presented for Cabrillo College extension speaker series on the business of art

1. Social Media for artists: Joining conversations
Susan Tenby, Director of Online
Community and Social Media
@SUZBOOP on Twitter
Business of Art: Cabrillo College
Extension

2. Susan Tenby, Director of Online
Community and Social Media
@SUZBOOP on Twitter
December 2, 2011
GOAL: Creating Community Evangelists

3. What We Do
• Connect with your community to
each other while amplifying the
messages and missions of this
community We aim to build community
both internally and externally
• Amplify the message of a variety of and weave strong networks
partners, including artists, curators,
gallery owners
• Document and Showcase
• Curate

4. AGENDA…
 Sharing
 Listening
 Documenting your process & progess
 Serendipitous Community Building
 Joining Collaborative Curation Communities
 Following examples of experts
 Tag Sniffing
 Facebook
 Twitter
… not necessarily in that order

5. CHOOSE YOUR NAME
CAREFULLYname carefully; it becomes permanent
• Choose FB Page
after 100 “likes”
• Your name should be a consistent brand across all
networks
• It shouldn’t be too long, as twitter is only 140 characters
• It should be memorable and not easily
confused/mispelled
• It will become your identity, so be strategic for SEO reasons

6. • A blog can help you sell your
work
• Gives you something to point to
• Better image framing
• A longstanding archive
• Opt-in subscription
• Sharing
ARTIST BLOGS

7. DOING IT WELL: SIMPLE BUT EFFECTIVE

8. OPTIMIZING SHARING IS THE
•
POINT! module to @mention yr org, not the tool’s name
Configure Tweetthis
• Create a list of friendly tweeters to DM & help u spread word
• Use hashtags to broaden yr audience
• You can tag people, places, and pages in anything you share. You can
also tag people in the text of FB posts or comments by using the @ symbol
before typing
• Make Facebook sharing easy and configurable for yr fans
• Spend time; look at how each share is displayed in each network
• Use local language of each tool (no hashtags on FB)
• Make tweets/URL short enough to have others RT and MT

9. TWITTER
Share announcements and mentions of you
Twilerts
Google alerts
Hootsuite
Join the conversation
Tweetchats
Hashtags
Amplify/RT
Find your peeps
Keep it real
_______________
2- Way Conversation
Keeps you current
Keeps you as Authority
Feedback Loop
Spread word abt you
COMMUNITY

10. Twitter account branding: Think abt
it!
Carefully name your account & Fill
out/update your bio with campaign info.
Show people!
Find your peeps through hashtags, twitter
lists, Listorius & Twellow
Best Practices Rules:
• 80/20 rule; it’s not all about you
• Post daily; schedule updates
• Don’t be a marketing robot
• Talk with people, not at people
• Vary content: text, video, images
• Don’t auto-link your Facebook
account to your Twitter or your
blog
• Reciprocate, engage, share

11. USE TWITTER TO JOIN
CONVERSATION & MEET
PEOPLE
• Let them know you’re
listening by @mentions
• Broaden conversation
via #hashtags
• Always give link to
amplify

13. Not overly self-promotional
good balance of pointing to others
balanced tone/ humor
Elegant promotion of work
What makes this good?

14. Engaging lead-in w/question
Sent from hootsuite
NOTE: 9 RT, 7 Faves
What makes this good?

16. Why do they suck?

17. Don’t Tweet Like CHER.
• Don’t tweet like Cher
• Don’t make up
#uselesshashtags
• Don’t spam via DM
• Don’t call yourself a
rockstar or guru
• Don’t put an emoticon or
exclamation mark after
every tweet
• Don’t be self-referential in
all your tweets
• Track click-thru using Bit.ly
& do what works
• If yr going to RT something,
READ IT first

18. GET LISTED: TWITTER LISTS

19. FACEBOOK PAGES: Document YOU
Show your interests by setting which Pages show up as “Featured”
likes on the left hand side of your profile (add ArtSpan, SOMArts,
your studio space, the pages of causes or orgs.)
Add your personal profile as Featured Page owner so people can
find your personal profile and message you
Once you have a personal profile, visit
facebook.com/pages/create.php
Skip “invite friends” step until your page is
populated with content
After 25 “likes” visit facebook.com/username
to set up your permanent “vanity URL”

20. Profiles vs. Pages
Personal Profiles Pages
• Friend limit: 5K • Unlimited friends/fans
• Public or private • Public
• SEO friendly
• Not SEO friendly
• No barrier to “like”
• Friend requests require
• Offers Apps
approval
• Can only comment on your
• Person to person Page and other Pages
messaging
• Better website integration
• May not promote sale of
your work

21. Show Behind the Scenes Exclusives
VIDEO: #CHEN Graffiti
Time-lapse

22. KEEP IT OPEN, LIVELY, PERSONAL
• Find your network
• Engage with them
• BE RESPONSIVE
• Keep it fresh
• Exclusive value
• Showcase images well
• Connect by tagging
• Hold campaigns
• Link back to yr blog

23. ARTISTS USING SOCIAL MEDIA
TO:
•promote themselves and their work by announcing
opportunity for audiences to engage with his work (group and
solo exhibitions, art fairs, special projects, publications
featuring his work, etc.)
•Documenting the inside story: a "virtual studio" via Pinterest
where visitors can see what they are looking at and thinking
about (the images, films, music, etc that informs their
sensibilities and (directly / indirectly) influences their work

25. Clearly drive ppl to yr blog & give them a
way to opt-in/subscribe and share on every
page
Don’t be overly
self-
promotional
Keep balance
of life,
observations,
responses &
amplification

26. • Creates virtual
tours, online
exhibitions, in-
progress videos for
YouTube
• Has a custom
landing page &
email sign-up app
• Updates 1-3 times
a day about his
work, life in SF,
and the work of
friends
• Researches and
engages with his
fans
• Runs campaigns

27. • Integration with other
social media tools
Uses EtsyStore app
• Exclusivity: Runs print
give-away contests and
posts about limited
edition prints
•Uses a Tumblr blog to
collect inspirational
photos
•Takes fans behind the
scenes with studio tours,
in-progress & preview
photos of her work

28. • Exclusive content
• Don’t be overly self-promotional
• Provide “backstage” access experience
• Engage with your fans
• Make Sharing easy so your fans can help you spread the word
• Use integrated tools, for a variety of presences on social graph
• Run campaigns and contests
• Don’t auto-feed to a tool
• Have an easy way to subscribe to your work
• Showcase and document your process and inspiration

29. 1. Find APPROPRIATE HASHTAGS
2. Set in your account info
3. Monitor lists
4. Engage in the channels
Listening:
Listening
While your top-down strategy is creating
awareness, the content and conversation
help people make decisions together. You
need to hear those conversations.
Market yourself as a brand. Pick a
short/consistent username -- Don’t forget
your brand permutations
Make yr brand a hashtag (for ex #CHEN)

30. #artgallery, #artnews, #artinfo,
Hashtags?
#painting, #abstract, #acrylic,
Research and find tags from
#watercolor #artgallery, #artnews,
many communities related to
your field #artinfo, #painting,#abstract, #acrylic
, #watercolor
Participate in conversations that
help you engage new
audiences and strengthen your
authority positions
Use tags to organize
Information & grow diverse
conversations
http://twubs.com/
http://wthashtag.com/

31. A few good
Dashboards:
Use for listening,
NOT Broadcasting

32. Hootsuite
Pros:
•Good for listening, include tags, common misspellings, lists/groups
•Allows us to follow multiple streams across many social media sites, creating
specialized campaign and search tabs for various projects, events and
organizations
•Paid version gives downloadable reports for ROI information
Cons:
• Free version won’t allow for multiple accounts or multiple users

33. TWEETDECK
Pros:
•Very easy to start on
•Chrome Browser Extension
•Free version is enough
Cons:
• Not as good for listening to tags

34. Pros: FREE
CoTweet
•Schedule & assign Tweets ahead of time PR releases & allows teams
to manage accounts
•CoTweet & Hootsuire allow us to see who responded, when & so we
can figure out how to follow up to each request
Cons: Not as easy to use as a listening interface

35. Combine images, YouTube,
Tweets into a publishable story

36. Find your own secret sauce
• Make sure you are actually IN all the
channels you choose
• Don’t auto-feed into them
• Embed complementary tools

37. reate your own combinatio
• Figure out what your needs are, use a combination of tools
• Don’t forget about mobile tweeting (Tweetdeck for multiple accounts,
channels mobile interface)
• Many mobile clients have pic uploader installed in the app (Peep)
• Figure out a workflow that isn’t confusing to avoid Freudian tweets
• When you don’t have anything to say: Curate, ReTweet, reply to
conversations using hashtags and Share widely
• Think more about RETWEETS & amplification than followers

38. Follow accounts that will help you find artists like you
Look at who’s listed on the
twitter lists
Tweet at them. Join
tweetchats. Follow them
Find curators, connect
with them, have them
notice you
Follow lists & others &
tweet @ them

39. Who’s talking about you & what hashtags & FOLLOW!

40. Use TAGS to serendipitously search for
peeps
• Look for others using a tag you choose
• Find what else those people bookmarked
• Find other relevant tags
• Packrati.us = Twitter + Delicious (you tweet, it bookmarks automatically)
• Share your resources via social media
• If you’re listening, you can learn new tags on twitter & search other networks
too

41. Amplify, but speak the right loc
language
• Don’t use other people’s
pages as a platform for
your spam
• Don’t Auto Feed your
Status updates to
Facebook
• Don’t use Selective Tweets
• Do take a little time, show
you care
• Do take advantage of
features of the channel
such as crosstagging to
groups, people and places
at once with links
• Do find your niche
community & stay focused
on that topic

42. Social: What to do & what
NOT to do
• DO find a third party listening dashboard tool that
you like such as NetVibes or Google Reader for
RSS/alerts
• DO subscribe to Alerts about relevant topics
• Don’t delete or Ignore negative feedback, address it
• Don’t use your friends and followers for their
networks
• DO tag Strategically, redundantly across many
channels
• Don’t only broadcast about your org, share stories
& respond
• Don’t be a control freak: guide conversations
• Don’t just expect someone will run your SM
channels, designate someone!
• DO track your progress using social analytics tools
that help you track success

43. Curate, Point to others, Save book
Share
• Don’t ever be afraid of
having nothing to say:
you can always Curate!
• Use Delicious to save
bookmarks and share
them
• Use Scoop.It to help you
find topical, relevant,
reusable content
• Share it and content
from others
• When in doubt, ReTweet
and be generous with
@replies

44. How We Do It
• Our outward facing wiki is the hub for all of these activities
and their recap blog posts
(http://techsoupcommunityteam.wikispaces.com/home)
• Our SlideShare page contains all our presentations (http://
www.slideshare.net/TechSoupGlobal)
• Our Flavors page shows where we are on the web
(http://flavors.me/techsoup)
Consistent Listening and spotlighting
Make it easy for your members to be your evangelists
Organize your evangelists; get to know them!

46. Collaboration via community
curation
Make your work easy to
share
See who favorites/shares
They are yr network

47. GET
CURAT
ED

49. Timing and Investment Needed
Blogs: 1-4 hours per post
Twitter: 5-30 minutes a day
Facebook: 5-30 minutes a day
LinkedIn: 15-30 minutes, weekly
Listservs: 30 minutes weekly
Other Groups: 30 minutes weekly
Photo Uploads: 15 minutes weekly
Videos: 2-4 hours a week
Curation: 1 hour a week
Total Average Social Media Time:
90 minutes per day
11 hours per week

50. • Upload a new image to your Facebook fan page and
respond to comments on your page.
• Comment on Facebook pages where you want to be
noticed (e.g. galleries, niche markets, and museums).
• Remember to comment as your page on other pages.
• Add an event or campaign about your art to your page.
• Comment on someone else’s blog.
• Respond to comments on your blog.
• Recommend someone on LinkedIn and leave a
recommendation on a business page on Facebook.
• Send one tweet and retweet two others from your Twitter
stream.
• Find a new hashtag to listen to
• Post-date three tweets using HootSuite or TweetDeck.
• Organize FB photo albums
5 min tasks, courtesy of
www.ArtsBizBlog.com
http://www.artbizblog.com/

51. Contact Me.. Really!
http://susantenby.com/
@suzboop
susan@susantenby.com
RESOURCES: http://bit.ly/socmedarts
http://www.slideshare.net/suzboop
http://www.delicious.com/suzboop
http://npsocialmedia101.wikispaces.com/