Comments on: Deep Thought Thursday: What are you getting from Web 2.0?

By: Brit Hammer

Brit Hammer — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 16:26:14 +0000

Nothing beats face-to-face meetings, but once you meet someone, chances are they might want to know more about you. Who buys anything nowadays from someone they don’t “know” anyway? I would say it’s all about how one wants to use new media and what one wants out of it. The internet has allowed me to become very well known in the mosaic world, as I started using new media in 2002 and have constantly chipped away at it since then. This has gotten me invited to exhibit in shows where others have to go through a jury and invited to write articles for magazines, sometimes paid. The Internet allowed me to manage a successful international open call to artists for my latest book, Mosaic: Finding Your Own Voice, not to mention help get the word out about it, which resulted in the book being on the Blurb best-seller list for most of the first 8 weeks after release. Yes, it takes time to manage it all, but it takes time to build a brand. Few artists understand that they are their own “brand” – or know how to manage it. I’m on several sites – LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, have a blog (since 2006) and vidcast, among others. I use video to allow people to get a feel of who I am – to see me and hear my voice. If they want more info about me, my books, or my art, they can peruse my site. If they want to know what I think or what inspired a work, they can read my blog, which is also on my site. And if they only want to know my daily movements, it’s on Twitter. Everything is cross-linked to my site and well organized. In summation, I leave it to my audience to decide how they want to interact with me (or not) and how much information they want. And I do my best to make it easy for them. It’s all about so-called “user experience”…

By: cynthia

cynthia — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:57:38 +0000

I’m not sure I can quantify my use of social networking sites, but I can tell you I consider both to be networking and marketing tools. While not necessarily a social networking site, my blog has brought me tons of opportunities to sell work, network and to teach. I suppose in one sense it is a type of social network through the conversations I have with people and exchanging links with other blogs, but not along the same lines as FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, Flickr (which multi-tasks as marketing, photo storage, social networking), and more. I find FB much more useful than Twitter because a lot of times it really feels like people are just talking out loud to themselves.

By: Susan Fox

Susan Fox — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 01:29:51 +0000

Oh, almost forgot, I’m also on a site called Brushspace. It seems to be mostly artist-to-artist, but they’re from all over the world and we all post a gallery of our work, which is VERY cool.

By: Susan Fox

Susan Fox — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 01:25:56 +0000

Yes. I’m closing in on 90 blog posts (www.foxstudio.wordpress.com). Steady increase in traffic over the year. Clearly have a pool of RSS subscribers. Got a major feature post on another hugely followed blog (www.terriermansdailydose.com) a couple of weeks ago and still getting almost daily hits from it. (I sent him a jpeg of a painting of his favorite dog breed and he LOVED it.) I also comment regularly on another artist’s blog (www.julietchapman.com/blog/) and I get regular traffic from her site. Her latest post is about all this new networking stuff and how to find the time. Joined Facebook a month or so ago. Became “Friends” with a translator of Mongolian poetry who wrote, at my request, a couple of short essays for my blog and gave me permission to reprint the poetry. This is driving visitors who are looking for Mongolia stuff, not necessarily art, but now they’ll see that, too. Have also become Friends on Facebook with art school classmates (Academy of Art, Class of ’89), art school teachers and a well-known landscape artist I met at a workshop, because of Alison’s observation that other artists are critical to career development and can make it happen for someone like me. Plus, equally, it’s great to be in touch with them and see what they are up to. Both the blog and Facebook are now part of my marketing plan, and I didn’t bother with either until I figured out that they could be and should be. Every entry relates to the plan in some way. I am about to start listing small, original “Studio Studies” (6″x8″ to 8″x10″ oil paintings) on EBay and hope to use the blog and Facebook to drive traffic there (y’all are welcome to check ‘em out) and, hopefully, sales. It will also be an excuse, along with the holidays, to start up the email artzine I let lapse when I began to blog (stupid, stupid. I know.) I think it’s like weaving a web where all the threads link to each other and, eventually, lead to sales, because people have gotten to know me and what I’m about as an artist from reading about my travels and how I do what I do. So, what I’m wondering: Is part of the problem that “I’m doing a blog, where are the sales?” in a passive kind of way? As opposed to linking the networking sites to very specific buying opportunities? Which is what I’m going to try. We’ll see.

By: Laura K. Aiken

Laura K. Aiken — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 19:36:47 +0000

I am apart of Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxco and have two blogs, oh and Etsy. I have met incrediable people that I would have never met otherwise. I get lots of hits but no sales, yet. I spend way too much time on the computer and really wonder if it’s a waste of time. Last year I made a point to pay closer attention to my community, but I think I will have to revisit that idea again this year. I will say that all my commissions except one has come from my webite. It is invaluable in this day and time. So glad someone asked this question, I have been going over and over this in my mind………IS THIS WORTH ALL THE TIME AND EFFORT!

By: Mary Richmond

Mary Richmond — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 17:21:10 +0000

Oh, forgot to say I get the most online sales from my website.

By: Mary Richmond

Mary Richmond — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 17:20:34 +0000

This is a great issue to look at because it can be very easy to waste time on the internet. I have many sales from my blog, some from Flickr and this week a few from Twitter. I have to set a kitchen time for myself so I don’t lose studio and other work time to cruising these sites….

By: ken swinson

ken swinson — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 12:50:04 +0000

I keep a blog, facebook, and twitter. They are great tools for staying in touch with friends and collectors. Often, at shows, I have met people for the first time, and they already know about my latest goings on…and they came to the show because they heard about it online. I also use flikr and deviantArt. They are both great social networks for artists. They are great ways to communicate with other artists and get input on your work

By: Wendy Edsall-Kerwin

Wendy Edsall-Kerwin — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:53:30 +0000

I just listed about this not that long ago on my blog, but I’ll reinterate here. I’ve had a lot of traffic directed to my blog from twitter and my blog actually got me a webradio interview before one of my craft shows. (This resulted in a sale to the interviewer!) Through Facebook and twitter I keep up with my real world networking group, have met people who live near me, and have stayed connected to the artists I’ve met online. My blog (and blog surfing) has connected me with other artists and gives me an outlet to talk about what I’m doing with my work. I also participate in an online artists networking site, crafthaus that has enabled me to see a lot of other really great metalworkers that are out there, but not famous enough for me to have found them through print articles. I’ve also found out about a new Pittsburgh gallery that I submitted to through it (Yet to hear back, keep your fingers crossed!). So far I’m still new with linkedin and haven’t found too much of a benefit yet. It’s fun and sometimes sucks me in, but hopefully it keeps my name out there at the very least.

By: Lyn Bishop

Lyn Bishop — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:10:14 +0000

Wow! All these comments are fantastic. I find that my Twitter posts that are automatically fed into my Facebook and Plaxo account is an effective way to drive traffic to my blog and website. The real question for me is what about the art portfolio community sites? I’m really wondering how to make the most of them. I think the reason why Twitter and Facebook are effective to some degree is because of the diverse community, but what about the “artreview.com” and “myartspace.com” types of community sites? It will be interesting to watch how this all plays out. Thanks Alyson for asking the quesiton.