In this excellent post, Art Business blogger Barney Davey tackles that most interesting question we’ve all been wondering about:

“Can I make it as a visual artist without having a Twitter and Facebook account? Not to mention Linkedin, MySpace, FriendFeed, Flickr and on and on.”

The best way to characterize Barney’s answer is: “Yes, but….”

“In order of importance, I would start with a good Web site that can professionally promote and properly present you and your work. Follow that with a blog and then let those things be the platform to launch into Twitter and Facebook, which can effectively be used to drive traffic to your site and blog. There’s obviously more to it than that, but this is a good overview of how to get started using Web 2.0 to promote your art career.”

We agree wholeheartedly. Social networking provides an excellent framework for online promotion. But it only adds value when there is a “website that can professionally promote and properly present you and your work” to bring all those followers back to.

Ultimately it is always about the art – and it has to look great.