5 Tools to Simplify your Social Media

Cat Martin's Glass Platter

Networked Blogs allows you to have your blog posts automatically post to your Facebook business and personal pages and twitter.  It is good to keep in mind that Facebook does give priority to hand posted posts so the traffic will not be as high.  Networked Blogs is great for building followers and it helps keep your Twitter and Facebook pages active if you slack off for a week or two.

Facebook to Twitter, Twitter for Facebook and several other apps (located under "Apps" in your Twitter User Profile)  allows your business page posts to automatically post on Twitter.  I don't use Twitter regularly, so this is a great technique to engage twitter when I don't have significant info to post.

HooteSuite and Tweet Deck are pretty common for the savvy social media pro, though I have not fallen in love with either.  Check out this wonderful Mashable article on both 5 excellent social media management platforms.

To learn more about how your social media campaign can work together be sure to join us for Alyson B. Stanfield's workshop on Shameless Self-Promotion.  To learn more or register on our website.

7 Ways to Use Your Art in Social Media

Can't forget to use artwork in a blog
post about art in social media
The Dance by Dennis Fonfara

Guest blogger: Alyson B. Stanfield

The Internet is becoming increasingly visual – meaning that images are becoming as important, if not more important, than words. This puts you at an advantage. You have art! Be creative with how you show your art online. I can think of at least seven different ways you can use your art in photographs on your website, blog, or on social media sites.

1. Show the work by itself – the standard way to show your art online. Have your art photographed by a professional for best results, and make sure that it’s categorized for easy navigation.

2. Reveal works in progress. People love to see how art is made! If you’re inclined to let viewers in on the process, this can make a nice series on a blog or even a static Web page.

3. Snap pictures of your art lined up or stored in the studio. When we see one image at a time, we don’t have a sense of an artist’s production schedule. Seeing stacked artwork is a visual of how much work you’re doing. Disclosing how you store art is also one of those little secrets you share with your audience to make them feel closer to you by giving them a virtual glimpse into your studio.

4. Have photographs taken of your art in situ at someone’s home, office, or gallery – even if you have to stage the photos! These will be some of your most-used images, so always be sure to have high-quality photos made of your exhibit installations. It’s powerful to see the work in an environment.

Elixir by Jerry Glass

5. Take pictures of your art with the collectors who bought it and live or work with it. Having other people in the pictures gives another level of credibility. “Someone else likes my work besides me and they like it enough to buy it!”

6. Show people using your art. If you make functional ceramics or other fine crafts, take pictures of people sipping, washing, eating from, sitting on, or stacking the objects. If you make wearable art, show how it’s worn.

7. Get some pictures of you packing and shipping your art. You and I know that the art fairy doesn’t wave her wand and art appears installed overnight. It takes hard work to get the work from completion to installation. Remind people of this with your images.

I’m looking forward to sharing more tricks for promoting your art online and offline at my Shameless Self-Promotion workshop in Laramie on Saturday, June 23. I’d love to meet you! There’s a discount on the price if you sign up by May 23. Visit WOW's website for more details. Don’t miss out – register today! Alyson Stanfield is an artist advocate, art-marketing consultant, and author of I’d Rather Be in the Studio: The Artist’s No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion. She’s the founder of Art Biz Coach and the top 20 art blog, Art Biz Blog.