I have combined 18 months of experience using Twitter and all the questions I get from people about how to decide if it will help them in their business.

The audio isn’t specifically for artists – but for any business owner who might want to get more insight than they are getting in newspapers and magazines.

SO, in the vein of Twitter I’ll keep this blog post short – if you or anyone you know wants to learn more about what can be accomplished with Twitter for business and some tips to make the most of your time and effort, please check out all the details here!

And of course, if you are on Twitter – follow and chat with me!

– Tara Reed

About The Author

Guest Author Tara Reed has been licensing her art since 2004, working with over 40 different manufacturers in that time. Her designs can be found on everything from fabric to dishes to dish towels. Gift wrap to garden flags and much, much more.

In 2008 she began sharing her expertise in art licensing with artists wanting to learn more about the industry. With a degree in marketing and background in sales, Tara Reed has created the art and built her business from the ground up.

Learn more about Tara and her art business at Art Licensing Info

Vincent Van Gogh ~ Vase With Twelve Sunflowers ~ 1889

#1: International Art Scammers Want You

By Tanya Mikaela

I was approached this past week with something that looked great at first but turned out to be a major scam with the potential to take advantage of many artists. Thankfully my brother who is a photographer knew all about this and warned me before things progressed too far – but other artists need to be aware. This great article by Los Angeles area artist Tanya Mikaela has been widely read and has helped a number of artists avoid this now well known scam – don’t miss it!

#2: 18 Tips To Bring Visitors To Your Artist Website

By Daniel

Suffering from low-traffic blues on your artist website? Your number of visitors is only limited by you! If you have a big enough imagination, are willing to think outside the box, and don’t mind applying some serious old-fashioned elbow-grease to your art marketing, you can bring in a nice consistent stream of art-hungry visitors.

#3: 5 Big Artist Website Mistakes That Don’t Sell Art

By Daniel

You might think you have an awesome artist website – but there’s a good chance it suffers from at least one major problem that could seriously limit your career success. Avoid these 5 major art marketing mistakes that could keep collectors from your door!

#4: A Sample Letter To A Gallery Director

By Daniel

This is a sample of a fairly standard letter to a gallery director inviting them to review your work. You will note that it is low-key and respectful in its approach – this is a good safe strategy especially if you don’t know much about the director.

#5: 5 Essential Twitter Tips To Sell Art Online

By Daniel

As we prepared the copy for our featured artist column it came as a blinding flash that in finding and choosing Kazuki Takizawi a classic social marketing sales process for art had been revealed to us. Common sense important art marketing advice!

Note: Full disclosure! Our real #1 most popular article is actually, “Would We Recognize Jasper Johns At A Sidewalk Art Sale”. So why didn’t we include that? Because the reason for its popularity is that the Jasper Johns painting image in the article ranks very highly in Google Image searches for Jasper Johns. So, while the traffic is real, we don’t believe that it is a true measure of the popularity of the article. How about that for editorial discretion! Good tip for SEO by the way – be sure to optimize your image names for search engines.

These are great weekend reading so please enjoy!

Jasper Johns "Three Flags" 1958

Yesterday we learned an important lesson about the power of social networking to help you align with your target market. It was delivered, curiously enough, not through facebook or twitter but through an email campaign. Here is what happened…

We had just returned from a few days camping at Sequoia National Park. It was a wonderful time sleeping and playing amongst the ancient Sequoia trees and mountain streams – we were feeling great about life and excited that it was July 4th.

When you come from another country and make a conscious choice to become a U.S. citizen (as we did) I think it means that you have an awareness of the uniqueness of America – in a way that you might not necessarily have if you grew up here. I don’t know that for sure – it’s just a guess. In any case, we value the underlying fabric of America – there is something alive and palpable here even if it is often shrouded in problems and challenges! (show me somewhere that isn’t!)

In this spirit of jubilation we sent out a Happy 4th July email message to our email readers. We mentioned the wonderful experience we had camping, expressed enthusiasm about July 4th and the values and spirit that America was built on, and wished everyone and their loved ones a happy 4th. There was no attempt to sell or make special offers because that wasn’t the point – it was a sincere message based on a desire to express what we felt and connect with our readers.

A few hours later I checked my email and saw something that surprised me. I was very happy to see that we had received very happy and generous replies from several of our readers. They had appreciated the message and sent replies of celebration. But that wasn’t what surprised me. What got my attention was that I also saw that several people had unsubscribed from our email list.

We have a pretty good relationship with the readers on our email list and we don’t get a lot of unsubscribes. Sometimes people just opt out after a time because they’ve got everything they wanted. On a rare occasion a reader will unsubscribe when we send out an email that includes a discount or a promotion. That I understand. This was different though because it was a personal message.

I thought that maybe the people who had unsubscribed were from other countries – that maybe they had been offended by our enthusiasm about the U.S. Upon investigation though, it turned out that with one exception (a Canadian) all the unsubscribes were from America and our most lovely reply was from an artist in India. Exactly the opposite!

I’m still thinking through what this all means. I spoke with a friend who is very current in Online Marketing trends and she suggested that possibly readers had thought the email was too personal or too political. People sign up to receive specific information from you she thought – not personal communications and political viewpoints.

I can understand that point in principle – but is it political to express enthusiasm about your country on a day of national celebration? I really struggle with that concept as I wasn’t endorsing any person or political party. I am aware of many of the deficiencies and challenges in the U.S. – which we tend to focus on for about 364 days each year! But that doesn’t change the fact that there is a lot of good here too that we can celebrate on one day.

The whole concept of being too personal is a challenge for me too. Isn’t that what 21st century business is evolving towards with social networking? Aren’t we aligning our businesses based on having real relationships with our customers and clients where we are open about our values?

Or did I get that wrong?

Our experience with our business over the last 5 years has been that our best customers are the ones who share similar values. That doesn’t mean that we agree on everything but we form relationships that are more than just pure business. That makes it more enjoyable and productive for clients and for us.

A traditional marketing viewpoint might say that by sending out our email we had risked losing potential business by somehow offending readers. A different viewpoint might be that the few people who unsubscribed might not have been great clients for us anyway because our values were different and that trimming our list a little was actually a very good thing. This is the view I prefer as I continue to think this through – but I might be wrong!

It might be different if we were selling clothes pegs or DVD players, but in a service-based business where you work hand in hand with clients, having good relationships is essential. That doesn’t mean agreeing on everything, it just means being respectful of each others viewpoints.

Shared values is something I think about a lot with business. Quite a few years ago I studied Electrical Engineering (very different form of “art”!) and there is a theorem for transformers called the “Maximum Power Transfer Theorem“. What it says, in a nutshell, is that you get the maximum power transfer through the transformer when both sides have the same impedance (electrical resistance). In more recent years I’ve seen how this principle applies throughout all of life. In business it means that you get the best productivity and the best results when the client and the business share similar values.

So, what does all this have to do with Social Networking and targeting your art market? Facebook and Twitter (and email to some extent) give you the chance to connect with like-minded buyers, patrons, business partners, and fellow artists in a way that was only possible in local communities before. There is a very good chance that you can build real relationships that lead to sales. But here is the key:

Be yourself, share your values, share your passion. Be respectful of other people’s viewpoints but don’t modify yourself. Say what is true for you with your voice and your paintbrush. Do it in your local community, do it on facebook and twitter, do it with your email list. For sure, some people will drop away, but they’ll be replaced by others who are more likely to “get” you and your work.

Pruning a plant is essential for strong growth, so don’t be afraid to prune your list, your followers, and your fans by being authentic.

Your honest comments and opinions on this topic are very welcome and gratefully received.

Video is the future. Is your film rolling?

I’ve been hearing this for several years now – you need to add video, video, video, video. But what kinds of video can artists create to help increase their exposure, build their brand and get more business? How can we get in on the surge in video searches?

Here are four types of videos artists can create to help promote themselves on YouTube:

1. Show your work. If you are shy in front of the camera, you can create a slide show of sorts that shows your art, your studio, work in progress, photos, etc.
2. Show yourself working. People are often interested to see “an artist at work” – can you set up a camera and draw, paint or sculpt while the film is rolling? You could speed up the video to make it look like you are working top speed and add audio or music to go along with it.
3. Promote events. Are you a gallery artist looking to do more shows? Have someone take some video of you at an opening, talking with others, showing your art on the wall. Use that to promote yourself for future events. Do the same for craft fairs, commission work, public speaking, etc. Show you and your work in action to help others visualize you in action for them.
4. Have some fun! Have you ever noticed that the videos people share the most are videos that make you laugh? Or videos that catch your attention by comparing unusual things? What can you do to make a viral video (meaning people keep passing it on!) related to your art? Spoof a famous commercial or skit? Stand on your head while painting? Have fun but make sure your fun is true to you, your art and your brand.

Once you have some videos, where will you put them? The first step to cash in on all this YouTube searching is to upload them to YouTube. But also consider creating a YouTube Channel – where you control the look and feel and can organize your videos as you see fit. That way people can follow you and know when you post new content. It’s a great way to build a following of people who enjoy video content.

To learn more about how to create your own channel, go to http://www.youtube.com/advertise

Pay attention to the description and keywords you use when you put your video on YouTube as well. According to YouTube, 24 hours of video are uploaded every minute so you need to make sure the right people know about your video or your efforts will be for naught. Treat your videos as you would treat your SEO for your website.

Videos can capture attention and add interest to your blog and website as well. You can link your videos to Facebook. Video is a more personal way for people to get to know, like and trust you and that is who people like to do business with.

Newer computers have video and microphone capabilities. Most digital cameras and some phones can take video as well. So don’t believe you have to have a production company create your video or huge budgets to get it done, just believe that it can help you promote your work and commit to give it a shot.

Here’s to adding video to the mix of your creative success!

– Tara Reed
www.ArtLicensingInfo.com

P.S. Here is a sample of a fun art related video that could go viral…

Editors Note: Guest author Tara Reed is a very accomplished artist and art licensing expert.  I first met and worked with her earlier this year to promote our Artist SEO Success System. In addition to being a most interesting, talented, and genuinely humorous person she is also a self-confessed twitter-holic! I have learned a great deal from her and highly recommend that you check out some of the sites in her business empire including:

www.TaraReedDesigns.com | Fun & SASSY art!
www.ArtMarketingWithTara.com | Resources for artists serious about their business.
www.ArtLicensingInfo.com | Make art. Make plans. Make money.

Henri Matisse - The Dance - 1910

Recently I read an excellent post by artist Lori McNee titled, “How I Landed Two New Galleries in One Weekend – Park City & Jackson Hole!” Some feat I thought!

The first thing that I enjoyed about the article was Lori’s comment about her approach to the currently struggling gallery system, “I chose keep a positive attitude and view this as an opportunity – because good galleries are always in need of good artists and vice versa”.

So true – all too often I read articles predicting nemesis for the entire gallery system – but honestly – when I want to “experience” art I mostly do that at galleries and museums. I shudder to think of a world where I can’t wander into a gallery to check out their latest art and new artists.

The second thing that caught my attention in Lori’s article was the importance of her website in closing the deal with the first gallery. The visual decision was based solely on what the gallery director saw on Lori’s website. So – does that tell you how important your artist website is in your career?

The third and most important thing I got from the article was the value of Lori’s social network in setting up the opportunity with the galleries. She says, “After a referral from a fellow artist and a quick telephone conversation with the gallery owner, I was honored to be accepted into the prestigious Mountain Trails Gallery of Park City, Utah“.

Did you see that small word there: “Referral”?

That is a very powerful word for any business and for any artist interested in business success. Referrals and recommendations from people in your social network who are connected to the gallery you are interested in are worth their weight in gold.

Think about this for a minute from a gallery director’s perspective. Galleries are businesses that must make money and the ability to make art of a consistent style and quality available to their customers is vitally important. That means that they want to work with artists who are talented, prolific, consistent, and great to work with – good business partners.

As an artist approaching a gallery for the first time you are a fairly risky proposition – quite frankly it is easier not to take a risk on you even if your art looks great. But if you are recommended by someone with an existing relationship with the gallery – suddenly you become much more attractive because the risk factor is much reduced. That’s how it works in any field of life. So there really is validity to the old saying:

Social Network = Net Worth

The more you make use of your social network the more financially successful you will be. Life wants you to connect with other beings and will reward you for doing so!

So here is the takeaway: Next time you want to approach a gallery (or any other business for that matter), rather than just sending them letters and emails (which will probably be largely ignored), look first at your social network to see who you know who might be connected to that gallery. You are nearly always only a couple of connections away from the person you want to reach – you just need to find the pathway. When you do, you can then ask for a referral or recommendation.

Online social network tools can be very useful for this research. I find linkedin especially helpful because you can find the person you want to connect with and then linkedin actually charts out for you whether you have a connection and your options for being introduced. This is VERY POWERFUL STUFF!! So, use it!

Watanabe Seitei, Birds on Branch, 1878

Its been 6 months now since we posted our article, “Selling Art With Twitter – Have You Sold Any?“, in which we asked the question:

Are artists genuinely selling art as a result of Twitter?

Back then in September 2009 we had a range of comments from artists – a few like Daniel Edlen who had actually sold art directly through twitter, some who had seen no success whatsoever, and the rest – the majority, including Moshe Mikanovsky and Jude Maceren – who had found it helpful as a means of getting the word out and building relationships that would hopefully results in sales.

Where are we now – 6 months later?  For our part, we’ve been observing artists on Twitter to understand what works and what doesn’t. From what we can see the art marketing success stories seem to associated with artists and art lovers like our friends Tara Reed, Misty Wuori, and Alissa Fereday who engage in real direct personal connections with other artists and clients, focusing on quality and genuine joie de vivre.

What doesn’t appear to be working is building huge lists of followers and not putting any uniqueness and personal spirit into the connections. What good is it, after all, having 40,000 followers if none of them is listening or could care less what you have to say? Its like that great tag line for the original “Alien” movie:

In space, no one can hear you scream!

Sorry – couldn’t resist that! It’s the same as bloggers who just copy content and don’t put any of their own energy and enthusiasm into their work. Where does it lead – nowhere! A complete waste of time.

That’s what we’ve observed so far. How about you? We’d like to get some feedback from you about how social media in general and Twitter in particular is working for you in March 2010. A few questions:

1. Are you connecting with real art buyers either directly or indirectly through Twitter?
2. Have you sold any art either directly or as a result of connections through Twitter?
3. If you’ve sold art, what was the value?
4. Do you think it would be more or less valuable for you to have spent your time on other art marketing techniques like mailings, phone calls, search engine optimization, etc?
5. Generally – are you feeling more or less positive about Twitter as a marketing tool?

We welcome your comments, thoughts, and experience on this topic!

AMS Loves You. Let's hook up on Facebook!

Are you enjoying our articles and art marketing tips? Share the love by becoming a fan of Art Marketing Secrets on Facebook.

As a member of Art Marketing Secrets’s community on Facebook you will gain VIP access to updates about our website and art marketing secrets! You’ll be able to network with other like-minded artists and arts professionals who are passionate about all things art and creativity. We’ll be creating surveys and polls and sharing results with group members,  holding discussions, online art marketing training events and building an active arts community. We’ll also have special offers and events available only to members of our Fan page.

Join now and get a 15% discount coupon good for any of Beautiful Artist Websites or Art Marketing Secrets services for the month of December. Go to Beautiful Artist Websites Facebook Fan page and become a member and then email us to let us know and we will send you the coupon code.

We’re really looking forward to meeting you on our Facebook page.

Josse and Daniel

The AMS/BAW Worker Bees

To get the best results you need to understand the different roles in the giant Twitter performance – and to choose and act yours out for the best results.

In my observation, there are 3 primary “roles” you can choose to play in the Twitter-verse as follows:

1. Content Creators: As an artist or a writer this is your primary role. You originate great content for others to read and review in the form of articles and artworks.
2. Connector Hubs: These folks are “well connected” – meaning that they have thousands or tens of thousands of followers and typically tweet A LOT! Their primary role is to find good content and retweet it to their many followers. They may also create content but it’s not their primary role in the performance. You can think of Connector Hubs as the marketing and sales organization for your (Twitter) art business.
3. Content Consumers: These are the voracious readers and consumers of content. They might find your art directly but more likely because something of yours has been retweeted by a connector hub. Content Consumers and the “Art Buyers” of your Twitter art business.

Of course it’s quite possible to be a mix of two or all three, depending on our frame of reference at any time. But as artists it’s always good to remember that your star role is “Content Creator”.

What does that mean about what you should do? Here are some thoughts:

• Focus primarily on creating high-quality content. That means painting, sculpting, writing, etc. If you’re spending 20% of your time or more on Twitter you probably are neglecting your art career.
• Remember that Twitter is just one piece of your art marketing – don’t neglect your facebook page, website updates, email campaigns, mailouts to galleries, etc. These are just as important as ever!
• Develop relationships with “the right” Twitter connector hubs. You don’t just want any old connectors. How will it help you to be connected to a major hub if most of their 20,000 followers are snake oil salesmen? It won’t! What you want is connectors who are (1) interested in art themselves,  (2) who have many followers interested art, and (ideally) (3) have a proportion of followers who are actually interested in buying art. I’m not suggesting this is easy but it’s something to have in mind when you are choosing who to follow and connect with. Think Quality!
• Have a plan for how Twitter dovetails with the rest of your art marketing strategy. You might find our article, “5 Essential Twitter Tips To Sell Art Online” helpful as a starter on this topic.

Twitter is still very much emerging as a marketing force and at Art Marketing Secrets we are learning too. The point of all this is simply to have a plan. It won’t be perfect but if you’ve thought it through it WILL work at least some of the time. That way when you’ve completed your first thousand tweets you might have actually sold some art or interested an art collector – which you really deserve after typing those 140,000 characters on your iPhone!

We very much welcome your thoughts and comments on this topic!

"Bird On Plum" - Jane Dwight

As we prepared the copy for yesterday’s featured artist column it came as a blinding flash that in finding and choosing Kazuki Takizawi a classic social marketing sales process for art had been revealed to us.

Lets look at what happened and then we’ll break it down into essential components and steps.

Kazuki followed us on Twitter about a month ago and shortly after re-tweeted two of our tweets. As we reviewed our twitter-feed we were intrigued by his icon image – it was bright, colorful, and unusual! So we clicked through to see some of his recent tweets – and they were authentic and interesting. Our attention piqued, we then visited his website and found a wealth of interesting work and a clear artistic vision and direction. We were hooked and wanted more!

We now recognize that process as classic “Twitter Art Marketing 101″. Every step in the process was very important and had to be there or we would have stopped taking further action. Lets now break it down and see how it worked.

Step 1 – Follow People & Organizations That Could Help Your Art Career

Following Art Marketing Secrets was a smart choice by Kazuki. As an art marketing information resource it makes sense that we would have content that he could learn from. Kazuki didn’t know that we were looking for our first featured artist right about the time he followed us – that was serendipitous – but a good example of what can happen when you make smart choices.

Along those lines it’s a smart idea to follow galleries, museums, art coaches, and other people who you would like to be seen by.

Step 2 – Re-Tweet High Quality Content That Interests You

It’s amazing that many people don’t realize that re-tweeting is one of the big secrets of visibility on Twitter. In our case, Kazuki retweeted us and so he showed up in our twitter feed – suddenly he was on our radar. We don’t auto-follow so a re-tweet is a great way to get our attention.

You can do this with any gallery or organization you are following. A word of advice though – only re-tweet content that you genuinely find interesting. I can’t explain why but it’s always transparent when someone retweets just to get attention. And honestly – if you can’t find something genuinely interesting in the tweets of an art organization or gallery – they’re probably the wrong target for you.

Step 3 – Choose Your Twitter Icon Image To Get Attention

The first thing that got our attention in Kazuki’s case was his twitter icon. It was very visually interesting and we felt compelled to click through to his twitter page. The obvious take-home for you (the artist) is to choose an icon image that will get attention and also represents you or your work in an authentic way.

Step 4 – Write Authentic Tweets That Represent Your Artist Brand

It sounds obvious – but it’s not that common! When we clicked through to Kazuki’s Twitter page we were pleased to find that we actually enjoyed his tweets. It wasn’t that he was tweeting lots of high-brow art content – not at all. What was important to us was that there was a nice mix of personal and art content. You could actually feel something of the artist in his tweets. Some of it was fun, some was serious, some was about lunch and dinner! But what came through was something of an ongoing artist statement in 140 character bytes.

Perhaps I can sum this up very simply – be authentic and tweet about what motivates you. At any given time that might be van Gogh or it might be the color of your friend’s shoes or someting your children did or what you had for lunch. Reveal who you are in your tweets!

Step 5 – Your Art Website Must Communicate You

The next step in our progression with Kazuki was that we clicked through from his twitter page to his art website. His website is very simple but effective in saying a lot about him. We liked the quality and choice of the art he displayed and we also enjoyed his artist statement and bio. Each element was adding to our impression and understanding of Kazuki in a very congruent way.

Here are some important suggestions for your art website:

• The showcasing of the art (layout, background colors, etc) is extremely important
• Choose only your very best work for display on the website. If you don’t feel 150% happy with it then don’t have it on the site!
• The art should be photographed by a professional or using equivalent professional techniques
• The navigation (menu) on the site needs to be consistent (same on every page)
• Avoid anything that will draw attention away from the art – you want to showcase the art – not the website. For this reason, we generally recommend against many of the flash website designs used by some artists.
• Be really authentic in your artist statement – it says so much about who you are as an artist

As a result of the process above we selected Kazuki to be our featured artist of the week. If we were a gallery or a potential patron the same process may have led us to look further into representing him or acquiring his work.

So – follow these five essential steps and take yourself seriously in your quest to sell art online!

If you are looking for a great artist website now or in the future, please check out our sister site, Beautiful Artist Websites.

This has been a topic on our minds for several months since we first started with twitter. We see much sincere and engaging activity from artists sharing their philosophies, sensibilities, passions, and of course, their art. But is the online community building leading to actual sales?

Success as an artist takes multiple forms. The most basic and possibly the most important is being part of an artistic community and being recognized as an artist. This is like a secret initiation into a new stage of artistic life when one is recognized by one’s peers as an artist. It is an amazing thing…. This is one area where social networking applications like twitter have enormous scope because you can build a large community way beyond your geographical or national boundaries.

At some point though the word “professional” comes into play and by definition, “professional” suggests that the artist is selling their work, even if not necessarily making a living from it. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the art is better – take Van Gogh for instance who sold very little work in his lifetime – but today we recognize the true genius of his work.

But lets say that we want to be professional and that we want to sell our art – does twitter help? We’d love to hear back from artist’s on this:

• Have you sold any art as a result of twitter and what was the price-range?
• Is it possible to sell “high-value” art to relationships established through twitter?
• How overall has twitter helped your professional art career?

Please let us know your thoughts on this by adding your comments – we are looking forward to a fun and rewarding discussion!