“ A struggling Artist needed some free advice?”

“ A struggling Artist needed some free advice?”

I was asked by an Artist who does very good work for advice, he is struggling, he works at outdoor venues, art fairs and group shows in Artist run Galleries. He said he had no money and would I help him, I said of course. He wanted to know how he could promote himself on a very limited budget.

So I asked him if he has a Facebook page, an email address, he said yes but he was not on Twitter or any other platforms, I said no problem, lets work with what we have.

First of all I said he needed to go and buy an Address Book for all the Art shows that he would be part of and begin to collect email addresses.

Ask everyone who makes a nice comment or seems interested or buys to sign the guest book.

I told him to stop using Facebook for family pics and times spent with friends, but to consider it as his business page. He said his friends have Artist “ like” pages and I said, no do not do that, you want everyone to become your friend, then you will be able to private message them right to there phone, the place where all eyes are.

Most Artists use Facebook wrong, they get a “like” page because that's what Facebook wants you to do, so you can get lots of likes, but I prefer to have friends. 

Please do not try to hard sell on Facebook,[ Title, medium, size, price] but use it to bring people to you, talk about your art and paintings and what they mean to you, people want to connect.

To me Facebook is the Bill Board leading to me, if you sell on it that's great, I know there is that Artist out there who is selling heaps of Art on Facebook, but that is not the norm, use it to direct customers to your studio or art fair or Gallery.

Facebook is the sign post for direction.

Now all the emails you collect, start to do a Monthly Newsletter, again do not do hard sell, title, medium, size, price, use your newsletter to become better friends. Do not make it to long, just a catch up note saying what you are doing where you will be showing work and how you would love to catch up with them. Invite them to where you are showing. Talk about the work you are showing and how you would like to show it to them, story tell.

We live in a time when Facebook has made everyone our friend, so just chat to them like friends, people love to be part of something to connect especially with Artists, because to the average person, the Artists live a very exciting life.

Now none of this has cost very much but time, then the big step for this shy Artist, I said start a blog. Cost you nothing to do but it will attract people to you as you talk about the Artist life, the Artist process of creating a painting. Show the process of painting from white canvas to finished painting and make lots of comments, talk about your frustrations and your triumphs, tell the story of the painting, as I said people want to know and be part of the creative process. Then post the blog up on Facebook.

People love the back story, I know when I speak to non Artist groups, they always want to know, what's it like to be an Artist, to be able create something from nothing, what does it feel like?

It taught me that people want to connect to the creative process and thereby the Artist, story tell your life.

You may say that this a lot of work?

Yes it is, hours of work but success does not come cheaply.

This is your shop front window and the best thing for the Artist is that these three platforms I have talked about are all free, use them but remember you must be diligent and do it even when you do not want to. Answer ever comment, thank people, be nice to everyone even the difficult ones, trust me I know, some times the people I give free advice to push back at me the hardest, but as I always say, just smile for all the negative people there are lots of very nice people out there.

Never before have Artists been able to promote and market themselves like they can today, I have only talked about three social platforms and I know there are many of you who are using far more than just these.

The problem that I face in my practice is that I get Artists started on social but the urgent slowly takes over and they become hit and miss with social. For social media to work for you, you much approach it is part of your Art practice and do it diligently every day, your public is 24/7 now and in every time zone across the planet, something to think about.

For most of your I am telling you what you already know and you are using many platforms for your Art practice, which is wonderful and keep doing it.

I hope this has been a little help to someone, my young Artist friend is doing what I told him and I hope success comes his way, like I want for all artists.