New media/social media is endless: There’s always something else to do. Especially for artists, who’d rather do art, social media can be daunting. The trick to being effective & efficient via new media is to be organized. Here’s a roadmap to guide you:
Stage 1: Focus on your website
You want to drive traffic to your site, the whole point of SEO.
Be wary of creating content that doesn’t benefit you directly, a la Etsy.
Stage 2: Your blog & email newsletter
Showcase YOU! as an artist, you are your brand.
When platforms go out of fashion, you’ll still have a repository of all the great content you’ve produced.
Take content from your blog to feed your email newsletter.
Stage 3: Social media
First, secure your brand names across the major platforms.
Then figure out where you target audiences are to determine where to focus you efforts.
Develop an editorial calendar & create multimedia content to post to your blog & relevant social platforms.
Watch the videos for more details.
Stage 4: Optimize & measure
You’ll never know what’s working and what’s not if you don’t check.
There are multiple tools and options, techie & non-techie to watch for trends and see where you’re falling flat.
Tools and platforms mentioned
Pinterest, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google+, website, blog, email newsletter, MailChimp, WordPress, keywords, metatags, titles, descriptions, Google Alerts, Google docs, Wikimedia Commons, FourSquare, QR codes, Bitly, Google Analytics, Klout, Eventbrite, Hootsuite, SurveyMonkey, Etsy.
I hope you find these video clips helpful. They were requested by Rutgers University adjunct professor Marshall Sponder, author of the “Social Media Analytics” book.
Remember, the best part about new media is it levels the playing field. Even with a small budget, you can have a big impact.
What’s your new media advice for artists?
About Suzanne McDonald
Thank you for this Suzanne! I have shared with my Rutgers students and I hope they all come here and thank you – the help is much appreciated and the videos are very good and helpful for the students – and anyone who is setting up new media and is an artist.
The video was very helpful, thank you so much for putting it up for our class.
Oh you’re most welcome. Happy to answer any additional questions as well. Thanks for taking the time to comment Latasha!
Thanks for the great idea Marshall, was great fun to do & I’m always keen to help artists (and others) utilize social media. Consider how much exposure used to cost!