Artist Marketing, Branding, Social Media
Showcasing your art on social media for the first time can definitely seem a little overwhelming, especially when there are so many myths surrounding artist marketing that paint it in a bad light. But we’re here today to debunk those myths and let you know why marketing your work on social platforms is a smart move, as well as an essential part of being an artist today. Think of this as a little sneak peek of our #ArtistMarketing webinar on Jul 25 @3pm
1. Using Social media for Artist Marketing is “Selling Out”
This is probably one of the biggest things we hear from our clients at SMA. While you may think that putting your work up on social media is the equivalent to selling your soul to the big marketing machine, it really isn’t. It’s simply the way that things are done today, and it’s an absolute critical process in getting your work in front of the right sets of eyes. Merely using word of mouth and telling friends and family is just not enough anymore.
The tools now exist to show your art to the right audience with ease, and plenty of artists are taking advantage of this. If you are truly serious about turning your passion into paychecks, then accepting this reality and getting on the same level of your competition is a necessity. With proper planning and execution, your online artist portfolio can still hold true to your creative self image, and after time, the only thing you’ll see that your selling is your work itself.
2. Artist Marketing Takes Too Much Time
Would you say you have at least 10 mins of free time in a given day? Then you have enough time to market your art. Social media platforms have made it extremely easy to navigate and utilize their advertising tools with plenty of helpful tutorials and extremely user friendly interfaces.
Creating an advertisement on one of these tools typically takes no longer than 10 minutes if you know the type of audience you are looking to reach. After your ad has been created, checking it’s performance each week takes next to no time at all and can give valuable insights into how your post is doing, who is engaging with you, and ultimately who your new fans are.
Using social media management tools such as Hootsuite or Buffer are also great ways to help manage your time. Tools like these allow for posts to be scheduled with ease across multiple platforms at once, and allow you to monitor engagements and analytics of various social platforms all from one place; talk about a time saver!
Reserve my spot!
3. Artist Marketing Costs Too Much Money
If you have enough money to go buy that grande Starbucks latté every morning before work, then finding the money to market your art is the least of your worries! Paid advertising on social media can cost as little as a few dollars a day.
When creating a paid advertisement on social media, you get to set the maximum budget you wish to spend on that ad. Based off of the goals you aim to achieve as well as the advertising tool you are using, a specific algorithm will be used to put your ad in front of your target audience as frequently and efficiently as possible while staying within that set budget.
[Tweet “If you have enough money to go buy that grande Starbucks latté every morning before work, then finding the money to market your art is the least of your worries”]
4. People Online Might Steal My Art and Sell it as Their Own
If you’re just starting out in the world of social media and marketing your art, then this really isn’t something that you have to worry about. Unless you are a big time artist with an enormous following of thousands of fans, then worrying about somebody stealing your work and claiming it to be their own is not a pressing issue.
This almost certainly won’t happen
However, if it is concerning for you, using something like a watermark on your pictures or a disclaimer at the beginning of a musical track is something that can easily and quickly be done to prevent people from hijacking your masterpieces. Just keep in mind that an Instagram feed doesn’t look so pretty with watermarks. Consider the risk and act on it.
5. There’s Too Much Competition Stopping My Art From Reaching the Right People
We aren’t going to lie to you, you will have a lot of competition. But by using social media marketing tools to finely tune and define your target audience, getting your work to the right people is definitely an attainable goal.
Social media advertising tools such as Facebook Ads have changed the way that advertising is being done. Every time you go on a social media platform, you’re giving very valuable data about the pages you visit, your interests, hobbies, location, and so much more. All of this data is then utilized by these advertising tools to make finding the right target audience and marketing your work an absolute breeze.
For example, say you want to market your indie rock band that has a style inspired by artists like The Smiths and The Pixies; you can then use Facebook Ads to target people who are 1) Into indie rock, 2) Fans of The Smiths, and 3) Fans of the Pixies. This only scrapes the surface of the targeting options given to you on these social media advertising tools, but the end goal is a specific target that is best suited for your work.
See, artist marketing doesn’t seem so overwhelming now does it? We hope that this list eliminated some of the fears you may have had about presenting your work on social media, and that you feel confident and ready to create an online presence for your art. Thanks for reading and if you’re interested in taking your #ArtistMarketing skills to the next level – you don’t want to miss this webinar:
Reserve my spot!
Artist Marketing, Social Media, Twitter
What is Fringe Festival you ask? If we could sum it up in one word: amazing. Since it’s conception in 1989, Fringe Festival has aimed to support local artists by providing them with a platform to create theatre for the people, by the people. Today it is Ontario’s biggest theatre festival, showcasing over 150 plays at over 30 different venues in downtown Toronto throughout the month of July.
With so many great submissions from local artists all over, the festival has also made its fair share of success stories. Ever heard of the Toronto-based comedy show Kim’s Convenience? Probably not before Fringe Festival attendees did back in 2011 where it originally made its debut as a Fringe play. After receiving critical acclaim it was picked up by CBC as a comedy series, and is making it’s way to the big spotlight on the Broadway stage later this year!
But now it’s time to get to the real meat and potatoes of this post, which is why you (the artist) should be using Twitter to promote your play and create conversations around your work. Here are 5 ways you can promote your Fringe show on Twitter so that you can get your audience to come out and see it in person.
1. Create a Twitter Account for Your Show
Create an entire account for just my play? That sounds like a lot of work, isn’t that a bit much? NO. [Tweet “Creating an account for your work shows that it is something to be taken seriously and that it is a play worth tweeting about.”] It also gives your audience a platform to reach out to while funnelling dialogue to one location rather than only relying on your cast members to drive the conversation.
When creating your account, be sure to show off what the play is about! Include the name of your play in the bio along with a short description, as well as dates and times when it will be showing. Then make sure to promote, promote, promote! Use your personal page to promote this account page and let your castmates know to do the same. This is a sure-fire way to get your play the coverage it deserves.
2. Follow the Fringe Hashtag
Following the #FringeTO hashtag is an excellent way to constantly see what others are talking about in regards to events, plays, and the Fringe Festival itself. This gives you a great opportunity to add value to conversations, engage with other artists, and meet potential fans of your work!
Be sure to like, comment, and share with others, but be careful not to try and be too “salesy” when it comes to telling others about your play. Only promote your show when it seems appropriate. If someone is tweeting about how they lost their sunglasses at the festival and how it really bummed them out, promoting your show is a no no, but if someone is asking about play recommendations or looking for a specific genre that your play would fit into, then promote away!
3. Create a Custom Hashtag for Your Show
This one’s pretty straightforward. Creating a custom hashtag (usually as simple as #nameofyourplay) allows for dialogue to have a clear focus and for conversations around your play to be easily found through a standard hashtag search.
Additionally, the custom hashtag is a great way to run contests related to your play and to get people participating and engaging. Ideas could range from random tweet draws to photo contests where the hashtag must be used by every participant who enters.
4. Don’t be Afraid to Promote Your Show Online
Going back to the “promote, promote, promote” advice from earlier, this is a big one to take note of. [Tweet “Promoting your show should be just about as important as the show itself.”] Make graphics, share behind the scenes footage, show reviews and do whatever else you can think of to get your show in people’s minds and in front of people’s eyes.
Make your show personable and really let it come to life on Twitter. Let fans get to know your cast members, show them powerful or memorable quotes from the performance itself, and use writing in your tweets that encourage fans to retweet. These examples just scrape the surface of what you can do to promote your show, but whatever you do, be sure to keep everything consistent and true to your play’s image.
5. Build a Twitter List of Fringe-Worthy Followers
Last but certainly not least, building a Twitter list is a great tool that takes up hardly any time. Twitter has an AMAZING feature that lets you group together people/accounts that fit into similar segments or “lists” as they call it. You can then easily access these lists and see everyone who’s in it all at once.
Twitter Lists
So how would you use this feature to your advantage? By compiling a list of Fringe Festival organisers, supporters, performers and sponsors of course! This is a fantastic way to easily engage with fellow Fringer’s tweets and consistently be aware of all happenings related to the Fringe Festival.
And there you have it, 5 simple yet extremely effective ways to stay ahead of the promotion game when it comes to promoting your play this year. These tips shouldn’t replace all your marketing efforts, but it sure beats busking and handing out flyers all day; Happy Fringe 2017!
Branding, Pinterest, Social Media
It often seems that Pinterest is one of those social media platforms that can tend to fly under the radar for most brands. But to those who know how to use it, it can prove to be an amazing way to gain awareness and build a following in an online community that is filled to the brim with potential customers. Here are 10 of the Most Popular Pinterest Categories to be aware of in 2017.
It seems strange that there was once a time where the only recipes you knew were those passed on by friends and family, stored away in hardcopy on the pantry shelf. Today, the ‘Food and Drink’ category is one of the most popular Pinterest categories there is. Food bloggers can pin recipes, restaurants can pin their signature dishes, and every scrumptious find can be shared amongst friends and family at the touch of a button.
Now is the era of do it yourselfers! Whether it’s converting old junk into new treasures or making awesome crafts from scratch, having something that you’ve created yourself gives it so much more meaning, doesn’t it? For the resourceful types looking to sell their homemade crafts, or help others to make their own masterpieces, this is a great platform to let those creative juices flow.
Is this rug the right colour? What about these drapes? What in the world is Mid – Century Modern?
The majority of people aren’t interior designers/decorators, and when they’re in need of décor inspiration, they turn to sites like Pinterest for ideas. If you’re in the business of home décor, renovations, or any kind of interior design, then posting design tips, room themes and other decorating ideas to this enormous community is something that you should definitely be taking advantage of.
Women’s Fashion has always been one of the most popular Pinterest categories, and it is a great place to sell clothing. People are constantly on the hunt for what’s trending and what’s hot, and seeing pin after pin of new outfits and styles gets people in the buying mood! If you own a clothing store or make your own clothes by hand, this a fantastic way to build a following and showcase your designs to those who like to stay current.
Sometimes things get a little tough, sometimes they get very tough, but regardless of where your day falls on that spectrum, inspirational quotes are there to help! They’re also a great way to make your brand more personable. Showing your audience something other than your products/services lets them see your brand as one that cares about it’s customers, and you can’t put a price on that.
Staying healthy and staying fit is always important, but with more and more fitness apps launching regularly and an increased awareness of the benefits of an active lifestyle, this is a category that is growing in popularity every day. If you’re a personal trainer, a dietician, or in any other profession related to keeping in shape, then pinning posts like workout routines and methods for staying healthy are great examples of ways to reach your target audience.
It’s a no brainer that humor ended up as one of the most popular Pinterest categories on this list – I mean who doesn’t love a good meme to pick them up or a funny animal pic to brighten their day. This is another great way to personify your brand, and if you’re really clever, finding a way to somehow incorporate your brand into your funny posts can definitely make for a win-win situation.
In my experience, I’ve never met someone who doesn’t have at least SOME degree of wanderlust waiting to be fulfilled. Travel is a biggie on Pinterest, and if you’re a travel agent or even a travel blogger, posting gorgeous shots of locations and landscapes along with destination ideas/trip tips is a sure way to get into the heads and hearts of travel hungry followers.
Take me with you!
Welcome to the digital age! For all of you social media marketers and digital strategists, the ‘Technology’ category on Pinterest is a great way to make an impact with potential followers. Pinning infographics on relevant hashtags, strategies, social media tactics and more are all excellent ways to self promote and show potential clients that you’re someone who knows their tech.
Last but certainly not least on our list is the always popular ‘Hair and Beauty’ category. From nail art to spectacular hairdos, this category is a big one for anyone looking to showcase their cosmetic work. If you’re a make up artist, hairstylist, manicurist, or do any work under the ‘beauty’ umbrella, then this a fantastic place to let people see your talents and to build a following!
That concludes our “10 of the Most Popular Pinterest Categories” list, but take note that there are plenty of other categories with considerable followings, so take the time to research, plan, and post on those that would benefit your business the most. Hopefully this post will get you started off on the right track!
Which categories do you find yourself repining frequently? Share in the comments below!
Artist Marketing, Branding, Instagram, Social Media
Branding, Social Media
Here’s how Celebrities use Social Media :
Want to be a celebrity? Even if you don’t, it’s likely that celebrities influence your daily life in some way. Even if you aren’t one to follow pop-culture, you probably still know who’s in the latest box office hit or which A-lister is endorsing the newest Apple product (*cough*cough*, T. Swift.)
Celebrities are experts at cutting through the clutter on your various feeds to grab your attention. “But how do they do it?”. Below are 5 ways to use social media like a celebrity:
[Tweet “Celebrities are experts at cutting through the clutter on your various feeds to grab your attention”]
Use Social Media for Good
Celebrities have one (or more) causes they are passionate about. Pick a cause that’s genuinely close to your heart and retweet the heck out of it. Actor Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) is no stranger to this tactic. Self-described as a “climate change activist,” Mark often retweets organisations such as Climate Reality and Greenpeace USA to reinforce their message to his followers.
Other celebrities who heavily promote important causes are Emma Watson (Goodwill Ambassador for UN Women,) Leonardo DiCaprio (Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation) and Tom Hiddleston (UNICEF.) Why not use your fame to bring light to social issues? Ready? Set? Retweet!
Connect with Famous Friends
What good is being famous if the world doesn’t know which celebrity friends you hang with? Taylor Swift (@TaylorSwift13) is known for her celebutante posse, which includes stars such as Cara Delevigne, Selena Gomez and Blake Lively. Taylor loves to post pics of herself and her crew having grand times at exclusive events.
Swift also likes to make everyone on her well-known friends list feel appreciated with shout outs. If one of her many friends drops a new hit single or celebrates a birthday, an @ mention or a hashtag from Taylor is not far behind. You can follow her lead by highlighting your LinkedIn buddies’ achievements on their social media feeds. Celebrate the successes of your partners or collaborators by sharing their achievements.
Watch Your Tone
Celebrities use tone to attract and keep their target market. Actress Emmy Rossum (@emmyrossum) uses a sarcastic tone on Twitter. This is a good fit with her character, Fiona Gallagher from “Shameless.” This is a technique which appeals to her target fan base.
Another celebrity with an established tone Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) sticks to a light-hearted, family-friendly tone which is portrayed both in her show and her social media presence.
Celebrities sometimes vary their tone across different social media platforms. Ellen chooses to post the same content with the same tone among all of her social media platforms. However, Emmy uses her Twitter for more promotional material, while her Instagram is more like a visual diary, revealing a more relaxed and personal side.
Have you considered using different tones for your business’ various social media platforms? Use your Instagram to show off your brand. Reserve your Facebook account for promotions. Keep your tone consistent within each medium.
Build Your Brand
The Kardashians are Kweens (excuse the alliteration, the Kardashians love alliteration) of self-promotion. Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) built her empire on social media. Practically everything Kim and the others Kardashian touch turns to something they can promote. Sure, there might be an occasional photo of North West thrown in, but it’s nearly impossible to scroll down Kim’s Twitter timeline without seeing something related to her.
If you’re an artist or performer, make sure to promote upcoming shows and events. Social media is not the place to be shy!
[Tweet “Practically everything Kim and the others Kardashian touch turns to something they can promote”]
Connect with Your Fans
Fans used to only be able to connect with their favourite celebrities via magazines and pop-culture television. These days, fans are getting nearly constant access to behind the scenes snippets of their favourite stars’ lives. Fans feel like they have a more personal connection to those admire. Some celebrities, like Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande), take the time to write a simple happy birthday message to a follower.
Perky responses to your clients’ and followers’ comments show you appreciate their feedback. Make them feel more of a connection by posting behind the scenes moments of your day! Remember, fans are invested in the process as much as the final product.
![[FREE] Webinar for Artists – How to Sell Yourself Without Selling Out](https://www.thesocialmediaartist.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Webinar-FB-Ad-1080x628.jpg)
Branding, Social Media
Marketing Your Art vs. Selling Out – A Special Webinar for Artists
Hello, Lara from The Social Media Artist here with an exciting announcement for all my artists!
Marketing your art can be overwhelming. Is it possible to sell your work without sounding cliché and insincere? Luckily, I’ve teamed up with The Black TCK to show you that it is not only possible, but also very achievable! Get ready for an information packed webinar coming your way Thursday September 15th, 3PM EST for all you wonderful, beautiful and inspiring artists.
Sign Up Now!
Introduction: The Black TCK and The Social Media Artist
Let’s introduce the dream team! First we have Tese Omesan, also known as The Black TCK! Tese helps creatives and businesses stand out in an overwhelming marketplace. She achieves this through authentic and unorthodox story-telling. A significant part of what she does is changing how marginalised groups are perceived, especially non-men and black women – pretty cool eh?
And of course you know me; Lara from The Social Media Artist. I love telling online stories and am passionate about helping those in creative businesses strategically and creatively tell their stories online. I’ll help you connect with your dream audience and share your art on social.
Who should attend this webinar?
A few examples of those who would benefit from this webinar are:
- Visual Artists
- Theatre Directors
- Film Producers
- Dance Studio Owners
- Fashion Designers
- Musicians
- Actors
- Web Designers
- Freelance Marketing Specialists
- Singers
The list goes on! If you are a passionate creative who wants to turn their favourite pastime into a career, please join us!
Yes, I’m Interested!
In this webinar, expect to:
Debunk myths about marketing vs. selling out.
You don’t have to succumb to starving artist syndrome to do what you love. Connect with people who want to support you and your work. Establishing connections is extremely important. Why not connect with those who are actually interested in your art. Consider diversifying your revenue stream so eventually your art pays you!
[Tweet “Creating content for your business is art. It’s storytelling, just in a different medium.”]
Understand that business and art can work together seamlessly.
A lot of artist feel that making their foray into the business world takes time away from actually creating art. If this is how your feeling, think of it this way! Creating any content for your business is art. It’s storytelling, just in a different medium. For example, a well thought out, sharp looking Instagram page sure looks like art to us!
Be introduced to tools that make your life easier
So you’re not a techie? Don’t sweat it! There are tons of helpful and easy-to-use tools out there to help your business stand out and run smoothly. We’ll share our favourite tools for creating graphics and scheduling your content so you don’t have to do most of the grunt work yourself!
Learn what your bare minimum is to survive in the online world
It doesn’t have to be overwhelming to promote your work online. It only takes three mandatory essentials to survive in the digital space:
- Have your own website: No matter how much you’re promoting your work, people need a place to land. Your website is your home base. It’s a place for consumers to interact with you on a professional level and get a feel for what you’re all about.
- Produce social media content: Show your target audience what you can do! Are you a visual artist? Post your latest piece of artwork! Are you an actor? Post a behind the scenes video of your rehearsal process. Retweets, shares and likes create positive buzz around your work.
- Your sales funnel. How do you create a sales funnel that is tasteful and very you? Whether you are working with sales pages and/or email marketing, we will help you define a process that works for you!
Learn how to create content in the medium that works for you
There sure are a lot of platforms out there to promote your work. How do you choose which ones are the best for you and your business? We’ll help you select the appropriate social media channels to promote your art on. Remember, it’s always better if you can rock a few social media channels then trying to be active on all!
[Tweet “Remember, it’s always better if you can rock a few social media channels then trying to be active on all!”]
Learn how to sell your art by still sounding genuine and without selling out.
Of course you want to promote your work, but you don’t want to annoy the heck out of your friends and family in the process. The best way to do this is to strike a 30/70 balance. 30% of the content you post should be promotional, while the other 70% should be inspirational. Your audience is much more likely to form a genuine bond with you in your business if they feel like you care about their needs. It’s not fun to be constantly sold to!
These are just a few of the juicy topics we will be covering in detail. There will also be plenty of time for Q&A, remember this webinar is for YOU so come with plenty of questions!
DATE: Thursday September 15, 3PM EST
Sign Me Up!
