Artists and the Internet Part 2: Websites & Social Networking

I’d like to share some of my experiences and thoughts on the internet and how it’s affected my creativity and art.  I’ll cover blogs, domains, websites, social networking, electronic newsletters, on-line sales and taking electronic payments.   There may be something you, the reader, are interested in, shared, or experienced yourself; but also I hope to dissolve some of the intimidating mystery and perhaps make it feel more accessible. 

Read Part 1: Blogs & Domains here. 

Websites

A website is different than a blog (discussed previously) and serves a different purpose.  Any business, organization, or establishment that wants to be seen by the public will have a website.  It’s like a storefront, really, in what can frequently seem like a parallel universe.  The good news is that now websites are easy to do yourself, whereas in the recent past you had to be able to use html, which is the programming language.  If you are interested in something fancy, you might have better luck paying a designer, but the initial design work and the upkeep can turn into a sizable expense.  Now, there are site packages that are as easy to use as blog sites.  My art site donnalouisefaber.com resides on Squarespace.  For $14.00 per month, I get everything I need to “create an exceptional website”, such as (in their words): 

• Beautiful and appropriate templates that could be indicative of the look and design of your work.
• Pages, galleries, and blogs all in one platform.
• Cutting edge creative tools that enhance the look of your site.
• Auto-publishing to social networking sites, if you want it.
• All kinds of buttons that connect you easily to the rest of the internet.
• Mobiles sites that are built in (no special effort required).

 I like the galleries I have available on Squarespace, and because I frequently blog about my work, the blog options are perfect for me.

There are free website builders out there, like Weebly, which has outstanding options.  Ask your fellow artists what they use or recommend before committing to any one site builder.  To an artist, a website means visibility, and unless you do art only for personal satisfaction, visibility is most important.

Social Networking

It would be a gross personal mishap to under-estimate the power of social networking. Any media tool that can break not only the global time barrier, but the global culture divide has got to be the most powerful communication tool in current history.  If the internet is a parallel reality, then social networking is its mental telepathy.  It can be a powerful marketing tool for the artist. 

I first noticed social networking when MySpace emerged.  But as MySpace turned into a meat market (gross), Facebook grew in refinement and in sheer number of users.   

But what is Facebook?  Think of Facebook as a great hall of seminars.  No, not a hall, a world of seminars. And they’re all happening at once.  Everyone on Facebook has their own seminar (aka their account), and if you want to let someone into your seminar, you must “friend” them.  Once you’ve friended someone and they’ve accepted, you can share a conversation. The more people you “friend”, the more people hear what you might have to say.  Remember, unless you tell it otherwise, your Facebook account (your seminar) has no security measures and is open for anyone to see. If you would rather have your conversations seen only by your “friends” (not a bad idea these days), be sure to change your security parameters, which is easy to do.  My “friends” on Facebook aren’t all complete strangers, although many are.  I’ve got cousins, aunts and uncles, old high school friends, Art Guild members, and more.  I’ve friended many other artists from all over the country, commercially success artists, who are willing to share, too, so I learn a lot.

One of Facebook’s coolest and handiest options for the artist is called a “Page”.  A “Page” is used for “business” purposes and is different than an account, although you must have an account in order to create a Page.  People can subscribe to your page to see what you’re offering, and more people viewing your page means greater exposure.  You might promote your page on your account, post links to your website, or post a link to a specific piece you just finished and put on your website.

When using Facebook to draw people to what you do, the possibilities are endless.  I post a lot of my art on Facebook, along with some jewelry and other crafty things.  Out of everything I create, I have the most fun making custom greeting cards.  I use stickers and paper, and it’s all very quick, easy, fun and happy – like a trip to the bar for a cocktail.   To me, it’s a lot different than doing a full scale piece of art, which is like a marriage, requiring lots of hard work and compromise over an enduring time period.  I’ve sold most of my custom cards over Facebook!  I process the money primarily using PayPal (which we’ll get into in the next article).  I’ve also sold jewelry, prints, and received commissions, as well, but people look for my cards on Facebook. 

While Facebook can be a powerful and free marketing tool for the artist, it can lots of fun, as well.  There’s nothing quite like receiving 50+ happy birthday wishes on your birthday. You probably don’t know most of the people doing so, and it’s not like they’re sending money in the mail, but still – it sure feels good!

Twitter is another on-line social networking site that is equally as powerful as Facebook, but in a different way. When you sign up on Twitter, you get one line at a time and 40 characters to make your post or “tweet”.  Characters are strokes on a keyboard, such as a letter, a space, and any punctuation.  All tweets are published in real time (i.e., if you’re following a relative in Paris, it doesn’t matter when they tweet because you can see it the moment they do).

Twitter’s greatest advantage is the use of hashtags.  Hashtags are the letters at the end of a post, and they begin with a pound sign.  For example, if you’re tweeting about the show “X-Factor” and you write something like “Britney is an awesome judge! #xfactor”, that hashtag at the end makes your tweet sortable and therefore countable! Twitter’s power lies in the ability to measure the public’s opinion about most anything (including the Presidential election).  Like Facebook, your Twitter account can be public or private, and you must “follow” someone or something in order to see their tweets in your timeline.

I spent about two years tweeting before I got bored with Twitter, but I know people who love it and prefer it over Facebook.  While I believe it might not be the best marketing tool for some of us, it is a very powerful tool, powerful enough to affect profound change on the global cultural landscape.

Shortly after I became comfortable with Facebook and Twitter, I noticed Google+ and Pinterest (and this isn’t a historical timeline).  Google+ (aka google plus) was Google’s response to Facebook’s success.  It’s a little neater looking, but essentially the same.  When it was launched there was a lot of talk about it on line, and some hardcore Facebook users got on board, but out of the 300 plus friends I have on Facebook, only one person I know of migrated to it completely.  I don’t use Google+, but potentially it could have the same marketing power Facebook has.  Pinterest is an on-line bulletin board where you can post pictures and folks can comment.  It seems to be gaining popularity, but has nowhere near the 955 million users currently on Facebook.  I’ve thought about posting some of my art on Pinterest, but I’m not sure how I feel about it yet.

Last cool points: Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest can be connected. You can do a post on Twitter and it’s automatically posted to Facebook. When you “like” a picture on Pinterest, your activity will post to Facebook.  So, a user isn’t doomed to posting the same thing two and three times.

If Facebook seems intimidating to you, keep in mind that you can learn at your own pace and gain confidence gradually.  If you can handle email, you can handle Facebook and all of these social networking sites.  You get out of it what you put into it, and over time, you’ll reap its rewards.  I’ve experienced  the marketing power of Facebook firsthand, and I recommend it heartily for any artist who’d like to see his or her work take a bigger step out into creation.

In the next and last post of this series on “Artists and the Internet” we’ll cover electronic newsletters, making sales on line, and taking electronic payments.  You can read the first article in this series here.

By  AGP Board Secretary, Donna L. Faber at donnalouisefaber.com .