Follow Magazine is a digital publication that launched just days ago, and the founder is a filmmaker who describes the purpose of Follow Magazine specifically as being about helping artists build and engage with their audience online–followmagazine.online
Art Marketing Site Promotes Artists and Art Galleries in Unique Ways by Dean Cameron
Having had a 30 year career in Marketing and owning an Online Art Gallery and Publishing business since 2002, it is obvious that “times are a changing”. While there is nothing inherently wrong with traditional methods such as Gallery Representation, Art Shows and such, they are rendered somewhat incomplete with today’s super connected world that we live in. Social Media Networking is paramount to the vast majority of up and coming artists and that is not just Facebook. Twitter, Pinterest, Google +, Stumble Upon, LinkedIn and now YouTube offer unique opportunities and diverse clientele to develop an artist’s brand and to stay connected to interested potential clients. So is Social Media the answer to a successful art career? I would say this. As Social Media came on like a storm so will the next best vehicle (we don’t know what it will be yet because some 12-year-old is inventing it in their mind right now) so we need to be as current as we can be.
One thing I have learned in 30 years of Marketing is that opportunities come from many directions. So our Marketing Plan should take advantage of that and cast a wide net. An Artist needs to have a complete tool box in which to develop their market and build their art creating business. We have developed that Tool Box. www.flootie.com creates a menu of items an artist can choose from in order to best suit their plans. Most “Art for Sale” Internet Sites are what we call “Post it and Forget it” type sites. You post your book of work online and hope that someone comes along and makes a purchase. www.flootie.com is not that type of Internet Marketing Site. We offer the following features for artists to be proactive in their efforts to sell their works and create their brand.
This is by no means the end of this list. Flootie is well underway with even more creative tools for artists to connect with art lovers. Our mission is to make the term “Starving Artist” obsolete. We would look forward to seeing you as a fan, an artist or an art related business. We are a grass-roots and privately owned entity with the sole intention to bring the artists and art lovers together in an intentional way.
About Dean Cameron
Dean Cameron has a 30 year career in Sales and Marketing in numerous industries resulting in relationships with many Fortune 500 Companies. Dean is an Art Collector and owner of American Fine Art Company and Flootie.com (subsidiaries of Highlander Enterprises LLC) and resides with his family in Spokane Valley, WA.
Part of the research we do for our Artist Marketing Resources articles includes trying out various sales platforms for ourselves. Generally we are interested in online galleries, artist print sales sites, art licensing platforms, art magazines and art apps.
We’ve known about Fiverr for a few years now, and after hearing of creative people making as much as $47,000 per year on the Fiverr site from sales of their creative services, we decided to give it a try for ourselves. So we’re taking it for a test drive–perhaps rather skeptically at first!
So for a limited time, we have a special offer on Fiverr! Click here to feature your art in article and social media for $5 on Fiverr.
This infographic shows how the ideal days and times to post to each social media platform has shifted over time and as platforms such as Instagram become more and more popular.
I like finding art sales sites, such as Artsyo, that understand their market. Artsyo is an online art sales site for artists who live in Seattle, Washington, USA, and for local art buyers.
The Artsyo tag line–Buy Original Art From Artists In Your Neighborhood– invites buyers to get to know local artists to purchase art from them direct. All artworks listed on the Artsyo site have retail prices. When buyers find an art piece of interest on the site, they can click the Buy button and send an email message to the artist to begin communications.
Recollect 2, John Breitweiser
One of the artists on Artsyo, John Breitweiser, l recognized from his art pins on Pinterest. I’ve already liked and pinned many of his colorful fine art pieces to my Pinterest boards. I’d definitely want to buy art from John Breitweiser if I lived in Seattle or planned to visit. Artsyo has a Pinterest account here. Follow artist John Breitweiser on Pinterest here. Get to know any artist using social media before you buy art from them! It makes buying fun and interesting. Artists, get to know potential buyers using social media.
Artsyo is just one of thousands of sales venues on our e-list for artists.
by Barbra Drizin, Start From Scratch Social Media
www.facebook.com/startfromscratchsocialmedia
The FACEBOOK COVER PHOTO for your business page is the viewer’s first impression of who you are, what you do, and how to contact you.
Previously, there were many limitations on what could be included in cover photos. However, now this huge piece of “real estate” is THE place to introduce, market, and brand.
And, ever since Facebook removed the ability to set a custom landing tab, your cover photo is the most important place to drive traffic and awareness.
NEW RULES:
The new cover photo rule is that 20% of your cover photo may be TEXT. This gives permission for highlighting:
Your Website
Your contact information Your tag line Promotions
Purchase information or special offers Calls to Action
I also suggest rotating your cover photo each month, since an “updated” cover photo appears in the newsfeed of the people who have “liked” your page, and you have another excellent opportunity to stay in front of your audience.
FACEBOOK ADS:
Do you know how to use Facebook Ads?
This benefit is magnified as Facebook has released a new “Page LIKE” ad that includes the brand’s cover photo. Facebook Ads present a huge opportunity to carry a brand message from the Facebook page to the newsfeed with optimal impact.
Facebook Ads also allows you to target the exact demographics of your audience!
For example, client – artist www.facebook.com/barbararachko went from 600 likes to over 2000 likes using targeted ads…all in a matter of weeks!
CONTENT STRATEGY:
Photos are now the #1 content strategy. Facebook continues its evolution to become a more visual platform. Therefore, brands must craft posts to ensure they are visually powerful. Your cover photo is the “main event” of this strategy.
FACEBOOK VOCABULARY:
NEWSFEED: the posts of the PEOPLE who are you friends AND the posts of the PAGES you have liked. When you post on your Facebook Business Page, the post appears on the newsfeed of those who have “LIKED” your page.
COVER PHOTO SIZE
Your cover photo is 851 x 315 pixels. With photoshop or other photo editors, you can add text. Remember not to put text where your profile picture will obscure it.
Want to optimize your Facebook Business page? Learn how to use Facebook Ads? Barbra Drizin is a social media educator, trainer and manager. Her business is
“Start from Scratch Social Media” www.facebook.com/startfromscratchsocialmedia.
Barbra especially assists those who may be ‘resistant, reluctant, or intimidated’ with the world of social media by starting with the basics and going beyond. Her goal is for you to be confident and comfortable with the rewards and benefits of the virtual world! Barbara targets solopreneurs, artists, and alternative health practitioners. Contact Barbra at barbra@socialmediaeducators.com.
Barbra meets with you personally and by Skype
DYNAMIGHTY Artist Collective Beta site challenges you to create your own Might Wallet design and share it with your community. If you can pre-sell 30 wallets in 30 days, they will make a full production run of your wallet design to sell and send you 15% of the sales.
It’s a great way to promote your work, your ideas and yourself. No contests,and no jury. The most successful designs are slated to become the future wholesale line of Dynomighty products sold in over 60 countries around the world.
When Tumblr first came online, visual artists took it up right away and have continued to use the Tumblr platform in interesting and exciting ways–such as the eatsleepdraw project that I reported on last week.
Tumblr is such an exciting mini-blogging tool for artists, with select Tumblr blogs accepting artist submissions their art. I’ve created a separate category of Tumblr blogs within my Art Magazines and Publications PDF, a gratis list provided by Artist Marketing Resources here. Cave to Canvas is one Tumblr blog that you will find on our PDF list. Cave to Canvas accepts submissions from artists for features on their Tumblr blog.
Hyperallergic and the World’s First Tumblr Conference
For those who are not able to attend, you may be happy to know that they will be livestreaming the event, and you can watch it at: new.livestream.com/tumblr/tumblrarthyperallergic.
And you don’t need to be at tomorrow’s event to take part in the lively discussion that is certainly going to take place. Please join in at anytime using the #tumblrart hashtag on various social media platforms, including Tumblr, Twitter, and Google+.
You can also submit questions via the Hyperallergic tumblelog — hyperallergic.tumblr.com/ask — or via twitter (using #tumblrart hashtag) during the Q&A period during the event.
Last week, artist Harriete Estel Berman sent me a tweet asking me to share some information she discovered – a guide to images for social media titled: How to size images on social media: A cheat sheet.
Harriete stated that it “Usually it takes me multiple tries till I figure out what size image will work…a huge waste of time. Next time, I will refer to this chart.This cheat sheet is a super fantastic resource because it removes the trial and error in creating a fabulous background or header. An eye-catching image is a great way to build visibility for your art or crafts creating a personal style across all platforms. For artists and makers this is absolutely essential!”
Infographics may be all the rage, but this one is actually useful. The Cheat Sheet was created by LunaMetrics—who invite you to print it out and share. View the entire Cheat Sheet sizing chart here.
Includes image sizing for all the biggies–Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and LinkedIN. Here is just the upper part of the Cheat Sheet:
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I Heart my Art is a Tumblr blog accepting submissions of your art. According to their submission guidelines you can send your artwork, or link to your website. I Heart My Art is based in New York City, and is a little different in that it also has a mailing list. There is a sign-up at the top of the blog next to submissions. In a previous blog post, I list 3 other Tumblr blogs that accept submissions.
RocketHub (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Artists often ask “How do I get more exposure for my work?” –beyond sharing on my blog and on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and others.
So here are 4 of the more unusual places to uncover opportunities for media coverage and PR help.
1. Follow PublicSeek on Twitter to get media coverage opportunities. Every day, Publiseek gives thousands of people around the world the chance to be covered on TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, and on blogs. If you are interested in getting some free media coverage–go to the Publiseek site to get started: http://www.publiseek.com/
2. HARO– or Help A Reporter Out–What they are looking for are experts. When a news story requires expert opinions you could be contacted and receive free press coverage–the trick is listing out your expertise so that a reporter will contact you for an interview. http://www.helpareporter.com/
3. PN Promotions Social Media Services can get you 10,000 website visitors for $35.00, 25,000 visitors for $53.00 etc http://pnpromotions.blogspot.com/
4. Like Kickstarter, RocketHub is a crowdfunding platform. What makes RocketHub a little different is that they offers further opportunities to those who have successfully funded their projects in their program called LaunchPad Opportunities.
For their recent LaunchPad Opportunity: Be Almost Famous, RocketHub offered artists, entrepreneurs, musicians, filmmakers, theatre producers, designers, and other Creatives the opportunity to work with a top NYC publicist, Arien Rozelle. Arien has landed clients in The New York Times, Thrilllist, and Good Magazine. At the close of 2010, she was named one of “New York’s Top PR Firms and People: The Most Influential and Connected” by Marketing Company Sparkah.com. The winning submission to this LaunchPad received a consultation with Arien and the FeelingAnxious PR team. View the submission selected for the Be Almost Famous LaunchPad Opportunity here.
ZuuBee is a new site in Beta. The concept behind ZuuBee is for buyers and sellers to better connect and communicate. Something like Facebook with a Tumblr-like micro-blog that has a shopping cart. Well, at any rate–I don’t know if the ZuuBee CEO will like that description– but they did send me their logo and screen shots, so you get the idea. Sign up for a free account here.
Written by Sookie Shuen
Whatever it is, the budget you put in place for your marketing for the year ahead will shape the results you achieve.
Now is the ideal time to define your marketing approach and the budget that will support it. In a recent Toluna survey of businesses, 40% of businesses surveyed stated that they did not feel that their marketing budget met all their marketing needs.
In tougher times, the marketing budget is often the first thing that is cut. Yet it is commonly known that companies which consistently market themselves in a recession perform better than those that don’t. So:
Artists can benefit from reading this article on Jeff Bullas website here.
| A few days ago on Pinterest, I repinned a set of green vases from an upscale home decor site for a chance to win them. Today I learned that PUREWOW is sponsoring a camera company giveaway that is also using Pinterest as an aspect of their contest.First, they want you to submit a photo that you have taken for a chance to win a Panasonic Lumix 3G camera — here is the link: http://www.purewow.com/lander/lumixThen, repin your favorite image (hopefully your own!) so that you are automatically entered to win the second prize–a Panasonic Lumix ZS19 camera. |
Pinterest (Photo credit: PixByDee)
Pinterest is now one of the top three social media sites. That’s right, now it is Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
So far, I have only read of one jewelry designer who had her photos misused by a spammer on Pinterest. The spammer linked computer viruses to her product name and images. Pinterest removed the spammer from their site. Read the full Daily Dot story here.
Artists should be aware that there is a copyright infringement form for Pinterest. If you discover misuse of your art image on the Pinterest site, complete and submit the Pinterest copyright infringement form—you will find it here: http://pinterest.com/about/copyright/dmca/
Be Part of an Art Project for the Olympics
TESTIMONIES was created by Lorenzo Belenguer in response to everybody looking to have a more active role in the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It aims to empower conversation about this historic event, to compare with the 1948 Olympic Games and also to provide a legacy. He is now asking everybody to participate via Social Media. The most interesting comments will be invited to a video interview!
1. Visit TESTIMONIES Facebook page on:
http://www.facebook.com/TESTIMONIESLondon
2. Press like and write your comment about the Olympics
3. Visit TESTIMONIES Twitter account on:
https://twitter.com/#!/TestimoniesLDN
4. Follow us and write your comment using #ThisIsMyTestimonyLondon
5. Thank you
All the best,
Lorenzo
Web | TESTIMONIES | facebook | twitter | vimeo | flickr | linkedIn
Untitled #210, by William Phelps Montgomery
Artist William Phelps Montgomery created a PDF presentation of his artworks then added it to his LinkedIN profile. Anyone viewing Mr. Montgomery’s LinkedIN profile may view the slide presentation there.
If you would like to add a slide presentation to your own LinkedIN profile here are the steps:
1) in your LinkedIN account click on *More* in the very top menu bar
2) in the drop down menu click on *Slide Share Presentations*
3) in you slide space are click the *upload* button to select and upload your PowerPoint or PDF file.
4) at upper right in your slide space area you will see *+ Link Your SlideShare Account* –click on that to link to your LinkedIN profile.
5) now click on the SlideShare presentation you just uploaded–at right you will see *share* options, including a LinkedIN icon. Click the LinkedIN icon. You will be asked if you want to add this slide presentation to your profile. Select Yes.
It’s that easy
View William Phelps Montgomery’s SlideShare presentation here http://slidesha.re/wyFkV6
Untitled # 195, Digital Fine Art Lambda Print, by William Phelps Montgomery
Untitled #217, by William Phelps Montgomery
This new site–coming soon!–in Beta, so is not yet live. I will post more information here in future blog posts. Sign up on the *treasrz* site to receive more future notification here. View this short advance video on new marketplace idea for artists!
Released this month, Art Marketing Basics is an e-book guide for visual artists new to the idea of showing and selling their art online. In ten steps, this 44 page downloadable e-book will help artists get started sharing their art and building an online presence.
As the author Linda Rosso says in her introduction —
“…this e-book will show you how to treat art as a business and still stay creative!”
From hobbyists and genre painters reiterating past isms, to more professional and contemporary practitioners, the first steps for any artist is to create quality photographs of their artwork. This e-book covers the basics of set-up, shooting, cropping and sizing images, and labeling and filing jpegs for easy retrieval.
Once you have your images, go to Step #2: Create an online gallery.
One of the advantages of any e-book is the ease of linking. The author of this e-book, who is also a landscape painter, provides clickable links to three free online portfolio sites where artists can gain visibility and make sales.
In Step #3 she recommends several companies that specialize in providing websites for artists. In Step #4 she tells you how to add more advanced features to your site, such as automated phone calling and buy buttons, ways to accept credit card payments from buyers, as well as and how-to make your website Smartphone and iPad accessible.
Once you have your free or paid portfolio site set up you are ready to advance to Step #4— using social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIN and Google+ to bring visitors to your website.
The author also covers building an email contact list, creating and sending newsletters, and the importance of blogging and micro-blogging (on Twitter and Tumblr) to increase traffic to your site. Plus, how to use videos and animations to capture attention in your newsletter and on social media.
In the section headed Step #6: Get Found, the author explains the basics of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and how to make your website “search-engine friendly.” In Step #7: Don’t Forget the Power of Print Promotion and Publicity she covers business cards, post cards—what to include on them and where to get them printed–plus, how to write a press release that will get your local newspaper to feature your artwork.
The final section, which focuses on sales in online marketplaces, provides links to a variety of print-on-demand art sales communities.
Artist Marketing Resources 
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