by Frank Hamilton, Guest Blogger - As an artist, you want to be able to promote your art with all the tools available at your disposal. The smartest and most cost-effective method is through the use of social media.
Pinterest is a visual social media network that allows users to discover, engage, and share new interests. It is one of the best social media platforms for artists because of its visual nature.
Below are six (6) tips for promoting your work on Pinterest.
1. Make your Pinterest account a Business page
Creating a business account on Pinterest is one of the first ways to promote your art on the platform. This gives you access to indispensable features that the regular account does not have, such as the option to advertise, and analytics.
Being able to advertise your artwork enables your art to reach a broad audience. Analytics is vital because it helps you get proper feedback and gauge what art lovers or Pinterest users find interesting. With this feature, you can view your daily & monthly viewers, daily impressions, and monthly engaged followers.
To create your business account on Pinterest, go to your account where you will see the option to convert your account to a business account if however, you do not have a Pinterest account go to “business.pinterest.com.”
2. Pin your Artwork
Your pins are an essential part of your Pinterest account. You must utilize all the functionalities available to you, which includes a proper title and description.
Getting a lot of views, re-pins, and comments are vital if you intend to reach a broad audience. Reaching a wide audience is paramount to getting more traffic on your website.
A helpful tip when pinning your artwork is your Pin should be tall, not wide, this enables your art to be fully visible at a glance. The recommended ratio for the art you pin should be 2:3.
3. Use Appropriate keywords in your title or description
Pay attention to the keywords you use in the title and description of your Pin. This goes a long way to make sure your work is displayed when Pinterest users are searching for your kind of content. It is important to note that when you use keywords, make sure you do not use spammy keywords.
Before you use any keyword, do your research. It is crucial to decide on the appropriate keyword(s) before you create any content.
An excellent way to decide on the best keyword is to type "art" or other relative words in the Pinterest search bar. Pinterest will bring up a lot of alternative keyword suggestions that are commonly used when people type the word art. This way, you will know the best keywords to use.
4. Add a Call to Action on your Pin
This is a direction/instruction you give to Pinterest users to help decide the next step or action. It is essential to include a call to action when creating your Pin. You can add a call to action either on the image or on the description.
Depending on your goal, your call to action should be structured in a way that users can easily understand and follow. For example, if you want users to get redirected to your website to view your art, you need to add a call to action button that redirects users to your website.
5. Engage with your community and other Pinterest users
Building and engaging with a community on Pinterest is one of the best ways for users to view your art. To build a community, you need to follow other users and lovers of art; this will encourage other users to follow you back. Also, comment and engage with users that re-pinned your art, ask for customers' thoughts, suggestions, and feedback on your art.
6. Pin consistently and at peak times
Consistency is critical if you want to promote your art on Pinterest. Pinning your art or repining other users' images daily drives views to your page. This also helps your board rank high in your desired category on Pinterest.
Pin also at peak times, which for U.S based pinners is in the evening and weekends. You can also pin in different languages by making use of tools such as The Word Point or Google translate. This makes sure your art reaches a broader audience.
Conclusion
Pinterest is a smart way for anyone serious about promoting their art to utilize. It is a very visual social media platform and provides a lot of functionality, which helps with promoting your art.
Frank Hamilton is a blogger and translator from Manchester. He is a professional writing expert in such topics as blogging, digital marketing and self-education. He also loves traveling and speaks Spanish, French, German and English.
This article is the first of several “Guides to Promoting” on social media platforms the we will be posting. In the coming weeks, look for additional articles for promoting your art on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Join our mailing list to be informed of new helpful art marketing articles and our online art competitions.
Every day we get inquiries from artists asking us how they can get their art noticed. If you are like most artists, there doesn't seem to be enough time to create, promote, market and sell your art. We, at Light Space & Time, believe that there are some relatively easy ways for artists to promote their work on a daily basis. Here are some ideas and tips that should make promotion easier and more effective for any busy artist:
Nothing to post? Find an interesting art related article and post that. See who comments and shares. Connect with them and their followers. The artist who does this every day will build a network of followers and get their art noticed quickly.
By Grace Carter, Guest Blogger - Grace Carter provides artists with ideas on how to create interest and buzz about their art through their social media networks.
Choose your platforms
It’s tempting to create a profile on every social media platform you can think of, but resist this temptation. Stick to platforms you are familiar with and feel you can use effectively. Only create as many as you can keep up with and provide good content for. This way you can also focus on figuring out what the best strategies are for the platforms you choose and excel in them.
Lots and lots of photos
Post lots of photos, whether it’s photos of your artwork or just relevant pictures of artists or artwork that inspire you. People are attracted to visuals, in fact, pictures are some of the most shared content on the internet. Think about the average person scrolling through a social media feed. What grabs their attention? Make sure when you post photos that they appear in the feed, not as a link that when clicked, takes the person to a new window or tab. People generally don’t like that. Ensure you’re using the optimal image size for the medium you’re using by following this guide.
Posting tips
Don’t expect to get on your social media account and just start posting away willy-nilly. Be smart about the way you post. If you’re posting on more than one platform (which you should be), don’t post the exact same thing to all the platforms. Mix it up a little bit, since you probably have a lot of people following you on more than one medium. If you're posting a shot of you starting a new project to Instagram, consider posting an updated photo (maybe when you’re halfway done) to Facebook. It’s a bit more work, but it gives people some motivation to follow you on multiple platforms. Of course, if you think you can only handle one or two platforms, then that is preferable to trying to keep up with more and getting boring and repetitive to people. Whatever you commit to, make sure you can do it well.
Use tags
Tags are the best way to get people to see your work. Tag your posts with as many relevant words as possible. Doing this will make it easier for search engines to direct people toward your posts. “The better you are at tagging your images, the better chances are you will gain new followers and patrons. This is one very simple step that is both easy to forget but also very powerful if done diligently and correctly,” advises Rose Harrelson, social media manager at EliteAssignmentHelp.
Learn from the pros
You can learn a lot from what successful posters are doing. Popular posters tend to be consistent, master the art of the cliffhanger, utilize ‘throwback’ posts, and use clean, top quality images. You’ll find even more useful strategies by looking closely at what they do; there’s a good reason for their success
Writing and editing your social media posts
#1. State Of Writing and Writing Populist - These are grammar guides that will help you ensure your posts are grammatically correct. You’re trying to show everyone that you’re a serious artist, but how can people take you seriously if you’ve got errors in your posts?
#2. Custom Essay and Essay Services - Proofreading is important. Having errors and typos looks unprofessional, and you don’t want that. Use these resources to make sure everything is proofread well.
#3. ViaWriting and SimpleGrad - Writing doesn’t come easily to everyone, so don’t hesitate to use these writing guides to help you along.
#4. Literature Assignment Help and Essayroo - You will find plenty of help at these online writing communities, suggested by AustralianReviewer in Bigassignments.com review. It’s better to get help from someone than to write bad copy on your own.
#5. MyWritingWay and AcademAdvisor - These useful writing blogs will provide lots of tips and inspiration for when you are writing your social media posts.
Conclusion
Social media is a great way to spread the word about your artwork, but you need to be smart about the way you use it. Choose your platforms wisely, remember to use plenty of photos, be strategic in the way you post, use tags, watch what the pros do, and put some time into writing and editing your posts. Follow these tips and you will create some serious buzz about your artwork on social media.
Grace Carter is an amateur artist and social media expert at Academized and PaperFellows services. She also provides tutoring assistance at Australian Assignment Service, where she helps students improve writing skills.
By YoungMi, Guest Blogger - Last year it was said that evenings from 7:00 to 9:00 pm was the best time for artists to post on Instagram.
In 2018, it seems that lunchtime from 12:00-1:45 pm is their best time to post on Instagram, followed by evenings from 7:00 to 9:00 pm.
But theories do not mean those are the best times to post for YOU!
Because every Instagram account has a unique audience, in different time zones, so it is important to determine what your individual best time to post on Instagram is.
When is the Best Time for Artists to Post on Instagram?
If you want to beat the Instagram algorithm in 2018, scheduling Instagram posts for when the majority of your followers are online is super important.
Not only does the algorithm care about how much engagement your Instagram post gets, it also cares about how quickly you get that engagement.
If you post at a time when most of your followers are online, you give yourself a better chance of being shown to your audience - quickly!
If your post gets a lot of likes and comments shortly after it's posted, this signals to Instagram that your Instagram post is quality content, and the algorithm will then show your post to even more of your followers!
By finding out your personalized best time to post on Instagram, you can hack the algorithm to increase your reach and get more likes and followers.
So how do you find out what is your own best time to post on Instagram in 2018?
Here are some general rules to follow about the best time to post on Instagram:
Instead of posting when you think, plan your Instagram posts
Save the important posts for weekdays: The differences are slight, but average Instagram engagement does shift depending on the day. According to my own research, Tuesdays and Thursdays tend to drive the most engagement, while Sundays drive the least.
Other Ways to Calculate Your Best Time to Post on Instagram
If you don't want to pay for a software or app to find out your best times to post on Instagram, you can also calculate them yourself manually.
Experiment with Posting Times and Measure your Progress
If you'd rather crunch the numbers yourself, you can create a spreadsheet to track how much engagement you receive when you post at different times on different days.
Start by picking five different times throughout the week.
For example, if you notice that your followers are most active between 5:00 and 9:00 pm, schedule your posts to appear at 5:00, 6:00, 7:00, 8:00, and 9:00 pm.
In your spreadsheet, track how many likes and comments each post receives, along with the date and time that you posted them.
The following week, switch the timing of your posts for each day. For example, if you posted at 5:00 pm on Monday in week 1, post at 6:00 pm during week 2.
It might take a few weeks, but you can use this information to help you choose the best days to share to specific networks based on your own audience, along with the times that work best for getting traffic on those specific days.
How to Schedule for Your Best Time to Post to Instagram?
Now that you know when your Instagram audience is most active, and how to drive the most engagement based on your audience's activity, the last step is to schedule your Instagram posts for your own best times to post on Instagram.
Regularity
By preparing your planning, you will be able to consistently have content going out at your best times to post on Instagram. Therefore, you will optimize your profile and attract new followers and engage with your current ones.
To be noted that some social media software can now auto-publish on Instagram. And they can even post at the best optimal time on your behalf.
You just have to select your posting times once, and then when you queue up your Instagram posts they will automatically be scheduled for your best times to post on Instagram.
And of course, if you use already a few automated publishing software, there is an app to help you more like "WhentoPost" or "Later", Hootsuite, Tailwind, and so forth. The costs of these platforms are between £3.99 and £ 39.
About the Author: YoungMi is the owner of The House of The Artists and since 2015, YoungMi has helped hundreds of artists, galleries, and art fairs to reach their digital marketing objectives.
Adding to her MA Marketing degree, she also studied Art Business & Management at Birkbeck University in London and at the Sotheby's Institute of Arts in New York.
YoungMi is based in London, and she speaks both English and French. – Her website is www.thehouseoftheartists.com/. This article post was originally published on The House of The Artists website: www.thehouseoftheartists.com/l/when-is-the-best-time-to-post-on-instagram
After entering art competitions and applying for group art exhibitions, suddenly it happens - your work is accepted! How do you leverage your art exhibition triumph?
Below are the five quickest and most effective for an artist to promote and leverage their success;
Post an Article on Your Website
Create and post an article on your website detailing information about the competition, the organization, how many artists and entries there were for this event, the theme and how you chose to submit this particular art for this competition.
Create and Distribute a Press Release
Create a professional press release announcing your exhibition success in the third person (as if someone other than yourself had written about this event).
We have articles and forms on our website that you can use as a template in writing the press release. Helpful Press Release Hints Here.
When that is completed, research online press release distribution companies and select someone to distribute the release for you. There are companies that will distribute a press release for as little as $15.00, depending on the type and amount of distribution that you want. Make sure that the press release targets the art industry and contains active links back to your website as well as to the art exhibition.
Send an Email to Interested People
Hopefully, you have been acquiring names and email addresses for people and visitors to your website and social media networks. Send these people a newsletter notice, a copy of a press release or a copy of your website article post.
Invite them to view your art or the exhibition online as well as in person. Provide dates, times, addresses, telephone numbers, and links. Use your winning art as a graphic for the email, newsletter, article post and the press release.
Post This Event on Social Media
In order to announce this event, post your article post, press release or YouTube Video on your social media networks multiple times at varying times of the day. Ask your friends to “share” these social media posts too. Be sure the post contains active links back to your website as well as to the art exhibition.
Create a YouTube Video and Promote It
Create a YouTube Video (Slide Show) about the art, the art exhibition, the opening of the show, etc. There are many free or inexpensive programs (Windows Movie Maker) you can use to create these.
Create a YouTube channel and upload and promote the video to your contacts, networks, and friends. You have the ability to share and distribute the video directly from YouTube.
There are additional ways in which an artist can promote and market their art exhibition success. But we believe that these are the most effective ways in which an artist can let the art world know about their art and their art exhibition.
In terms of expense, except for the professional press release distribution, these steps are free requiring only the artist’s time.
Reprinted by Permission by Elizabeth Harmon and the Social Media Explorer - 2018 is already rolling and if you haven’t done so already, now’s the ideal time to finally implement that social media strategy for your business. I know it can be daunting, but you really will benefit from having one in the long-term.
Of course, there will be things that crop up or change during the space of the year that will mean your strategy needs to adapt slightly. Social media itself is unlikely to remain the same for the next 12 months either. However, having a clear strategy for your social media now can really help you to know what you want to achieve moving forward and decide how you’re going to achieve it.
To help you get started with your social media strategy, here are 4 key questions people often ask, along with some answers:
1. What Is a Social Media Strategy?
In short, a social media strategy is like a business plan, but for your social media activities. When you first get started, it’s unlikely that you will have much of a plan and you will probably just post whatever comes to your mind that day. You may schedule a few posts about your products and include a few links back to your website. You may also spend endless hours just scrolling away, giving the occasional “like” here and there.
Being active on social media is great, but we all know that social media can be a massive drain on your time. Creating a social media strategy can help, though. Instead of aimlessly posting, liking and retweeting, all your activities are planned out and drive towards achieving your main objectives.
2. How do I Write a Social Media Strategy?
A social media strategy can be as detailed or as brief as you like. However, the more time you invest in your strategy, the more you will get out of it in the long-term. There’s no right or wrong way of writing a social media strategy, so do whatever you feel is the most beneficial for you and your business. I’d personally recommend starting by writing your strategy in a simple word document, or a PowerPoint presentation if you’re planning to present it to others later.
3. What Does a Social Media Strategy Include?
Objectives: The first thing you need to do is decide on your goals and objectives. These should usually fit with your overall marketing strategy so that your efforts on social media help to achieve your broader marketing goals.
Social media audit: Next, review your existing social media presence. Consider questions such as “How many followers do we have?”, “What content do we currently share?” and “How often do we post?”. It can also be valuable to look at three or four of your key competitors and ask yourself the same questions. This is a good way to see what your competitors are doing well at on social media (which can provide you with some inspiration) and discover areas where they are not performing as well (which can highlight possible pitfalls for you to avoid).
Social platform research: Look back at your business accounts again and think about which social media platforms you need to focus on. Before you decide, it’s important you’re clear on who your target audience is and the key demographics of various social media platforms.
You can also look back at your social media audit to see which channels your competitors are active on (and performing well on). Don’t forget that it’s important to focus on quality, not quantity. While there are so many channels to choose from, you may not be able to give all of them the attention required, so it may be better for you to prioritize a couple. That being said, you may want to set up an account on each platform, so your name is reserved if you decide to focus on that platform further down the line. By doing this now, you increase your chances of being able to secure the name you want, so your username is consistent across all your channels.
Posting details: Consider how often you will post on each platform and what that content should be. Your strategy should also include details of any hashtags you want to use, which accounts you want to align yourself with (by liking, commenting on and sharing their content) and which accounts you want to avoid aligning with (for example, those who promote a different message or don’t fit with what your brand is all about).
Evaluation: An important thing to consider is how you will measure your success. If you’re just starting out, you might want to use your Klout score to judge how your efforts are progressing. However, it’s important not to get too caught up in metrics and follower numbers. Although you do need to gain followers in order to have a voice, it’s more important that your social media efforts actually help to improve brand awareness and ultimately your sales.
4. When Should I Start Planning My Social Media Strategy?
There’s no time like the present to begin planning your social media strategy. It can be good to start the year with a fresh start and a clear plan of action. Have you been putting off creating a social media strategy for your business? It really doesn’t have to be daunting and can help you give more direction and focus towards your future social media activities.
About the Author - Elizabeth Harmon
Elizabeth Harmon is a writer for Open Colleges, one of Australia’s leading online education providers. She is a Social Media Consultant with a number of years’ experience in the field. She has worked with a growing list of clients around the world, helping to build successful social media strategies, create effective content and much more. You can also follow her on Twitter @Liz_Harmon.
"This article originally appeared on Social Media Explorer. Republished with permission." - original article on SME
Instagram is an accepted and effective way for artists to brand, market and sell their artworks. The main goals for artists when marketing through social media is to increase their reach, create more traffic to their art website and display their art to new and targeted audiences.
By employing art-related hashtags on Instagram, an artist increases their power to reach interested people. Through the Instagram search feature, hashtags are very useful in helping to achieve branding, marketing, and sales goals.
Just what is a #hashtag and how can it help my art marketing? Think of a hashtag as a way to categorize and collect posts about a particular subject. A # hashtag is the symbol # plus a subject matter word related to your post. For example, #Art is a well-used hashtag in social media for art-related subjects.
If you were to create and post a message about a new art competition or art show, you should include the hashtag #Art and automatically this post will be shown with all of the other posts that have used the #Art hashtag.
By using a hashtag, you reach your regular followers with your message, and, in addition, you now will reach the group of people who follow the hashtag #Art. This hashtag is followed by a very large group of people who are interested in or associated with the art industry.
We found this website that can help artists to organize their Instagram art #hashtags. The website is TagBlender and they offer a way of promoting Instagram accounts and contest by using organize subject #hashtags.
TagBlender offers the best way of promoting your Instagram account by using tags. TagBlender describes their website as the following; “We have developed a unique method for getting the most relevant tags for your Instagram images. We called it: +10 - this means you can actually tag your images with up to three different categories in order for the tags to fit your image perfectly! Their website is http://www.tagblender.net
The following are their suggestion for the following art subjects;
Art #Hashtags
#art #artist #artistic #artists #arte #dibujo #myart #artwork #illustration #graphicdesign #graphic #color #colour #colorful #lightspacetime #painting #drawing #drawings #markers #paintings #watercolor #watercolour #ink #creative #sketch #sketchaday #pencil #cs6 #photoshop #beautiful
Black & White #Hashtags
#blancinegre #monochrome #bw_lover #byn #blancoynegro #irox_bw #art #bw_society #nero #blackandwhite #ic_bw_bw #bwstyles_gf #bandw #beautiful #perfect #nb #noir #bw #lightspacetime #good #mono #bnw #monoart #black #igersbnw #bwoftheday #noiretblanc #noirlovers #bwbeauty #white
Design #Hashtags
#design #designer #designed #designs #fashiondesign #interiordesign #architecture #architect #artist #classical #clean #beautiful #perfect #shiny #amazing #best #hairdesign #craft #antique #vintage #retro #lightspacetime #line #linedesign #homestyling #styling #style #stylist #good #artwork
Graphic Design #Hashtags
#graphicdesign #lightspacetime #design #designer #designed #designs #graphic #graphics #adobe #illustrator #photoshop #cs6 #vector #professional #printers #webdesign #site #website #artist #classical #clean #beautiful #perfect #shiny #amazing #best #artistic #artists #arte #colorful
Photography #Hashtags
#photography #photo #photos #pic #pics #art #lightspacetime #artist #artistic #artists #arte #dibujo #myart #artwork #color #all shots #exposure #composition #focus #capture #classical #clean #beautiful #perfect #shiny #amazing #best #colorful #illustration
For your Instagram accounts begin to include the appropriate # hashtags with your art posts. You will not only increase your reach but you should also gain more followers with your social media art marketing and art promotion.
Also, please read our article post “How to Use Instagram for Successful Artists" as a guide for artists who may happen to be new to Instagram. Also, please follow us on Instagram at www.instagram.com/LightSpaceTime.Art.
Linkedin affords professionals, especially artists, to reach, meet and network with other art professionals, that in the past, under normal circumstances, you would never be able to meet and get to know. Artists on Linkedin can look for artist vacancies, meet gallery owners, corporate art reps, interior designers and many other successful art professionals that may eventually help an artist to become more successful.
Today, Linkedin has more than 350 Million registered users and it is still growing. The following are some ideas to follow in order to maximize your time and effectiveness on Linkedin:
Create or Complete Your Profile:
Your profile can make you or break you. A Linkedin profile that has a photo will be viewed 11 x more than a profile that has a blank or default image. Personally, I do not respond or take anyone seriously who has not taken the time to either complete their profile page or the time to upload a photo of themselves. Make your profile a priority and stress your artistic accomplishments and experience.
Connect with People through Groups:
Join groups that are relevant to your art business. Again, your profile will be very important as to whether or not that you will be accepted into that group. If your profile does not show an artistic background, the moderator of that art related group will probably not accept you into the group.
Become an Active Member in Your Groups:
Begin by joining in and participating in group discussions. Thoughtful answers or questions will highlight you as an informed art professional. In addition, you can also “Like” any discussions, posts, and comments.
Remember it is Networking Not Selling:
I am always turned off by a person coming into a group, who ignores the group’s mission and tries to sell you something! Who are you? I want to first get to know you, I want to learn more about you and I want to be able to trust you. Networking online is no different than networking in person.
Follow these 10 Online Networking Rules:
Remember to be a productive and steady member of any of the groups that you belong to. Help others along the way and they will help you when you need it too.
Social Media is now an accepted and effective way for artists to brand, market and sell their artworks. The main goals for artists when marketing through social media are to increase their reach, create more traffic to their art website and display their art to new audiences.
By employing art-related hashtags, an artist increases their power to reach more interested people. In 2015, art hashtags will be necessary to help to achieve branding, marketing, and sales goals.
Just what is a hashtag and how can it help my marketing? Think of a hashtag as a way to categorize and collect posts about a particular subject. A hashtag is the symbol # plus a subject matter word related to your post. For example, #Art is a well-used hashtag in social media for art-related subjects. If you were to create and post a message about a new art competition or art show, including the hashtag #Art and automatically this post will be shown with all of the other posts that have used the #Art hashtag.
By using a hashtag, you reach your regular followers with your message, and, in addition, you reach the group of people who follow the hashtag #Art. This hashtag is followed by a very large group of people who are interested in or associated with the art industry.
Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, Instagram and Pinterest all provide the ability to include hashtags with your posts. The following list of 101 popular art-related hashtags can be used with any of your social media posts. We suggest you put these hashtags on a spreadsheet, then separate them into groups as appropriate for your post’s subject matter. From there you can copy and paste that group of # hashtags into your posts.
Here is our list of 101 art related hashtags for artists to use in their social media posts;
#abstract #abstractart #abstractartist #abstractarts #abstracted #abstractexpressionism #abstractexpressionist #abstraction #abstractors #abstractpainting #abstractphoto #abstractphotography #abstracts #acrylic #animation #art #artcall #artcompetitions #artcontest #arte #artfair #artgallery #artinfo #artist #artnews #artshow #artwork #black #blackandwhite #blackwhitephotography #callforart #callforentries #color #colour #creative #drawing #drawings #fineart #graffitiart #grafiti #graphic #graphicdesign #illustration #ink #lightspacetime #markers #model #mono #monoart #monochrome #mural #murals #myart #onlineart #onlineartgallery #onlineartsales #paint #painting #paintings #pencil #photo #photobomb #photobooth #photocollage #photodaily #photoday #photoftheday #photogram #photograph #photographer #photography #photoofday #photooftheweek #photos #photoscape #photoself #photosession #photoshare #photoshoot #photoshoots #photoshop #photoshopped #photoshot #photostudio #phototag #photowall #portrait #portraits #portraiture #selfie #selfportrait #sketch #spray #spraypaint #streetart #streetartistry #streetphotography #urban #wallart #watercolor #watercolour
In 2015 begin to include the appropriate # hashtags with your social media posts. You will not only increase your reach but you will gain more followers with your branding and art marketing.
We have related article posts on this subject - #Art Hashtags for Artists to Use on Instagram and How to Use Instagram for Successful Artists.
Is your art website setup with RSS capabilities? Do you know what an RSS feed does? Do you understand the advantages and benefits that an RSS feed can have for your art website? We will briefly explore what an RSS feed can do to increase the impact and the following of your art website.
First, what is RSS? RSS is an abbreviation for the term “Really Simple Syndication”. You may have noticed on websites a small orange icon (See this Article's Post Image as the Standard RSS Avatar). This icon indicates to the website visitor that the site’s content is also available through a subscription feed.
If a website owner has an RSS feature built into their website, it means that the website owner or webmaster has an automatic and simple way to distribute any of their site’s new content to any interested readers, to other websites and finally to distribute any new content to the social media universe.
An RSS feed allows someone who is interested in you, your product or service to follow your website through a feed reader. When someone subscribes to your content through RSS their web browser’s feed reader will accumulate and grab any new content that is posted on your site and then, in turn, this content will be placed on that subscriber's “Reader”. At any time, the subscriber can then check their reader to see if there is any new content posted. This is far easier and more efficient than trying to find that website URL, locating the website and then searching the entire site to see if there is any new content posted.
Feeds can be set up, administered and collected through the “Favorites” section of your web browser and they are a great way to stay on top of your art niche, without wasting a lot of time searching for content or even going through bookmarked favorites. The content is placed in your feed reader automatically after it is set up. To subscribe to someone’s content, It is only a matter of choosing which websites that you find interesting to follow through your reader.
Here are some of the advantages of having RSS on your website;
1. It allows someone who follows a lot of websites to quickly collect, organize and review your new content.
2. This subscribed content is easier to control and to administer, rather than the normal monitoring of a website through a bookmarking feature.
3. An RSS provides a visitor an additional way to follow you, other than the usual email subscription process where there is an exchange of personal information (Nowadays some people are reluctant to sign up with sites due to being spammed) and an RSS is also another way to retain these viewers instead of losing them.
4. The RSS feature increases the number of visitors who will be exposed to your content through your website syndication. Subscribers may also distribute your new content to their website visitors and to their social media followers as well.
5. Through an RSS feed, a website owner can set up to have their website collect and distribute other website’s related content as a means to promote their website and also this will also help to increase their site's exposure and reach.
6. RSS Feeds can be submitted to RSS Directories for further distribution and exposure of your content and your website.
Overall, RSS capabilities create one more tool that an artist can employ to help increase their website’s exposure, expand their followers and ultimately to gain a higher page rank with the major search engines. If you are a WordPress user there are several RSS plugins that you can use and if you are not with WordPress there are many tutorials on the internet that you can follow to install this feature on your website. Search “install RSS feed on the website” in Google or Bing to collect this information. Good luck with your new RSS feature.
Many artists are either not aware or are not fully utilizing the event feature that Facebook, Linkedin, and Google+ provide them as part of their service. By placing art events, in the following manner, on these social media sites, this will provide an artist with an additional form of promotion and ultimately increase the audience for that art event. In addition, posting on these sites, any public, published event will become immediately “searchable” by all of the major search engines such as Google, Bing, and AOL. Here is a quick overview of the event feature for these 3 social media platforms.
Facebook – The Facebook Event feature is available to individuals, groups and business pages. The event tab is located on the upper left-hand sidebar of your page’s Home Page.
That event tab will then open to an event page. At the top near the header is a “+Create Event” tab. Once that tab is accessed a screen will appear which provides a very simple form to complete. The form allows you to have a name for the event, details of the event, a place or location for the event (this also will trigger a dropdown map for the location of the event), dates/times for the event and finally whether this is a public or private event.
Once the art event is completed, Facebook then allows you to promote and notify directly from the completed event tab to selected individuals and friends on Facebook. We suggest the following when promoting any events online;
1. Always have an event avatar (event image/logo) as it will draw interest to the event versus the standard social media calendar avatar.
2. Do not send invitations or promote an event to people who would not be interested in that type of event. We all receive too many posts, events, and messages as it is. Do not add to the clutter and confusion, as it will only annoy people with the potential to drop you as a friend or contact.
3. The event description should always be short and simple to read. The larger and longer event descriptions will be dismissed and not read by most viewers. Always make the event description short, interesting and always provide a link to a site for further and detailed event information.
Linkedin – The Linkedin Event feature can be found in the page header under “More”. This tab will then drop down to a list and under the “applications” section of the list, there is an Events link. Linkedin has in their Event section an area of “suggested” events based on your profile, your connections and the Groups that you belong to. Linkedin also provides an event search feature here as well. To the right of the search bar, there is a “Promote Your Event on LinkedIn” feature box which then contains a “create an event” tab.
Completing the information form for the Linkedin event feature is similar to the Facebook event feature, except Linkedin allows you to distinguish between a “live event” and a “virtual” event. Also, the Linkedin event feature allows you to “Share” this event to the public, individuals and or groups on Linkedin. They also make it easy to post this event quickly to both Facebook and Twitter. In addition, they also provide a shortened event URL in order to be able to post an event elsewhere on the internet.
Google+ - Recently Google+ introduced their new event feature. This could be a game changer and eventually cause the other 2 social media platforms to upgrade their event features!
Google+ has created their event feature which defines and separates any event into 3 phases;
Prior to the Event – The Google+ event function is customizable and has the ability to contain different themes based on the event and it also allows for video and animations as part of the invitation. Any event can automatically be added to a user’s Google Calendar when a person RSVP’s for that event.
Throughout the Event – Google+ has a feature called “Party Mode” and if you are an attendee and are there taking pictures or videos at this event, you will then have the ability to post those images and videos to this event listing in Real-Time! This feature alone makes their event feature interactive and superior over the other social media sites.
After The Event is Over – The Google+ event function does not remove the event from the event calendar after it is over (like most event platforms where there are a start and end date and then the event is eliminated from the site). Google+ allows attendees to post pictures, videos and comments after the event is completed. Google+ even has an event “Highlights” section which also categorizes the most viewed photos and comments from the event.
The Google+ event feature not only helps to create interest but also helps to build and maintain a brand. In addition, Google + creates a sense of involvement and community for the attendees and this is something that the Facebook and Linkedin event features do not provide.
The event features on these 3 social media platforms are easy to learn, post to and to administer. Any artist, art gallery or art promotion organization should be fully utilizing all 3 of these event features, along with their other event marketing and promotions in order to help create a buzz for their art event.
