Are you wasting time on social media sites?
I’m not implying that you shouldn’t be on those sites. I’m just wondering if you’re using them to their potential.
It’s not that you need to be posting and sharing more. It’s that you should make sure your ROI (return on investment) is worth it for you. In other words, you should invest in quality, not quantity.
If you don’t, you might be wasting time.
Mindful sharing will bring you more friends, more shares, and more likes, which results in more people to buy your art or to offer you opportunities.
Here are some tips to help ensure that you’re spending time wisely online.
Pick Your Platforms
You don’t have to be everywhere. You don’t have time to be everywhere! Select social media platforms that you find engaging and/or worthy, and use them to the best of your ability.
If you strongly dislike a platform, you won’t be good at it.
Be Social
It ain’t called social media for nuthin’.
Social media is social. For that very reason, many people think it’s a waste of time. And it’s easy to fritter away your time if you’re not careful.
Focus! Remember that you’re making friends and building relationships.
Think of social media as a giant virtual art opening, but one where it’s easier to interact with strangers. Most people find it more comfortable to engage people through social media than to blindly approach them at an opening.
Make Strategic Connections
Don’t sit back and wait for people to find out about your art. Reach out!
Make strategic connections with people you want to know about your art. Friend, follow, and subscribe to the people, businesses, and organizations you want to build alliances with.
Go beyond liking posts and sharing them. Become part of the conversation by offering your opinions and experience.
Acknowledge People
People appreciate being singled out for the good they’ve done in front of a large audience.
Congratulate others for their honors, awards, and accomplishments. Brag on them in a post of your own. This also encourages your followers to follow them.
Help People
Jay Baer, author of Youtility: Why Smart Marketing Is About Help, Not Hype, says “If you sell something, you make a customer today. If you help someone, you may create a customer for life.”
Youtility, the marketing concept Baer advocates, is “marketing so useful that people would pay for it.”
How can you be useful to your connections? Here are some ideas.
Listen
Listening is the white-hot secret for generating content. It will make you smarter.
What’s hot in art circles? What do you have to contribute to that discussion?
Listen to the conversation around you. If you’re always in broadcast mode (telling people what you’re doing, what you’re selling), you aren’t being social – you’re being promotional.
At the same time …
Share Your Art
Let’s face it. You’re not on these sites because you don’t have anything better to do. You’re on them because you want to gain recognition and sell more art.
Post images and videos of every aspect of your artist’s life. Share your accomplishments.
People are following you for a reason, and it’s probably not because of what you had for lunch.
Tell them about your art!
You can’t pitch your work with every update without losing trust and fans, but remember that people are following you for a reason. They’ll be disappointed if they are the last to hear about what is new in your studio.
Interested in Specific Examples?
On June 4, 2015, I presented a live online training session for artists titled Social Sharing Savvy.
Sign up here for an encore presentation.
Alyson Stanfield is an artist advocate and business mentor at ArtBizCoach.com. This article was originally published in her Art Biz Insider, which is sent weekly to thousands of artists who are elevating their businesses. Start your subscription now and get Alyson’s six free art-marketing video lessons at artbizcoach.com.
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