyond mere promotion to offer a perspective on the contemporary scene. This coherence between the physical gallery and its digital presence reinforces the credibility of the whole and gives the online visitor an accurate idea of what they will find upon pushing open the door of the space.

03Photography as the foundation of your visual communication

In a world where the image is the first contact between your gallery and its potential audience, photographic quality is not a luxury but an absolute necessity. A work photographed with a phone in mediocre lighting loses its power and impact, and by extension, your gallery loses its credibility. Invest in professional photographs of your exhibitions and works. If your budget does not allow hiring a photographer for every exhibition, learn the basics of artwork photography: neutral lighting, absence of reflections, framing that respects the work's proportions, resolution sufficient for high-quality display.

Situated exhibition views are particularly valuable. They show works in your space, allowing collectors to project themselves and giving tangible reality to your programme. Galerie Nathalie Obadia publishes exhibition views that are genuine documents: one perceives the scenography quality, the dialogue between works and space, the atmosphere of the place. These images are infinitely more convincing than a simple reproduction of a work on a white background. Also invest in overall visual coherence: the format of your images, framing and colour palette of your Instagram feed contribute to creating a recognisable visual identity that reinforces your positioning.

04Publication rhythm and editorial discipline

Regularity is more important than frequency. Publishing three times per week consistently is more effective than publishing daily for two weeks then disappearing for a month. Platform algorithms favour regularity, and your audience builds expectations based on your rhythm. If you publish every Tuesday and Thursday, your followers become accustomed to that rhythm and check your profile accordingly.

Plan your publications in advance. A simple editorial calendar, forecasting the coming week's content, prevents publishing in haste and ensures a diversity of subjects. Exhibition installation and de-installation periods are privileged moments for producing content (behind the scenes, work details, hanging process) that will feed your posts for several weeks. Build yourself a bank of images and texts you can use during quieter periods, when gallery activity does not naturally generate new content.

Editorial discipline also means knowing what you do not publish. Personal content with no connection to your gallery activity, controversial positions on subjects unrelated to art, posts resembling aggressive advertising: these elements harm the perception of your gallery and should be avoided. Your professional account is an extension of your gallery, not of your private personality.

05Interacting with your community without falling into complacency

Social media are spaces of conversation, and a gallery that publishes without ever interacting with its audience misses their primary potential. Respond to the comments you receive, not with formulaic replies but with substantial answers demonstrating your engagement. Comment on posts by other galleries, institutions, critics and artists you admire. These interactions build a network of reciprocal visibility that amplifies your presence beyond your own follower base.

Follow accounts of collectors, curators, specialist journalists and industry professionals who correspond to your positioning. This professional monitoring keeps you informed of ongoing conversations in your milieu and allows you to contribute pertinently. Galerie Balice Hertling built part of its initial reputation through an active and engaged social presence that went beyond mere promotion to participate in conversations on the contemporary scene.

However, avoid the mutual complacency that sometimes characterises gallery exchanges on social media. Mechanical comments contribute nothing and may even harm your credibility. Comment when you have something substantial to say, and refrain when you have nothing to add. The authenticity of your interactions is perceived by your audience and contributes to the trust they place in you.

06Social media as complement, not substitute

Social media are a powerful tool, but they do not replace the fundamentals of the dealer's profession: programme quality, personal relationships with collectors, physical presence in the milieu, rigorous management. A gallery with ten thousand Instagram followers but a mediocre programme will fool no one for long. Conversely, a gallery with an excellent programme but absent from social media deprives itself of a visibility lever it cannot afford to neglect, especially in its early years.

Artedusa offers partner galleries a visibility channel complementary to social media, integrating them into an ecosystem dedicated to art where collectors come specifically to discover galleries and artists. This targeted platform reaches a qualified audience whose intention is explicitly oriented towards art, distinguishing it from generalist platforms where your content competes with millions of other unrelated posts.