Social Media Tips: It's About Quality, Not Quantity
Creatives have heard time and time again about the growing importance of promoting our work via social media. You might have thousands of friends and post on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, and Instagram every day but you’re not quite getting the engagement you expected. What’s the deal? If you’re having trouble getting a return from your time spent on social media, reflect and reconsider how you engage with your networks on a regular basis. Our upcoming webinar Social Media: How to be Everywhere All the Time (Monday, March 13, 7:00pm EST) offers an in-depth view of best practices on social media for artists. Learn how to use social media to communicate about your work, expand your networks, and create a deeper connection with your audience. Here are some basic tips to get you started:
Contextualize
Figure out what is valuable for you and curate your daily feed. Facebook and Twitter both offer great sorting capabilities with the ability to prioritize groups, form lists, and ignore unwanted content. Use those lists to discern who gets to see your vacation photos and your clients or collectors that might not need to know you that well. Don’t be afraid to say no to friend requests and unfriend people with whom you have little affinity. If you’re concerned about offending someone you can always mute or unfollow their posts.
Experiment
Don’t be afraid to blur the lines between the personal and private. Everything you do informs your creative process. You don’t have to bear your deepest secret to give your audience a glimpse into what makes you tick. Sharing that your idea came to you while you were watching the geese at your favorite neighborhood park can tell people a lot about who you are.
Try using a different voice or alternating types of content on different networks. A video post may garner a greater response on Facebook than it does on Instagram.
Mobile internet use has overtaken desktop use.* Tweak your images so they look great on a smartphone and the big screen.
Reciprocate
Think of likes as social currency. For better or worse, social media operates as a gift economy. Like and comment on your friends’ posts often. Retweet projects you resonate with. Share events from your community if you’re unable to attend or make an professional introduction for a friend on LinkedIn.
The more you reach out and share your enthusiasm, the more likely your network will be there to return the synergy when your next project needs a boost. The average Facebook user gets more out of their Friends than they give to their friends. The Pew Research Center found that Facebook users pressed the like button next to friends’ content an average of 14 times, but had their content “liked” an average of 20 times.
Want to dig deeper and develop your own social media strategy? Join us on March 13th at 7:00pm for Social Media: How to be Everywhere All the Time.