Social Media is a fundamental shift in the way we all communicate. It is not a fad, yet many artists and galleries are still intimidated and puzzled at the idea of joining in on the Social Media Revolution. Learn these 5 ways to harness the power of Social Media and improve your art marketing.
1. Build Your Brand:
What is branding? The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as: “A name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller of group of sellers and the differentiate them from those other sellers.”
- Social Media is the quickest way to build brand identity for you and your art business.
- Solid brand identity differentiates you from the pack.
- A strong brand is invaluable and serves to communicate credibility to your prospective customers and collectors.
- Use Twitter, Facebook and YouTube for building your brand by posting images of your art, tutorials and recent blog posts.
2. Networking:
- Your are not alone! Being an artist is a solitary occupation, but with social networking.
- Reach beyond your niche art market and attract new customers.
- Get instant feedback or a critique on your latest painting or blog post.
- Learn from other artists and business leaders.
- Gain inspiration from others.
- Become more business savvy.
- Facebook is a great way to make ‘real connections’ within my art niche marketplace. Twitter quickly and easily reaches beyond the art niche. I have sold my art using Twitter.
3. Keep Your Finger on the Pulse:
- Artists are the movers and shakers of the world and need to stay informed.
- Artists should follow new trends in design, decorating, fashion and technology and how it influences your art and sales.
- In this challenging economy, being a successful artist not only consists of creating great art, but also creating a strong business.
4. Marketing:
- If you don’t have a website you are invisible. A website is a must, a blog even better.
- It’s time for artists to “Think Outside the Frame” about art marketing!
- SM is already changing the rules of the marketplace.
- Use YouTube to share videos of your latest art tutorial or artwork. This builds brand recognition and drives traffic to your website or blog.YouTube is the #2 largest search engine in the world after Google!
5. Don’t be a Dinosaur:
- Artists and galleries must evolve to stay competitive.It is clear that those artists and galleries who do not join in will most likely go the way of print media.
- Now is the time of natural selection and survival of the fittest.
- Jump in even if you don’t yet understand it!
