Art
Creativity + Social Media = a REAL Revolution!
The exploding growth of social media tools & sites is changing how everyone does everything.
Are Artists different? Should marketers, news and casual conversation be the dominant content using these tools?
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFZ0z5Fm-Ng
Slides and good images of visual art work are still important, but should their first destination be a gallery owner’s desk or the jury of an immense and pricey to attend craft show?
Head shots and a good reel are as important as ever for actors, but are casting calls and agents really the first place to be showing your work?
Is the default course for a first time producer to mortgage their home to produce their film and submit it to large film festival today?
What does your social “footprint” look like? How wide is your “net”? If you’re paying attention, what action steps are you taking?
In the 70s and 80s a common conversation in the arts and media was about how democratized media was becoming because of the “cheap” availability of video cameras. Almost nothing happened because the distribution infrastructure remained in the control of broadcast networks. The same has been the case for the visual arts and most forms of expression.
Art is the first technology! Without creative insight nothing moves forward. Distribution mechanisms are now truly open. Broadcast and distribution is playing catch up to what is trending on the net. Marketers and news is being delivered via net dominating more traditional distribution.
The only thing restricting creatives from dramatically increasing their influence and availability of their work is lack of familiarity with technology, and a choice to not exploit this technology. Reasons include everything from lack of time, lack of money, feeling it’s too commercial or just not being comfortable blowing your own horn.
Maybe these reasons have merit, maybe they don’t. In practical terms judging that gets us no where.
Broadcast and distribution is playing catch up to what is trending on the net. Marketers and news is being delivered via net dominating more traditional distribution.
This isn’t going away. This is how everything is getting done. The real choice is to either learn how to utilize it or surrender to those who are using it.
When the internet and television merge, as they already are doing, we’ll have lost an opportunity. Everyone learning the use of these technologies now has such an immense opportunity over those not using them that it’s hard to verbalize. If you’re reading this, you’re already ahead of the game and I congratulate you.
Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Does leaving “comments” on Art sites get traffic to my Art site?
Backlinks are a big contributor to how relevant search engines think your site is to specific search terms. If you have an art related blog, you post about your art or art in general, and other art sites have links back to your site it tells search engines your content is relevant. When your content is seen as relevant you are more likely to appear among the first listings of results a search engine returns for the relevant keywords it finds most prevalent on your posts.
Why would leaving “comments” help you with backlinks? Most comment forms have a field for your web site and when you submit your comment your name becomes a link back to your site. With this in mind, it’s good to comment for purely technical reasons as well as just being part of the conversation in your area of interest.
Pagerank is a term Google uses to qualify how relevant your site is. On a scale of 0-10, with 10 being the highest, page rank is determined by many factors including backlinks. Pagerank is not, by itself, an indicator of traffic though. Leaving meaningful comments on related blogs can build traffic to your site because others who read those blogs may follow the link to your site if they find your comments helpful or insightful.
Google also introduced a qualifying “no follow” attribute to the link tag and many comments include the “no follow” attribute. This means the search engine won’t consider that link as relevant to the site it links back to. This prevents large numbers of unrelated comments from skewing the results for a particular site.
Long story short, if you publish a site on a creative subject it’s a good idea to comment on other blogs and sites on the same or a related subject. It’s a good idea because joining the conversation is always a good thing. If the links don’t use the “no follow” attribute, you’ll get some backlink juice from the search engines and your links may show up earlier in searches. Even if those links use “no follow”, you’ll be more likely to increase traffic to your site if your comment is on point, helpful or you’ve added something to the conversation.
You’ll note charmfx.com uses the Disqus comment system. Disqus comments use the “no follow” attribute, but allow for readers to easily log in via other social sites where their comments may be visible to their friends. This also may bring traffic to your site based on the interest of friends.
Please add your comments and your own insights below.