I was going to concentrate this next post on how to get started online with Facebook for those of you who aren’t on there yet and have been considering it and weren’t sure how to get started. Then I came across a blog post by Alyson Stanfield, a well-known author, blogger and coach who teaches artists valuable skills to help with their career.
Alyson outlined some great info in a blog post from last fall so I thought I would share that with you. She covers setting up a Facebook business page if you are already on Facebook personally. Check out her blog post here.
Below is a step-by-step of how to get started if you’re not currently on Facebook. You do not need a personal account to set up a business page, however functionality is somewhat limited without having a personal profile, so you may want to set up both.
From the Facebook homepage you can get started with a personal profile by filling out the info on the homepage and clicking on Sign Up. If you start with a personal profile then check out Alyson’s blog post for how to set up a business page after that. The steps below outline starting with a business page first.
1. Go to the Facebook homepage and click on Create a Page
2. Select Artist, Band or Public Figure
3. Choose a category from the drop-down menu, such as ‘Artist’ then type in your name. If you also have a personal profile you may want to add a descriptive word to your Name for the Business page, such as:
- Art of …
- Joe Black artist
- Henry Smith sculptor
After you have set up your page you will want to check out Alyson’s post about 3 most critical items for your Facebook page.
Tags: facebook business page, getting started on facebook for business
Email marketing is a fantastic way to keep in contact with collectors and to grow a contact list of people interested in your work. Further to my previous post, here are 12 things to keep in mind with your e-mail marketing efforts.
- Send emails no more than once a week – more than that will be annoying and they won’t get read.
- Use for important announcements – if you send an email every time you complete a new painting it will become monotonous. Sending a newsletter once a month saying “5 new paintings” and an invitation to an upcoming show will be much more exciting and effective.
- Use compelling subject lines – it is harder & harder to get people to open emails so make the subject line interesting so they will be compelled to open it.
- Include images – your work is the reason they are interested and signed up for your email list. Show your best.
- Don’t give everything in the email – you want to provide a teaser then send them to your website for more information. For example, show one image of your new work then direct them to your website to see more.
- The email address you send from should have your website domain in it – info@janedoe.com promotes your website address and is more professional than a generic address such as janedoe27@telus.net.
- Don’t share your email list with others – with spam and strict privacy laws this is extremely important! Don’t send to multiple email addresses in the ‘to’ line where everyone can see who the email is going to. Put email addresses in the ‘bcc’ field (blind carbon copy) or use an email system that sends the emails for you. Also, don’t sell or share your list with anyone, and don’t send something to your contacts they didn’t ask for.
- Follow privacy laws – legally you are required to provide a way for people to unsubscribe in every email you send out and if you collect personal information you should include a privacy policy on your website.
- Track your email response – how many people open the emails, click through to the links you provide, and request info about your work? This shows the things people are interested in and if your newsletters are effective.
- Use an email system – This will make things a lot easier for you. It maintains a database of your customers including subscriptions & unsubscribes, provides reports on how many people open emails and click through to your website, etc. You can even set up a template that matches your website so it’s all branded the same. MailChimp, GoDaddy’s Express Email Marketing and Constant Contact are a few popular services available (MailChimp is free up to 2000 emails).
- Ask people for their email address – people who express interest in your work and who you meet at art fairs, exhibitions, galleries, etc. Also, give people the ability to sign up for your newsletter on your website, blog, Facebook page and any other pages you maintain online. It gives you the control rather than giving out your information and waiting for them to contact you.
- Get everything working together – If you have a website, blog, Facebook page, Twitter account and any other areas where people can find you online, provide links to all of those items on everything – each website, your email newsletters, in your business email signature, etc. Make it easy for people to find out how they can connect with you and to join. Also, offer a link to forward or share with a friend to encourage people to spread the word.
Tags: email marketing
Email marketing is a fantastic way to keep in contact with collectors and to grow a contact list of people interested in your work. With so many ways to reach potential collectors – such as through the web, Facebook, Twitter, blogging, art shows, workshops and more – if you can ask people for their email address in all of your marketing methods then you can send information directly to people’s inbox. Through website, Facebook and blog activity you can track how many visitors you get and where they are from but you don’t know for sure who they are and what their interest level is. Having people’s email addresses puts the control in your hands rather than putting your information out there and waiting to see if people come to you.
It’s like handing out a business card without receiving contact information in return. You don’t know if that person will ever visit your website, or they may forget they have your card and remember to look you up six months down the road when they happen to find it again. Do you want to leave that all to chance or do you want to be able to email them right away and say how pleased you were to meet them and to be able to keep them up-to-date on what you’re doing on a regular basis? What do you think will be more effective in getting people engaged in what you’re doing and possibly getting a sale from it?
I encourage you to use an email marketing program if you are ready to start sending newsletters or if you aren’t currently using one for your newsletters. There are so many benefits to using an email system such as Constant Contact, MailChimp, GoDaddy’s Express Email Marketing, etc. I have used most of the popular systems available and my favorite is MailChimp. I will tell you why:
- It’s FREE! – If you don’t mind having the little MailChimp logo at the bottom of your newsletter then it is free until your list grows to include 1000 emails.
- It’s easy to use – It comes with a lot of templates already set up for you that include links to social media, forwarding to a friend, etc. All you have to do is choose one then change the pictures and colors.
- It is automated saving you time! – Once it is set up and you have the signup form on your website, people simply fill in the information and click submit. They are automatically added to your list in the system for the next time you send out a newsletter, and it gives people the option to unsubscribe (a legal requirement) or to update their own information.
- It has autoresponders – Rather than people having to wait for your next newsletter, you can set up an email to automatically be sent to people a day or two after they sign up for your list, such as a welcome email with some helpful or interesting information about you, info about a contest or giveaway, etc. It’s a nice way to welcome people without having to manually send something yourself.
- Everything can be tracked – This is one of the best parts. After you send an email you can check back a few days or a week later to see how many people opened the email, what links they clicked on, if they forwarded it to a friend, etc. You can try different things and track it to see what works and what doesn’t.
- Integrated with social media – In mailchimp you can link to your Facebook and Twitter accounts so that when you send an email you can choose to automatically have that same information posted to Facebook and Twitter. A great time-saver!
And last but not least, when you are logged into MailChimp there is a monkey at the top of the screen that displays different comments such as “I like your shirt today!” How could that not make you smile?
I received the latest issue of Canadian Brushstroke Magazine yesterday. Near the end it asked for feedback on a few questions, a couple of which were:
- What is art?
- Is there such a thing as bad art?
Those are very interesting questions and ones often asked.
It so happens that I have a copy of an article titled “There is no art for art’s sake: The blossoms are ghosts at the wedding” written by Tom Jay in 1986 that explores the question of “what is art?” quite in-depth. I don’t know where it was originally published as I received a copy of it from Bill Reese. As I was preparing to send the full article to Brushstroke Magazine I thought it would be good to share with you as well. I’m going to give you a few excerpts from the article with a link to the whole thing. I know it will spark some thought and I would love to receive your feedback.
“I realize that although I know when a piece is ‘art’ I can’t always explain my perception. Perhaps it is because art has become an all inclusive and hence blurry term. It no longer deepens our experience or vitalizes our understanding. We only vaguely know what we mean when we say art. No one dares ask ‘What is art?’” …
“Terms are boundary-like: they offer containment and perspective in the landscape of thought. The term art has been spread so thin, its edges moved so far out that it can no longer bear meaning. Anything can be art, the icicle stuck in the lawn, the moustache on the billboard beauty: if anything is art nothing is art.” …
“If art is entirely relativised it will be meaningless and hence a term of derision. But we use the term art because it can still provide the boundaries to frame an essential human experience. Part of this essay’s work is to firm and affirm the word art, praise the animal in its place, recall its thing, re-survey the term, recaulk the craft so it may ferry soul.”
I hope those clips have peaked your interest. As you can see, he has a way with words while being poignant about what he is saying. Here is the complete 3-page article so you can read it in its entirety. Please share your thoughts by clicking on the “Comments” link below.
